The Chief Scientist’s Office suggests the following strategies for achieving equity in STEM . Focussing on mathematics, these steps can be applied in your school.
Key steps towards gender equality in STEM
- Eliminate stereotypes and bias
- Emphasise real-life STEM applications in teaching
- Reward hard work and build confidence - it's okay if you don't understand straight away
- Encourage organisations to create supportive and inclusive workplaces, and monitor progress towards equality
Knowing if equity in Mathematics has been achieved
Evidence of gender equity in mathematics learning outcomes in your school would include:
- near equal proportions of girls and boys studying each VCE mathematics subject
- at all grade levels, no gender difference in the mean mathematics scores/grades of girls and boys in classwork, NAPLAN numeracy, VCE results
- girls and boys exhibit equal interest and enjoyment in mathematics, believe that mathematics is useful in their lives, and recognise that good mathematical skills will enhance their lives and future job/career options.
Attaining these goals
A whole school approach is preferable. That is, the whole school community (leadership team, school council, all teachers, all professional support staff, parents, and students) needs to:
- know the current status of gender differences in mathematics learning in the school and across Australia
- appreciate the range of factors contributing to the inequities
- recognise the benefits of achieving gender equity
- be supportive of the need for school-wide strategies to address the known gender inequities in mathematics.
A roadmap for your school
Members of the entire school community should be included in the various stages of the roadmap to attaining gender equity in your school: mathematics teachers; teachers of other subjects; professional support staff; school leadership team members; school council members; parents; and students.
Evaluating your use of the roadmap
Consider the case of the media campaign, Maths multiplies your choices, conducted by the Department of Labour, Victoria, in the early 1990s.
Parents were targeted. The goal was to increase girls’ enrolments in Year 11 (non-compulsory) mathematics subjects in order to keep flexible their future job/career options. Some may remember the campaign slogan, “Don’t pigeon-hole your daughters”.
In the year following the media campaign, girls’ enrolments in Year 11 mathematics soared. The campaign was deemed successful and, regrettably, funding for the next year was withdrawn. It was not long before girls’ enrolments fell back to what they had been prior to the campaign.
In an earlier section of this monograph, the evidence for the attainment of gender equity in mathematics in your school was listed. As the roadmap is being implemented in the school, it is important to constantly monitor and evaluate progress. The findings should also be shared with the school community to avoid the possibility that the purposes of the program are forgotten over time.
Potential obstacles
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People holding entrenched, stereotyped beliefs, that are claimed to be “the natural order”.
- Other school-related issues being considered more pressing.
- Fear of change and/or the reluctance to embrace change.
- Lack of support from one or more school community groups.
- Financial implications of change.
Elements of a roadmap to attaining gender equity in mathematics in your school
In the supplementary materials of the monograph you will find a number of activities that can also be used. We provide lists of readings and YouTube videos that can be used to extend personal understandings of gender issues and mathematics.
Selected readings and videos can also be incorporated within the gender equity roadmap.
We provide instructions on how to prepare and administer the instruments accompanying the activities, how to analyse any data gathered, as well as suggested provocations for discussion of the findings.
The readings, YouTube videos, and activities can be used separately, or in combination, to:
- raise awareness of pertinent issues
- serve as professional learning activities
- adopt with students.