Understanding the gender gap in school (dis)engagement from three gender dimensions: the individual, the interactional and the institutional

ABSTRACT

In explaining why girls outperform boys in school, some studies focus on individual gender-identity. Others stress the interactional dimension of students exerting pressure to act in a more masculine/feminine way. Still other research examines the development of student cultures in specific school contexts. Considering the gender structure, this study aims to understand gender differences in educational engagement by looking at the three dimensions of gender – individual, interactional and institutional – simultaneously. Stepwise multilevel analyses of data of 5162 students in 57 Flemish secondary schools, show that girls are more engaged in class activities than boys. The gender gap gets significantly larger with higher levels of traditional gender-role-attitudes (considered here a reflection of the institutional dimension) – making boys less engaged. Second, boys display significantly more disruptive behaviour. This gender gap gets larger with higher levels of gender pressure (interactional dimension) and, above all, traditional gender-role-attitudes – both making boys misbehaving more.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender structure
• class engagement
• disruptive behaviour
• secondary education
• multilevel

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the project “Teaching in the bed of Procrustes”, financed by the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (Project Number: SBO 110020), which made this research possible.

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT, Belgium) [SBO 110020].

Notes on contributors

Mieke Van Houtte

Mieke Van Houtte is a full professor and head of the research team CuDOS (Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Belgium). Her research interests cover diverse topics within the sociology of education, particularly the effects of structural and compositional school features on several diverse outcomes for students and teachers, and sexual minorities. She is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.