Why is there a gender gap in Mathematics in schools in the UK? What are the effective responses to this gap?
Introduction – Literature Review Strategy
Gender gap in Mathematics (at what age level?) is a topic that interested many researchers and educationalists for a long time, each of them approaching it from different perspectives. Hence there are fairly a large number of discussions and publications available explaining its reasons and addressing this issue. While preparing this literature review, I have studied almost 100 research articles and publications. The national and international tests like Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provide large scale data considering the aspects of gender across states, regions and countries. These data have inspired many research studies as they provide information to rise above the biological and environmental issues in gender debates. In addition, there are several longitudinal studies available which have examined changes in students’ preferences, attitudes and approaches over time.
I have tried to include research articles and publications pertaining primarily to the mathematics education context in the UK. As there are a significant number of studies from the USA available in this area, these are included in the literature review to explore different issues and viewpoints. Certain studies from different countries across the world are also incorporated where it is interesting to look at the differences and similarities in the issues discussed. In these cases, the countries are specified in particular so that the cultural and societal influences could be borne in mind when considering their findings.
The following enquiry processes were adopted to identify and filter potential literature sources:
Searching different databases by using University of Buckingham e-library to identify the suitable research documents.
Using Mendely literature search to supplement the above literature.
Exploring the citations in a given article to identify other useful literature to trace back and delve deeper into key points identified.
Employing Google Scholar to view the number of times an article was cited and follow them through to pick the relevant ones.
Utilizing general searches on the world wide web to identify documents from relevant organisations and publishers related to mathematics education research.
The literature was analysed based on the following three questions:
Is there a gender gap in Mathematics?
If yes, what are the reasons for gender gap in Mathematics?
What are the suitable interventions that could be employed to address gender gap in Mathematics?