The Role of Gender in Educational Contexts and Outcomes

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-12-411576-7
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band Volume 47, 440 Seiten

Reihe: Advances in Child Development and Behavior

Volume 47 of Advances in Child Development and Behavior includes chapters that highlight some the most recent research in the area of gender in educational, contexts and outcomes. A wide array of topics are discussed in detail, including sexism, race and gender issues, sexual orientation, single-sex education, and physical education. Each chapter provides in-depth discussions, and this volume serves as an invaluable resource for developmental or educational psychology researchers, scholars, and students. - Chapters that highlight some of the most recent research in the area. - A wide array of topics are discussed in detail

Autoren/Hrsg.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Front Cover;1
2;The Role of Gender in Educational Contexts and Outcomes;4
3;Copyright;5
4;Contents;6
5;Contributors;10
6;Preface;12
7;Chapter One: Motivation in Educational Contexts: Does Gender Matter?;16
7.1;1. Introduction;17
7.2;2. Theoretical Frameworks: Early and Contemporary Approaches;19
7.2.1;2.1. Beginnings;19
7.2.2;2.2. Expectancy-Value Theory;21
7.2.3;2.3. Attribution Theory;22
7.2.4;2.4. Achievement Goal Theory;22
7.3;3. A Question of Confidence? Gender and Perceptions of Competence and Control;23
7.3.1;3.1. Perceptions of Competence;23
7.3.2;3.2. Do Sex Differences in Perceived Competence Change with Age?;26
7.3.3;3.3. Perceptions of Causality and Control;27
7.4;4. Proving and Improving: Gender and Motives for Evaluation;30
7.4.1;4.1. Approaches to Evaluation;30
7.4.2;4.2. Development of Proving and Improving Approaches to Self-Evaluation;31
7.5;5. Achievement Goals;35
7.5.1;5.1. Gender and Achievement Goals;35
7.5.2;5.2. Gender and Achievement Goals in Context;36
7.6;6. Achievement and Social Goals, Values, and Interests;38
7.6.1;6.1. Gender and Relationships;38
7.6.2;6.2. Good Girls, Brainy Boys: Performing Academically and Performing Gender;39
7.6.3;6.3. Interests, Values, and Identity;42
7.7;7. Social Influences;44
7.7.1;7.1. Parents;44
7.7.2;7.2. Teachers;45
7.8;8. Conclusions;47
7.8.1;8.1. Improving, Proving, and Academic Motivation Among Boys and Girls;47
7.8.2;8.2. Implications for Theory and Research;48
7.8.3;8.3. Implications for Education;49
7.9;References;50
8;Chapter Two: Gender-Related Academic and Occupational Interests and Goals;58
8.1;1. Theoretical Frameworks;60
8.1.1;1.1. Expectancy-Value Theory;60
8.1.2;1.2. Stereotype Threat Theory;61
8.1.3;1.3. Sociocultural Theory;63
8.1.4;1.4. The Gender Similarities Hypothesis;63
8.2;2. Gender Similarities and Differences in Academic Ability and Dispositions;64
8.2.1;2.1. Mathematical Performance;65
8.2.2;2.2. Spatial Performance;66
8.2.3;2.3. Verbal Skills;66
8.2.4;2.4. Communication;67
8.2.5;2.5. Helping Behavior;68
8.2.6;2.6. Leadership;69
8.2.7;2.7. Self-Esteem and Self-Concept;70
8.3;3. Gender Differences in Occupational Interests and Goals;70
8.3.1;3.1. Interests;71
8.3.2;3.2. Expectancy for Success;72
8.3.3;3.3. Utility Value;73
8.3.4;3.4. Job Attribute Preferences;74
8.4;4. Factors that may Shape Gendered Occupational Goals;76
8.4.1;4.1. Parental Expectations;76
8.4.2;4.2. Stereotypes and Discrimination;78
8.4.3;4.3. Work-Family Balance;81
8.4.4;4.4. Developmental Trends;82
8.4.5;4.5. Training, Practice, and Interventions;84
8.4.6;4.6. Cultural Differences;85
8.5;5. Conclusions;86
8.6;References;87
9;Chapter three: Developmental Interventions to Address the STEM Gender Gap: Exploring Intended and Unintended Consequences;92
9.1;1. Introduction;93
9.2;2. Documenting the STEM Gender Gap;94
9.3;3. Developmental Mechanisms and a Taxonomy of STEM Intervention Goals;100
9.3.1;3.1. Intervention Mechanisms Implicated by Theories of Gender Development;100
9.3.1.1;3.1.1. Gender Essentialism;101
9.3.1.2;3.1.2. Gender Environmentalism;102
9.3.1.3;3.1.3. Gender Constructivism;103
9.3.2;3.2. STEM Intervention Goals;106
9.4;4. Illustrations of STEM Interventions;109
9.4.1;4.1. Remediate;109
9.4.2;4.2. Revise;111
9.4.3;4.3. Refocus, Recategorize, and Resist;114
9.5;5. Conclusions and Recommendations;120
9.5.1;5.1. Comparison Groups;121
9.5.2;5.2. STEM-Relevant Outcome Measures;122
9.5.3;5.3. Measuring Unintended Outcomes;123
9.5.4;5.4. Characterizing and Building on Past Interventions;124
