*5.3.1 STEM school experience and extra-curricular work*

The different atmosphere, school culture, curriculum, relationships and assessment systems at STEM school provided a new opportunity for the participants to unleash their STEM potential beyond expectation. Aida argued that the STEM school changed her view about education as not just "buildings where students go to learn subjects like math and science" to the view that education is "about changing our way of thinking." Alia considered her STEM experience as "a very good one that [she is] grateful for being part of it." She maintained how the STEM school experience made them "independent [learners] in terms of that we had to selflearn, think, collaborate, and create … and come to class prepared to present." In her opinion, this was "interesting as it was student centered and taught us teamwork." Along the same lines, Latifa considered her STEM experience as "the greatest thing that happened and will ever happen in my life and I'm not exaggerating." It helped her to become "a good learner and a researcher." She stressed the perspective that the things she learned in STEM school would not have been possible in any other place: "I learned teamwork…how to talk with different people who have different perspectives and everything literally everything …all that I learned in STEM school way practice and [with] teachers' guidance." The school as a boarding national

school was a mini cosmos. Through their experience with girls coming from "different parts of Egypt with different cultural backgrounds" in Aida's words, they gained a lot of experience dealing with people from different backgrounds which was "very helpful for her life in college in the United States."

Fareeda greatly valued her experiences at the STEM school. The teachers, in her view, were "like our parents" and "they were caring for us and tried to help us the most." She cited the example of the physics teacher when she talked to him about "her dream to be an engineer while [her] family wanted [her] to be a doctor', he advised her to 'follow [her] dream as [she] won't excel in a thing [she] doesn't like." Aida described the teachers as "very friendly even at the moments we made sit-ins and called for reforms to make our school better, they backed us." She went on to say, "they escorted us in our journeys outside the school looking for materials for our projects, and meeting with other experts in different places." She added, "they helped us to find new ways to get information, they used different teaching approaches like discussion." Latifa remembered how teachers were careful to warn students that "being different [as STEM students] does not mean being better than anyone else we're all good in our own unique ways." She maintained how the teachers used different teaching approaches: "some let us prepare materials and present them and they gave us comments and guided our discussions." Muneera also praised her teachers as supportive using "different strategies, but the majority helped us to be independent learners. I can depend on myself now at college if I don't understand something." In some classes, learning "was completely student centered where we did the entire presentation and the teacher was supervising us and only corrected us when there was something wrong."

However, all participants were concerned that "the teachers needed more training and professional support in STEM," especially with regard to assessment as "we were, not trained enough to answer the kind of questions we faced in the final exams." Latifa alluded to the need for teachers' readiness stating that "if teachers do not know or do not understand the [STEM] system, that would be a big problem for students because if students don't understand what the system is, teachers should know because they're supposed to teach students how to do things."

All of the girls valued the challenging and rigorous curriculum. For example, Aida stated, "the curriculum was so challenging with college level material" citing the different modes of assessment used at school as very conducive to learning. As a result of the challenging curriculum and assessment, Aida "had [knowledge] about nearly all the topics in my freshman year in classes like physics and calculus." Because of the college level content at the STEM school, Latifa was "tested out of calculus 1, 2, and 3 [because] most of these topics I covered in high school and also like physics one and two and chemistry one. I had all these topics [covered] in high school. Now I'm in physics 3 and I study some topics about waves and resonance and I remember how I used to watch videos explaining these topics in high school." She added that other things like "presentation skills and collaborative work [she learned at STEM school] were very helpful at college level." Alia noted that "the curriculum was very different from regular schools in Egypt and challenging." She found the college level material very helpful and shared that when she went to college, she "found many things especially physics and math I had covered in STEM school… and the way was taught it was special."

What was unique about the curriculum in Latifa's thought was the idea of not being restricted to text books; "you can understand the learning outcome from different references: the internet, teachers, colleagues." The curriculum at the STEM school was "more open" in Muneera's terms. She argued that "in subjects like biology and chemistry at the school I had the opportunity to dig deeper into the things I was interested in and I really appreciate that." That helped her a lot at university but

**99**

the capstone project."

*Gender Equity in STEM Education: The Case of an Egyptian Girls' School*

"this openness was not good all the time. In some cases, it was not very straightforward [clear]. The goals of the curriculum or what do we have to learn after studying

For the capstone, for instance, Muneera mentioned that "each group was required to submit the following: a prototype or model of their solution, a scientific poster of the whole project, the project portfolio, and do biweekly journal reflections." Alia also mentioned the capstone project as "pretty challenging but also very useful in terms of helping us to acquire more knowledge, research skills, such as problem solving and technical skills like for creating the prototype, not to mention enhancing presentation skills." Latifa thought that the capstone projects were "the biggest point of the learning in STEM I guess… how we were supposed to deal with real-world problems and like find practical solutions for them. That was big." This was initially challenging for her as she was not used to this approach to learning and

also that the teachers were learning this new system alongside the students.

