Today an important topic was brought up- GENDER. It got me thinking…how influential are gender stereotypes on students?
What are your experiences?
In general, how do you think gender influences teaching, the curriculum, and the lives of the teachers and students in the classroom?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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When I was a student it really bugged me when my classmates would accuse teachers of favoring a specific gender (usually girls). Even as a teen I assumed that the person complaining was just disgruntled about getting a bad mark, and that the teacher was likely just reacting fairly to the personalities in the class.
ReplyDeleteI assumed that the teachers would always be fair. Now I'm not entirely sure that this is true. I haven't seen direct evidence to disprove my original belief, but I suppose I can now think of teachers as being subject to flaws. Everybody has biases, and I think it's entirely likely that certain teachers will think better of either the boys or the girls in their class.
Just, you know, don't tell anyone.
During research for Psychology of Classroom learning, I came across quite a few articles addressing the many ways in which students feel the pressures of gender stereotypes. Most were not directly related to the teacher, but more to the over generalized idea fo what is feminine and what is masculin. In PE for example, activities such as dance and floor hockey both are subject to gender stereotypes. In music, a students choice musical instrument is often affected by gender stereotypes. One group of researchers found that a simple way to combat these stereotypes was to make students aware of them. By allowing students to discuss the issue of gender stereotypes, we are helping them to realize they are just that-stereotypes!
ReplyDeleteI have attended a few gender equity training sessions as a camp instructor where I learned about some observations concerning gender. Its interesting to see them as I have taught in different settings and has caused me to be more aware and think about their influences on children. Here are some that I remember:
ReplyDelete1. while boys are given praise for their work, girls tend to receive praise for their behaviour
-This reminded me of one of the presentations for my psych of classroom teaching that talked about an all-girls school that taught girls that they can only have power if they maintained heteronormative femininity
2. when a group consists of boys and girls, girls tend to choose to be the recorder rather than taking an active role in manipulating the experiment/task
-while recording is a worthy task, is this reflective of traditional gender roles?
I realize these only focus on girls. I'm sure there are many examples that show stereotypes about boys but it seems we don't hear about them as often.
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On a different note, I remember in junior high we were doing a unit on football. Like many junior high schools, my gym class was not co-ed. We learned the rules and objectives, etc. in the gym and we practiced by playing a bunch of games outside (girls vs. girls). One day our teacher informed us that the boys PE class challenged us to a game of football. There were a few competitive athletes in our class so of course they didn't let us pass it up. Finally, we can prove to the boys that girls can play sports.
So we played and...the boys kicked our butts.
It was nice that our teacher taught us how to learn sports that are predominantly geared towards males like football and to let us compete with the boys. It was a small step to breaking a stereotype. I don't remember, however, getting feedback on how to improve.
Although it was great to have an opportunity to prove to the boys that girls can play football our lack of knowledge and training, set us up for failure. Instead of dispelling the stereotype, we just further reinforced it.
I thought today's seminar class that touched on gender among other topics was really informative and helpful. I liked how we we given a few sentences and had to make judgements on the gender of the individual. At first I found it odd that we were labeling people when maybe that was something we should try to avoid but then I realized that society is probably making judgements based on a few seconds of even seeing a person so it might be good to see how we come to our judgement and prevent ourselves from doing it so quickly in the future.
ReplyDeleteGood point Meena. I found that the information was not enough to make a judgement, but it is more information the one usually has to make a judgement with. I find gender issues are difficult to talk about, and today's class may have helped to break down some barriers as it forced us to openly discuss stereotypes, gender, and sexuality.
ReplyDeleteOne very awkward situation I have come across is mistaking or being unable to identify gender when working with a child. I have worked in camp and workshop settings a lot. A few times I have made mistakes or not known a child's gender. It made me aware of how loaded a gender reference can be, and how offensive it can be to make a mistake. From those mistakes, I have tried to be very aware of the gender specific language I use.
I had a wonderful time working in groups with spectrum charts and discussing hypothetical. It was an interesting activity that really got me to think about gender and sexuality.
ReplyDeleteI feel like gender has been discussed in so many of our classes this week but it wasn't until this workshop that I actually felt comfortable learning about it.
This type of workshop would benefit ANY classroom. I would love to organize a day in my eventual classroom that is run similarly. I don't know if I will lead it or if I will bring in an expert. The workshop really opened my eyes to the benefits of working with real case studies.
My mom is a dentist. When she interviewed for dental school at the University of Alberta, one of the questions she was asked by her interview panel was why she chose dentistry as a profession and not a more "feminine" profession like dental hygiene or even nursing. And she actually had to defend herself to her interviewers. Although I'm sure that things have changed significantly since then, I was shocked and appalled that her motivation to become a dentist would be questioned based solely on the fact that she was female.
ReplyDeleteHow prominent are these stereotypes in today's day and age? One of the most common gender stereotypes that we've covered in class (a few times now) is that boys are better than girls in science and math while girls are better than boys in literary studies. From my experience in the sciences, I would have to say that all of my classes (including physics) were pretty much split 50/50. Even in the medical science field, there were probably an equal number of male and female students. However, this doesn't mean that gender stereotypes don't still exist.
I think the best action in preventing gender stereotypes is to bring awareness to them. As teachers we can be aware of unintended gender biases in our own classrooms such as the use gender specific language (eg. law enforcement officer vs. policeman). Furthermore, we could incorporate lessons on gender stereotypes into our classroom to bring awareness of these issues to our students. I've attached a link to an example lesson plan here that is designed to make students aware of the dangers or gender stereotyping along with the media's role in perpetuating gender stereotypes.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/lessons/elementary/body_image/gndr_stereo_body_image.cfm
In response to what Erin said about the gender stereotypes around sciences... I think that combating stereotypes definitely comes down to awareness! For one of our psych presentations I read an article on misconceptions of engineers in terms of gender. It took 72 high school science teachers (men and women) and first asked them to draw a picture of an engineer. 100% of the men drew a male and 90% of women drew a male engineer as well. Thus showing the misconceptions that an engineer is predominately a male profession. They did not show these results to the participants and then exposed them to case studies that depicted actual women in the engineering and their achievements. When given the "draw-an-engineer" test again the results changed significantly showing that through exposure, stereotypes can be minimized.
ReplyDeleteThis study shows us how we can manage gender stereotypes in our own classrooms. The biggest thing is to be conscious of what we as teachers are doing in the face of the stereotypes and to make students aware of them as well.
Personally. I went into humanities versus sciences, purely because I sucked at math, therefore me and sciences never really got along either. However I did major in geography because of a female geography teacher I had in high school who was like a role model to me... gender influence... maybe??
Unfortunately, I think that gender stereotypes and students falling into gender schemas begin at home with the parents.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, I never felt like I had to be more like a boy or more like a girl. I actually liked doing "boy" things, like exploring and getting dirty, going mountain biking, and playing rugby. My parents were supportive in anything I decided to do, so I never felt any pressure to be feminine. Even once I reached adolescence where the pressure for gender schemas is more prevalent, I found that "being one of the guys" was more enjoyable. The gender stereotype that girls do worse in sciences and math never affected me. I always tried to do better than all the guys.
I guess what I'm saying is that the effects of gender stereotypes and schemas are already in place before we start teaching our students. It is important for me to make girls (and boys) feel like they are capable of doing well in science. I definitely do not want to place stereotypes on my students and I hope that I won't since I never had the stereotypes forced on me.