9.5.5;5.5. A Relational Perspective Revisited;125
9.6;References;126
10;Chapter Four: Physical Education, Sports, and Gender in Schools;132
10.1;1. Introduction;132
10.2;2. Historical Overview;136
10.3;3. Curricular Issues;140
10.4;4. Gender and Motivation to be Physically Active;143
10.5;5. Fitness Testing;149
10.6;6. Social Construction of Bodily Meanings;153
10.7;7. Creating Equitable Climates in Physical Education;155
10.8;8. Education and Sport;159
10.9;9. Conclusions and Implications;161
10.10;References;162
11;Chapter Five: Gendered-Peer Relationships in Educational Contexts;166
11.1;1. Introduction;167
11.2;2. Children´s Gender Segregation;169
11.2.1;2.1. Why Do Children Segregate by Gender?;170
11.2.1.1;2.1.1. Shared Interests and Compatibility;170
11.2.1.2;2.1.2. Social Cognitions About Gender;171
11.2.1.3;2.1.3. An Expanded Explanation for Gender Segregation;172
11.2.1.4;2.1.4. Exploring Children´s Gender-Based Peer Selection Using Social Networks Analyses;173
11.3;3. The Influence of Gendered-Peer Relationships on Children´s Development;174
11.3.1;3.1. What Do Children Learn in Gender-Segregated Peer Groups?;175
11.3.2;3.2. Binary and Gradient Views of Gender Segregation;176
11.4;4. Gender Segregation in School Environments;180
11.4.1;4.1. School Contexts and Teachers Promotion of Gender Segregation;181
11.4.2;4.2. Gender-Segregated Schooling;182
11.4.3;4.3. Consequences of Gender-Segregated Schooling;183
11.5;5. The Role of the Child in Selecting Gendered-Peer Environments;185
11.5.1;5.1. Children´s Affective Attitudes;186
11.5.2;5.2. Children´s Gender-Related Relationship Efficacy;188
11.6;6. Implications of Gender Segregation for Aggressive and Cooperative Behaviors;189
11.6.1;6.1. Same- and Other-Sex Aggression;190
11.6.2;6.2. Benefits of Interacting with Other-Sex Peers on Aggressive and Competent Behaviors;192
11.6.3;6.3. Importance of Enhancing Gender Integrated Interactions at School;194
11.7;7. Conclusions and Future Directions;195
11.8;Acknowledgments;196
11.9;References;196
12;Chapter six: Sexism in Schools;204
12.1;1. Overview of Types of Sexism;205
12.2;2. Perpetrators of Sexism;207
12.2.1;2.1. Teachers;208
12.2.2;2.2. Peers;209
12.2.3;2.3. Parents;210
12.2.4;2.4. Media;211
12.3;3. Gender Biases in School Achievement;212
12.3.1;3.1. Biases Against Girls in STEM;212
12.3.2;3.2. Biases Against Girls in Sports;215
12.3.3;3.3. Biases Against Boys in School Achievement;216
12.4;4. Sexual Harassment in School;217
12.4.1;4.1. Prevalence of Sexual Harassment in School Settings;218
12.4.2;4.2. Consequences of Sexual Harassment;219
12.5;5. Awareness of Sexism and Coping;219
12.5.1;5.1. Awareness of Sexism;220
12.5.2;5.2. Coping with Sexism;223
12.6;6. Reducing Sexism in Schools;224
12.6.1;6.1. Single-Gender Versus Coeducational Schools Debate;225
12.6.2;6.2. Interventions;226
12.6.3;6.3. School Climate;228
12.7;7. Conclusions;228
12.8;References;229
13;Chapter Seven: Analysis and Evaluation of the Rationales for Single-Sex Schooling;240
13.1;1. Introduction;241
13.2;2. Brief History of the Rationales for Single-Sex Schooling in the United States;241
13.3;3. Analysis and Evaluation of Contemporary Rationales for Single-Sex Schooling;243
13.3.1;3.1. Rationale #1: It Works for All Students for Unspecified Reasons;244
13.3.1.1;3.1.1. Confounds Associated with Selection into SS and CE Contexts;245
13.3.1.2;3.1.2. Students Socioeconomic Background;245
13.3.1.3;3.1.3. Students Academic Motivation and Aptitude;246
13.3.2;3.2. Rationale #2: It Works for Some Students for Unspecified Reasons;248
13.3.2.1;3.2.1. At-Risk Girls;248
13.3.2.2;3.2.2. At-Risk Students of Color;249
13.3.3;3.3. Rationale #3: It Works by Capitalizing on Gender Differences;250
13.3.3.1;3.3.1. Sex Differences in Maturation;251
13.3.3.2;3.3.2. Sex Differences in Aptitudes;252
13.3.3.3;3.3.3. Sex Differences in Disruptive Behavior;253
13.3.3.4;3.3.4. Sex Differences in Participatory Style;254
13.3.3.5;3.3.5. Sex Differences in Interests;255
13.3.4;3.4. Rationale #4: It Works by Reducing Sexism;256
13.3.4.1;3.4.1. Teacher Attention;257
13.3.4.2;3.4.2. Teacher-Student Interaction;258
13.3.4.3;3.4.3. Teacher Expectations;259
13.3.4.4;3.4.4. Peer Gender Stereotyping;260
13.3.4.5;3.4.5. Peer Sexual Harassment;261
13.3.5;3.5. Rationale #5: It Works by Reducing Attention to Gender;262
13.3.5.1;3.5.1. Gender Salience;262
13.3.5.2;3.5.2. Sexual Distraction;264
