Gender Inequality within STEM Education: A Sociocultural Analysis of Thai Ninth-Grade Students’ Design-Based Discourse

STEM education has an inherently masculine nature, and a patriarchal ideology exists in many Asian contexts. Given those circumstances, this critical ethnography explored how three mixed-gender groups of Thai ninth-grade students engaged in design-based learning in an elective course. Each group included two girls and one boy working to design a bimetal thermostat. We recorded the groups’ discussions as a primary method of data collection with supplementary data gathered from classroom observations. Then, we employed content analysis to identify themes that emerged from these data. The results revealed three patterns: (1) masculine dominance, (2) lack of female agency, and (3) feminine ways of engagement. These themes, though varied across the groups, reflect the patriarchal ideology, as the boys played the leadership roles and the girls assumed the followership roles. However, there was no overt frustration or conflict within the groups, as the girls did not exhibit agency to change the situation. The girls’ cognitive contributions depended on the opportunities the boys provided. We discussed these patterns using a sociocultural perspective. To reduce the gender inequality within STEM education, we suggest that it is crucial to be critically aware of sociocultural ideologies surrounding the enactment of design-based learning.