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This study compares educational, career, and family outcomes by gender composition of college and race/ethnicity of women who graduated in 1993 from three selective U.S. colleges (two single-sex; one coed). It also compares these graduates’ assessments of their college experience. The 60 White women and 60 Women of Color were interviewed as traditional-age seniors and surveyed annually for 16 years. In 2009, 76.7% responded. All groups were happy with their alma maters, although they assessed the advantages and disadvantages somewhat differently. Single-sex graduates more frequently indicated that their college had provided a supportive environment and complained that it provided a limited social life. Coed graduates more frequently indicated that their college provided cultural broadening and positive social relationships. Coed White graduates were in touch with more college friends than single-sex White graduates; there was no significant difference by type of college for Women of Color graduates. Results indicate no significant differences in advanced degrees or career status or STEM field involvement by gender composition of college or race/ethnicity. Nor were any differences in marriage or motherhood variables found. The similarity in outcomes supports the primacy of status of college and is interpreted as positive indication that U.S. colleges have become more hospitable to women.

Despite the voluminous literature on the potentials of single-sex schools, there is no consensus on the effects of single-sex schools because of student selection of school types. We exploit a unique feature of schooling in Seoul—the random assignment of students into single-sex versus coeducational high schools—to assess causal effects of single-sex schools on college entrance exam scores and college attendance. Our validation of the random assignment shows comparable socioeconomic backgrounds and prior academic achievement of students attending single-sex schools and coeducational schools, which increases the credibility of our causal estimates of single-sex school effects. The three-level hierarchical model shows that attending all-boys schools or all-girls schools, rather than coeducational schools, is significantly associated with higher average scores on Korean and English test scores. Applying the school district fixed-effects models, we find that single-sex schools produce a higher percentage of graduates who attended four-year colleges and a lower percentage of graduates who attended two-year junior colleges than do coeducational schools. The positive effects of single-sex schools remain substantial, even after we take into account various school-level variables, such as teacher quality, the student-teacher ratio, the proportion of students receiving lunch support, and whether the schools are public or private.

Women’s universities are common in South Asian countries, such as Pakistan, where females are at a disadvantage. These universities are agencies of freedom for female academics, as they provide a favorable environment that enhances the performance of and opens doors for egalitarianism and prosperity for women. Nevertheless, research productivity among female academics remains an ongoing issue due to many factors, including multiple family and work responsibilities. An exploratory case study was conducted at one of the women’s universities in Pakistan to more closely explore this experience. In the current study, preference theory was used as a theoretical framework to explore female faculty’s research productivity while simultaneously meeting their family/work responsibilities. The study provides robust and promising observations, which have implications for academia, policy-makers, and scholars.

This study uses case study analysis to explore the ways that Spelman College, a historically Black women's college, promotes the attainment of African American women in STEM fields. Although limited to one institution, the findings shed light on the ways that institutional characteristics, policies, and practices may mitigate the barriers that limit attainment of African American women in STEM fields. Drawing on the findings, the paper concludes with recommendations for improving policy and practice as well as recommendations for additional fruitful research.

Research on the discursive features of graffiti in institutional settings is in its infancy and few studies have investigated the phenomenon and its implications in educational contexts. In this paper, we report on a study in which we employed systemic functional linguistics (Halliday in Learning how to mean, Edward Arnold, 1975). to probe communicative functions and gender differences in Iranian university student graffiti that appeared in all-male and all-female locations. The data comprised authentic instances of graffiti generated by students, analysis of which suggests that male and female university students each have their own distinctive motives for using graffiti, as realised in significant differences observed in the context-specific functions they perform. Graffiti pieces represented a distinctive and meaningful way of communicating, and its most salient features were creativity, simplicity and variation. Indications are that university students’ graffiti reflects psychological and social challenges, and the thoughts, attitudes and feelings expressed through it serve students’ personal and interactional purposes.

To overcome a shortage of female faculty members for teaching female students in a gender-segregated educational system, Saudi Arabian universities have assigned male faculty members to teach female students through videoconferencing. However, female students often do not prefer videoconferencing, and it does not reach an optimal level of satisfaction. Although students’ ability to see an instructor’s face might diminish this negativity, Saudi cultural norms do not encourage men to show women their faces. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the impact on female students’ perceived social presence, satisfaction, and comprehension of showing male faculty members’ faces during videoconferencing. The study used the quantitative method of a between-group quasi-experimental posttest-only design. Lasting 6 weeks and including 27 female graduate students, the study administered six tests to examine participants’ comprehension and an online questionnaire to measure their perceived social presence and satisfaction. No differences between control and experimental groups were found for perceived social presence, satisfaction, or comprehension. Thus, researchers and practitioners should pay attention to opposite-gender instructor, segregated campuses, synchronized courses, gathering of students in same physical context, and conservative culture to provide effective distance education for gender-segregated institutions, as well as students with gender-segregated backgrounds when engaging in non-segregated distance education in the globalized world.

Although pair work is advocated by major theories of second language (L2) learning and research findings suggest that pair work facilitates L2 learning, what is unclear is how to best pair students in L2 classes of mixed L2 proficiency. This study investigated the nature of pair work in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class in a college in Saudi Arabia. The L2 proficiency of the learners in such classes is often quite heterogeneous. Thirty learners allocated into similar (high-high and low-low) and mixed-L2 proficiency pairs (five pairs in each proficiency pairing) completed a short composition. The audio recorded and transcribed pair talk was analysed for the learners' overt focus on language use and amount of L2 used. In their analysis the authors took into consideration the effect of proficiency pairing as well as the dyadic relationship the learners formed. Their findings suggest that decisions regarding how to best pair students in heterogeneous classes depend on the aim of the activity, and that the dyadic relationship may be of greater significance than proficiency pairing. (Verlag, adapt.).

PurposeGeneral causality orientation is a mini-theory within the self-determination theory (STD). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of general causality orientations (autonomous, controlled, and impersonal) on perceived stress and self-esteem among students in a women-only college.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a questionnaire administered to students (n = 132) of a small women-only university in Roanoke, Virginia, USA. The survey included questions on the three general causality orientations, perceived stress, and self-esteem; the survey also included questions on student satisfaction, financial resources, and academic performance, used as control variables in the study.FindingsAutonomous orientation was not significantly related to self-esteem or perceived stress. Controlled orientation negatively influences self-depreciation. Finally, impersonal orientation positively influenced self-depreciation and negatively affected self-confidence.Practical implicationsFaculty and administrators in women-only universities should be encouraged to implement programs that strengthen the sense of optimism among female students. Student support services that emphasize enhancing autonomous orientation could be even more helpful by offering interventions that help students overcome their impersonal orientation.Originality/valueWhile previous studies have concentrated on autonomous orientation, this study provides recommendations for overcoming impersonal orientation among female undergraduate students in women-only colleges to enhance self-esteem and reduce stress.

This article is based on a multi-site study of teachers in elite private schools in Australia. Teachers' accounts from this study bring nuance to the reasons one might short-handedly expect they have in working for these exclusive institutions. It is not that everyday motivations don't matter, for example, the financial compensations, the beautiful grounds and the status payoffs, but that teachers bring their own discourses, histories and intentions to bear on the contradictions of their work-lives. This is crucial evidence for understanding how privilege functions, how teachers are not simply co-opted or constrained. Instead, this article brings into view the agency of teachers who embrace privilege in spite of thorny questions around educational inequality that elite private schools cannot avoid.