Gender Biasness In School: Strategies And Challenges

Gender norms: An issue to be addressed

Discuss about the Gender Biasness in School.

With the change of gender norms, a change in the society is taking place gradually. The families and the communities are being affected by the policies of the gender norms and its impact over the school and other institutions of the state (Hemphill, & Schneider, 2013). In this scenario, a primary school teacher name Jill was quite concerned about the impact of gender norms in the schooling institutions and the ways the students of those institutions demonstrate it. Jill noticed that the gender norms are leaving negative impact on the behavior of the students (Smith & Sobel, 2014; Manning & Butcher, 2013). The educator also noticed that the ways the differences have been drawn between girls and boys regarding the using of book libraries and the computer rooms. Jill in the institution also observed that how students insulting a female class mate for having two parents of same gender. This was quite disrespectful for both child and her parents in this aspect (Hemphill, & Schneider, 2013).

By making such observations, it is important to discuss the various strategies and challenges which could address the problems of the classroom in terms of showing respect to the students and the ways children must understand and learn different skills and knowledge to make their views wider to embrace the differences (Smith & Sobel, 2014).

From the above related issue, where Jill observed some of the embracing situations where the gender gap was established in schools and educators also trying to define it in terms of dividing the activities between the boys and the girls (Carpenter, 2013; Ray, 2015). Accordingly with the change of the system of the society, the students need to understand the need by making their skills and knowledge diverse in order to understand the values and skills. In this sense, the educators are needed to play a vital role in terms of making students convinced about the ongoing situations and how they would be able to address them. Gender norms are termed as a slowly developing concept. This needs to be well explained in the classroom atmosphere to make them enlighten about the meaning of the concept and the ways they need to encourage them for the future prospects. Gender norms is an over generalized term which is considered to be only perfect if a boy or a girl tends to behave according to the norms of the gender. Gender norms are basically based on the expectations of the society (Carpenter, 2013; London et al 2012). In this aspect, Jill also viewed the same thing where the girls are encouraged to play with toys and was pushed to the bookshelf and the boys are encouraged to learn computers. The teachers are also provoking these differences in the classroom by following the gender norms strictly. The primary teaching about the gender norms are generally started from the roots of the family. Children from their birth are presented to the world on the basis of their gender. The biasness takes a strong hold since their birth through the games, toys and also parental modeling (Dury, 2013; London et al 2012). The family teaches their children about the facts of the gender norms where the males are generally likely to incorporate them being resilient and strong. The females on the other hand, being incorporated into thinking that they are being kind and beautiful. These kings of values may hinder the opportunity and development of the child’s thinking power which gradually leads to exclusion and inequality (Dury 2013).

Addressing Gender gap

However, in the learning environment, a teacher’s teaching ability leaves a huge impact on the learning of the students and it also impacts the values and skills of their knowledge. After family, it is the school which comes up with suitable learning processes in order to engage the students in learning various activities and skills (Dury, 2013; Carpenter, 2013) It is the responsibility of the teachers to give support to the environment of learning which should be free from biasness in terms of implementation and teaching curriculum to the students through the mode of interactions or live examples to the classes. Therefore, the students accordingly as well able to challenge the gender inequalities look forward to give promotion to the opportunities and teachers can build an inclusive learning environment for all the students irrespective of their gender and their ability to think about the vices of the gender norms. It is actually a teacher who can build this learning environment in the school (Dury, 2013; Carpenter, 2013).

The process or the ways in which the male and female students build the femininity and masculinity could be further divided the gender. Gender gap is regarded as vital problems in today’s world where the approach made towards building the norms of education, relationship choices and also the choices based on career are subjected to the norms of the gender gap or discrimination (Legewie & Diprete, 2012; Meyer, 2015). The female students are generally encouraged to take humanities or arts subject and on the other hand, the boys are being encouraged to take science and commerce as their subjects because boys have involved them into thinking critically and they have the ability to interpret thinking in a more logical manner (Winchester & Browning, 2015; London et al 2012). The studies have also found that the male students from the background of the working classes have the ability to express their masculinity externally and they usually place their emphasis on their strength and powers. However these students are generally subjected to the less schooling. However, the male students having the middle class background, they are at times introvert and tend to express their behavior which is opposite of the boys who are from the rich class background (Legewie & Diprete, 2012; MacNell, Driscoll & Hunt, 2015).