In Aida's words, assessment was "different and difficult" with a "final exam each semester which accounted for 30% of the final grade where we worked collaboratively to solve one of the grand challenges of Egypt following the engineering design process." This was completely different from the mainstream secondary schools where grades were based solely on traditional final exams. Assessment, however, was challenging as it was completely different to traditional schools and "there were no direct questions because you have to think. You don't have to memorize …they were super challenging the first 2 years." Muneera described assessments as "checking understanding not checking memorization." Challenging as it was, assessment was more manageable and conducive to learning than "memorizing a book from cover to cover and then forget everything after the exam is over." Alia noted that the "assessments were different from the ones they had been used to, but we could eventually answer most of the questions." She found the college level material very helpful and shared that when she went to college, and "the way it was taught was special." As learning dose not only happen inside the school premises, out of school extra-curricular work was seen as an integral part of the STEM school experience. The school provided different civic engagement opportunities with several organizations that gave students opportunities to visit universities and research centers to discuss scientific and engineering ideas. Muneera, for instance, was interested in chemistry outside of school and she used to "interact with those responsible for the chemistry Olympiad. They were faculty from universities." In addition to her work in the capstone and extra effort needed to finalize projects she "visited a lot of universities and interacted with professors there." Fareeda viewed engaging in different out-of-school activities and field trips as one of the greatest assets of the STEM school. She described the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) experience as the "best thing that happened" to her in the STEM school. She learned a lot from that experience, in addition to winning the first award and participating in the United States international competition and winning the third place in their category, she learned "group work, presentation skills," and how to defend her ideas "in front of Nobel laureates." Latifa described her participation in a programming camp as a great learning experience: and "in the second year of high school I participated in Intel ISEF competitions and science fairs with EEE science fairs with

The research work required of students at the STEM school also pushed them to seek support outside the school walls. Aida recounted, "when I was in school, I worked on a project with the physics department at the American University [in Cairo]. I also went to Cairo University, and different [other] universities for school [projects] that helped me understand how research is done in university." Aida thought that these activities were of great value in her college level studies. Alia

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87170*

this subject were not clear."

#### *Gender Equity in STEM Education: The Case of an Egyptian Girls' School DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87170*

*Theorizing STEM Education in the 21st Century*

helpful for her life in college in the United States."

corrected us when there was something wrong."

and the way was taught it was special."

school was a mini cosmos. Through their experience with girls coming from "different parts of Egypt with different cultural backgrounds" in Aida's words, they gained a lot of experience dealing with people from different backgrounds which was "very

Fareeda greatly valued her experiences at the STEM school. The teachers, in her view, were "like our parents" and "they were caring for us and tried to help us the most." She cited the example of the physics teacher when she talked to him about "her dream to be an engineer while [her] family wanted [her] to be a doctor', he advised her to 'follow [her] dream as [she] won't excel in a thing [she] doesn't like." Aida described the teachers as "very friendly even at the moments we made sit-ins and called for reforms to make our school better, they backed us." She went on to say, "they escorted us in our journeys outside the school looking for materials for our projects, and meeting with other experts in different places." She added, "they helped us to find new ways to get information, they used different teaching approaches like discussion." Latifa remembered how teachers were careful to warn students that "being different [as STEM students] does not mean being better than anyone else we're all good in our own unique ways." She maintained how the teachers used different teaching approaches: "some let us prepare materials and present them and they gave us comments and guided our discussions." Muneera also praised her teachers as supportive using "different strategies, but the majority helped us to be independent learners. I can depend on myself now at college if I don't understand something." In some classes, learning "was completely student centered where we did the entire presentation and the teacher was supervising us and only

However, all participants were concerned that "the teachers needed more training and professional support in STEM," especially with regard to assessment as "we were, not trained enough to answer the kind of questions we faced in the final exams." Latifa alluded to the need for teachers' readiness stating that "if teachers do not know or do not understand the [STEM] system, that would be a big problem for students because if students don't understand what the system is, teachers should

All of the girls valued the challenging and rigorous curriculum. For example, Aida stated, "the curriculum was so challenging with college level material" citing the different modes of assessment used at school as very conducive to learning. As a result of the challenging curriculum and assessment, Aida "had [knowledge] about nearly all the topics in my freshman year in classes like physics and calculus." Because of the college level content at the STEM school, Latifa was "tested out of calculus 1, 2, and 3 [because] most of these topics I covered in high school and also like physics one and two and chemistry one. I had all these topics [covered] in high school. Now I'm in physics 3 and I study some topics about waves and resonance and I remember how I used to watch videos explaining these topics in high school." She added that other things like "presentation skills and collaborative work [she learned at STEM school] were very helpful at college level." Alia noted that "the curriculum was very different from regular schools in Egypt and challenging." She found the college level material very helpful and shared that when she went to college, she "found many things especially physics and math I had covered in STEM school…

What was unique about the curriculum in Latifa's thought was the idea of not being restricted to text books; "you can understand the learning outcome from different references: the internet, teachers, colleagues." The curriculum at the STEM school was "more open" in Muneera's terms. She argued that "in subjects like biology and chemistry at the school I had the opportunity to dig deeper into the things I was interested in and I really appreciate that." That helped her a lot at university but

know because they're supposed to teach students how to do things."

