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Are Explanations for Gendered Career Aspirations and Senior High Enrolment in Math Domain Specific?Expectancy-Value Influences for Math & English Using Longitudinal DataPaper presented in Symposium titled ‘Math and Science Courses, Grades and Career Goals: Longitudinal perspectives on the influence of gender and beliefs’ (Discussant – Prof. Jan Jacobs)at the SRA Biennial Conference: Baltimore, March 11-14, 2004Helen Watt (University of Western Sydney)
Key Questions • Gendered participation in maths/English? • Influences of gender, self-perceptions, values and task demands? • Domain specificity?
Sample • N=459 (43% girls) • Surveys grades 9, 10, 11 • 3 upper-middle class coed. secondary schools in metropolitan Sydney NSW Australia
Measures Career plans: • Open-ended: coded for maths/English-relatedness using O*NETTM 98 • 4 categories of ‘high’, ‘average’, ‘any’ and ‘no’ maths/English content Senior high (HSC) plans: • Maths in Practice (MIP), Maths in Society (MIS), 2U, 3U, 4U • Contemporary English, General, 2U, 3U Expectancy-Value constructs: • self-perceptions (talent and success expectancies combined), • intrinsic and utility values • perceived task difficulty and effort required
Analyses • CFAs for Expectancy-Value constructs • Multiple discriminant analyses to assess interval level for choice outcomes • Dominance analysis for gendered choices • MANOVA for influences on choices, gender on influences • MANOVA 1, MANOVA 2
Construct Validity - CFA’s • higher-order self-perceptions (talent perceptions & success expectancies combined), • perceived task difficulty and effort required • intrinsic value and perceived utility Outcome Variables Level of Measurement: • career and HSC outcomes substantially explained by one discriminant function proceeding along roughly interval scales • (only 68% of English CAREER PLANS explained)
Maths Career Plans d’s from .16 to .21r’s: .51, .50
Maths HSC Plans d’s from .18 to .19r’s: .62, .71
Intrinsic Value and Maths Career All Yr 9 and Yr 10 pairs sig.diff.
Intrinsic Value and HSC Maths All Yr 9 and Yr 10 pairs sig.diff.
(Yr 9) Self-Perceptions and HSC Maths All pairs sig.diff.
(Yr 9) Perc. Effort and HSC Maths mid similar to hi
Yr 10 Gender Effects on Maths E-V n.s. n.s. n.s.
English Career Plans d’s from .13 to .17r’s: .58, .56
English HSC Plans d’s from .15 to .32r’s: .49, .36 NNote. Grade 11 English course selections are actual rather than intended senior high selections. These schools however did not offer 3 unit English commencement until grade 12, explaining the apparent lack of grade 11 students electing the highest 3 unit level.
Influences on English Career ? 32% variance unaccounted for by one discriminant linear function may relate to non-significant findings.
Self-Perceptions and HSC English Yr 9: All pairs sig.diff. Yr 10: mid similar to lo
Yr 9 Gender Effects on English E-V n.s. n.s. n.s.
Yr 10 Gender Effects on English E-V n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
Importance of the Study • robust support for gendered participation in maths/English • extends operationalisation of participation to career plans • E-V influences on maths/English participation Maths: gendered intrinsic value, self-perc, effort. Gender X utility interaction English: self-perc • gendered E-V influences on maths/English choices?
Domain Specificity? • Despite similarly gendered participation outcomes in English (although favouring girls), patterns of influence are different from those in maths. • ‘Values’ did not predict English participation. • Only ‘self perceptions’ predicted senior high English participation, no sig. influences on English-related career plans. • Domain-specificity (cultural specificity?) for patterns of influence and the need for further research.
Values Correlations MATHS: Yr 9 r=.41, Yr 10 r=.45 ENGLISH: Yr 9 r=.37, Yr 10 r=.39 Self-Perc & Values Correlations MATHS - intrinsic: Yr 9 r=.49, Yr 10 r=.55 MATHS - utility: Yr 9 r=.29, Yr 10 r=.34 ENGLISH - intrinsic: Yr 9 r=.59, Yr 10 r=.66 ENGLISH - utility: Yr 9 r=.33, Yr 10 r=.24
English – grade 10 ? ? ?