Impact of Teacher Gender and Role Models on Student Outcomes in India

NO : WP-2024-016

AUTHOR : Eshita Goswami

TITLE : Impact of Teacher Gender and Role Models on Student Outcomes in India

ABSTRACT :

This study estimates the impact of teacher gender and tests for role model effects on various student outcomes such as test scores, transferrable skills, attendance and attitudes. We perform the analysis for subjects, such as Maths and English, which are male-dominated and female-dominated respectively as per traditional beliefs. We find that there is a presence of female role models when females teach English. However, female Maths teachers negatively affect students’ outcomes. We attribute this to students’ traditional perceptions regarding females being worse Maths teachers than males. We also perform a sub-sample analysis for co-ed sections and find that the role model effects get diluted, attributing to the influence of opposite gender peers in these sections.

Keywords: Gender, Role Models, Test Scores, Attendance, Attitudes, Co-Educational Schools, Single-Sex Schools
JEL Code : J16, I21, I24

Weblink: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2024-016.pdf