The impact of gender-imbalanced classroom networks on adolescent educational pathways

There are gender imbalances in subject choices and it is important to understand these imbalances in the context of adolescent social networks. Utilizing a mixed-method study, we examined how gendered networks interact with subject choices in a Scottish context.

In our pre-registered experiment (N = 408 aged 14-18yo), we created fictional electives that were either typically feminine (e.g., dance) or typically masculine (e.g., coding). Participants were provided with the composition of the previous (fictional) cohort. These were systematically manipulated to give different gender proportioned class networks, such that half of them were typical (e.g., 75% for dance were female) and half were atypical (e.g., 75% for dance were male). Participants rated their interest in the elective, completed a gender stereotype attitude scale, and indicated their own real-world subject choices. Participants preferred electives when their gender represented the majority, versus minority (p = .002), indicating a preference for own-gender dominated classroom networks. Boys showed a greater endorsement of gender stereotypes (p < .001) and picked a higher proportion of own-gender typical real-world subjects than girls (p < .001).

In follow-up interviews, five male and five female 15-17yo students, were asked about factors that influenced their subject choices. Thematic analysis indicated that participants generally report friendship groups that are predominantly their own-gender ["So all the boys kind of go off on their own and all the girls go off on their own really when we’re in school” (P5)], that the choices of friends mattered in their subject choices, and that an absence of friends within a given elective would deter adolescents from picking a subject [“I know for some of my friends, if they had no one in their classes, they were like, ‘oh God, I wanna drop this. It's just horrible. I'm on my own” (P9)]

The impact of being in a class network dominated by another gender was discussed with themes including “chilly climates” [“There is definitely an element of [girls] sitting on the bench with no one passing the ball”(P9)], teasing from peers [I know in particular, one boy last year during Nat 5 he took Art and he definitely got a lot of a lot of flak off his mates” (P9)], and how this impacts retention [“Like in my art class last year it was all girls and I remember there was like, two or three boys at the start and they were all just like ‘regret!’, like as we went along they all just dropped it” (P7)]

Together, our results indicate that the gendered nature of adolescent peer networks can influence young people’s school subject choices, providing important evidence to shape future interventions. We hope to now employ Social Network Analysis to further explore gender stereotypes and educational choices.