I have come a long way in two weeks since I wrote my first paper for this class. I know that seems like a strange thing to say but it's true. During that time I have caught up on all my reading for the course, watched a large portion of the class I missed last week, and not only thought about the ways that the information in this course has made me look deeper at what I do in education, but also make others question what is going on in their school (I will delve deeper into this later in the paper). In my first paper I looked personally at gender and sexual diversity in my early life, when I taught and coached, and then in my life as a parent. I expressed that I had little experience dealing with different aspects but I always tried to …show more content…
I coached every year that I taught in middle school with the exception of one year and it is something that I can say I honestly miss about teaching. For me it is not a question about if I will go back to coaching at some point, it is more a question about when. With two kids I feel there will be plenty of opportunity for me to be potentially involved in coaching if they get into sports. Before I get into discussing that part, I did want to discuss one section that Bryan (2012) outlined in her book about GSD in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Bryan talks a lot about communication and how it can be key to helping students who maybe getting mixed signals between home and school. There is a strong need to keep lines of communication open and create partnerships with schools and home even if the teacher believes this could be trouble. “Yet asking parents to be informed and participate in these conversations with their children can only be positive for the learning process, even when kids are hearing different messages at home than the ones at school” (p. 157). The connection I have to this is the story that she uses to articulate this point deals with a girl on the school wrestling team and the disapproval from the parent of one fourth grade student. This story held a lot of meaning for me as I dealt with this in my time coaching wrestling and I had to send home lots of …show more content…
I plan to focus really on my teaching at the collegiate level. I teach a course on video games in America and we look at the historical, cultural, and social impact of video games. One of the social aspects that we discuss is the concept of gender and gender roles in video games. I actually discuss the concept of a gamer girl versus a girl gamer and see what kind of discussion we get out of this. I spend time reviewing information from the Feminist Frequency, a feminist blog that has really put out a lot of videos and articles about gender roles in video games as well as looking at the Gamergate controversy. This controversy dealt with the issues of sexism and progressivism in video game culture as well as the harassment of journalist (especially female journalists) in the video game industry. Bryan states: “To deeply question heteronormative standards may lead right into the fray of conflicting cultural norms and values. For example, if upholding traditional gender roles is viewed as unquestioned in a particular ethnic group, the classroom teacher who supports a more expansive interpretation of gender roles and expression may be seen as disrespecting one set of cultural beliefs while acknowledging another” (pp.
Family’s beliefs and values may be different for some and in other cultures they may not be accepted. As teachers, we have to learn about different cultures and expand our knowledge so families could feel more accepted. In the book, Anti- Bias Education for young children and ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks & Julie Olsen Edwards, talks about how culture and fairness involves two dimensions, children’s development of a positive culture, identity, and their respectful interactions with other cultures. With these two dimensions, it will help the child to continue to express their home culture at school while learning the different cultures at school with their classmates. They learn about what’s right from wrong, how to dress, and talk
...younger children. My aspirations are to be an elementary or middle school special education teacher and then a school psychologist, so I know how important it is for me to not compromise who I am or what I do to fit with the male gaze, so that I can set an example for the students I work with. Additionally, as a school psychologist, it seems likely that I will be counseling students who are struggling for an identity, or perhaps those who realize they don’t fit the body that they were born in, or even those who discover that they don’t identify with either of the binary genders. These students will need to understand that they exist for reasons far beyond reassuring the identity of someone else. This is a problem that needs to be addressed, and as teachers, we can do so by teaching our students to be comfortable with who they are, no matter who they choose to be.
Graham-Clay, S. (2005). Communicating with parents: Strategies for teachers. School Community Journal, 15(1), 117-129. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195462342?accountid=34899
This paper tries to express how sexism/chauvinism ideas have infected the virtual-world of video games, and resulted in a male dominated video-gaming industry. Now, being that 49% of U.S. households own a dedicated gaming console (E.S.A. 2012), it is imperative that we address this issue. Gender disparity in the gaming business is exceedingly one-sided. Female employees constitute less than 10% of the gaming industry, and even though that shortcoming females have contributed to the video gaming franchise. A small number of females have indeed contributed to the gaming franchise as a result of the industries no-girls-allowed mentality which strongly suggest that old saying boys-only. In this paper, I will examine current research relevant to the video game industry and its representation of the female gender, provide personal accounts of sexual harassment within the video game industry and offer my opinions of what could be done to begin the steps in an extraordinarily difficult journey.
Education is a potent institution used to reinforce gender differences. In our reading we found that children are much more likely to separate themselves at school in gender categories than in their neighborhoods. As Barrie Thorne points out in her book Gender Play, “Apart from age, of all the social categories of the students, gender was the most formally, and informally, highlighted in the course of each school day” (pg 34). I feel that many experiences in elementary school have reinforced my gender outlook. I spent much of my time in elementary school racing the boys and biting my nails to show I wasn’t scared to “break a nail” and never wearing a dress. Recess was a fight for me half the time. I didn’t like the connotation of being called a “girl.” Now I realize that I was trying to oppose the gender role I was expected to perform, yet eventually I grew out of that “phase” of fighting against the norm and joined the ranks of the girls. I moved from the field, to the bars and jump rope. I see now that the change I went through was just giving in to the reinforcement around me to be feminine. Instead of fighting against the grain, I chose the easy road by...
