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调查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，以及在大学中选择相关专业的情况。这项研究的目标是弄清这些选择是如何受到社会背景的影响的。该团队正在研究学生的友谊团体、与学术同行的联系和接触严格的学术课程的直接学校内部背景，以及学校更广泛的社会背景，其特点是学校的社会和学术、可提供的数学和科学课程以及学校所在社区的社会经济方面。他们特别关注关键人口亚群的这些过程如何不同，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)认识到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背景影响男女学生的选择和表现，(3)认识到对于不同的学生亚群(即种族和民族、社会经济和移民人口亚群)，轨迹和影响它们的社会机制可能是不同的；(4)运用严格的研究方法来分析一个重要的、大型的、具有全国代表性的数据集，该数据集被很好地设计来衡量概念框架的多重社会背景。首先，这项研究的设计突出了女性和男性学生在多个时间点和过渡阶段实际走过的各种科学和数学轨迹，而不是假设先验或单一的路径。此外，社会背景影响女孩科学和数学成绩的前提以前主要应用于科学和数学方面的性别差异的研究，主要是在小规模或定性研究中，或者相反，在对国家或国际趋势的非常广泛的处理中。这项研究以这一文献为基础，提出了一个在机会结构的限制下发生的女学生选择和表现的框架，机会结构既包括学校内部的直接社会背景，也包括学校和社区本身的更广泛的社会背景。此外，这项研究的优点来自于对性别经历的复杂性的考虑，通过检查所采取的科学和数学轨迹，以及社会背景对这些轨迹的影响，对于不同种族和民族、社会阶层和移民世代地位的女孩来说，可能是不同的。最后，这项研究的价值还源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(Add Health)的青少年健康和学业成就(AHAA)部分)，这使得能够第一次检查背景因素对学校内部和跨学校性别选择的影响，并使用先进的统计技术，如分层线性建模，以及考虑其他科目的学业轨迹，以与科学和数学研究形成对比。首先，虽然已经有大量研究考察了数学和科学领域的性别差异，但对学校内部和跨学校的社会背景的考虑，通过关注直接和广泛的背景如何发挥作用，提供关于性别规范和机会的信息和鼓励，从而影响女孩在传统上由男性主导的科学和数学领域的表现和选择，从而增加了对这个问题的总体理解。此外，通过调查学校的哪些特点和课程课程鼓励女孩选择数学和科学课程以及进一步的学习计划，这项研究可以为学校如何在促进性别平等方面发挥积极作用提供证据。通过强调学校在高中高级数学和科学课程中女孩的代表性程度的差异，该团队希望消除这样一种观念，即性别差距是一个持续而顽固的现象，其特点是女孩无法达到与男性同龄人相同的水平。最后，使用具有全国代表性的高质量数据和大样本量，可以调查种族和民族、社会阶层和移民亚群在背景影响方面的差异。这对于理解这些社会机制如何在不同的人群中以不同的方式运作，以及如何更好地设计促进性别平等的政策是极其重要的。

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.