BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.15, No.1, 2023, BECE 1798 

 

 

 

 

The Relation between Teacher Gender and Student 

Academic Achievements: From the Perspective of 

Teacher-student Gender Matches 

By Liu, Z., Guo, R., & Tian, M. 
Correspondence to: Zeyun Liu, Beijing Normal University, China. E-mail: 

zeyun_liu@bnu.edu.cn  

CCORDING to existing research findings, there is a significant gender 

difference in student academic performance at the basic education level, 

with girls outperforming boys on average. Student educational attainments 

are affected by multiple factors. Among all school-related factors, teachers 

have been viewed as the most impactful in student academic progress. In 

China, female teachers predominate in the basic education teacher staff. 

Therefore, the investigation of how teacher-student gender matches impact 

student academic performance is of theoretical and practical significance. 

This study sourced data from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) 

to research into the impact of teacher-student gender matches on student aca-

demic achievements and the underlying mechanism, based on the random as-

signment of teachers within the school. Research subjects were 8th graders in 

the CEPS, and their grade-seven academic results in the baseline survey were 

used as the control condition. Research findings showed that: 

 Teacher-student gender matches had no impact on male students’ school 

results but posed positive influences on those of female students, repre-

sented by the favorable impact of female teachers on girl students’ aca-

demic progress. Moreover, as opposed to previous research, this study 

found that the influence of teacher-student gender matches was restricted 

to the subject of English. 

 The positive impact of teacher-student gender matches on girl students’ 

performance was more remarkable among the disadvantaged group (with 

lower cognitive competence, rural Hukou, and non-key urban schools), 

likely due to their higher degrees of sensitivity to teacher characteristics 

such as gender because of less education input from their families. 

 Causal analysis showed that female teachers tended to offer more aca-

demic and emotional support to girls than to boys, making themselves a 

beneficial factor in girls’ academic advancement. 

The implications of this study include that the rising proportion of fe-

male teachers in basic education has no potential adverse impact on boy stu-

dents’ education attainments; that more attention should be paid to under-

A 

mailto:zeyun_liu@bnu.edu.cn


 

Vol.15, No.1, 2023, BECE 1799 

privileged students in the distribution of educational resources; and that 

teacher in-service training should place an emphasis on the development of 

supportive teacher-student relationships in order to improve class interaction 

and student evaluation. 

 
Source: Education & Economy, 2023; 9(3):64-74.