‘Troublesome boys’ and ‘compliant girls’: gender identity and perceptions of achievement and underachievement

Abstract

Working within a methodological framework that identified four focus groups, high‐achieving boys and girls and underachieving boys and girls, this article presents teachers' perceptions of how gender identity is seen to influence achievement levels. Beliefs about gender identity informed the teachers' perceptions in relation to each of the four focus groups, whereby the underachieving boy and the high‐achieving girl were seen to conform to gender expectations; the high‐achieving boys were seen to challenge gender norms; and the underachieving girl emerges as largely overlooked. The perceived characteristics of the high‐achieving girl are presented as describing all girls. There appears to be a tendency to associate boys with underachievement and girls with high achievement.