In terms of gender gap, the educators or the instructors are needed to address these kinds of disparities among the students through the practical classes properly and making them aware about the problems of the society (Legewie & Diprete, 2012). Gender gap in the society is still being considered and with the roper education and understanding of the humanity by making an inclusive form of learning education for the students.

Giving respect to the same sex

Another most important concern about the case study is that about giving respect to the same sex couple and their families. Jill noticed that John criticized Jane for she is having two mothers. This is something serious which a school needs to take care of. With the changing of the world and the society, the thinking power of the human being is developing and this is continuously evolving with time and pace. Accordingly, a transformation mention is also coming in the views of the people (Heaphy, Smart, & Einarsdottir, 2013; London et al 2012) In this respect, the school needs to come up with new education system so that the children can keep pace with the changing mode of reality in the society. The society and the family needs to teach a child about giving respect to the couple of the same gender and their family (Wilkinson & Marett, 2013). An incorporation of the new curriculum needs to be done by the group of educators in order to address these problems and the students need to learn about the changes in the community. The educator can adopt practical classes for teaching the students about how to represent them and pay respect to everyone (Heaphy, Smart, & Einarsdottir, 2013).With the changes brought in the community, the relations between men and women are also being altered. It is henceforth, significant to change the ingrained belief of the people regarding the existing society and for this the students who are the backbone of a nation can develop further their scientific temper and would manage to take initiatives to change the thinking of the world (Heaphy, Smart, & Einarsdottir, 2013).

Families and Parents of the students occupy an integral position in the student’s life. And the success of the students are depended on a more collaborative and interactive environment. Families are considered to be having a wider structure and the educators accordingly can give assistance the students in understanding the differences in the units of the family and the society (Schunk, Meece & Pintrich, 2012; Barac & Biyalistoc, 2012) Children start understanding the notices from their early ages. The educators by noticing these understanding of the children, both the families and the educators can come up with the strategies and guide the students to interpret these differences and also the biases in a much more suitable and healthy manner. A child needs to grow a social identity in order to get suited with the existing diversity in order to develop a good connection with others in the realm of the society (Schunk, Meece & Pintrich, 2012; Barac & Biyalistoc, 2012). Educators also must take the responsibility in developing the language and skills of the children so that they have the capability to interpret their emotional mindset so that they can successfully address the prejudices and inequality independently. 

Role of Families

 The Gayby Project

The Gayby project is one of the tool kits which aim for the students to welcome diverse families. This kit is specialized for the students of five to six years. The project also targets children to who are being brought up by the non- traditional families which incorporate the same sex parents, single parents and also the co parents ("Gayby Baby", 2017). The kit is helpful for the educators to develop strategies in order to give support to the children’s understanding in these particular areas by having an objective of creating an inclusive discussion in the environment of the school ("Gayby Baby", 2017). The program carries an objective for introducing children to the norms of diversities of the non- traditional family through the processing of documentary name “Gayby baby”. This would be later followed by the interactions, role plays and also the discussions. The kit eventually includes

• The worksheets of the students and also the learning plans of the teacher that a teacher needs to introduce to the classes.
• It also includes a number of strategies and the pedagogical based approaches for making the environment of the classroom more inclusive.
• The kit also provides activities related to the short videos which might increase the rational thinking of the students in the classroom ("Gayby Baby", 2017).

Growing ideas outside the textbooks

Texts usually by nature help the students to understand the critical perspectives of life. There are certain text books even which encourage the gender stereotyping. The text books generally convince the students about the representation of the life. It was also been researched that the children are generally sensitive to the biasness of the texts and they tend to think that the views of the educators and the books are superior to them (Branon, 2016). In this modern society, the teachers in general give the students some chance to critically evaluate their thoughts and they are also being encouraged to give their opinions outside the books. This in further gives the impetus to the thinking power of the students which in turn the students grow perspectives about the topics which are under review (Branon, 2016). The students must be given the opportunity to think beyond the outlines of the textbooks and present their dialogues to the classrooms. This in turn would give the students to enhance their knowledge and skills and also at the same time would able to think beyond the topics of their interest. The teachers can guide the students accordingly so that they can able to think and response in a more appropriate manner.

