ABSTRACT
Whether articulating concerns that girls are being marginalised, or expressing anxiety about the extent to which boys underachieve at languages, the various concerns and debates around gender and achievement reflect identifiable theoretical perspectives and discourses. This chapter sets out the different theories which are drawn on in discussion of, and often to explain, ‘the gender gap’. We seek to tease out the different ideological and/or theoretical approaches that have been drawn from wider understandings about gender, behaviour, and ability, and applied to debates concerning gender and achievement. While the claims and justifications forwarded from different ideological/theoretical view points are examined and evaluated in other sections of the book, this chapter seeks rather to explore the relationships between the ideas that are reflected in discussions of gender and achievement, whether in academic writing, policy documents, teaching aids or newspaper articles.
