 The role of the teaching assistant: Female role models in the classroomAmanda L. Griffith and Joyce B. Main Economics of Education Review, 2021, vol. 85, issue C Abstract: We use a dataset of first-year engineering students from a selective research-intensive public university to examine the impact of same-gender teaching assistants on course grades and major field choice. Our sample consists of students who were randomly assigned to a section of an introductory engineering course and a graduate teaching assistant. Results suggest there may be small positive effects on course grades and the probability of majoring in a high-earning field for female students assigned to a female teaching assistant. Although the difference is marginally significant, the impact of a teaching assistant gender match for female students’ choice of a high-earning field is more pronounced in classrooms with a female instructor and above-median representation of female peers. Our results show limited evidence that female teaching assistants can provide the same benefits of a female instructor in STEM fields. Keywords: role models; STEM Persistence; engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:85:y:2021:i:c:s0272775721000972 DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102179 Access Statistics for this article Economics of Education Review is currently edited by E. Cohn More articles in Economics of Education Review from Elsevier |
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