Origen de las desigualdades por sexo en el aula de Primaria. Un estudio de caso

Abstract

The attitudes of girls and boys are influenced from an early age by socializing agents such as the school. Stoet and Geary analyzed the 2015 PISA Report and found what they call the gender-equality paradox in STEM, which they consider to be the result of Eccles’ expectancy-value theory, in such a way that students choose their academic and professional itineraries based on their expectations of success in a society that considers that STEM require specific skills. This case study of a class of 18 boys and girls as they go through the first and second level of Primary Education in a public centre in the province of Alicante analyses the structure of the class’s friendship and teamwork networks and investigates the existence of sexist attitudes in the attribution of academic competences. The study shows a group-class segregated by sex in which students associate the necessary skills to excel in STEM with boys, leaving humanities for girls, with the consequent loss of their social prestige.