EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL ROLES IN DAILY LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENT GAP BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS IN MATHS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES FROM ITALIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL

The study of achievement gap in STEM as function of ‘gender’ has received an increasing attention over the years. Nevertheless, there are many relevant questions in relation to which not completely satisfactory answers have been given. For this reason, the study of gender based gap is also a timely topic that is clearly relevant taking into account the EU policy agenda. The topic is complex and clearly multi-fold. In the present study, we focused our attention on gender gap in Math, taking into account test scores achieved by 476 pupils attending the 5th grade level of primary school. Our research consisted of two phases. In the first one, we explored the relationship between pupils’ self-concept and their self-perceived proclivity toward Math (measured by using an adaptation of OECD-PISA scales) and gender stereotypes conceived as pupils’ mental representation of concerns and duties distribution between men and women in daily routines (revealed by a set of items developed for the purposes of the present research). In the second phase, a differential item functioning analysis within the IRT framework based on both a factorial ANOVA and a graphical inspection of items characteristic curves (ICC)confirmed a significant interaction effect between these factors and pupils’ test scores.