Exploring the bias: New research reveals gender disparities in education

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most affluent societies in the Caribbean. Yet its young men regularly underperform at school.

While girls tend to thrive, drop-out rates among boys are high.

Indeed, boys lag behind girls in most educational indices. In 2002, the English language pass rate for girls in Trinidad and Tobago was 69.5 per cent. For boys it was just 57.3 per cent.

“In the Caribbean, being seen to like studying is seen as a ‘girlish’ thing,” explains Dr Jyotsna Jha, one of the authors of new book ‘Exploring the Bias: Gender Stereotyping in Secondary Schools’, published by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

“If he studies hard, a boy’s peers might label him a ‘homosexual’, which can be seen to be a bad thing in the Caribbean. This cultural attitude contributes to underachievement by males at school.”

According to United Nations figures, some 55 per cent of the roughly 75 million children not in primary school are girls. But, as Dr Jha’s study shows, the picture at secondary school is much more complex.

Gender bias in the classroom

While in countries like India, Pakistan and Nigeria girls struggle to justify their participation in education, in Malaysia or the Caribbean, despite virtually equal access, boys consistently fall behind.

Using seven case studies, looking at secondary schools in India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Samoa, Seychelles, and Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Jha and her co-authors analysed whether schools act as agents for change or merely perpetuate entrenched stereotypes.

“Most researchers in the area of gender and education have normally looked at the issue of access to education. But we wanted to look at a subject that very few researchers have studied – how gender bias works when children get to school.

“One of the things we discovered is that the picture is not uniform. In countries like India, it is the girls who underachieve because they are taken out of education by their families.”

Tackling gender stereotypes

The study also found that government initiatives to tackle gender inequality can be undermined in the classroom by teachers that lack training or the enthusiasm to tackle ingrained behaviour and cultural stereotypes.

“Teachers often only reinforce the existing stereotypes,” says Dr Jha. “In some countries, convinced that boys are troublemakers or are not bright, teachers will not pay them enough attention. This helps boys to slip through the net and reinforces the vicious cycle of underachievement.”

She adds: “We were also able to show that when you do pay attention to girls, the situation doesn’t necessarily get worse for the boys.

“And importantly, good schools, good teachers and good headteachers, with the help of supportive local communities, can turn things around. They can really buck the trend.”

The Commonwealth-funded publication ‘The Gender-Responsive School: An Action Guide’, also now published, continued this research theme. This practical guide gives teachers and headteachers guidance on how to make school more gender-responsive.

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