Creating more safer spaces

Educators in order to create a perfect learning outcome in order to address the gender bias stereotype, the spaces should be created by the educators in order to give impetus to the students to participate in the discussion and make good contributions to the ongoing discussions (Roussou, 2015). It has been pointed out that acting through the process of dialogue and waging conversations is an important key to help the students in order to develop the notions and ideas through the process of telling stories, the role playing and also critically evaluating the performances. The students must also share the similar experiences with the peers to understand the depth of the experience (Roussou, 2015). The teachers must come forward and give valuable solutions to the students so that next time they can have ideas to confront any kinds of intolerable situations. The educators must also give real life examples and the examples of many good personalities to make the students stuff with the ideas about the learning environment.

The Melbourne Declaration

The Melbourne declaration looks forward to promote high quality of education to the students and to form an inclusive environment where the students from the all different backgrounds are welcomed to take lesson on an appropriate subject (Curriculum.edu.au, 2017). Irrespective of gender the students must be welcomed to the classroom based on the social religious and cultural diversities (Curriculum.edu.au, 2017). Following are the approaches and strategies that are being followed by the Melbourne Declaration and they are

• The declaration looks forward it makes sense of their students world and accordingly how things evolved to the ways they are.
• A self identity has to be created to make the students aware of their spiritual wellbeing (Curriculum.edu.au, 2017).
• A healthy relationship is needed to be restored with each other.
• The presence of knowledge, skills and the understanding values must be maintained in order to satisfy the lifestyle which should be healthy in nature.
• The Declaration also makes emphasis upon the importance of social, cultural and linguistic diversities of Australia.
• The declaration also look forward to commit into the national values of the country’s democracy, decisions should be made on the ground of equity and justice and the importance of the participation in the civic life of Australia (Curriculum.edu.au, 2017).

The Australian Curriculum

The objectives of the Australian curriculum and it can be applied in both the Health and Physical Education (year 1 and year 2) and the humanities, social sciences (Year 1)

Health and Physical education of year 1 and 2

• Making contribution to the health services to notice the  differences and similarities among the groups and individuals and how they should be respected
• The communication should be waged for the wellbeing and health standard in order to make them feel belonging (Donnelly & Wiltshire 2014).

Humanities and Social Sciences (Year 1)

• Differences in the family structure of the students need to be recognized and how these recognitions would change or remain same with the passage of time (Donnelly & Wiltshire 2014).

Title of the tutorial

Processing the world around you

Objectives

• To understand the vices of Gender biasness
• The session is designed to point out the nature of the students about the gender biasness.
• Guide them properly in order to understand the problems of the society.

Number of participants: 20

Session

A session of questions and answers must be made so that the participants can answer the questions on gender biasness. The following questions are there in the link below.

https://www.playbuzz.com/jamienovack10/how-gender-biased-are-you#half

After the 20 participants answered the questions and now it is possible to judge about their nature of processing the world.

The participants who actively participated in this test seems to accept the biasness of the gender in the society are needed to be taken care of by providing guidelines by discussing the salient points on which they answered.

The questions on the gender biasness need to be discussed thoroughly and would enable the students to learn more about the changes of the society and to deal with the problems of the changing community (Meyer, 2015).

Conclusion

The resources provide the analytical explanation of the understanding of the students about the gender biasness and how the resources should be implemented accordingly to guide the educators in order to teach the students properly to face the challenges of the society. Educators themselves through the modification of their self learning and with the growth of the personal development can guide students in a proper way. However, before the students start studying in the primary schools, the families also at the time play an important role to guide the students in a more proper way. The students need to develop the understanding of the principles of belonging to the family units and must also understand the diversification of the family background of the students. Through the planning of the practical classes the students would be aware about the inclusive education and through the implementation of addressing the issues of gender gap, the students must learn about giving respect to each other’s family and also at the same time the educators would not make differences in the work between boys and girls.

Daniel Koretz on Gender and Education

How expectations and attitudes effect the gender gap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZYC_tgurX4

The Gayby Project

https://thegaybyproject.com/

Teaching Tolerance

Classroom Activity

https://www.tolerance.org/activity/girls-can-be-plumbers

References

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Curriculum.edu.au. (2017). Retrieved 7 August 2017, from https://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Donnelly, K., & Wiltshire, K. (2014). Review of the Australian curriculum: Final report. Department of Education (Ed.). Canberra, ACT: Australian Government.

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Gayby Baby. (2017). Gayby Baby. Retrieved 7 August 2017, from https://thegaybyproject.com/

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