Do gender identities have an impact on A-level subject choices?
Do gender identities have an impact on A-level subject choices?
This research proposal debates whether gender identities have an impact on general subject choices, particularly focusing on A – Level in the UK. Gender identity is the personal sense of one’s own gender, whether that is man, woman, neither or both. Multiple quantitative and qualitative research done by others have indeed suggested subject choices do vary between genders.
Our research relates to other sociological debates surrounding the impact of gender on general subject choices but builds upon previous research by focussing on A-Level subjects in particular. The quantitative research ‘Gender makes a difference’ by John Bell indicates that “boys preferred to take more practical subjects such as maths, physics, computing”[1] compared to girls who preferred the humanities at A-Level. This research was taken through a “large-scale questionnaire survey”[2] answered by over 6,000 students from 60 schools. The research provides useful statistics that help build upon our research, directly relation to our question. Furthermore ‘The Gendered Subject’[3] is a study that explored the statements concerning gender and ability of school subjects, unlike the Cambridge assessment the findings of this study discovered that the majority of students claimed that sexes have the same ability at all subjects and those who argued otherwise concluded that girls have a greater ability of various subjects. The data was collected in a more qualitative process through semi-structured interviews and observations of classes. Although it provides conflicting results to the Cambridge assessment’s conclusions it is useful to our research as it shows the distinct differences between GCSE and A-Level choices. The literature review by The Improving Gender Balance and equalities programme[4] is a research-informed programme provides evidence of the sex differences in education as well as looking at the influence gender stereotypes has on subject choices. This distinction causes a self-fulfilling prophecy which may influence students subject choices if they feel like they are not suited to a particular subject.
The most effective methods to use when trying to understand if gender identities have an impact on A-level subject choices are surveys and interviews. Surveys cover a large-scale group in a limited amount of time, giving quantitative data on the general gender differences on the selection of certain subjects. Whilst interviews, allow for a smaller random sample of students to go into descriptive detail about why they selected their A-level options, giving rich qualitative data. This mixed-methods approach allows the research validity to be stronger because there’s data to show numerical differences in subject choices based on gender, and written data revealing what experiences and implications made students pick certain subjects. However, an issue that could arise from interviews is the students choice not to co-operate. The interviews will be one off, preventing students from forming relationships with the researcher, as the students could view the researchers an authoritative figure, preventing them from engaging in an open discussion. When considering this issue, location is a key factor, as Smith recognises ‘a change in setting by some of the students, shared a different research encounter’ (2005,p.235). Implying, when the students are in their own territory, for example in the playground, compared to a classroom, they may feel more comfortable opening up to the researcher.
Our research will be conducted by interviewing current A level students who are 18 or over; We will be interviewing students from two schools located in different areas, one private school and one public school to provide the most accurate and reliable results. Each school will be noticed prior the interview by email regarding if we are allowed to conduct an interview with their students. Indeed, we have given thoughts on only interviewing students from the same school or interviewing students from two public/private schools located in the same area/ different areas. But the results might be too narrow to fully support our argument and research. One downside regarding this interview is that we could only interview students who are 18 or over and most students are only 17 when they complete their A level studies and that only a small portion of students are 18 or over during their studies. It might be an issue because we might not have enough data to support our research. Moreover, some students might refuse to participate in our interview, and they might feel pressured and uncomfortable during the interview.
Beauchamp (1994) notes that there are four principles that should underlie a sociological research process. These are beneficence, that the research should have more benefits than risks to society; non-maleficence, that there is an avoidance of harm; autonomy, that they are complete freedom during the research and justice. However, exploring whether gender identities have an impact on subject choices can raise various ethical issues. One of which is obtaining informed consent. Our study needs to involve a level student, preferably current students, in order to keep our data valid. However, the issue of the standard process of access may make it difficult for us to obtain these results because of the main ethical issue of consent. Consent can be harder to obtain in private locations such as schools because of the gatekeepers such as headteachers. It makes it more difficult because our research group are under the age of 18 so they are seen as more vulnerable and therefore need more caution in order to prevent them from being subjected to harm. Another ethical issue found in our research study are the datasets and how they are represented. Data structures are typically limited to ‘male and ‘female’. Consequently this leaves out part of the population who identify as non-binary which would make our data less representative. This can result in inaccurate data being recorded which questions the reliability of the research. It can also make students involved feel uncomfortable or excluded and alienated from the society and the study which could cause harm to that student, so to prevent this from happening an alternative should be put in place when collecting data on these gender identities and its relation to a level subject choices.
In conclusion, this research proposal demonstrated whether gender identities have an impact on A Level subject choices by reviewing research proposals done by others, showing how we would conduct our own research to backup and support our proposal and finally, pointed out ethical and methodological issues regarding our own research.
[1] J. Bell, ‘Gender Makes a Difference’, pg 1, Cambridge Assessment
[2] J. Bell, ‘Gender Makes a Difference’, pg 2, Cambridge Assessment
[3] B. Francis, 2000, ‘The Gendered Subject: Students’ Subject Preferences and Discussions of Gender and Subject Ability’, Oxford Review of Education
[4] Education Scotland, 2019, ‘Improving Gender Balance’, Literature review
