Erin Pahlke

Gender-segregated schooling and gender stereotyping

Concern has been raised that segregation of girls and boys into separate classes leads to increased gender stereotyping. We tested this in a sample of 365 seventh-grade students attending a junior high school that offers both gender-segregated (GS) and co-educational classes. It was found that for both boys and girls, the more GS classes they took in the fall, the more gender stereotyped they were in their responding in the spring (controlling for initial levels of gender stereotyping). We concluded that GS likely heightens the salience of gender in the classroom thereby reinforcing and increasing gender stereotypes. As such, we argue that GS is a misguided approach to addressing any educational difficulties girls and boys might be having.

Effects of Learning About Historical Gender Discrimination on Early Adolescents’ Occupational Judgments and Aspirations

To examine the consequences of learning about gender discrimination, early adolescents (n = 121, aged 10-14) were randomly assigned to receive either (a) standard biographical lessons about historical figures (standard condition) or (b) nearly identical lessons that included information about gender discrimination (discrimination condition). Additional students (n = 46) did not receive lessons (control condition). At immediate posttest, students in the discrimination condition showed increased awareness of gender discrimination, and girls (but not boys) reported an increased desire to combat gender discrimination. At 6-month posttest, students in the discrimination condition were more likely than those in the control condition to perceive gender discrimination. Adolescents’ occupational goals and beliefs about their own vulnerability to discrimination did not differ across conditions.

Home-Based Parental Involvement in Young Children’s Learning Across U.S. Ethnic Groups Cultural Models of Academic Socialization

Despite a growing body of research on school-based parental involvement, our knowledge of home-based involvement beliefs and practices, and how these vary across ethnic groups, remains limited. Our study addresses this gap by exploring how the meanings of educational achievement and parents’ roles in young children’s learning vary across ethnic groups. The aim of this study was to construct a detailed picture of the landscape of parental home-based involvement with children and to gain a deeper understanding of the beliefs, meanings, and goals underlying parents’ interactions. Forty-one middle-class Mexican American, African American, and European American mothers participated in semistructured interviews about their goals and interactions with their children in the domain of education. We identified seven themes across the interviews and constructed two cultural models of parental academic socialization: determination with intervention, more typical of ethnic minority group mothers, and trust and laissez-faire, more common among European American mothers.

Gender-Segregated Schooling A Problem Disguised as a Solution

Gender-segregated (GS) schooling has become popular in the United States despite the fact that every major review has concluded that GS schooling is not superior to coeducational schooling. Moreover, concern has been raised that GS schooling leads to negative effects, including increased gender stereotyping. We argue that these negative effects result from peer influences in gender-segregated peer contexts—including GS schooling. We also contend that educational policy makers need to understand these peer effects so that better decisions can be made about how children are grouped in classrooms and to create coeducational programs that promote tolerance and acceptance between girls and boys.

Parents’ School Satisfaction and Academic Socialization Predict Adolescents’ Autonomous Motivation A Mixed-Method Study of Low-Income Ethnic Minority Families

In this mixed-methods study, we used an explanatory sequential design to investigate the processes through which parental involvement influences adolescents’ achievement motivation. One hundred twenty low-income urban parents and their sixth-grade adolescents completed questionnaires, and a subsample of 11 mothers and 11 adolescents were interviewed. Parents’ questionnaires measured their satisfaction with their childhood school experiences, their current academic socialization practices, and their educational aspirations for their adolescents. Adolescents’ questionnaires measured their motivation to achieve to please their family and their autonomous motivation (internal locus of control and internalized value of learning). In Step 1, we conducted quantitative analyses to test two path models from parental school satisfaction to each adolescent autonomous motivation dimension. Results indicated that relations between parents’ school satisfaction and their adolescents’ autonomous motivation are fully mediated by parents’ academic socialization practices and adolescents’ motivation to achieve for their family. In Step 2, we coded interviews and identified themes to help explain how mothers’ memories of their school satisfaction inform their parenting goals and practices, and how adolescents have internalized their parents’ messages and are autonomously motivated to achieve.

US Principals' Attitudes about and Experiences with Single-Sex Schooling.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting the use of single-sex education, the number of US public schools offering single-sex education has increased. However, our understanding as to why decision-makers have implemented single-sex education is lacking. To address this gap, we surveyed US public school principals and assessed their attitudes about and experiences with single-sex schooling. Sixty-seven principals from single-sex schools and 193 principals from co-educational schools participated. The results indicated that principals who had experience with single-sex schooling tended to have more positive attitudes about single-sex schooling, viewed it as more effective, and more often evoked gender-essentialist rationales for the use of single-sex schooling than did co-educational principals. However, both single-sex and co-educational principals noted issues with single-sex schooling. It was concluded that single-sex schooling is not a silver bullet to educational reform and that when single-sex schooling is implemented, one set of issues and problems is substituted for another.

African American and Mexican American Youths’ College Adjustment and Perceptions of Parental Academic Socialization: Interactions Between Ethnicity and Parental Education

In a sample of 283 African American and Mexican American college students, we investigated the effects of ethnicity and parental education on three dimensions of parental academic socialization (PAS), active involvement, autonomy support, and demanding hard work, and their impact on college adjustment. Controlling for parental education, African Americans reported higher parental active involvement. Academic self-efficacy mediated the effects of both demanding hard work and autonomy support on college adjustment, controlling for parental education. Moderated mediation models suggested that effects of both demanding hard work and autonomy support on academic self-efficacy were stronger for African Americans than for Mexican Americans.

Classroom sex composition and first-grade school outcomes: The role of classroom behavior

Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (N=21,409; 10,452 girls and 10,957 boys; mean age=7.24years), the association between first-grade classroom sex composition (CSC), measured as the percentage of female students, and end of the year academic (reading, mathematics) and socio-emotional (externalizing problems, internalizing problems, self-control, interpersonal skills) outcomes was examined. Using multilevel modeling techniques and controlling for prior achievement levels, CSC was positively associated with childrens reading achievement at the end of first grade; students performed better in reading in classes with a higher percentage of female students. CSC was also associated with three of the socio-emotional outcomes; controlling for prior levels, students in classrooms with a higher percentage of girls had better self-control and interpersonal skills and fewer internalizing problems. Classroom behavior mediated the effects of CSC on reading achievement and the socio-emotional outcomes. Implications for the composition of first-grade classrooms are discussed.