Exploring a Possible Bias Related to Gender in Agents Involved in Spanish Doctoral Dissertations for Mathematics Education

Author(s):

Antonio Fernández-Cano(presenting / submitting)Mónica Vallejo-Ruiz Manuel Torralbo-Rodriguez

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

24. Mathematics Education Research

Format:

Poster

Session Information

24 SES 9.5 PE/PS, Poster Exhibition / Poster Session

Time:

2011-09-15

12:00-13:30

Room:

Seminarzentrum - Posters

Chair:

Contribution

The common opinion that assumes a supposed inferiority for women in mathematics is widely known. Although this common opinion has been upheld by science, with studies centred on characterising human nature and supporting the resolute conception of what men and women are and the place and functions that respond to each in society (see the now classic meta-analysis of Hyde, Fennema and Lamon, 1990).

We will try to demonstrate in a certain way the truthfulness of this cruel assumed pattern 'of attribution related to gender' that reaches its limit in the supposed glass ceiling that prevents women achieving eminency in the field of mathematics, and that is concentrated in perverse sentences such as 'mathematics is not women' or 'mathematics is a male thing': see weekly studies by Murray (2000), Herzig (2004) and since the year 2000 reports from the National Science Foundation (NSF, 2000-…). For information in Spanish context, see related information from the partial findings of Vallejo, Rojas and Fernández-Cano (2002) o Torrablo, Fernández-Cano, Rico, Maz and Gutiérrez (2003).

An appropriate and at the same time very pertinent mechanism to throw new light on these and other beliefs, is using the tools made accessible to us by science itself and one of its capital productions: the doctoral thesis, that in general education and mathematics education have been investigated in Spanish context by Fernández-Cano, Torrablo and Vallejo (2008); Vallejo, Fernández-Cano and Torrablo (2006); Vallejo, Fernández-Cano, Torrablo, Maz and Rico (2008).

It deals with carrying out an analysis of mathematical education and its relation to women using as a source of evidence a crucial investigative document, which is the doctoral thesis. In this way we try to show the status and presence of women in the field of higher mathematics education, making evident the existence of possible biases against women in the pyramid of eminence and using as a reference the doctoral theses defended in mathematics education in Spain.

Method

The sample used in the study consists of more than three hundred and eighty doctoral theses relative to mathematics education in more than fifty Spanish universities during the last thirty years and considering three attributable variables in each thesis; author’s gender, director’s gender and gender of the members of the thesis evaluation committee, made up of an ad hoc tribunal of five doctors and a moderating variable: time. The univariate distributions will be established and given in frequency tables (male authors v. female authors; male directors v. female directors and male evaluators v. female evaluators) and the resulting contingency tables, bivariate and multivariate, especially that relating to authorship and direction over time to investigate a plausible bias in the mentoring already revised by Zellera, Howard and Barcic (2008). Methodologically, it is an exploratory, quantitative and census descriptive study. From the categorical data, the binomial effect sizes but no inferential ones will be used as analysis techniques.

Expected Outcomes

Accepting unidirectional alternative hypotheses, we can hypothesize over the existence of plausible findings of a gender-relative bias against women in thesis authorship, thesis direction and the presence in evaluation tribunals of the aforementioned; in addition, we can conjecture an interaction bias of preference towards the same sex in the author-mentor relationship. The presence of women in evaluation tribunals could be symbolic, despite official rules and recommendations that emphasise that one must “assure a balanced composition of men and women, except where not possible for solid reasons and duly motivated objectives” (Spanish Government, Ministry of Education and Science, 2005).

References

Fernández-Cano, A., Torralbo, M., & Vallejo, M. (2008). Revision and prospective of Spanish production of doctoral theses in Pedagogy (1976-2006). Revista de Investigación Educativa, 26(1), 191-207. Spanish Government-Ministry of Education and Science (2005). Royal Decree 56/2005, of 21st January, by which official postgraduate university studies are regulated. Boletín Oficial del Estado (25th January 2005), 21, 2846-2851. Herzig, A. H. (2004), Becoming mathematicians: Women and students of colour choosing and leaving doctoral Mathematics. Review of Educational Research, 74(2), 171-214. Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E. & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in Mathematics performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 10(2), 139-155. Murray, M. (2000). Women becoming mathematicians. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. National Science Foundation (2000-…). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in Science and Engineering. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Torralbo, M., Fernández-Cano, A., Rico, L., Maz, A., & Gutiérrez, M. P. (2003). Spanish doctoral theses in Mathematics Education. Enseñanza de las Ciencias, 21(2), 295-305. Vallejo, M. Rojas, C. A., & Fernández-Cano, A. (2002). Bias related to gender in Spanish scientific editorial policies in the field of Education. Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa (RELIEVE), 8(2). (ISSN: 1134-4032). Available at: http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v8n2/RELIEVEv8n2_3.htm Vallejo, M., Fernández-Cano, A., & Torralbo, M. (2006). Citation patterns in Spanish research in Mathematics Education. Revista Española de Documentación Científica, 39(3), 382-397. Zellers, D. F., Howard, V. M., & Barcic, M. A. (2008). Faculty mentoring programs: Reenvisioning rather than reinventing the wheel. Review of Educational Research, 78(3), 552-588.

Author Information

Antonio Fernández-Cano (presenting / submitting)

University of Granada

Research Methods in Education

Granada

Mónica Vallejo-Ruiz

Universidad de Murcia

Manuel Torralbo-Rodriguez

University of Cordoba

Mathematics

CORDOBA

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