Does Students’ Gender Matter? Parents’ Educational Expectations, their Determinants and Consequences in Explaining Students’ Dropout in an Area in Cambodia

• In Event: Leveraging gender in education: New evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

Abstract

Background/Objectives/Purpose:
Cambodia has experienced remarkable educational expansion at all levels since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Despite this success, the provision of basic education to all school-age children remains a challenge. In particular, two major obstacles hamper the goal of providing basic education to all children: (i.) the low transition rates from primary to lower secondary schooling and (ii.) the high dropout rates in grades 7–9. Whereas geographical differences in transition to and dropout within lower secondary schools persist, gender differences in transition and dropout rates have noticeably diminished since the 1990s. Now, girls show slightly higher transition and lower dropout rates than boys. This trend raises questions about whether gender-related differences persist in the determinants of parents’ educational expectations of their children and their decision making, as found by qualitative research studies. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the differences in the determinants of parents’ educational expectations according to students’ gender and to examine if these expectations affect students’ dropout.

Theoretical Framework:
Similar to a large number of other empirical studies on educational expectations, this study draws on the Wisconsin model of status attainment (Sewell et al., 1969; 1970). The model assumes that parents’ social background and students’ ability affect students’ school performance and the expectations significant others have on them; that significant others’ expectations and students’ school performance affect these students’ own educational aspirations; and that finally, students’ educational aspirations affect their educational attainment (Sewell et al., 1970). In short, Wisconsin aims to explain the determinants of students’ aspirations and their effect on educational attainment. The Wisconsin study focused on the aspirations of 17-year-old high school students. In Cambodia, most students are aged 14 by the end of primary school. In the case of younger children, parents’ educational aspirations for their children should arguably be the focus of interest because these are more important in explaining the actual decision making at early stages. This modification indicates that (i.) families’ educational expectations of their children vary according to their social background, (ii.) children’s school performance directly affects their parents’ educational expectations, (iii.) significant others’ expectations have a direct effect on parents’ expectations of their children, and (iv.) parents’ educational expectations explain the effects of parents’ social background on dropout.

Analytical Methods:
Binary logistic regression analysis was used to examine in a first step the determinants (e.g., students’ age and sex, parents social background, students school performance and significant others expectations) of parents’ educational expectations and in a second step the consequences of parents’ educational expectations on students’ dropout. The missing values in the variables of interest were imputed with the use of multiple imputations (m=100) from Stata 12.0.

Data Sources:
The data source is the first wave of a four-year longitudinal household-level study in a Cambodian province. The target population was 290 families and the students’ teachers. The instruments used were structured surveys. The schools were purposively selected according to their (i) geographic location, (ii) poverty levels of surrounding neighborhoods, and (iii) low and high dropout rates. The initial data were collected in June 2011. The enrollment status of the students was verified by school registry data and interviews with the parents in December 2011 and 2012.

Results and Conclusion:
This study analyzes the determinants of parents’ educational expectations and their consequences on students’ dropout. Except for the school performance of students, our results confirm all theoretical expectations about the determinants of parents’ educational expectations and their consequences on students’ dropout. Interestingly, we found gender differences in the effects of school performance on parents’ educational expectations and on actual student dropout. In both cases, only boys’ school performance contributed to an explanation of parents’ expectations and students’ dropout.

Significance:
This study is significant in the field of international and comparative education because it provides further evidence on the adequacy of the theoretically predicted determinants of the Wisconsin model of status attainment for an explanation of parents’ expectations and students’ educational attainment in non-Western, developing settings. This study is significant for Cambodia because it analyzes for the first time the determinants of parents’ educational expectations and their consequences from a quantitative point of view. The information provided may encourage further research on this topic and help reduce educational inequalities in the transition to and dropout within lower secondary schools.

Authors

• Thomas Zimmermann, University of Kassel

• James Williams, George Washington University