Entry #20 - ESSAY ON GENDER DIVERSITY IN EDUCATION

Essay.
Topic: Gender diversity in education

On an intellectual level, most of us realize that in order to be fair and equitable, we need to have an equal representation of men and women. However, even in modern times, this is not always the case. The experiences afforded to girls and boys within schools are known to affect directly to their notion of gender. This essay will explore the gender stereotypes that the classroom displays between male students and female students and will suggest different strategies to implement so as to balance out this matter.

Schools are major contexts for gender socialization, in part because children spend large amounts of time engaged with teachers and peers. Teachers and peers directly influence gender differentiation by providing boys and girls with different learning opportunities and feedback during the time they share in school. Teachers and peers are sources of learning about gender. Teachers present curricular materials that contain gender stereotypic behaviour, and peers exhibit gender stereotypical attitudes and behaviour. Children internalize both inputs, which in turn guide their own preferences and behaviours.

Teachers’ gender stereotypes shape their classroom behaviour. Teachers often exhibit differential expectations for males and females, for example by using materials that facilitate gender-differentiation (jobs, clothing, etc). Furthermore, teachers use gender to label and organize students which facilitates children’s gender biases, for example, greeting children with “Good morning, boys and girls” or asking children to line up by gender. Several studies have shown that children whose teachers labelled and used this kind of gender differentiation showed higher levels of gender stereotyping.

Schools have to bear in mind that they are responsible for magnifying or diminishing gender stereotypes.  These kinds of stereotypical attitudes can affect a young person’s classroom experience, academic performance, subject choice and well-being. The assumptions schools make about boys and girls may be conscious or unconscious and can result in students being treated differently or offered different opportunities based on their gender. If children saw more examples where gender is not divided into male and female groups, that would give them a greater sense of inclusion among their peers and with themselves.

Given these points, it is important to tackle this issue right from a child's early education since their perception of others and their own perception, and the development of their adult life will be influenced by the experiences acquired in the classroom during their early lives. Therefore, the avoidance of stereotypical attitudes is very important in order to achieve inclusive values among young generations. Hence, the usage of gender-neutral resources should be encouraged by teachers so as to change the gender’s division paradigm. It is clear that this change will not happen overnight, however, schools need to try to change their mindset in order to shorten the gap between sexes.