Abstract:
While the significance of acquiring STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has been progressively acknowledged in our present-day society, enrolments in mathematics - foundational to STEM fields - and mathematics-intensive STEM subjects among girls and young women have declined in Australia and elsewhere over the last two decades from secondary schools to universities. Extensive studies have shown that students’ mathematical educational and career aspirations are associated with factors including student perceived parental influences (e.g. expectations and support), students’ own values and perceived costs, as well as cultural and gender stereotypes, indicating that these factors may contribute to gender disparity and underrepresentation of girls in mathematics and mathematically intensive STEM fields.
Caucasian and Asian male students are often considered to be advantaged in STEM, and the “male = mathematics” and “Asian = mathematics” stereotypes are widely spread in Western countries. Nevertheless, little is known about whether gender stereotypes still hinder Asian female students, or whether the ‘Asian advantage’ is distributed among girls and boys. Previous studies have highlighted the significance of understanding the intersection between gender and ethnicity when investigating gendered educational and career aspirations in mathematics. However, the dearth of empirical evidence to comprehensively understand students’ mathematical motivation across cultural groups persists.
As secondary school is a pivotal time for students to decide their educational and career pathways, this study involves a mixed-methods approach to explore Asian-Australian background girls’ mathematics educational and career aspirations. Participants (N = 178) in this study are grades 7 to 10 Asian-Australian girls from a single-sex academically selective school in NSW. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through student online questionnaires and focus group interviews in the NSW DoE-funded ‘PERFORM’ project (CIs Holmes, Watt, Anderson, Berger, Mackenzie, Reid O’Connor), aiming to understand how grades 7 - 10 Asian-Australian girls’ mathematics and mathematics-intensive educational and career aspirations are influenced by the mentioned factors using the lens of the culturally attentive ‘situated expectancy-value theory’. It is hypothesised that girls’ mathematical aspirations and subjective task values including costs are strongly associated with their perceived parental influences. Both utility and intrinsic value will have a strong relationship with their mathematics-related educational and career aspirations. The influence of gender and cultural stereotypes will not be strong due to the affordance of attending a single-sex selective school. This poster presentation will showcase the project impetus, design, approach and literature-informed hypotheses.
Caucasian and Asian male students are often considered to be advantaged in STEM, and the “male = mathematics” and “Asian = mathematics” stereotypes are widely spread in Western countries. Nevertheless, little is known about whether gender stereotypes still hinder Asian female students, or whether the ‘Asian advantage’ is distributed among girls and boys. Previous studies have highlighted the significance of understanding the intersection between gender and ethnicity when investigating gendered educational and career aspirations in mathematics. However, the dearth of empirical evidence to comprehensively understand students’ mathematical motivation across cultural groups persists.
As secondary school is a pivotal time for students to decide their educational and career pathways, this study involves a mixed-methods approach to explore Asian-Australian background girls’ mathematics educational and career aspirations. Participants (N = 178) in this study are grades 7 to 10 Asian-Australian girls from a single-sex academically selective school in NSW. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through student online questionnaires and focus group interviews in the NSW DoE-funded ‘PERFORM’ project (CIs Holmes, Watt, Anderson, Berger, Mackenzie, Reid O’Connor), aiming to understand how grades 7 - 10 Asian-Australian girls’ mathematics and mathematics-intensive educational and career aspirations are influenced by the mentioned factors using the lens of the culturally attentive ‘situated expectancy-value theory’. It is hypothesised that girls’ mathematical aspirations and subjective task values including costs are strongly associated with their perceived parental influences. Both utility and intrinsic value will have a strong relationship with their mathematics-related educational and career aspirations. The influence of gender and cultural stereotypes will not be strong due to the affordance of attending a single-sex selective school. This poster presentation will showcase the project impetus, design, approach and literature-informed hypotheses.