Conducting Intersectional Quantitative Analysis with MAIHDA for Education Research

Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) enables intersectional quantitative educational research with distinct advantages over fixed-effects models. Using data from 9,672 physics students across 40 institutions, we compared MAIHDA to traditional fixed-effects models to assess the two methods’ theoretical alignment with intersectionality and ability to model outcomes for diverse social groups. The results indicated that MAIHDA provided more precise measures of outcomes for 95 of the 106 intersectional groups. The manuscript offers guidance for applying MAIHDA in educational research, including R code, and emphasizes the responsibility of researchers to consider critical quantitative theory throughout the research process.