"Until educational sexism is eradicated, more than half our children will be shortchanged and their gifts lost to society."(Sadker, 1994 as quoted in Gender Bias in Education by Amanda Chapman)
In schools across America today, girls are being treated differently from boys in the elementary, secondary, and collegiate classroom. Textbooks reinforce societal gender roles, displaying subtle language bias, neglect of scholarship on women, omission of women as developers of history and initiators of events, and absence of women from accounts of technological developments (Bailey, 1992).
In my own experience in the public schools, I don't remember feeling this gender bias until high school. Though not necessarily presented by my teachers, I started to feel the pressures that any teenage girl experiences to fit in with the popular culture with one goal in mind - attracting the "right" guy. Once I had set my GPA high enough, it became easier to slack in my classes, making more time for my budding social life. Looking back on this experience as a University of Michigan graduate student, I find myself a little surprised that I would even be interested in this idea of gender bias in the classroom.
How do I know that I will not convey these biases to my own students? How can I protect my students from biases that I myself unknowingly hold? Being away from my suburban upbringing for the past 6 years has definitely helped to expand my worldview and deepen my awareness of social injustice (in the broadest definition of the term). Friends, as I embark on this journey as a professional educator, I call on you to hold me accountable for being aware of the countless biases I know I've accumulated throughout the past 24 years.
Relating this post back to technology (the intended purpose of this blog), I'm excited to use the one-to-one laptop project to expose my interactions with students in the classroom via the video cameras we've been provided with. This is a use of the cameras that I had not before thought of, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this will help me grow as a teacher, learner, and citizen.
References:
Bailey, S. (1992) How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report. New York, NY: Marlowe & Company.
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8 comments:
Good post Emily. You definitely brought up a point that I hadn't considered - Gender bias in schools can be found in teacher actions, but it is also a product of the simple social atmosphere. With this in mind I think we as teacher must be keenly aware that there's a lot more going on in school than education - it is a platform in which a student is growing socially and intellectually.
This is something I see on a regular basis at my placement. I am working with 14 year olds that are very conscious of the expectations attached to their gender. Specifically, I see girls that I know are very bright, hesitating to participate or share their ideas. I am certain that a large part of this is that they are afraid of looking too smart, since many of their male peers may find this unappealing or intimidating. Another aspect of this is that they are just more concerned with the social aspects of school than the academic ones, like you mentioned. While I would hope that young girls and guys will recognize the importance of education, I cannot dismiss the significance of school as a socializing institution, whose job it is to inform young people on multiple levels. Personally, I have always known the value of education, but was completely distracted by guys from middle school through high school. When I look back on my experience, I wish I could have attended an all female school. I know I would have learned so much more and not been so focused on what I looked like or if a boy was noticing me. In college, this wasn't a problem anymore because I was in a serious relationship and didn't care to attract attention. For those girls (and guys) that do not have the means to attend a same-sex school, we need to make sure as teachers that we express the importance of education.
The good news here is that role models are *really* important and you'll be a great one, both for your girl and boy students. It might be an interesting thing to do with another MACer to pair up and observe one another, just in terms of your behavior regarding calling on people and who you call out for behavior. One of the things I recall the Sadkers writing about was that for teachers of an earlier generation, boys were given a lot more leeway in terms of borderline rowdy behavior ("boys will be boys") while girls were held to more exacting standards of behavior. In addition, the AAUW Report also contended that boys tend to call out with responses more than girls do, so if all you go by is whose hand goes up, you can inadvertently wind up calling on boys more often.
Of course, boys are often faced with expectations and unarticulated rules of behavior that can put them in a box too, if we're not careful.
Great subject to explore, Emily (Dan Kindlon has written powerfully about boys, to cite one example).
Emily-
It's interesting that you bring up the idea of gender bias towards boys in your post, because, interestingly enough, when I saw your post I thought you might be attempting to look at the situation from the opposite point of view.
I think there are actually a lot of things we do in school that favor girls, particularly activities such as outlining and forcing students to keep an organized notebook for a grade tend to work to their benefit for whatever reason. There has been some interesting research about this and it was even a cover story of Time magazine this summer.
It's funny, when I tell males that I am going to be an English teacher, it is not uncommon for them to make a comment like, don't favor the girls or something like that. Boys frequently complain that the books that are chosen for English class are 'girly' and the Plymouth School District has even implemented an AP Englsih course that focuses on science fiction to get more boys to enroll in honors English courses. Getting boys to enroll in honors English is often a challenge and even my own students last semester were discouraged by the assertiveness of a few hyper-grade grubbing girls. Even my sister will tell you that she always wrote about women's issues in her high school essays because she knew her female teachers would love it. Apparently we English teachers are a bunch of crazy feminists. Maybe things are different in the Spanish department! :-)
Hey Em,
Your blog brings up several interesting topics regarding the role of gender bias. I know that it is often the boys within my classroom that are the more talkative and just generally demand more of a vocal response from me. But, it's also interesting to see how some of my female students demand attention in a classroom. Unfortunately, it seems to be mostly negative attention, and I find myself scorning these girls' attempts to get the boys to notice them. It struck me that I'm not doing a very good job of balancing the amounts of positive attention I bestow on my female students! Instead of encouraging their participation in class, I find myself shushing them as they giggle with the boys. Not good! I think that I'm having such a reaction because I cringe to think that I once used to do this myself. Talk about personal history clouding objectivity. I guess what I'm trying to say is I understand where you're coming from. It's good to be aware of it now so that we can actively use our technology and understanding to alter our habits.
I never thought about it as gender bias at the time, but I remember in high school downplaying or hiding the fact that I was smart so boys would like me. I too was concerned about fitting in socially. I saw the same thing in my classroom placement when one of my students said to me during a discussion about global warming and greenhouse gases, why should I care about that? What I'm worried about is who I'm going to homecoming with, and who's having a party this weekend.It's interesting to see that "fitting in" socially is just as important to these kids as it was to us. In terms of technology, I have used the video camera to tape 3 discussions in my class and both the students and I really enjoyed it. They were not the least bit inhibited being on camera, and it did not impede the discussion in any way.
Hey Em,
Interesting post, and after reading everyone else's comments, I'm wondering if there was something wrong with me in high school. I didn't care about boys at all (well very very little) and in looking back, I almost feel that I was not that conscientious of the social pressures and expectations surrounding me, or at least these pressures didn't interfere with my academics. I don't know why I'm still talking about myself, but getting back... your post made me think of one particular female student I have, who comes in every day telling stories about her boyfriends and gossiping, and she is failing. Though I can't be entirely sure, it seems somewhat obvious where her interests are. Yet I wonder what we as teachers can do to shift motivation toward academics and away from this "social preoccupation." I feel that this is nearly if not entirely possible, as the social world, friendships, and relationships become increasingly more important as students move through adolescence.
Emily-
Gender is an inherent aspect of secondary education as our students are hyper-aware of their identity as male/female. This awareness seems to be critical to out student's socialization with one another, and while I do understand the concept of gender bias which you raise, I wonder how (other than the obvious effort to treat each gender equally, to use texts/ideas by both genders) you might move toward a less-gendered atmosphere.
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