“It is early indeed that children show an awareness of the message that… females are generally less interesting and important than males are… The (often inadvertent) bearers of this message include parents, peers, and teachers.” (Lips, 1979, p. 128.) The absence of gender equity can be damaging to both males and females. Surprisingly most of the teachers and administrators are unaware of this problem. Organizations such as the American Association of University Women (“Gender equity,” 2003.) strive to create programs that will improve equality within schools. The purpose of this research paper is to identify gender equity issues in the classroom and explore strategies for teachers to incorporate equitable perspectives into the curriculum.
Imagine living in a time when your only role is to get married, bear children, and take care of your house and husband. Adrienne Rich proposes an ulterior idea in her essay “Taking Women Students Seriously” Women should not only question the gender standards but discuss the gender norms that society has created; by discussion and attention to the matter we can eliminate it all together. Women are not represented in school curriculums enough and have a large misrepresentation in society. Rich draws attention to: What women have working against them in education, how women are perceived in the world by the media and advertising, and the gender roles that society pressures young children to contort to. By striking up a discussion
this power to help form and solidify social norms also “offers the opportunity for particular notions of difference to be challenged and de-legitimised” (Burnett, Meadmore and Tait, 2010). With a heightened awareness of the influence discrimination can have on the classroom environment, teachers have the ability to not only change an individual’s learning experience, but shape and change the opinions of their class as a whole. It is critically important that “as teachers we must be aware that discriminatory practices fluctuate considerably with contemporary culturally aware forms, now using culture as their primary discursive weapon” (Burnett, Meadmore and Tait,
Curriculum is the organized framework that explains the content that children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help children achieve these goals and the context in which teaching and learning occur. The best curriculum for early childhood teacher is developmentally appropriate curriculum that allows teachers to set-up an effective learning environment for children.
Olsen, Glenn W., and Mary Lou Fuller. Home and school relations: teachers and parents working together. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
To refute these claims it should be noted that experienced teachers usually understand gender differences and are adept at accommodating a variety of learning styles within their classroom. Students will one day live and work side-by-side with members of the opposite sex, educating students in single-sex schools limits their opportunity to work cooperatively and co-exist with members of the opposite sex.
Although there are many advantages of single-gender schooling, there are just as many disadvantages. Many researchers found single-sex schooling generates disrespect for the opposite sex. When sexes are separated, they question the worth of one gender over another. For instance, when student get a job, they may feel disdain for the opposite gender’s work. Single-sex classes do not provide students with necessary experience in the mixed-gender environment that is typical in a workplace. Student also miss opportunities to work together and develop vital social skills need for the future. Single-sex classes make exclusion of the opposite gender acceptable. Outside of school, the world is coed and students need the ability to interact with the opposite sex without being uncomfortable.
Same sex classes make it possible for teachers to cater to student needs in a more efficient way. In general boys benefit from hands on learning, but girls benefit from calm discussions (Mullins 3). Girls tend to doubt themselves while boys think they can do anything. Boys need to be brought down from the clouds while girls need to be dug out of a hole (Mullins 3). David Chadwell says, "Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls" (7), and Kristen Stanberry’s research has shown, "Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms. If that's true, then the temperature in a single-sex classroom could be set to optimize the learning of either male or female students" (1). These observations further support the idea that same sex classrooms can cater to student’s...
It is not a big secret that America’s quality of education is sub-par. According the article, “US 17th In Global Education Ranking; Finland, South Korea Claim Top Spots” by Amrutha Gayathri, it’s obvious from the title alone that the United States is falling behind. Without change, the United States will continue to be behind in education. An issue that currently plagues the American education system is gender bias. Gender bias in schools has been addressed in laws, but it still persists in American schools, such as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the U.S. code Title 42, Chapter 21 regarding Civil Rights. Both laws attempt to discourage gender bias through the illegality of gender discrimination. Title IX addresses bias in federally funded educational and athletic programs in schools and colleges within the United States. Title 42, Chapter 21 of the U.S. Code prohibits discrimination based on gender, age, race, religion, and other characteristics within a number of settings, including education. Despite these laws, gender bias is still prevalent within American schools. A proposed solution to gender bias is gender segregated classrooms, which has proven to be a popular alternative to co-ed classrooms. Leonard Sax, author of “Six Degrees of Separation: What Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences,” is a leading proponent of single-sex schools. Single-sex schools are not without critics though. Jaclyn Zubrzycki’s article, “Single-Gender Schools Scrutinized,” claims that single-sex environments “are not inherently beneficial for boys or most girls.” When considering both Zubrycki’s and Sax’s findings, it would seem that the ideal solution to liberate the American education system of gender...
Many female students fall victim to the gender biased rules. In an article written by Lee Hale for NPR, one teen named Sophie Manoukian in Pasadena, CA, told a local news station that "[i]t 's like girls should be ashamed of their bodies. And even though they presented it like it was about equal opportunity for education, it was about how girls can be distracting and pulled out of class to change." Hale explores the struggles of being an educator and fighting the war against dress code violations. Some of the comments from the educators she spoke with noted confronting students about the dress code were not something that they enjoyed, and that they have encountered negative pushback from female students. There are numerous social media stories like Sophie 's, about a female student who was sent home because she was violating the school dress code. One of the educators Hale interviewed points out the need to take gender out of the dress code and make the rules non-gender specific to ease the perception of gender bias. Uniforms were not mentioned in that article as a potential solution, however, non-gender specific uniforms would greatly assist educators in reducing gender bias. In an essay written by Todd DeMitchell from the University of New Hampshire, he summarizes the positive influence uniforms could have on the gender biases saying that “[a]llowing educators to enact such policies will allow