Sociology, being one of the central discussion subjects in terms of investigating the patterns of human development in cultural, ethnic, and gender aspects, has become extremely relevant for the modern world. Hence, the vast majority of researches conducted in the field is now closely related to the issues tackling the global community today, mostly including matters of racial and gender discrimination. The following research paper will focus on the issue discussed by Shu-Ling Tsai, Michael L. Smith, and Robert M. Hauser in 2018 – the problem of gender gaps in terms of academic achievements and inequality at school.
Over the centuries, school students across the world have been exposed to gender division in terms of natural affiliation to certain disciplines and overall attitude to the learning process. Hence, the research’s primary purpose in the context of this situation was to estimate the patterns of gender gaps according to the student’s cultural background and geographical distribution (Tsai et al., 2018). Hence, as a result of large-scale involvement in the process of social stratification, the patterns of educational achievement gaps in relation to gender have become a central issue for scholars.
When speaking of hypotheses introduced in the course of the study, the researchers outlined three major assumptions to deal with after the data analysis. The first assumption states that in relation to the overall industrial development in the states, parental and school influence will not contribute to the gender stigmatization of the acad performance (Tsai et al., 2018). The second hypothesis discusses the probability of stronger school influence on the boys’ reading performance and girls’ math and science achievements in the countries with gender stratification patterns in schools. Finally, the third assumption contributes to the patterns of favoring male students in adjusted (more stratified) school systems.
The methodology of the following research was primarily based on the two-level MIMIC model. This model’s major aim, standing for multiple indicators, multiple cause model, implies the analysis of the data according to a variety of external factors potentially influencing the study’s outcome. In terms of the research, the MIMIC model was divided into two major levels: an examination of the causes and indicators within a specific school and the contrastive analysis of the variables between the schools analyzed.
The study population included male and female students aged 15-16 (9th – 10th grade) in the following countries: the US, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Both comprehensive and vocational schools were taken into account to analyze the peculiarities of their attitude to gender affiliation. The observed variables for the data collection included background variables (family factors), school factors, and outcome variables (Tsai et al., 2018). The findings of the research have shown that in the three East Asian countries, the minimum gender gap in performance was estimated in terms of math and science, whereas girls were generally better at reading comprehension, implying the cultural influence. In Western countries, on the contrary, the gaps were vivid and specific in terms of the subjects.
Taking the following research into consideration, it might be noted that the level of professionalism shown in the process is quite high, providing an exhaustive interpretation of the data collection and analysis. However, the drawback of the empirical study concerns the limited number of variables, including both the states and the students. Hence, further studies of the research should be dedicated to an exhaustive contrastive analysis taking into consideration more personally-oriented causes and indicators.
References
Tsai, S. L., Smith, M. L., & Hauser, R. M. (2018). Gender gaps in student academic achievement and inequality. Research in the Sociology of Education, 20, 181-218.