Demographics of self-selected participiants in mathematical tracks in Swedish Upper Secondary School

Journal article, 2012

This study investigates the three demographic factors gender, geographical origin and parents educational level among self-selected students in mathematical tracks in Swedish Upper Secondary School (n=147). Comparisons are made, through statistical tests of significance, with corresponding student distributions on the closely related Natural Science program (n = 1528). Data is obtained from Statistics Sweden. Results confirm that females are under-represented in mathematical tracks (p<0,01) and that parents of students in mathematical tracks have higher educational level than parents of students in the comparison group (p<0,05). Results do not show that students with foreign background are underrepresented in mathematical tracks, but raise questions about under-representation of Swedish students. Possible implications of these findings for these and similar programs are discussed.