13.3.5.3;3.5.3. Peer Rejection;265
13.3.5.4;3.5.4. Self-Stereotyping;266
13.4;4. Conclusions and Recommendations;267
13.5;References;269
14;Chapter Eight: Factors Affecting Academic Achievement Among Sexual Minority and Gender-Variant Youth;276
14.1;1. Introduction;277
14.2;2. Theoretical Models for Understanding Academic Disparities;279
14.2.1;2.1. The Sexual Minority Stress Model;280
14.2.2;2.2. Social Cognitive Career Theory;280
14.3;3. Evidence of Sexual Orientation-Based Academic Disparities;282
14.4;4. Processes and Consequences of Victimization;284
14.4.1;4.1. Homophobic Victimization and Academic Disparities;284
14.4.2;4.2. Processes by Which Victimization Affects Learning and Academic Performance;287
14.4.3;4.3. Diminished Mental and Physical Health;287
14.4.4;4.4. School Avoidance;288
14.4.5;4.5. Substance Use as an Externalizing Coping Strategy;289
14.4.6;4.6. Chronic Vigilance;290
14.5;5. Additional Influences on Student Outcomes;291
14.5.1;5.1. The Timing and Onset of Victimization as a Risk Factor;291
14.5.2;5.2. Exclusionary Discipline as a Disruptive Process;293
14.5.3;5.3. Unique Stressors Among Transgender Youth;294
14.6;6. Programming and Policy;295
14.6.1;6.1. Promoting Academic Resilience in the Face of Victimization;295
14.6.2;6.2. Peer, Parent, and General Adult Support;296
14.6.3;6.3. The Role of Gay-Straight Alliances;298
14.6.4;6.4. Broader Extracurricular Opportunities;300
14.6.5;6.5. School-Wide Policies and Academic Programs;302
14.6.6;6.6. Anti-discrimination Policies;302
14.6.7;6.7. Inclusive Curriculum;304
14.7;7. Conclusions;308
14.8;References;309
15;Chapter Nine: Framing Black Boys: Parent, Teacher, and Student Narratives of the Academic Lives of Black Boys;316
15.1;1. Introduction;317
15.2;2. The Peril and Promise of Black Boys;318
15.2.1;2.1. Parent Narratives;321
15.2.2;2.2. Teacher Narratives;325
15.3;3. Black Boys: A Social Problem;326
15.4;4. Black Boys: Aggressive and Scary, Never Victims, Never Scared;329
15.5;5. Black Boys: Unteachable and Undeserving;330
15.5.1;5.1. Black Boy Narratives;332
15.6;6. Academic Identification;332
15.7;7. Cool-Pose Theory;333
15.7.1;7.1. Black Boy Counter-Narratives;335
15.8;8. Conclusions;338
15.9;References;342
16;Chapter Ten: Creating Developmentally Auspicious School Environments for African American Boys;348
16.1;1. Overview;349
16.2;2. Challenges in Educating African American Boys;349
16.2.1;2.1. PJ: A Case Study;350
16.2.2;2.2. Factors Affecting African American Boys Underachievement;351
16.2.2.1;2.2.1. Harsh, Disparate School Discipline;352
16.2.2.2;2.2.2. Poor Teacher-Student Relationships;353
16.2.2.3;2.2.3. Low-Quality Instruction;354
16.2.2.4;2.2.4. Anti-academic Peer Culture;355
16.2.2.5;2.2.5. Father Absence;356
16.2.2.6;2.2.6. Weak Home-School Alliances;356
16.2.2.7;2.2.7. Trauma and Other Sequelae of Poverty;357
16.2.2.8;2.2.8. Socio-Emotional Adjustment Difficulties;358
16.2.2.9;2.2.9. Cultural Stereotypes;359
16.3;3. Practices to Create Developmentally Auspicious School Environments;360
16.3.1;3.1. Foster Effective Classroom Management;360
16.3.2;3.2. Build Positive Teacher-Student Relationships;361
16.3.3;3.3. Improve Instructional Quality;362
16.3.4;3.4. Transform Peer Culture;363
16.3.5;3.5. Provide Ingroup Mentoring;363
16.3.6;3.6. Develop Respectful Collaborations with Families;364
16.3.7;3.7. Scaffold Socio-Emotional Development;365
16.3.8;3.8. Create Safe Spaces for Children in Low-Income Neighborhoods;366
16.3.9;3.9. Promote Counter-Stereotypic Narratives About African American Men and Boys;366
16.4;4. Single-Sex Schools: A Means of Rescuing African American Boys?;368
16.4.1;4.1. Possible Model: The Eagle Academy for Young Men in New York City;369
16.4.2;4.2. Empirical Evidence for the Efficacy of Single-Sex Education Among African American Boys;370
16.5;5. Conclusions and Future Directions;371
16.6;References;374
17;Subject Index;382
18;Author Index;402
19;Contents of Previous Volumes;422

Leseproben

Chapter One Motivation in Educational Contexts
Does Gender Matter?
Ruth Butler1    School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel
1 Corresponding author: email address: [e-mail] Abstract
