Dissertation
A teacher like me: the role of teacher gender representation and gender stereotypes in education
Does student and teacher gender affect students’ performance and what is the role of gender stereotypes in this relation?
- Author
- L. Doornkamp
- Date
- 07 June 2023
- Links
- Full text in Scholarly Publications Leiden University
Previous research showed that students can perform better with teachers of the same gender. It is often suggested that effects of student-teacher gender congruence on students’ performance can be explained through the role of gender stereotypes. However, empirical tests of these mechanisms are rare and solely situated in the ‘females in math’ context. As a result, still little is known about where, when and how effects of student-teacher gender congruence occur. In response, the main aim of this dissertation was to receive a better understanding of the role of students’ and teachers’ gender and gender stereotypes in student performance in secondary education in The Netherlands. This dissertation shows that student and teacher gender are related to student performance and that gender stereotypes are an important part of the puzzle that explains the role of gender in secondary education. However, context matters: student and teacher gender do not always relate to student performance and when they do the magnitude and direction of the associations can vary in different contexts.