GENDER AND RELIGION AS PREDICTORS OF STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOCIAL STUDIES

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research study was to investigate gender and religion as predictors of students’ academic performance in social studies. A case study of some selected junior secondary schools in Odeda Local Government Area, Ogun State. A student population of 100 students drawn from five selected junior secondary schools in Odeda Local Government Area. A well-structured questionnaire was administered to gather data from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentage method. In conclusion, the findings revealed that there is significance difference in gender and religion students’ academic performance and some recommendation were given at the end of the study.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Gender in its narrowest sense means socially constructed sex, be it female or male. Gender is not about being a man or woman rather the experience of being masculine or feminine. The word gender are important are often used interchangeably but there are important distinctions between the two concept. (Kirk, A. 2000). Sex is based on that anatomical physiological characteristics of males and females while gender is a social construct that is a society’s assumptions about the way a man or woman should look or behave. (Jacob J.A. 1996). Gender depicts the social differences between men and a woman that are learned changeable a certain and have wide variations within and between culture. (Wood 1987). It was in the 1970’s that American and English feminists started using the terms “gender ad “gender relation”. Hence the transition was made from study of the differences between the sexes to relations between the sexes both in the sense of social relations ad conceptual relations. (Wigfield, 2002). The study of gender is a field of interdisciplinary study devoted to gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. Sometimes gender studies is offered together with study of sexuality; regarding gender, (Simon de Beauvor) said “one is not born a woman one becomes one” This view proposes that the tern gender should be used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities, not to the state of being male or female. Gender can also be broken into three categories, gender identity, gender expression and biological sex, as (Sam Kullermann) explains in his Ted talk at the University of Chicago (1990).

These three categories are another way of breaking down gender into the different social, biological and cultural constructions. These constructions focus on how femininity and masculinity are fluid entitles and how their meaning is able to fluctuate depending the various constituents surrounding them (Hedges, 1998). Religion is a hot button topic in Nigeria education, as it is in many areas of the provision of public goods. Scholars and administrators are noticing that our students are more religious than previous generation of secondary school students, though they don’t have a clear sense of why. Some studies claim that religious students are better students and there are some merits to this argument (Darnell & Sherkat, 1997). Religion does provide students with healthy alternatives to other social engagements yet, studies of elite and residential school populations fails to take into account the larger picture, since religion, and especially fundamentalist Christianity, can have a negative eect on going to school. While some religions factors have a positive impact on school success, other religious commitments undermine educational attainment (Darnell &Sherkat 1997; Glass and Jacobs 2005, Leher 2004, 1999; Sherkat and Darnell 1999). Once in school religious factors can also play a role in the trajectory of study, impacting the choice of major, subject taken, and successful completion. Importantly, religious factors also influence the context of contemporary Nigeria education. Increasing rates of school attendance in the general population has also meant that more members of predominantly fundamentalist Christian sects, who almost uniformly eschewed Nigeria education in previous generations are now living in the same dormitories with liberal protestants, Catholics, Jews, and an increasingly diverse array of non-Christians.

Several studies have shown that religious students do better on critical indicators of academic success (Mooney). Typically, studies finding a positive impact of religious factors on school success measure “religiousity” with an indicator of religious participation and personal religiousity can help lower rate of substance abuse and limit activities that undermine college careers (Regnerus, 2000). Why we should applaud organizations which provide on positive influence on students, it is notable hat other types of extra-curricular activities can have similar positive effects (Pascarella et al, 2004). Significant research has indicated that gender ad religion plays a part in the student academic performance. For example, research have found significant differences between male and female students in science achievement. In a meta analysis of 77 studies conducted between (1980) and (1991) among middle and high school (Jacob 2005).