Girls and women now outperform boys and men on many indices of academic achievement. Gender differences in motivation may underlie these trends. In this chapter, I review and integrate research on gender differences in self-evaluation, self-regulation, and achievement goals. I argue for the existence of gendered tendencies “to prove” versus “to try and to improve,” whereby males tend to orient to demonstrating and defending their abilities, and females to working hard and addressing deficiencies. I discuss how these motivations develop within social and educational contexts of learning, and intersect with gendered patterns of socialization, values, and behaviors in other arenas, especially relational ones. Recurring themes include the costs and benefits of differential emphases on competition and self-promotion versus affiliation and consideration of others in the family, peer group, and classroom. I conclude with some recommendations for creating classroom environments that might promote optimal motivation among all students, regardless of gender. Keywords Gender differences Achievement motivation Self-evaluation Social motives Gender socialization 1 Introduction
For me, as for many women who went to college in the 1970s, discovering gender was a formative and transformative experience. Feminist analyses provided us with a new way of understanding ourselves and the world that had a profound influence on the ways we lived, or at least tried to live our lives, on our career choices, on our relationships, and also on how we understood and did theory and research. The following decades brought exciting advances in understanding gender and more generally in conceptualizing the intersections of the personal and social in human psychology. But from being an important focus also of theory and research on motivation, gender has again become a somewhat neglected topic (albeit with some notable exceptions). I continue to be surprised by the number of manuscripts I come across—published papers, submissions, grant proposals—in which it does not seem to have occurred to the authors that gender might be relevant. They did not address gender in the literature review, did not conduct even a preliminary examination of possible gender effects, and at most provided a mention when describing the sample (e.g., 52% female). One possibility is that gender no longer matters, in the sense of meaningfully impacting motivation and motivational outcomes in educational contexts, at least in the Western populations that still make up most of the samples in published studies. Another is that the study of gender is no longer intellectually engaging, because we already understand how and why it impacts motivation and achievement. So, this is a good time to ask whether gender matters for the academic motivation of females, males, or both, as a prelude to introducing the central theme of this chapter. Girls and women score higher on graded achievement from elementary school through college, are less likely to drop out of school, and are now more likely than boys to continue to further education (e.g., American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1998; Snyder & Dillow, 2011). Despite changes in social attitudes men continue to achieve more at work than do women, and not only in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. To take just two academic examples, men wrote 80% of the books reviewed in the New York Review of Books in 2010 (http://www.vidaweb.org/the-count-2010). In the same year, men made up 75% of the faculty at the University of Chicago, about the same as was true in 1892 (88%; https://provost.uchicago.edu/initiatives/academicwomensreport.shtml). In this chapter, I ask how motivation contributes to differential patterns of engagement and achievement at different stages. I propose that there are gendered tendencies “to prove” versus “to try and to improve.” That is, I propose that males tend to be more oriented to demonstrating and defending their abilities, and females tend to be more oriented to working hard and to identifying and addressing deficiencies. I examine the extent to which this notion can serve to organize and interpret research on gender influences on motivation in educational settings, paying particular attention to strategies of academic self-evaluation and self-regulation, and to the costs and benefits of both proving and improving approaches. Thus, throughout, rather than focusing on one or the other sex (traditionally females, but increasingly males, an interesting shift in itself), I consider how core constructs of “proving” and “improving,” of competence and values impact the self-views, task