GSE/RES Gender Differences in Science and Math: Diversity and the Role of Social Context

得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校正在研究高中阶段学生在高等数学和科学课程中的性别表现和选择，以及大学中相关专业的选择。这项研究的目的是辨别这种选择是如何受到社会背景的影响。该小组正在研究学生的友谊团体，与学术同行的联系，以及严格的学术课程的接触，以及学校之间更广泛的社会背景，其特点是学校的社会和学术，数学和科学课程，提供的课程，以及学校所在社区的社会经济方面。他们特别关注这些过程在关键人群亚群中的差异，包括不同种族和民族、社会阶层和移民世代地位的学生。这项研究的智力价值主要基于以下优势：（1）承认高中和大学期间男女学生的科学和数学轨迹是复杂和多方面的，并不一定遵循一个主要模式，（2）概念化，即学校内部和学校之间的社会环境影响男女学生的选择和表现，（3）认识到影响他们的轨迹和社会机制可能因不同学生的分组而不同（即种族和民族、社会经济和移民人口亚组）和（4）分析方法，该方法应用严格的研究方法来分析一个重要的新的大型和具有全国代表性的数据集，该数据集经过精心设计，用于衡量概念框架的多种社会背景。这项研究的设计突出了男女学生在多个时间点和过渡时期实际走过的各种科学和数学轨迹，而不是假设一条先验或单一的道路。此外，社会背景影响女孩科学和数学成绩的前提此前已被应用于科学和数学性别差异的研究，主要是在小规模或定性研究中，或者相比之下，对国内或国际趋势的广泛论述。这项研究建立在这一文献的基础上，提出了一个框架，女生的选择和表现发生在一个机会结构的限制，一个既包括学校内的直接社会背景，以及更广泛的社会背景下的学校和社区本身。此外，该研究的优点来自于考虑性别经历的复杂性，通过研究科学和数学轨迹以及社会背景对这些途径的影响，对于来自不同种族和民族群体，社会阶层和移民世代地位的女孩来说可能是不同的。最后，这项研究的优点还在于使用了关于学校和学生的具有全国代表性的新数据（青少年健康纵向研究的青少年健康和学业成绩（AHAA）部分）（添加健康）），这使得研究的影响，背景因素对性别的选择，在学校内和跨第一次，以及使用先进的统计技术，如分层线性模型，并考虑在其他科目的学术轨迹，以提供一个对比的科学和数学的研究。 首先，虽然有大量的研究调查了数学和科学领域的性别差异，对学校内部和学校之间的社会背景的考虑增加了对这个问题的一般理解，重点是直接和广泛的背景如何发挥作用，提供有关性别规范和机会的信息和鼓励，这些规范和机会随后影响到女孩在传统的男性学校中的表现和选择，此外，通过调查学校的哪些特点和课程设置鼓励女孩选择数学和科学课程以及进一步的学习计划，这项研究可以提供证据，说明学校如何在促进两性平等方面发挥积极作用。通过强调学校在高中高级数学和科学课程中女孩的代表程度如何不同，该团队希望消除性别差距是一个持续存在的顽固现象的概念，其特征是女孩未能达到与男性同龄人相同的水平。最后，使用高质量的全国代表性的数据，大样本量允许调查的种族和民族，社会阶层，移民亚组的背景下的影响差异。这对于了解这些社会机制如何在不同的亚人口中以不同的方式运作，从而了解如何更好地制定促进两性平等的政策至关重要。

The University of Texas at Austin is examining gendered performance and student choices of advanced math and science courses in high school, and the choice of a related major in college. The goal of the study is to discern how such choices are influenced by social context. The team is examining both the immediate within-school contexts of students' friendship groups, associations with academic peers, and exposure to rigorous academic curricula, as well as the broader social context across schools, characterized by a school's social and academic, the math and science curriculum available and courses offered, and socio-economic aspects of the communities within which the schools are embedded. They pay special attention to how these processes differ for key population subgroups, including students of different race and ethnicity, social class, and immigrant generational status.The intellectual merit of the study is based largely in the strength of(1) the acknowledgement that the science and math trajectories of female and male students throughout high school and college are complex and multi-faceted, and do not necessarily follow one major pattern,(2) the conceptualization, that the social contexts within and across schools influence the choices and performance of female and male students,(3) the recognition that the trajectories and the social mechanisms that influence them may be different for subgroups of diverse students (i.e. racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, and immigrant population subgroups) and(4) the analytic approach that applies rigorous research methodology to analysis of a major new large and nationally representative data set that is well designed to measure the multiple social contexts of the conceptual framework.First, the design of the study highlights the various science and math trajectories actually traveled by female and male students across multiple time points and transitions, rather than assuming an apriori or singular path. Further, the premise of social context influencing girls' science and math attainment has previously been applied to studies of gender differences in science and math primarily in small-scale or qualitative studies, or in contrast, in very broad treatments of national or international trends. The study builds on this literature by suggesting a framework of female students' choices and performance occurring within the constraints of an opportunity structure, one that includes both the immediate social context within schools, as well as the broader social context of schools and communities themselves. Additionally, the study's merit derives from consideration of the complexities of gendered experiences, by examining how the science and math trajectories taken, and the influence of the social context on such pathways, may be different for girls from different race and ethnic groups, social classes, and immigrant generational status. Finally, the merit of the study also stems from the use of new and nationally-representative data on schools and students (the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement (AHAA) component of the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)), which allows the examination of the effects of contextual factors on gendered choices within and across schools for the first time, as well as the use of advanced statistical techniques such as hierarchical linear modeling, and the consideration of academic trajectories in additional subjects to provide a contrast to the study of science and math.Broader Impact. First, while there have been a large number of studies examining gendered differences in math and science areas, the consideration of the social context within and across schools adds to the general understanding of the problem by focusing on how both immediate and broad contexts function to provide information and encouragement about gendered norms and opportunities that subsequently influence the performance and the choices girls make in the traditionally male-dominated fields of science and math. Additionally by investigating which characteristics of schools and the course curriculum encourage girls to choose math and science courses and further programs of study, the study can offer evidence of how schools can play an active role in promoting gender equality. By highlighting how schools vary in the extent to which girls are represented in advanced math and science courses in high school, the team hopes to dispel the notion that the gender gap is a constant and unyielding phenomenon, characterized by girls' failure to meet the same levels of their male peers. Finally, the use of high quality nationally representative data with a large sample size allows the investigation of racial and ethnic, social class, and immigrant subgroups differences in the effects of context. This is extremely important for understanding how these social mechanisms may operate differently within various subpopulations, and consequently, how to better design policies that promote gender equity.