Addressing gender equity pipeline issues with a workshop for high school mathematics and science teachers

A gender gap in science, a foundational subject area for engineering, begins to emerge in middle and early high school. This gap can negatively impact females' education and career decisions about science and engineering due to environmental and affective factors in the classroom. In order to identify, strategize, and address these gender equity issues, a workshop was held for high school math and science teachers in an NSF Math Science Partnership project. Interactive, team-based discussions and reports were made after short presentations on gender issues of environmental factors of stereotypes and "chilly learning climates" and affective factors of self-efficacy and societal relevance of engineering. Teachers' recorded their reflections based on the factors of awareness, personal experience, literature findings, underlying causes, and possible ameliorative strategies and actions. The qualitative data was analyzed using Bandura's social learning theory of self efficacy to interpret the significance of the observations. Based on the workshop information and discussions, and their own experience, the teachers developed strategies and actions that they could apply in their own classrooms. There was a strong response to the importance of female role models and for tinkering activities for females as young as possible both inside and outside of the classroom.