HERDSA 1996: Ingleton - who makes Honours Economics? Research and change in an economics department

Who makes Honours Economics? Research and change in an economics department

Christine Ingleton
Advisory Centre for University Education
University of Adelaide

Research into men's and women's perceptions of studying Honours Economics (a fourth undergraduate year) at the University of Adelaide has revealed several dimensions to the question of why so few women proceed to Honours. These dimensions include (a) students' motivation and perception of economics: their reasons for choosing to study economics; (b) the discourse of economics; (c) communication between staff and students regarding access to information about honours and about marking; (d) their emotions, especially those related to values and gender identities; their confidence with statistics and modelling; their attitudes to success and failure; and (e) the interpersonal environment of competition, crowding and isolation.
This paper summarises the results of a qualitative study undertaken in 1995 with three small groups of women and men, and describes the response to the research as the Department of Economics addresses some of the issues raised. The paper documents some of the changes taking place as a result of the process of a qualitative research method which strongly features students' voices and experiences.

An exploratory study in 1995 reported in Ingleton, C. 'Gender, emotion and student learning: Why do so few women do honours economics?' [1] investigated differences in male and female students' experiences and decision-making about honours in the discipline of Economics. Despite very high motivation and ability, very few women were proceeding to a fourth undergraduate year of study. The study showed that differences in decision-making are to some extent related to role expectations: connectedness with family relationships, and the non-traditional nature of economics for women, contrasted with the 'naturalness' of economics as a career for men. The men in this study tended to display confidence in their own knowledge, whereas the women were more likely to respond to failure by judging themselves as incompetent. Related to this, external validation and support were more important to the women than to the men.

Much of the recent discussion of the gender imbalance in universities and in the profession focuses on the role of economics curricula in excluding people and issues of race, gender and class from the language, texts and teaching of economics (Bartlett and Feiner, 1992; Feiner and Roberts, 1990; McIntosh, 1983) all of which contribute to the so-called 'chilly climate' of the classroom. This study, however, examined the experiences of young men and women in order to gain an understanding of the social and emotional factors which contribute to their decision-making and motivation as they make career choices and manage some of the day-to-day demands of the curriculum.

The following table illustrates the percentages of men and women enrolling in some of the core subjects of the undergraduate degree of Economics at the University of Adelaide, and the dramatic drop in the percentage of women enrolled between first year and the fourth or honours year:

Table 1: Percentage of men and women enrolled in economics subjects

Year Subject % females % males Total enrolment

1992 Economics 1A 43 57 420

Economics 1B 43 57 414

1993 Microecs 2 37 63 238

Macroecs 2 37 63 230

1994 Microecs 3 36 64 83

Macroecs 3 34 66 98

1995 Honours 18 82 17

Source: Student Information System, University of Adelaide.

Theoretical framework

In order to explore some of the factors operating to produce an imbalance such as that shown in Table 1, my methodology was one which uses experience as an empirical basis for research. The theoretical framework is social constructionism, a theory of socialisation which holds that subjectively significant events play an important part in the construction of self-identity. Experience and subjectivity are primary phenomena in understanding the interaction between social structures and behaviour. The qualitative study was designed to generate both oral and written texts that were specific to the experience of the participants. The specific experiences of particular students were portrayed and analysed within the theoretical framework to show how they reflect social relations on a much larger scale. Employing social constructionist and socio-linguistic approaches, texts were analysed for the production and reproduction of social relations of power to understand how social practices bring about inclusion and exclusion, power and powerlessness, thus influencing individuals' decision-making.

All second and third year students who had gained at least one credit in a core economics subject in the bachelor's degree were invited to participate in this study. This was an opportunistic sample: of the fifty invited, sixteen students - six women and ten men - participated in the study. Using Memory-work, a feminist methodology established by Haug et al. (1987), data was generated consisting of narratives of memories of events, written in the third person to capture as much detail as possible and to create some distance from the event. In remembering, actual events are reconstructed to give meaning rather than to be recalled with accuracy. However, reflection on past events can uncover the processes by which meaning is arrived at in a particular situation, and in addition, is a means of change for the participants. This research method seeks to enrich the participants' experience and awareness while they are contributing to the research. As a feminist methodology, it seeks at the same time to change power relationships to increase the participation and power of women in society.

The first question for discussion was: 'What led you to think about doing Honours Economics? Try to focus on particular incidents or memories that were important in your decision-making'. In all, forty short narratives were written and discussed. They focused on significant social processes and practices operating in the students' lives.

