Gender attitudes and perceptions towards mathematics performance and enrolment in Rwandan secondary schools

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the different gender attitudes and perceptions towards mathematics education. It used questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations to collect data from a sample of 150 participants including 60 females, 84 males’ students, as well as 6 male mathematics teachers, who were purposefully selected. The main findings from this study show, in general that, boys and girls demonstrate shared perceptions towards the importance of mathematics subjects. However, boys manifested more negative perceptions towards girls’ ability to perform well in mathematics. Besides, some few females also manifested negative perceptions, which can explain their low confidence in mathematics. A particular trend which was highlighted in this study indicates the role of the teacher in shaping gender differences that are observed in mathematics learning. Hence a more longitudinal study, particularly focusing on teachers’ classroom gender related practices, attitudes, beliefs with their impact on students’ performance can provide more generalisable findings.

Keywords: Gender, attitudes, perceptions, mathematics performance