engagement, self-regulation, achievement, and aspirations of both females and males. I also discuss influences on gendered motivational tendencies and strategies, focusing on how these develop within the social and educational contexts of learning and achievement. Recurring themes include motivational influences of emphases on competition and self-promotion versus affiliation and consideration of others in the family, peer group, and classroom on males and females. I also discuss how gender intersects with other categories of identity and social membership, and with gendered patterns of socialization, values, and behaviors in other arenas, especially relational ones to shape achievement motivation and behavior. I conclude with some implications for educational practice and policy. Some clarifications before I begin. As befits a volume on gender and education, I focus on achievement motivation, the kind of motivation most studied in educational settings. In this, as in other areas, gender influences can be expressed in several ways. There might be differences in the mean level of a construct (e.g., academic self-concept), in the distribution of a variable, or in the associations among variables (e.g., between self-concept and persistence). Some words of caution are in order. First, returning to my earlier point, in many potentially relevant studies, especially in recent years, authors did not report tests for sex differences. In others, sex was entered as a control, a strategy that does not provide information about gender similarities and differences in associations among variables. Second, variance within each sex is invariably larger than differences between the sexes; mean sex differences tend to be small and not always significant. Thus, there is a real risk of exaggerating gender differences and losing sight of no less meaningful gender similarities (Hyde, 2005; Petersen & Hyde, 2014 [Chapter 2 of this volume]). Even small differences in theoretically related variables can have cumulative and reciprocal effects that yield meaningful and influential gendered patterns or motivational styles, however. Finally, any analysis in terms of gendered tendencies raises the specter of essentialist claims regarding innate differences between the sexes. This is not my view. Rather, I shall discuss throughout how boys and girls construct and maintain motivational beliefs and motivated achievement strategies within the cultural milieu, contexts, and interactions of their lives. 2 Theoretical Frameworks: Early and Contemporary Approaches
2.1 Beginnings
The study of achievement motivation began with the pioneering work of McClelland and Atkinson, developed for present purposes in two main stages. First, in a major conceptual and empirical endeavor McClelland, Atkinson, and their colleagues defined and explored the intensity of the need to achieve as a dimension of personality, or individual differences (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953). Influenced by prevailing drive theories, they extrapolated from learning theories to conceptualize need achievement as a kind of learned drive, acquired to a greater or lesser extent during early socialization in the family. Extrapolating from psychoanalysis, they developed a projective measure that assessed need achievement according to the achievement imagery in stories people wrote about pictures that presented men and women in various ambiguous situations. Second, Atkinson (1957) posited a second motive to avoid failure, expressed in test anxiety. He also extended the theoretical model to include values and expectancies. Atkinson conceptualized value in terms of affect, which depends on task difficulty. People will experience more pride when they succeed on difficult tasks and more negative emotion when they fail on easy ones. The expectancy component recognized that resultant motivation depends not just on the intensity of motives and the value of success but also on the subjective probability of success. McClelland and his colleagues famously, or notoriously, based their book exclusively on research with men. This is often cited as a classic example of male bias in psychology: male psychologists who equate “human” with “male,” develop theories that they test mainly on men, and respond to any aberrant results with women, such as those reported by Veroff, Wilcox, and Atkinson (1953), by continuing to study men. A close reading of...