Gender differences in class engagement and disruptive school behaviour: boys’ susceptibility to peers’ motivation culture

ABSTRACT

Starting from observed gender differences in educational effort and because research considers motivation to be a personal student feature, this study had two aims. First, it examined whether autonomous and controlled motivation are shared by students within a school and whether such a motivation culture is associated with the school's student composition. Second, the study examined whether students’, and specifically boys’, class engagement and disruptive behaviour are associated with the motivation culture in their school. The main findings of analyses of data from 5162 eighth-grade students (average age 14) in 57 Flemish secondary schools are that (1) schools are characterized by an autonomous and controlled motivated culture that is related to schools’ sex and migrant composition and schools’ socioeconomic composition, respectively, and (2) boys’ disruptive behaviour is related to the autonomous motivation culture, showing boys are more susceptible to their peers’ motivation culture. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• engagement
• gender gap
• motivation
• student culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie: [project ‘Teaching in the bed of Procrustes’ Grant Number SBO 110020].

Notes on contributors

Mieke Van Houtte

Mieke Van Houtte is Senior Full Professor and Head of the research team CuDOS (Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Belgium). Her research interests cover diverse topics within the sociology of education, particularly the effects of structural and compositional school features on several diverse outcomes for students and teachers. She is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.