Decision-making

The young women actively chose to take their place in a non-traditional arena, very aware of breaking away from family models, or of having been schooled to enter non-traditional careers. They focused on the factors in their upbringing that enabled them to choose non-traditional options in a 'post-feminist era' that makes things possible which were out of reach only a generation ago. In choosing such a career, the women had already had to negotiate several 'border crossings' between contradictory discourses of what it is to be feminine and to compete in a non-traditional realm.

The men's discussions and narratives revealed very different motifs from the women's. There was a 'naturalness' about the men's progress into economics that sprang both from their family role models and from a strong sense of competitiveness. There was no sense of these young men breaking traditional restrictions, or being aware of what a step it is to be a young man taking up a career in economics. The discourse of economics, too, reflects the values of autonomy and competitiveness which the men tended to find comfortable and familiar. The men's motivation seemed to lie not only in their choice of career but also in their desire to compete, to win, and to show their knowledge. For them knowledge itself conferred power. There was a close conjunction between the attributes of masculinity, which are a source of pride, and the values espoused in the discourses of economics.

Despite very high motivation and ability, the women did not appear to have the confidence in their own knowledge that the men tended to display, and they responded to failure by judging themselves as incompetent. The women spoke of needing validation and support, while for the men confidence in their own knowledge was deemed sufficient. These differences do not form a clear-cut division between the genders, but appear to reflect socialised behaviours and understandings in which power is taken up differently according to gender-identity.

The discourse of economics

Women are generally socialised to maintain gender expectations such as caring and being responsible for others (Gilligan 1982); their pride lies in the exercise of these values. Yet, the discourse of economics does not value these expectations. Rather, competition and autonomy are concepts central to the discourse of economics, and to its pedagogy, and these, in turn, are reinforced by traditional university teaching. Several discourses in economics parallel the exclusion of women from economics: the discourse based on scarcity, market competition and individual choice as the ultimate determinants of economic events ; the rationalist discourse of the knower of true statements being held rigorously separate from individual and social values; and the discourse of the neutrality of theory and methodology (Feiner and Roberts, 1990). At present, Bartlett and Feiner (1992) contend, 'the discipline of economics is taught with an almost exclusive reliance on mathematical methods, male-centred example, and minimal interaction between instructors and students' (p 563). The texts we use - oral, visual and written - affirm men's place in economics.

Communication

The second topic for discussion and writing was 'What encourages and discourages you from Economics, and makes you feel included and excluded?' Of the twenty-three narratives on this topic, nineteen focused on incidents of success and failure, most of these with regard to marks, while a few related to understanding concepts and displaying knowledge. Marks are of overriding importance, but what they mean about students' performance is not at all clear. It is not uncommon for Year 12 students to score 20/20 both during and at the end of the year, but this frequently translates to 12/20 at university. What does this mean? When marks are scaled up because most of the class fails, what does this mean? 'Jeez, are we a bunch of shockers or what?' asked one of the students. And a common question, 'How good do marks have to be for honours?' Some of the students in this study had a very uneven pattern of performance in their first year, and did not consider themselves capable of honours. How will they know they can do it, even if they know what it is? Feedback on performance relates not only to marks, but to recognition of students' effort and abilities. It is related to the need to be valued. The request for recognition is explicit in the women's narratives and discussion, and implicit in the pleasure the men gain from staff comments on their performance. Those students who enter the course already hoping to do honours would like staff to be aware of their aspirations, and to encourage them with feedback in tutorials.

Emotions

That so many of the narratives focused on marks was significant. The comparison between males' and females' perceptions of their success and failure in economics revealed different patterns of responses. While it is well documented that women display less confidence than men, despite equal or better performance (Hirschfeld et al. 1995, Skaalvic and Rankin 1994), the reasons for this are not well understood. However, in the narratives women made strong judgments about themselves: 'dumb', 'incapable', 'incompetent', and 'stupid' were the expressions they used to describe their loss of confidence, alienation and devastation when they failed or got poor marks. Not only did the women judge their levels of knowledge and understanding to be less than the men did, they further denigrated themselves in the face of failure or poor performance. Assessment in economics is generally frequent, relying heavily on multiple choice and true/false answers, in which women perform less well than men (Hirschfeld et al. 1995).

These emotions and self-judgments contrast sharply with the men's. One immediately interpreted his exam failure as a 'clerical error for sure'. Others saw the causes of their failure as outside themselves. Only after checking that out did he feel discouraged. The different emotional impact of failure for these men and women appeared to be associated with gender expectations. Autonomy and competitiveness reinforced the men's drive to succeed; they did not devalue themselves, but believed that working harder to increase their knowledge would bring success. The women, on the other hand, felt shamed by their poor performance; their inadequacy affected their very self-concept in spite of their knowledge, their ability and their motivation.

