Gender, Schooling, and Socialization: A Comparative Study of Educational Practices in Single-Gender Schools in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This study examines how educational practices in single-gender schools contribute to processes of gender socialization, with a particular focus on the Bilim-Innovation Lyceums in Kazakhstan. While global debates on single-gender education have largely centered on academic outcomes, this research shifts the analytical focus toward the everyday institutional practices through which gendered meanings, identities, and dispositions are constructed and reproduced. Grounded in a pragmatic philosophical stance, the study employs a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Quantitative data were collected through a teacher questionnaire, while qualitative insights were generated via semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations. The research focuses on one boys’ and one girls’ single-gender school, enabling a comparative analysis across key domains: curriculum, pedagogy, extracurricular activities, school culture, and pastoral care. The study is guided by an integrated conceptual framework combining social constructionist perspectives, social learning theory, hidden curriculum theory, and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and cultural reproduction. This framework enables a multi-level analysis of how gender is produced through institutional practices, interactional dynamics, and symbolic structures within schools. Findings indicate that formal curricular and pedagogical practices remain largely similar across boys’ and girls’ schools, challenging assumptions of explicit gender-differentiated instruction. However, significant differences emerge within the hidden curriculum, particularly in mentorship systems, extracurricular activities, leadership structures, and institutional expectations. These implicit practices play a central role in shaping gendered dispositions and identities. The study also reveals tensions between stable institutional structures and evolving teacher attitudes toward gender roles, suggesting a dynamic process of negotiation rather than simple reproduction. The research contributes to global debates on single-gender education by demonstrating that the impact of such schooling lies not in formal instructional differences but in the broader ecology of practices through which gender is socially constructed. In the Kazakhstani context, the findings raise important questions regarding equity, particularly in relation to unequal access to elite educational opportunities for boys and girls. The study offers implications for policy, school leadership, and teacher professional development, emphasizing the need for more reflective and evidence-based approaches to gender in education.