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Poster #30 - Examining Gender Differences in Children’s Math Identity and Representations of Mathematicians Across Elementary Grades

Fri, March 24, 10:30 to 11:15am, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

Previous research, primarily with middle-school students, has found that students' drawings of mathematicians reflected a gender-related bias, which is important given that these representations can be related to consideration of future careers (Picker & Berry, 2000; Rock & Shaw, 2000). Research also supports using math identity as a tool for understanding continued participation in math (Boaler & Greeno, 2000), considering the underrepresentation of women in STEM (Hill et al., 2010). The current study aimed to examine gender differences in elementary students’ (3rd-5th) representation of mathematicians in terms of their drawings' a) gender and b) emotional valence. Furthermore, we examined gender and grade differences in children’s math identity.

This sample included 234 children (101 3rd graders, 103 4th graders, 30 5th graders; 130 girls, 104 boys; 39% White, 31% Latine, 15% Multiracial, 10% Black, and 5% Other race/ethnicity). Most children’s parents’ (78%) highest education was below an Associate’s Degree. Children were asked to draw a mathematician and describe their drawings. Then, children completed a 12-item math identity survey adapted from Cribbs et al. (2015).

The gender of children’s drawings was coded from the gendered pronouns in their descriptions or features in the drawing (e.g., hair length), if any were included. Across grades, girls had a higher proportion of drawings that were coded as either male or female (vs. a non-gendered figure) than boys (81% vs. 51%, p < .001), and girls also provided more gender-salient descriptions (51% vs. 34%, p = .01). Finally, girls were more likely to draw female mathematicians than were boys (89% vs. 30%, p < .001, see Table 1). This is in contrast to prior research in which the proportion of girls who drew a female mathematician was much lower in 8th grade compared to 4th or 6th (Grose et al., 2022).

Regarding emotional valence of drawings/descriptions, 57% included clearly positive emotions, 38% were neutral, 2% included clearly negative emotions, and 3% included mixed/non-codable emotions. More girls’ drawings included positive emotions compared to boys’ (69% vs. 46%, p < .001), with a greater difference in 4th grade than 3rd, p = .01.

Responses to the math identity items revealed a different picture of how gender and grade are associated with children’s attitudes. Overall, more gender differences were found for the recognition factor than competence (see Table 2). In particular, the reference person mattered. For “My math teacher sees me as a math person,” responses for all children were higher than other “math person” items, p < .001. However, for parents’ beliefs, boys’ responses were higher than girls’ (p = .03). For “I see myself as a math person,” girls' responses were lower than boys’ at older grades, though this was not statistically significant.

Taken together, girls’ drawings revealed higher proportions of female mathematicians and more positive emotions. However, girls’ beliefs about themselves (in comparison to teachers’ beliefs) and their perceptions of parents’ beliefs were not as positive. Findings highlight the need for teachers and parents to support all children’s positive math identity, to encourage internal beliefs that they are capable math learners.

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