Savinskaya O. B., Mkhitaryan T. A. STEM as girls’ professional choice: achievements, self-esteem, and hidden curriculum


DOI: 10.21064/WinRS.2018.3.4
This article explores the problem of gender inequality, manifested in the process of so-cialization of schoolchildren and young people. This problem leads to a decrease in the motivation of girls to choose technical sciences and STEM-professions as a career. The data was collected by means of an online survey and completing the questionnaire at school. The final sample involved 438 schoolchildren who are enrolled in 5, 8 and 11 grades in Moscow and Gubkin (Belgorod region). The data analysis demonstrates that, despite the fact that the objec-tive achievements of girls in math are high, they tend to underestimate their abilities and less often associate their higher education prospects with technical sciences. A binary logistic re-gression with the interaction effects was built to look for the determining factors of schoolgirls choice of STEM-field. The appeal to interaction effects allowed to make interpretation of re-sults more meaningful. The regression model reveals that parents, math teachers, gender be-liefs, class profiles, assessment of the math abilities and the organization of the school curricu-lum in certain combinations influence the choice of STEM-disciplines by school girls. It is noteworthy that the class profile and the organization of the school curriculum participated in all interaction effects. The notion of a “hidden curriculum” is developed; a scale is proposed for its measurement. The factor analysis reveals that the most significant factor is “the organi-zation of the academic life and the education programs”.
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