Reflective Research Paper
Gender biases are a problem in many schools and gender equity has been used to help remove those biases. Equity refers to having equal expectations and treating students of different sexes and cultural backgrounds equally. Gender biases have been a problem in education for years. In the past boys and girls have had different expectations when it comes to education. Boys have generally been taught to take leadership roles and girls to take more passive roles. In recent years gender equity has helped remove gender biases from the classroom, giving boys and girls a more equal type of education.
In 1972 Congress passed Title IX, which forbids any type of gender discrimination in an educational setting that is receiving federal financing (Ryan & Cooper, 2000). Educators David and Myra Sadker say boys and girls have very different educations even though they use the same textbooks, sit in the same classrooms, and have the same teachers (Weiss, 2001).
Unfortunately gender biases still exist in classrooms and boys seem to benefit from them more than girls. The Sadker’s research shows that teachers tend to call on boys more than girls. They say this is because boys are more assertive and demand more attention by speaking out of turn to the teacher (Weiss, 2001). When girls call out answers it is shown teachers are more likely to point out their inappropriate behavior and not answer them, where boys generally do not get redirected and get better feedback from the teachers than girls do. Boys may also tend to have more interactions with teachers than girls and are more likely to dominate the classroom (Ryan & Cooper, 2000). Teachers have also been shown to praise boys for doing we...
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Title IX is a federal law that states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Summing that up, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education. Title IX has banned sex discrimination in schools since 1972. Title IX is best known for parceling obstacles in sports for women and girls, it also ameliorates for girls to pursue math and science, requires fair treatment for pregnant and parenting students, and protects students from bullying and sexual harassment, among other things. Title IX applies to all educational institutions. Both public and private,
“Title IX is a law passed in 1972 that requires gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding” (“History”, Part. 2). Title IX covers 10 different aspects of gender equality (“History” Par. 3 ). The different aspects are: Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Standardized Testing and Technology, Sexual Harassment. One of the hardest areas to regulate is sexual harassment and assault because once it occurs there isn’t a lot you can do for the victim.
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In the Washington post, the essay “Why Schools Are Failing Our Boys” relates to the study of the “boy problem” Fink’s concern is that boys have a harder time in school, causing them to drop out or not go on to college. I agree with Fink’s concern because of the mistreatment of genders and the pressure put on students as a whole. Based on class readings, it has been illustrated that throughout history boys felt as though school made them feel less masculine. From what I have personally seen in school, boys are constantly being told to “man up”. I feel as though boys are expected to act a certain way, and all students are expected to conform to a certain type of learning.
Education was sex segregated for hundreds of years. Men and women went to different schools or were physically and academically separated into “coeducational” schools. Males and females had separate classrooms, separate entrances, separate academic subjects, and separate expectations. Women were only taught the social graces and morals, and teaching women academic subjects was considered a waste of time.
A teachers thinking and actions can be directly affected by just having the knowledge of the stereotype of girls not being better in math than boys, and as a result will have an effect on how their female students perceive themselves. Some female students often feel the pressure of knowing that these stereotypes exist so they put extra pressure on themselves not to fall behind or fail at math. As a result
Some boys around the age of seven, are reported to believe that their male peers are better at math than fellow female students. As for girls at this age, believe that both male and female students are equally capable in math, until the age of 10. This is where female students begin to believe that males students are better in the math areas. However, during adolescence years, boys begin to agree that girls and boys are equally good at math, as girls continue to state males are more successful in math (Saucerman and
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...
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In school, as a woman if I need to go to the bathroom, but it’s not emergent to ask to go to the bathroom, I won’t go, but if I ask to go to the bathroom, it’s for a reason I’m a woman, we have those months we can’t control so using the bathroom or, being equal to someone of the other gender will make us feel much better all women want is to feel just as equal as everybody else. It’s been stated that over the past decades schools have tried to equal out the amount of attention men and women get but there still are education gaps in the education. But as the women are being more equal the men are starting to fall in their education as well. Time magazine states that boys are more likely to be expelled from preschool than girls in k-12 boys have a 70% rate for suspension likely due to defence and
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