Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools

<p>People who attended gender-segregated and mixed-gender schools in Kuwait perceive their relationships with peers of the opposite sex differently, according to a study by Lujain AlMatrouk, an educational diagnostician with the Center for Child Evaluation and Teaching in Kuwait.</p><...

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المؤلف الرئيسي: Nature Research (16552612) (author)
منشور في: 2016
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author Nature Research (16552612)
author_facet Nature Research (16552612)
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Nature Research (16552612)
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2016-11-30T00:00:00Z
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv 10.57945/manara.23965605.v1
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/Kuwait_s_on-going_debate_on_gender-segregation_in_schools/23965605
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv CC BY 4.0
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Education
Education systems
Specialist studies in education
Gender segregation
schools
factors
opposite sex
relationships
Kuwait
mixed-gender schools
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Text
Online resource
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
text
description <p>People who attended gender-segregated and mixed-gender schools in Kuwait perceive their relationships with peers of the opposite sex differently, according to a study by Lujain AlMatrouk, an educational diagnostician with the Center for Child Evaluation and Teaching in Kuwait.</p><p>Seventy-six people who lived and went to school in Kuwait responded to an online questionnaire that aimed to assess whether gender segregation in schools affected peer relations with the opposite sex and to explore what factors might influence this effect.</p><p>Gender segregation is imposed in Kuwaiti public schools, and public and private universities. Currently, only private schools are exempted. There’s an ongoing debate in the country about the pros and cons of gender segregation.</p><p>The topic has been an area of study for many researchers around the world. One researcher showed that gender segregation produces higher grades. Others, however, showed mixed-gender schools in Belgium, where the majority of schools are segregated, produced the best academic results. Also, some researchers argue that gender segregation allows children to focus on learning without worrying about bullying from the opposite sex while another found a high level of bullying among girls<sup>3</sup>.</p><p>“Studies on the effects of gender segregation in the Arab world are limited, yet very important, as a majority of the schools in the Arab region are gender-segregated owing to conservative beliefs,” writes AlMatrouk in her study published in the <i>Near and Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education.</i></p><p>AlMatrouk found that perceptions varied between people who attended gender-segregated and mixed-gender schools in Kuwait about their relationships with peers of the opposite sex “should be taken into consideration when creating educational policies for schools in Kuwait and debating issues related to gender segregation,” she writes.</p><p>She also found that the stronger one’s self-esteem, the better respondents perceived their relationships with peers of the opposite sex. Also, the stronger respondents perceived their relationship with their parents, the more self-esteem they had. “Therefore, parental interventions should be designed for Arab parents at schools in Kuwait in order to raise awareness about the importance of parental relations on self-esteem,” she writes.</p><p>AlMatrouk acknowledges the limitations of her study, including the small sample size, the fact that the questionnaire was in English and not in Arabic, and the fact that the sample was not representative of the society-at-large (in terms of male/female ratio of respondents, the high number of single respondents, and the comparatively small number of respondents who went to gender-segregated schools [16/76]).</p><p></p><h2>Other Information</h2><p>Published in: QScience.com Highlights, Published by Nature Research for Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press)<br>License: <a>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br></p>
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spelling Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schoolsNature Research (16552612)EducationEducation systemsSpecialist studies in educationGender segregationschoolsfactorsopposite sexrelationshipsKuwaitmixed-gender schools<p>People who attended gender-segregated and mixed-gender schools in Kuwait perceive their relationships with peers of the opposite sex differently, according to a study by Lujain AlMatrouk, an educational diagnostician with the Center for Child Evaluation and Teaching in Kuwait.</p><p>Seventy-six people who lived and went to school in Kuwait responded to an online questionnaire that aimed to assess whether gender segregation in schools affected peer relations with the opposite sex and to explore what factors might influence this effect.</p><p>Gender segregation is imposed in Kuwaiti public schools, and public and private universities. Currently, only private schools are exempted. There’s an ongoing debate in the country about the pros and cons of gender segregation.</p><p>The topic has been an area of study for many researchers around the world. One researcher showed that gender segregation produces higher grades. Others, however, showed mixed-gender schools in Belgium, where the majority of schools are segregated, produced the best academic results. Also, some researchers argue that gender segregation allows children to focus on learning without worrying about bullying from the opposite sex while another found a high level of bullying among girls<sup>3</sup>.</p><p>“Studies on the effects of gender segregation in the Arab world are limited, yet very important, as a majority of the schools in the Arab region are gender-segregated owing to conservative beliefs,” writes AlMatrouk in her study published in the <i>Near and Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education.</i></p><p>AlMatrouk found that perceptions varied between people who attended gender-segregated and mixed-gender schools in Kuwait about their relationships with peers of the opposite sex “should be taken into consideration when creating educational policies for schools in Kuwait and debating issues related to gender segregation,” she writes.</p><p>She also found that the stronger one’s self-esteem, the better respondents perceived their relationships with peers of the opposite sex. Also, the stronger respondents perceived their relationship with their parents, the more self-esteem they had. “Therefore, parental interventions should be designed for Arab parents at schools in Kuwait in order to raise awareness about the importance of parental relations on self-esteem,” she writes.</p><p>AlMatrouk acknowledges the limitations of her study, including the small sample size, the fact that the questionnaire was in English and not in Arabic, and the fact that the sample was not representative of the society-at-large (in terms of male/female ratio of respondents, the high number of single respondents, and the comparatively small number of respondents who went to gender-segregated schools [16/76]).</p><p></p><h2>Other Information</h2><p>Published in: QScience.com Highlights, Published by Nature Research for Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press)<br>License: <a>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br></p>2016-11-30T00:00:00ZTextOnline resourceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontext10.57945/manara.23965605.v1https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/Kuwait_s_on-going_debate_on_gender-segregation_in_schools/23965605CC BY 4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:figshare.com:article/239656052016-11-30T00:00:00Z
spellingShingle Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
Nature Research (16552612)
Education
Education systems
Specialist studies in education
Gender segregation
schools
factors
opposite sex
relationships
Kuwait
mixed-gender schools
status_str publishedVersion
title Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
title_full Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
title_fullStr Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
title_full_unstemmed Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
title_short Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
title_sort Kuwait’s on-going debate on gender-segregation in schools
topic Education
Education systems
Specialist studies in education
Gender segregation
schools
factors
opposite sex
relationships
Kuwait
mixed-gender schools