Gender disproportionality in special education: An analysis of odd ratios and trends

Abstract

AbstractIn Turkey, the special education population has steadily increased since 2006. By generating a 16‐year period of data obtained from the National Education Statistics (NES) published annually by the Presidency of Strategy Development of the Ministry of National Education, we synthesize the gender odds ratios and trends by special education categories and/or educational settings. We used odds ratios and the Mann‐Kendall test for data analysis. Gender disproportionality exists in favour of males with special needs in the majority of educational settings. In addition, we found uptrends, downtrends, and no trends for gender odds ratios. Gender disproportionality is discussed, along with implications for research and practice.