**98**

"this openness was not good all the time. In some cases, it was not very straightforward [clear]. The goals of the curriculum or what do we have to learn after studying this subject were not clear."

For the capstone, for instance, Muneera mentioned that "each group was required to submit the following: a prototype or model of their solution, a scientific poster of the whole project, the project portfolio, and do biweekly journal reflections." Alia also mentioned the capstone project as "pretty challenging but also very useful in terms of helping us to acquire more knowledge, research skills, such as problem solving and technical skills like for creating the prototype, not to mention enhancing presentation skills." Latifa thought that the capstone projects were "the biggest point of the learning in STEM I guess… how we were supposed to deal with real-world problems and like find practical solutions for them. That was big." This was initially challenging for her as she was not used to this approach to learning and also that the teachers were learning this new system alongside the students.

In Aida's words, assessment was "different and difficult" with a "final exam each semester which accounted for 30% of the final grade where we worked collaboratively to solve one of the grand challenges of Egypt following the engineering design process." This was completely different from the mainstream secondary schools where grades were based solely on traditional final exams. Assessment, however, was challenging as it was completely different to traditional schools and "there were no direct questions because you have to think. You don't have to memorize …they were super challenging the first 2 years." Muneera described assessments as "checking understanding not checking memorization." Challenging as it was, assessment was more manageable and conducive to learning than "memorizing a book from cover to cover and then forget everything after the exam is over." Alia noted that the "assessments were different from the ones they had been used to, but we could eventually answer most of the questions." She found the college level material very helpful and shared that when she went to college, and "the way it was taught was special."

As learning dose not only happen inside the school premises, out of school extra-curricular work was seen as an integral part of the STEM school experience. The school provided different civic engagement opportunities with several organizations that gave students opportunities to visit universities and research centers to discuss scientific and engineering ideas. Muneera, for instance, was interested in chemistry outside of school and she used to "interact with those responsible for the chemistry Olympiad. They were faculty from universities." In addition to her work in the capstone and extra effort needed to finalize projects she "visited a lot of universities and interacted with professors there." Fareeda viewed engaging in different out-of-school activities and field trips as one of the greatest assets of the STEM school. She described the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) experience as the "best thing that happened" to her in the STEM school. She learned a lot from that experience, in addition to winning the first award and participating in the United States international competition and winning the third place in their category, she learned "group work, presentation skills," and how to defend her ideas "in front of Nobel laureates." Latifa described her participation in a programming camp as a great learning experience: and "in the second year of high school I participated in Intel ISEF competitions and science fairs with EEE science fairs with the capstone project."

The research work required of students at the STEM school also pushed them to seek support outside the school walls. Aida recounted, "when I was in school, I worked on a project with the physics department at the American University [in Cairo]. I also went to Cairo University, and different [other] universities for school [projects] that helped me understand how research is done in university." Aida thought that these activities were of great value in her college level studies. Alia

mentioned visits to "different universities and research centers and talking to professors about their projects" as reinforcing their STEM identity as they were "able to ask questions and discuss our work in a free way." Alia described the physical work they used to do build their projects prototypes; "in addition to engineers and professors who helped us in designing our [capstone projects] prototypes, we also sought the help of technicians like plumbers, carpenters, electricians to build certain parts of these prototypes."

Among the challenges faced by two of the participants (Muneera and Fareeda) was studying engineering while not being a mathematics major in high school. Muneera said it was a challenge at the very beginning but she added "I am doing very well in math now" and that the skills from the STEM school rather than content were the reason as, "now [at college] when I am stuck in anything, I can teach myself… I do not need someone to teach me…I can go find books or the internet, or any way to understand so I really think this was great from the school. I learned how to work in a group, though I speak different [foreign] language [with accent] I had the strong personality to face challenges… I had learned a lot how to deal with people." Alia argued that the experience at STEM school was invaluable in terms of helping them address any academic challenges because it helped her to be "an independent learner and know how to collaborate." On a personal level, she felt "it [STEM school experience] made me more confident and made my first years at college easier."

