Project Activities
The project examined the variation in intermingling of peers by gender (gender inclusion/integration) at the classroom (macro-culture) and student (micro-culture) levels. The project also examined how gender integration (GI) relates to 3rd to 5th grade students' school-related engagement and academic perceptions and achievement. The researchers also explored whether school engagement mediates the relationship between GI and academic outcomes.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This project included 3rd to 5th grade classrooms in elementary schools in urban areas in Arizona.
Sample
The sample included 975 3rd to 5th grade students and 60 teachers, with roughly equal numbers of boys and girls. The sample included a large percentage of Latino students (~51%; similar to general population in the Southwest U.S.), and teachers who are mainly female (93%) and non-Latino White (88%).
The project examined gender inclusion/integration in elementary classrooms as a malleable factor for improving student learning. Gender inclusion was defined as students: (1) working with and having access to classmates of both genders, (2) having quality (positive) interactions with classmates of both genders, and (3) holding positive perceptions (expectations of inclusion, efficacy) about classmates of both genders. Teachers are able to play an important role in facilitating a classroom climate that fosters gender inclusion. By examining gender inclusion and its association with academic outcomes, the findings from this project have implications for education policy and teacher training and professional development.
Research design and methods
The research team collected data across three cohorts of students using a multi-method, short-term longitudinal design. During each of the three school years, approximately 20 teachers and their students in grades 3 to 5 participated in the study. Data collection included baseline measures of gender inclusion and academic outcomes (school-related engagement and academic perceptions and achievement) obtained in the fall (Time 1), mediation data (school-related engagement) collected in the winter (Time 2), and gender inclusion and academic outcomes obtained in the spring (Time 3). Data collected across three cohorts of students over three consecutive years enabled researchers to explore the macro-cultural (i.e., classroom) and micro-cultural (i.e., student) influences of gender integration.
Control condition
Due to the nature of this study, there was no control condition.
Key measures
The research team used student and teacher questionnaires, classmate peer nominations, and classroom observations to obtain indicators of gender inclusion. Measures of academic outcomes include school-related engagement (e.g., school liking, classroom supportiveness) and academic perceptions and achievement (e.g., beliefs, performance ratings, grades).
Data analytic strategy
The research team used a series of single- and multi-level linear models (MLM) to assess how variation in gender inclusion related to changes in academic outcomes. The researchers tested school-related engagement as a mediator of the relation between gender inclusion and academic perceptions and achievement. Researchers also considered gender, ethnicity, and grade level as covariates and moderators.
Key outcomes
The main findings of this project are as follows:
- Current classrooms continue to have low levels of gender integration (GI), suggesting that the pattern identified 50 years ago still exists in modern classrooms. In almost all of the 26 classrooms investigated, students reported more same- than other-gender interactions and better quality in same-gender working groups than other-gender working groups (Martin et al., 2024; Fabes et al, 2019).
- Reports of GI were generally similar across age/grade levels, ethnicity/race, gender, and over time (Martin et al., 2022; Martin et al., 2024).
- Researchers found that students who reported less gender integration with other-gender peers reported lower levels of school belonging and liked school less than those who reported more gender integration in their classrooms (Martin et al., 2022).
- Analyses over an academic year showed that greater levels of GI reported in the Fall was associated with higher English Language Arts (ELA) scores in the Spring, but it was not associated with students’ math achievement scores. Further, GI was associated with girls reporting higher levels of math skills/competence, which led to better math achievement for girls. In contrast, GI was associated with boys reporting higher levels of ELA skills/competence, which led to better ELA achievement for boys in Spring semester (Xiao et al., 2023).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Publications:
ERIC citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Selected publications
Fabes, R. A., Quick, M., Catherine, E., & Musgrave, A. (2024). Exclusionary discipline in U. S. public schools: A comparative examination of use in pre-kindergarten and K-12 grades. Educational Studies, 50(3), 299-316.
Fabes, R. A., Martin, C.L., & Hanish, L.D. (2019). Gender integration and the promotion of inclusive classroom climates. Educational Psychologist, 54, 271-285.
Ioverno, S., DeLay, D., Hanish, L.D., & Martin, C.L. (2021). Who engages in gender bullying: The role of homophobic name-calling, gender pressure, and gender conformity. Educational Researcher, 50(4), 215-224. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20968067
Martin, C. L., Xiao, S. X., DeLay, D., Hanish, L.D., Fabes, R. A., Morris, S., & Oswalt, K. (2022). Gender integration and school-age children’s feelings of school belongingness: The importance of other-gender peers. Psychology in the Schools, 59, 1492-1510. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22687
Martin, C. L., Xiao, S.X., Fabes, R. A., Hanish, L.D., DeLay, D., & Oswalt, K. (2024). Are coeducational classes truly coeducational? Elementary School Journal, 124(3), 413-433. https://doi.org/10.1086/728674
Valiente, C., Swanson, J. DeLay, D., Fraser, A.M., & Parker, J.H. (2020). Emotion-related socialization in the classroom: Considering the roles of teachers, peers, and the classroom context. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 578-594.
Xiao, S.X., Martin, C.L., Spinrad, T.L., Eisenberg, N., DeLay, D., Hanish, L.D., Fabes, R.A., & Oswalt, K. (2022). Being helpful to other-gender peers: School-age children's gender-based intergroup prosocial behaviour. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 40, 520–538. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12426
Xiao , S.X., Martin, C.L., Fabes, R. A., Oswalt, K., Hanish, L.D., & DeLay, D. (online 2023). Reducing the Math and Language Arts Gender Gaps in Elementary School Students Through Gender Integration. Learning and Individual Differences, 108, 102380.
Available data:
Martin, Carol; Fabes, Richard; Hanish, Laura; DeLay, Dawn; Oswalt, Krista, 2024, "APPLE (Assessing Positive Peer Learning Environments) Partnership", https://doi.org/10.48349/ASU/GXB8E0, ASU Library Research Data Repository, V1
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