Event Materials

Figueroa (1996) puts forward the view that academic underperformance of boys manifest because of “historical privileging of the male gender”. Gender socialization practices is said to result in deficiencies in the skills needed to survive in the education system. The paper provides an overview of the statistical evidence, gender socialization issues and the process occurring in the schoolroom that may be contributing to the problem. He notes that the “extreme gendering of Jamaican children” involves the notion that boys are naturally bad and misbehaviour is expected from them, and girls are naturally good and are expected to “conform to a rigid code”. Figueroa posits that the gender socialization practices, which gives a lot of freedom for males compared to females, means that boys have “less exposure to tasks that build self discipline, time management and a sense of process”. Thus females, who are monitored more closely and expected to do chores, have an advantage when it comes to applying self discipline in the academic contexts.