#### *5.3.2 Single sex school setting*

Being in a single sex school was not a new thing for almost all participants who come from Egyptian public schools. The general rule is that starting from grade seven most schools are segregated except for a certain track called "distinguished public language schools" in which mathematics and science are taught in English. Fareeda was a staunch supporter for single sex STEM schools as long as "they provide quality education and have similar teachers [to our school] and [similar school] environment." She argued that the female students "felt more comfortable" and had "the chance to work together freely without pressures, to compete in the female way to excel." She concluded, "it was a great experience all over. We worked together in a friendly way." Aida thought that single sex schools are "good, but they need more planning." If she were to choose between a co-ed or a single sex school, she would "choose a single sex school because the friendly atmosphere developed at the school made the students closer to each other in a way you can't find in another school." Along the same lines, although Alia initially stated that she "did not have a preference" for single sex versus co-ed schools, she "would choose the single sex school just because we created a community in which we lived together as sisters, it was kind of empowering." Therefore, if she were given the choice, she "would definitely go for single sex schools."

On the other hand, when asked about the single sex learning experience, Latifa was vocal in resisting that type of schooling. She said, "I think it would be better if both sexes were in the same school because I believe that this system and the way of thinking will be more inclusive of the two ways of thinking [male and female]." Latifa posited the reason behind the fact that girls' school "was relatively better at getting like high grades, while they [boys] win more robotics competitions and programming and like the technology stuff" is due to "a natural difference between the two [genders] in terms of foci and interests."

Muneera said, "if I went back I would prefer mixed schools." She had a hard time adjusting to the coed nature of higher education. All of her pre-university education life, including the STEM school, was single sex. Therefore, her ability to communicate with people from both sexes was affected by this long education experience. She explained "it was kind of the challenge when I came here. At the beginning I

**101**

*Gender Equity in STEM Education: The Case of an Egyptian Girls' School*

could not deal with guys. It was hard because I didn't have experience. I did not go somewhere else. I was all my life in that single sex school system." However, her experience in the STEM school pushed them "to build the environment where we're supporting each other and learning from each other as different people coming

From a cross-case perspective, a multilayered pattern of the supports and challenges [47] that impact gender equity in STEM education in the Egyptian context were delineated (see **Table 3**). The intersectional nature of the educational and sociological phenomena [41–43] is clearly reflected in the journey of the participants in this study. The participants endeavor towards STEM fulfillment reflects the power dynamics and relationships which are embedded in the structures and functions of society where society is structured by meanings, rules, convictions or habits adhered to by social beings [42, 45, 46]. As a result of the data analysis, the underlying mechanism of factors that support or impede girls' pursuit of STEM tracks show complexities of the phenomenon of creating gender equity, both broadly and especially in the Egyptian context. This is clearly manifested in the emerging themes from the data analysis (see **Table 3**). The intersectional pattern includes the impact of the power relationship of the socio-cultural, educational, and personal aspects. For instance, the existence of stereotype threats and biases [27] was salient in most of the participants' experiences. However, this was diminished by both factors at the personal and school levels epitomized in the girls' resilience and the supports they received through their experiences at the STEM school. The girls did not concede to family and social pressures; they pursued their own dreams. In their emancipation journey, they showed high degrees of persistence, self-efficacy, and resistance to the social norms and stereotype threats at the family level and the immediate social network [42, 45, 46]. In spite of the challenges they faced, the girls were able to navigate through this experience and benefit from it in their higher

In addition to the intersectional nature of the socio-cultural phenomenon of gender equity in STEM, these cases present a clear example of how gendered roles are created at both the social and family level [42, 45] and how they can be disrupted. One way to challenge such fossilized gender roles either explicitly or implicitly, especially in the absence of social collective effort, is through consolidating personal traits like self-efficacy and persistence [30, 31, 33]. This is apparent in girls' defiance to the commonly accepted stereotype that it is hard for girls to be engineers. There seemed to be a strong relationship between the degree of bias and the level of resistance on the part of the girls; in the cases where gender bias was explicitly reiterated, there was markedly higher degrees of resistance to such stereotype threats [27, 42]. However, to address gender inequity in STEM, more

The school and teachers provided additional support to the girls' personal resilience. All participants referred to factors at the school level that were effective in deepening their interest in STEM, especially engineering. At the curriculum level, one of the common features was rigor and challenge. Moreover, at the assessment level, participants agreed that assessments were not checking memorization; they were checking understanding which has helped them in their higher education institutions. Not only did the participants refer to the challenging curriculum but the way that curriculum was delivered. The primary support came from the girlfriendly pedagogies they encountered at school. They referred to quality teachers

work at the social level and at school level is required [6, 29, 34, 44].

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87170*

from different backgrounds."

education engineering institutions.

**6. Discussion**

could not deal with guys. It was hard because I didn't have experience. I did not go somewhere else. I was all my life in that single sex school system." However, her experience in the STEM school pushed them "to build the environment where we're supporting each other and learning from each other as different people coming from different backgrounds."
