Nine Contradictory Observations About Girls’ and Boys’ Upbringing and Education – The Strength-Based Approach as the Way to Eliminate the Gender Gap

Abstract

Several studies in the 1970s and 1980s have showed how girls' courage or willingness to bring out their talents and strengths at school is hindered by many factors. The self-esteem of girls who are known to be talented decreases especially during their adolescence. This phenomenon is connected to girls' ability to notice conflicting expectations in their environment. They realize that they are expected to possess certain traditional female characteristics such as passiveness, adjustment, sensitivity to others' expectations, and altruism. They are not expected to show competitiveness. At the same time, girls are expected to perform well at school. Girls learn to regulate their behaviors and study quietly, but this could also hinder their talents to come forward. Still, they pursue perfect scores that eventually do not bring them satisfaction. Earlier research has showed that teachers treat girls and boys differently, based on stereotypical assumptions about troublesome boys and compliant girls, and they also interpret reasons for girls' and boys' behaviors differently. The 21st century seems to both repeat and question many of the research results about gender differences. In this article, we analyze gender cap through nine viewpoints by presenting contradictory research results about girls' and boys' upbringing and education. It is crucial that each individual can develop their own strengths for the best of themselves and the society-regardless of their gender. As the conclusion we present the role of strength-based teaching as the means to promote gender equality at school. It is based on the ideology of positive psychological research and on the fundamental idea that strengths belong to everyone. The ability to recognize and use one's strengths has not only personal benefits in terms of increased life satisfaction but also societal benefits as strengths help facing adversities, overcome difficulties, and prevent malaise, and increase wellbeing in general. When people flourish, not only the people but also the society succeeds-and it all starts from school. The strength-based approach can direct teachers' attention away from good-girl-expectations to universal and genderless strengths, and help girls find success in life that is based on well-being and profound understanding of one's potential.

Spirituality-based environmental literacy among prospective biology teacher in Indonesia: Analysis based on gender, accreditation, and semester-level aspects

“…The number of female teachers and prospective teachers in Indonesia tends to be greater. This is due to social tradition factors which tend to view women as more appropriate as educators (Lefkowitz et al, 2014;Määttä & Uusiautti, 2020;Paul Halpern & Perry-Jenkins, 2016;Tašner et al, 2017;Yu, 2021), increasingly open access to higher education for women (Augustus, 2021;Brommesson et al, 2022;Ding, 2021;Moore, 1987;Parvazian et al, 2017), and historical factors that tend to see women being more painstaking in their teaching or teaching careers (Abdulahi, 2020;Ortan et al, 2021). Apart from that, this fact is supported by individual interests and skills, which women have.…”

The influence of the design of mental rotation trials on performance and possible differences between sexes: A theoretical review and experimental investigation

“…Next to possible spatial demands of the trial layout, both the number of comparisons necessary and the number of visible stimuli could be a measure of "perceived complexity." Sex differences could then emerge due to different strategies between men and women for dealing with challenges due to, for example, speculated differences in upbringing and education (Määttä & Uusiautti, 2020).…”

“…However, due to the difference in designs and the rather small number of participants in the case of the study of Hyun and Luck, more research is needed to establish definitive links between working memory components and test versions. Next to possible spatial demands of the trial layout, both the number of comparisons necessary and the number of visible stimuli could be a measure of “perceived complexity.” Sex differences could then emerge due to different strategies between men and women for dealing with challenges due to, for example, speculated differences in upbringing and education ( Määttä & Uusiautti, 2020 ).…”

Measuring family wealth among secondary school students with home possessions indicators: Investigation of dimensionality and measurement problems

“…Thus, students with less positive school-related affect could be less engaged in the process of responding to questions on home possessions, which could lead to more careless responding, more straightlining, and higher proneness to social desirability. Finally, we controlled for gender, since some studies show that girls and boys experience different roads of upbringing and education (see, for example, Määttä and Uusiautti, 2020) and, consequently, their propensity for giving controversial or seemingly inconsistent answers might be different.…”