The strongest message from the female students to the economics staff was the importance of being recognised for their desire to work hard and succeed. Recognition is essential for maintaining self-esteem. Horvath et al. suggest in their 1992 study that 'female students need more validation than males to persist in the study of economics' (p107). This may be because the competitive and individualistic classroom climate already validates males in many ways. Hirschfeld et al. assert that 'it appears that women systematically lose confidence over the course of their college years, while men maintain or strengthen their confidence' (pp 9,10). Women, who define themselves more in terms of relationships than achievements, (Gilligan 1982; Crawford et al., 1992) tend to seek that recognition from others; their sense of pride comes more from the context of relationship and recognition than from an internalised sense of power. In a society where women are less powerful than men, it is not surprising that they have a stronger need to seek validation from those with power. The women depended on the encouragement of their lecturers, peers and families to persevere. They made their choices with astoundingly high motivation, they cleared the barriers of tradition, only to be confronted by a lack of confidence in their ability and a strong and unmet need for external validation.

One of the most discouraging factors for the women studying economics was their response to the statistics subjects in first and second year. The most obvious point of attrition is seen in the drop in number of enrolments between the second and third year statistics subjects, as shown in Table 2, where the percentage of females in the course has almost halved.

Table 2: Percentage of female and male enrolments in statistics subjects in economics

Subject and level, 1995 % females % males Total enrolment

Business Data Analysis 1 40 60 460

Economic Data Analysis 2 41 59 222

Econometrics 3 22 78 29

University of Adelaide Statistics Report 1994.

Strong feelings were expressed by the women about statistics: anxiety, exclusion and lack of confidence, but for the men there was a comfortableness with statistics, despite the perceived irrelevance for some. The men who spoke more freely about their struggles with maths and statistics expressed clear confidence in overcoming these through hard work and motivation. They were far less anxious.

What can the Department do?

What is to be done to increase women's participation, when the cultural shaping of masculine and feminine values is so deep and complex and when any university department inevitably reflects the gender relations in the larger society and the profession in particular? Could the research process and its outcomes bring about change? I presented the findings at a research seminar held in the Department of Economics in December 1995, having already made available to the Head an edited version of the transcripts (with the students' permission). A meeting was subsequently held with the Head and a senior member of staff involved in the project to establish possible ways forward, and it was decided that change could most immediately be implemented in the following areas to the benefit of all students:

Information and feedback
Relationship and recognition
The discourse of economics

1. Information

Students need information to 'debunk the mystery' of honours. Only those entering the department with the hope of doing honours understood what it was, despite information in the handbook. Some changes have already been made. Letters are now being sent to students who perform well in first and second year, informing them of Honours options - a practice that had been discontinued in recent years. As part of the Equity Research funding for this study, a booklet was compiled using some of the transcript material and providing feedback from students who have completed an honours course. The booklet describes profiles of Honours graduates [2] in their current employment and is to be distributed with the letters. In order to personalise honours, photographs of Honours students will be displayed and the idea of providing pastoral care is 'being considered' by the Honours Coordinator.

2. Relationship

Large enrolments - over 500 in first year Economics in 1995 - crowded lecture theatres and tutorials create a lack of belonging, which interferes with learning (Salzberger-Wittenberg 1983). Students often mentioned that 'nobody cares', and there were graphic accounts of overcrowded lecture theatres and tutorials. Yet this is a department that does value teaching, particularly at the first year level. Some teaching spaces have already been physically changed so that students can interact in groups; this should help to reduce alienation.

Discussion at the seminar indicated several staff considered 'care' to mean 'being nice'. Rather, it means mean valuing students enough to acknowledge them, their crowded conditions, their effort, their success, their transition to university. The Head is 'investigating ways' of providing better feedback to students on their performance; it is not yet clear what this will mean in practice. Solutions may be developed when staff have read the edited transcripts. To break down the alienation, tutors can encourage students to work together in tutorials, or in projects. One student reported feeling apprehensive at having to work with others on a project - the first such activity happening in third year - because he had never had to work collaboratively for an assessable task before.

3. The discourse

Part of the valuing is tapping into students' own experience, using women's as well as men's experiences, relating the models to their understanding of the human condition, which good teachers do. A cohort of one hundred students is now being offered peer tutoring using senior students trained in cooperative learning and facilitation and study skills in order to provide greater interaction, as well as new approaches to learning. Rosser's (1989) advice to science teachers is relevant to economics teachers: to 'encourage development of theories and hypotheses that are relational, interdependent and multicausal rather than hierarchical, reductionistic and dualistic' (p 372) and to use cooperative rather than competitive models in teaching. Correspondingly, cooperative learning strategies can enable students to listen to and value different ways of thinking and problem-solving.

