The Female Predominance of a Vocational and Scientific Education Programme for High School Students in Rio de Janeiro and Recife, Brazil

Y

15

Focus Groups; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Vocational High Schools; Science Education; Interviews; Disproportionate Representation; Program Attitudes; Student Volunteers; Student Interests; Interest Inventories

0010-8146

The aim of this research is to understand how students view their volunteer choices to take part in a specific scientific education programme while they attend high school. This programme is called (Provoc) located at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil. Historically, this programme has been characterised by a significant predominance of young females in both Rio de Janeiro (southeast Brazil) and Recife (northeast Brazil). This research is qualitative, having interviewed individually 27 students in Rio de Janeiro and Recife. A focus group interview with 12 students was also conducted in Rio de Janeiro. The results indicate several female attributes that make girls more prone to participate in this programme such as maturity, responsibility, organisation, patience to undergo the selection process, school dedication and concern with their professional future. The female predominance is also associated with the traditional areas of Fiocruz, which are mainly biology and those related to health sciences. The results indicate that volunteer choices towards science during adolescence are already gender biased and that students have some awareness of gender differences at school and in work environments. (Contains 3 notes.)

As Provided

13

2011

EJ932419