Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda

Gender has long been considered a factor contributing to differences in performance for male and female students in diverse educational disciplines and levels. Although male and female students are taught in the same classrooms in most Ugandan schools, there have been noticeable differences in Mat...

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Main Authors: Amos, Musimenta, Francis Akena, Adyanga, Denis, Sekiwu
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: African Educational Research Journal 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/453
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author Amos, Musimenta
Francis Akena, Adyanga
Denis, Sekiwu
author_facet Amos, Musimenta
Francis Akena, Adyanga
Denis, Sekiwu
author_sort Amos, Musimenta
collection KAB-DR
description Gender has long been considered a factor contributing to differences in performance for male and female students in diverse educational disciplines and levels. Although male and female students are taught in the same classrooms in most Ugandan schools, there have been noticeable differences in Mathematics performance in national examinations across the country. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare male and female students’ performance in Mathematics and to establish factors accounting for the differences. Using the Mixed method design, a sample size of 222 participants was recruited. The major findings revealed that variation in Mathematics performance cannot be attributable to gender. The study deconstructs the common gender-biased assumption that girls are naturally a ‘weaker sex’ and hence likely to embrace subjects that are considered ‘soft’ such as language, literacy, communication skills, social sciences among others. Such assumptions commonly fronted inadvertently without considering possible negative consequences, are based on societal construction of social differences with no substantive evidence as demonstrated in this study.
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institution KAB-DR
language en_US
publishDate 2020
publisher African Educational Research Journal
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spelling oai:idr.kab.ac.ug:20.500.12493-4532024-01-17T04:49:36Z Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda Amos, Musimenta Francis Akena, Adyanga Denis, Sekiwu Gender, mathematics, performance disparity, male, female. Gender has long been considered a factor contributing to differences in performance for male and female students in diverse educational disciplines and levels. Although male and female students are taught in the same classrooms in most Ugandan schools, there have been noticeable differences in Mathematics performance in national examinations across the country. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare male and female students’ performance in Mathematics and to establish factors accounting for the differences. Using the Mixed method design, a sample size of 222 participants was recruited. The major findings revealed that variation in Mathematics performance cannot be attributable to gender. The study deconstructs the common gender-biased assumption that girls are naturally a ‘weaker sex’ and hence likely to embrace subjects that are considered ‘soft’ such as language, literacy, communication skills, social sciences among others. Such assumptions commonly fronted inadvertently without considering possible negative consequences, are based on societal construction of social differences with no substantive evidence as demonstrated in this study. Kabale University 2020-11-17T07:27:17Z 2020-11-17T07:27:17Z 2020 Article 2354-2160 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/453 en_US ;664-673 application/pdf African Educational Research Journal
spellingShingle Gender, mathematics, performance disparity, male, female.
Amos, Musimenta
Francis Akena, Adyanga
Denis, Sekiwu
Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda
title Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda
title_full Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda
title_fullStr Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda
title_short Gender and performance disparity in mathematics: A study of South Western Uganda
title_sort gender and performance disparity in mathematics a study of south western uganda
topic Gender, mathematics, performance disparity, male, female.
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/453
work_keys_str_mv AT amosmusimenta genderandperformancedisparityinmathematicsastudyofsouthwesternuganda
AT francisakenaadyanga genderandperformancedisparityinmathematicsastudyofsouthwesternuganda
AT denissekiwu genderandperformancedisparityinmathematicsastudyofsouthwesternuganda