It is in the area of mathematics and statistics that the women expressed the greatest difficulty, yet the staff teaching the data analysis subjects are women committed to the students. One is now preparing a survey to gain an understanding of the students' frustrations and difficulties, as well as of their level of maths preparation.

Classrooms, however, reflect social values, and the dominant paradigms of the discipline, which have been shown to exclude women; it will take time for the discipline to embrace wider values. In the immediate future, however, the research study has provided impetus for change, not least because the voices of students, their experiences, thoughts and feelings, were privileged by the methodology so that the research process itself has been a vehicle for change.

References

American Economic Association's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (1995).

Bartlett R.C. and Feiner S.F. 1992. Balancing the Economics Curriculum: Content, method and pedagogy. American Economic Review. 82: 2: 559-564.

Crawford, J., Kippax, S., Onyx, J., Goult, U., and Benton, P. 1992. Emotion and Gender: Constructing Meaning from Memory. London: SAGE.

Feiner, S.F. and Roberts, B.B. 1990. Hidden by the invisible hand: Neoclassic economic theory and the textbook treatment of race and gender. Gender and Society, 4:2:159-181.

Ferber, M. A. 1990. Gender and the Study of Economics. In The Principles of Economics course: a Handbook for Instructors, ed. P. Saunders and B. Walstad. McGraw-Hill.

Gilligan, C. 1982. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Haug F. (ed) 1983. Female Sexualization. A Collective Work of Memory. (English trans by Erica Carter 1987). London: Verso.

Hirshfeld, M., Moore, R.L. and Brown, E. 1995. Exploring the Gender Gap on the GRE Subject Test in Economics. The Journal of Economic Education, 26:1: 3-15.

Horvath, J., Beaudin, B.Q.and Wright, S. P. 1992. The Journal of Economic Education, 23:2: 101-108.

Ingleton, C. 1995. Gender and Learning: Does emotion make a difference? Higher Education, 30: 3: 323-335.

McIntosh, P. 1983. Interactive Phases of Curricular Revision: a Feminist Perspective. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley.

Rosser, S.V. 1989. Teaching techniques to attract women to science: Applications of feminist theories and methodologies. Women's Studies International Forum, 12: 3: 363-377.

Salzberger-Wittenberg, I., Henry, G. and Osborne, E. 1983. The Emotional Experience of Learning and Teaching. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Sassen, G. 1980. Success Anxiety in Women. A Constructivist Interpretation of its Source and Significance. Harvard Educational Review, 50:1: 13-23.

Skaalvic, E.M. and Rankin R.J. 1994. Gender differences in self-concept and motivation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 64: 419-128.

Endnotes

Paper presented to the European Association for Learning and Instruction International Conference, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, August. 1995 and to the First National Symposium for Economics Teaching in Adelaide, September 1995.
Incidentally, during the preparation of the booklet, interviews with honours graduates in economics-related jobs revealed that most of the six women whose profiles were included had taken Economics because they liked maths. This suggests that a key area of information needed for those entering economics is an explanation of the heavy emphasis at this university on mathematical modelling. The adequacy of students' preparation for this must be questioned, as well as steps taken to bridge the gaps and to increase women's confidence in maths and statistics.

Author: Christine Ingleton, Advisory Centre for University Education, University of Adelaide, Australia

Please cite as: Ingleton, C. (1996). Who makes Honours Economics? Research and change in an economics department. Different Approaches: Theory and Practice in Higher Education. Proceedings HERDSA Conference 1996. Perth, Western Australia, 8-12 July. http://www.herdsa.org.au/confs/1996/ingleton.html

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Created 4 May 2002. Last revision: 24 May 2002.
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Year	Subject	% females	% males	Total enrolment
1992	Economics 1A	43	57	420
1992	Economics 1B	43	57	414
1993	Microecs 2	37	63	238
1993	Macroecs 2	37	63	230
1994	Microecs 3	36	64	83
1994	Macroecs 3	34	66	98
1995	Honours	18	82	17
Source: Student Information System, University of Adelaide.

Subject and level, 1995	% females	% males	Total enrolment
Business Data Analysis 1	40	60	460
Economic Data Analysis 2	41	59	222
Econometrics 3	22	78	29
University of Adelaide Statistics Report 1994.