WHITE WOMAN WHITE MAN WHITE MAN AND WHITE WOMAN CHI- SQUARE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE (Y / N) CRITICAL VALUE = 5.9 FAVOURED 131. In films, I expect the role of a scientist to be played by a…
Girls 7 9 15 9 26 34 81 71 3.2 N
Boys 7 9 6 7 30 23 42 48 1.4 N
With the exception of Statement 122, the analysis of the statistics for statements in which the racial profile of the career was indicated do not reveal any significant differences between perceptions of boys and girls as they progress from the primary to the secondary school. In Statement 122 there is a statistically significant difference in the data for Grades 9 and 7 girls. The girls from both grades disagree strongly that they “expect the nurse to be a Coloured/Black African
STATEMENT NUMBER GENDER GRADE AGREE DISAGREE CHI-
SQUARE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE (Y / N) CRITICAL VALUE = 7.8 FAVOURED
119. When I visit the hospital I expect the doctor to be a White man rather than a Black African man.
GIRLS Grade 7 51 27 1.1 N
Grade 9 44 32
BOYS Grade 7 21 59 3.1 N
Grade 9 14 63
120. When I visit the hospital I expect the doctor to be a White man rather than a Coloured man.
GIRLS Grade 7 11 107 4.1 N
Grade 9 11 109
BOYS Grade 7 15 65 3.0 N
Grade 9 12 65
122. When I visit the hospital I expect the nurse to be a Coloured/Black African woman rather than a Coloured/Black African man. GIRLS Grade 7 33 85 8.5 Y: 5% Grade 9 19 101 BOYS Grade 7 26 54 2.5 N Grade 9 18 59 123. When my mother and father were young, I think that medical doctors were mostly White men rather than Coloured/Black African men. GIRLS Grade 7 86 30 0.5 N Grade 9 90 29 BOYS Grade 7 65 13 5.4 N Grade 9 56 21 124. When my mother and father were young, I think that medical doctors were mostly White men rather than White women.
GIRLS Grade 7 59 56 1.3 N Grade 9 68 50 BOYS Grade 7 51 27 1.1 N Grade 9 44 32
woman rather than a Coloured/Black African man”. However, the Grade 9 girls disagree more vehemently than the Grade 7 girls. It appears that the learners’ perceptions did not change as they progressed from Grade 7 to Grade 9 as they developed in the adolescent phase and progressed from primary to secondary school.
The response to the research statement relating to the role of race in influencing GET learners’ perceptions of science and science education indicates that, whilst the effects of Apartheid on perceptions appear to have waned, there are still residual perceptions that exist. The legal termination of Apartheid and its resultant fading away in the social reality and experience of GET learners’ lives diminishes it as a point of reference in their perceptions of science and science education. All that remains is their connection to it via the lives and narratives of their parents and the residual effects that should disappear with time.
When race is removed from the science career profile and we are left with just the gender of the person, learner responses would indicate the degree of stereotyping. Statement 121 required learners to respond in terms of what they expect the gender of a doctor to be when visiting a hospital. A chi-squared test for two independent groups of boys and girls reflected in Figure 5.18 below, revealed that the null hypothesis that there would be no statistical difference between girls’ and boys’ expectations, could be rejected at the 1% level. That meant that one could assert, with a 99% level of confidence, that there is a significant difference between girls’ and boys’ expectations of the gender of a doctor when they visit the hospital.
FIGURE 5.18
Statement 121: When I visit the hospital, I expect the doctor to be a man rather than a woman.
RESPONSES GIRLS %’s BOYS %’s
Disagree
Grade 7 86.7 68.8
% Difference between girls and boys 17.9
Disagree
Grade 9 85.9 77.5
% Difference between girls and boys 8.4
The girls disagree statistically more vehemently than the boys that the doctor would be a man. Whilst, in the in-depth interviews, boys and girls proffered stereotypical reasons as to why there appear to be more male than female doctors, the responses to Statement 121 reveal that there could be other reasons, especially related to girls’ reproductive physiology, why girls don’t expect to see male medical doctors more than female doctors when they visit the hospital. The statistics also indicate that the difference in disagreement between girls and boys wanes from Grades 7 to 9, indicating that the stereotypical perception appears to be stronger in the Grade 7 boys and that, as boys develop in the adolescent phase, they appear to be moving away from the stereotypical
expectation of medical doctors’ being mostly males and moving closer to the girls’ perceptions, similarly resisting the stereotypical gender role.
5.2.5.3 Learners and science careers: reported parental aspirations
Before the girl child goes to school, her primary socialisation in socio-cultural interaction in the family has primed her and made her receptive to the messages confirming the male image of science to which she is further exposed in school. Parents, through their relationship with their children, transfer to them their perceptions of who should do what kind of science.
The larger societal institutions, like the family and formal education institutions, reflect society’s values and influence parents’ aspirations for their children’s careers. Parents articulate the views of society as a reference for their children in the norms and values that they associate with particular careers and are likely to promote these norms and values in their socialisation practices. Their preferences of the careers they would like their children to pursue reflect these norms and values. The powerful and influential role that parents have on their children’s career aspirations is pertinently described by Miller, Blessing and Swartz (2006, p.377) in their comment that:
“People in power who have control over girls’ lives, such as science leaders, educators, law- makers, and parents, have perceptions of gender roles and of the nature of science practices that lead to social structures and socialization practices that greatly influence girls’ experiences and thus their perceptions, interests, and career plans regarding science.”
Parents’ reported influence on their children’s career choice made up the focus of Questions 68 and 69. Specified career choices, although randomly selected so as not to lead respondents on, could be categorised as science-related and non-science-related in the following manner, as shown in Figure 5.19:
FIGURE 5.19: Science-related and non-science-related careers
SCIENCE-RELATED CAREERS NON-SCIENCE-RELATED CAREERS