Teacher gender, and expectation of reading achievement in New Zealand elementary school students: essentially a barrier?

Abstract

Boys continue to demonstrate lower average achievement in reading than girls. The influence of teacher gender has been explored among the factors explaining this scenario but with mixed results. Further, although teacher expectations have affected student academic outcomes, and student gender-related stereotypical notions have shaped such expectations, the role of teacher gender within this scenario has been neglected. The current study was conducted with a sample of elementary schools, in New Zealand (a national setting where essentialist gender attitudes have existed and where policies to implement scholastic gender equity have been critiqued as unsuccessful). The influence of teacher gender and of a teacher-student gender match and mismatch on teacher's expectations of their elementary student reading achievement, was tested via hierarchical linear modelling. Male teachers' expectations were found to be lower for students of both genders in reading and negative implications for male teachers and their students' reading achievement were revealed.

Factors that bias teacher expectations: Findings from Chile

“…The results revealed that male teachers have lower expectations of their students' (both boys and girls) performance in mathematics than their female colleagues. The same pattern was observed for reading in a more recent study (Watson et al, 2017).…”

“…Male teachers had lower expectations than their female colleagues, regardless of student gender. Similarly Watson et al (2017) showed that male teachers presented lower expectations of both boys and girls than their female colleagues. Considering the findings of the present study, it could be inferred that the gender-related discrepancies between teachers in New Zealand and Chile may be the result of cultural differences between the two countries.…”

Why do females choose to study humanities or social sciences, while males prefer technology or science? Some intrapersonal and interpersonal predictors

“…An important mechanism of this transformation seems to be the stereotype threat (e.g., Nguyen and Ryan 2008;Schmader 2002;Shapiro and Williams 2012) and selffulfilling prophecy (e.g., Fiedler et al 2002;Gentrup and Rjosk 2018;Watson et al 2017). The indicated phenomena, together with the regulatory function of students' self-expectations and their self-concept of ability in T/S and H/SS (e.g., Fan 2011; Rudman and Phelan 2010;Szumski and Karwowski 2019) are discussed in more detail in the following sections of this paper.…”

“…Teachers at school may encourage male students to learn science more, e.g., by praising them for their correctly conducted physical experiments, whereas female students might be motivated to analyze the beauty of Gabriele Mistral's poetry, according to socially shared schema of technically talented boys and humanistically predisposed girls (Eccles et al 1990;Jussim et al 1996;Watson et al 2017). Similarly, at home, parents who keep their daughters away from screwdrivers or their sons away from dolls may show them how to bake cakes and replace a bicycle hub, respectively (Jacobs et al 2004;Simpkins et al 2018).…”

“…The noticeable gap in educational experience and performance of schematically male versus female subjects among students cannot be explained solely by their abilities (individual differences), but to some extent also by the cultural transmission of gender stereotypes (e.g., Li 1999;Nguyen and Ryan 2008;Robnett 2016;Spencer et al 1999;Tiedemann 2000;Watson et al 2017).…”