Gender roles play a vital role in the classroom. I chose to use this weeks blog as a means of venting and pointing out the many stereotypes that males and/or females are faced with daily.
As a soon-to-be (hopefully) math teacher, I hear all the time that "math and science are predominately male fields" and "boys are better at math". Furthermore, on a level that brings us outside the classroom, still many more stereotypes exist that concern the roles of male and females. While society is changing slowly, many people still expect females to be the house cleaners, the primary child care providers, and the passive people in the corner who don't really stand up to males concerning, oh anything. I am happy to say that I am not one of those females. I am darn good at math and I usually stand up for what I believe it, regardless of who I'm standing up against.
Every teacher needs to realize that gender is not always "either/or"(Hill, 2000). Hill actually allows the reader to open their eyes fuller, to get a real viewpoint of the perspectives of people who may face sex/gender mismatches. While sex is based solely on a person's genitals, "gender is not fixed, it can shift over time, it can change" (Tuck, Blog Week 7, 2011). For me, and maybe for you, gender is either/or. I am a girl, and I do not ever feel like a boy. While this fact may seem to lack complexities, this is not true for every individual. Some people are not either female or male. We hear about Sherry Denise on page 28 of Hill's writing. This individual says that "right now I'm about 35/65, 35 male and 65 female (2000).
Take note of how this person's statement is worded. She (he) uses the words 'right now' so clearly this means that her proportions of her feelings of male/female will change and actually do rather constantly. This person has not gendered themselves as either male or female. This person is a little bit of both and feels no need to pick just one because she sees characteristics of each gender. Teachers need to understand this. Not everyone is a girl OR a boy. Some chose to leave behind the either/or and are geared towards the neither/nor or the both/and (Hill, 2008).
Being a great teacher, one that students remember for years to come, means understanding each individual and catering to their needs. Remember Carter Forshay (from our previous reading), a phenomenal teacher who got to know each of his students and in doing so taught them to learn in ways that they could become the most successful. In order to do this, we must still get a further grasp on gender roles.
One belief about girls in general is that they are not as technologically savvy as males. Because of this, people seem to make the generalization that girls are not capable of pursuing honorable careers such as computer scientists, information technologists, and graphic designers. In actuality, "the number of studies indicating that many girls engage in a variety of online literacy practices with enthusiasm and confidence grows each year" (Williams, 2007, p. 303). Thus, girls are extremely capable and are even using technology more than they have before.
There is also a sad universality that males, when writing about violence, may actually become violent. Actually, "most boys who play violent computer games do not shoot fellow students" (Williams, 2007, p. 304). Teachers that limit children's imaginations because they don't feel that violence is appropriate for the classroom, truly hinder a students creativity and because of this students may be less likely to participate in their classes and their overall education. "Helping adolescent students, girls and boys, develop a critical perspective on how gender expectations influence their literacy practices is part of the ongoing conversation we should be having in the classroom" (Williams, 2007, p. 305).
As educators, we must break the gender stereotypes that exist in education. There are so many generalizations that are formed that may encumber a student's progress. "Schools must become places where all students, boys and girls, are helped to do their best, where they are treated above all as individuals, and where the discriminatory practices of the past have no place" (Maher, 2008, p. 269).
Take a look at this video. It proves how strong gender roles stereotypes are. Notice what happens when the children are asked "Who takes care of the babies" and "Who goes to work". What might these stereotypes be doing to our future?
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