Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to gender differences in educational achievement (10)

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Last Updated on November 7, 2026 by Karl Thompson

This question appeared on AQA A-level Sociology Paper 1 (7192/1), Education with Theory and Methods, in June 2025. It is a 10-mark “analyse” question with an item, and it combines two parts of the specification: relationships and processes within schools, and differences in educational achievement by gender.

In this type of question both of your points must be taken from the item. Read Item A for the two “hooks” it gives you, then develop and analyse each one.

Have a go yourself first. If you need to revise the topic, see my post on in-school factors and gender inequality in education.

Full question including item

Item A

Teachers may have different expectations of some groups of pupils compared to others. Pupils may form subcultures with peers who share similar values.

Relationships and processes within schools may lead to gender differences in achievement.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to gender differences in educational achievement. [10 marks]

Hints for answering this question

The item gives you two hooks, one per sentence:

“Teachers may have different expectations of some groups of pupils compared to others.” This is teacher labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, applied to gender.
“Pupils may form subcultures with peers who share similar values.” This is pupil subcultures: laddish, anti-school subcultures among boys, and pro-school attitudes among girls.

Two things to watch:

The question is about achievement. Each paragraph has to end up explaining a difference in results, not just a difference in behaviour.
Both hooks are in-school factors. Material on factors outside school (women’s employment, family change, socialisation at home) isn’t what the question asks for, though you can use it briefly to analyse an in-school point.

AQA’s mark scheme lists sources including Archer, Connolly, Epstein, Francis, Jackson, Mac an Ghaill, Mitsos and Browne, Sewell and Willis. You don’t need any particular one for full marks, but named studies help.

A possible answer

One way is through teachers’ different expectations of boys and girls. As Item A says, teachers may have different expectations of some groups of pupils compared to others. Interactionists argue that teachers label pupils, often on the basis of stereotypes, and that labels can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Teachers may expect girls to be conscientious and well-behaved, and boys to be disruptive. In a review for the Equal Opportunities Commission, Skelton, Francis and Valkanova (2007) cite evidence that teachers’ judgements of boys’ academic ability were informed by their behaviour. So a boy whose behaviour is seen as poor may also be seen as less able, given less encouragement and placed in lower sets.

This can lead to lower achievement for boys in two ways. Boys may internalise the label and live up to it, and they are also more likely to be removed from learning altogether: in 2024/25 boys’ permanent exclusion rate was more than twice girls’. However, the effect of labels depends on class and ethnicity as well as gender. Black Caribbean boys, for example, had an average Attainment 8 score of 36.0 in 2022/23, well below White British boys (42.8), which suggests teacher expectations may be shaped by ethnicity as much as by gender. And labels don’t always stick: pupils can reject them, which is where the second hook in the item comes in.

A second way is through pupil subcultures. Item A says pupils may form subcultures with peers who share similar values. Some boys form laddish, anti-school subcultures in which working hard is seen as uncool and unmasculine, as Paul Willis found with the working-class “lads” in Learning to Labour (1977). Carolyn Jackson (2006), studying Year 9 pupils in eight schools, found that most pupils saw hard work as uncool, and that success only counted if it looked effortless. Her explanation is that laddish behaviour protects pupils’ self-worth: if you don’t try and then fail, you can blame lack of effort rather than lack of ability.

This can lead to gender differences in achievement if the pressure to appear not to work falls more heavily on boys, for whom visible effort may be seen as unmasculine. If girls’ peer groups are more accepting of hard work, girls lose less of their potential to the subculture. However, Jackson also found girls behaving in laddish ways, so the difference is one of degree rather than a simple boys-against-girls divide. This links back to the first hook: a boy who joins a laddish subculture confirms his teachers’ negative label, and the label in turn pushes him further towards the subculture, so the two processes reinforce each other.

The mark scheme

AQA marks this question out of 10: 3 marks for knowledge and understanding (AO1), 4 for application (AO2) and 3 for analysis and evaluation (AO3).

Why this answer would score well

Both points come from the item, and each paragraph quotes it.

Each point explains a difference in achievement, not just behaviour: lower sets and exclusions for the first; reduced effort for the second.
Each point is analysed: the first by bringing in class and ethnicity, the second by qualifying the boys/girls contrast with Jackson’s evidence on girls, and by linking the two processes together.

KT’S COMMENTARY

The trap in this question is the word “achievement”. Plenty of students will write two good paragraphs about labelling and laddish subcultures and never say what happens to anyone’s grades. Make the last sentence of each point about results.

The other trap is writing about factors outside school. Changes in women’s employment and Sue Sharpe are good material for the 30-marker, but they aren’t relationships and processes within schools, and the item doesn’t mention them.

And you don’t need to write about girls and boys equally. Most of the analysis here is about boys, because that’s where the in-school explanations of the gap mostly sit. Just make sure the comparison with girls is there, because the question is about a difference.

Sociology of Education Revision Bundle

If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my sociology of education revision notes bundle, which includes short answer exam practice questions and exemplar answers. It’s written by Karl Thompson, who taught A-level sociology for eighteen years and spent twelve as an AQA examiner, marking all three papers on the current specification.

Signposting and Related Posts

This post has been written for students sitting AQA A-level sociology Paper 1, specification 7192/1.

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Sources

AQA, A-level Sociology 7192/1 Paper 1, June 2025: question paper and mark scheme. AQA material is reproduced for educational purposes. Past papers are available from the AQA past paper finder.
Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England, 2024/25 (9 July 2026)
Ethnicity facts and figures, GCSE results (Attainment 8), 2022 to 2023 school year (7 November 2024)

Jackson, C. (2006) Lads and Ladettes in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure, Open University Press
Skelton, C., Francis, B. and Valkanova, Y. (2007) Breaking Down the Stereotypes: Gender and Achievement in Schools, Equal Opportunities Commission, Working Paper 59
Willis, P. (1977) Learning to Labour