Welcome Folks!
I'm finishing up my MAT project about gender roles in elementary education. I have observed for many years the tendency of young children to group together along gendered lines; boys play with boys and girls play with girls. As a teacher who has a goal of equalizing gender roles within school and society at large, it has been my goal to research the following ideas:
1. Reasons why gender integration is so eagerly sought after inside of the classroom.
2. Why gender separation occurs once students are left to their own devices.
3. How can teachers foster lasting gender integration routines that the students will follow both inside and outside of class; when directed and left to their own decisions.
In researching these ideas, I have utilized both qualitiative and quantitative research methods. I am an anthropologist by nature, so the bulk of my work has centered on qualitative observation. To be honest, if I could complete this project simply based on my observation, I would feel much more comfortable. Yet, I am a slave to SPSS as are most researchers who must provide statistical/factual data to support the observational truths that are so apparently obvious.
Throughout my research I have fallen in love with a few of the authors who have so awesomely inspired my work: Barrie Thorne and Thomas Newkirk. They are wonderful authors who have much to say on the effect of gender in the classroom. While they take a more focused approach to looking at gender's involvement in curricular matters, I use their work as a basis from which to generalize my theory about gender roles at large in an elementary educational setting.
My results as yet have concluded that while teachers do their best work to inform gender integration (by way of grouping methods, formal and social instruction, and gender education activities--sports and social/home roles), their attempts ultimately fail when the students are left to their own devices to engage in groups for free play (on the playground or elsewhere). The main problem here, is that the students only engage in gender integration when they are encouraged to do so within the classroom setting; they do not wholly choose to play with members of the other gender unless urged to do so from an outside, authoritarian source.
Thus comes my task to develop a program of study for all elementary students that encourages gender integration and appreciation for members of the opposite gender. Yet, while younger students innately judge members of the other gender, it is my goal to allow both boys and girls to get along on equal footing. I'd like to see boys understand that girls can play physically (sports, PE), while I'd like girls to understand that boys are capable of accepting and enacting all social roles otherwise thought to be "womanly" (talking, drawing, etc.).
As I work to complete my project, I will update this blog as to my successes and pitfalls. Hopefully there will be more of the former than the latter! Wish me luck, and comment on anything you'd like!
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A look at gender roles in the elementary school setting: how students form groups along gendered lines and their teacher's responses to the lack of gender integration.
4 comments:
Nice blog Kristen, A great beginning. I look forward to your work evolving. Are you also looking at those kids who seem to fit in better with the opposite gender? I have quite a high percentage of students in my alternative high school class that are gay or lesbian, many have largely been ostracized in comprehensive high schools and even by their families. Although my school is an alternative high school and many students are gang involved, the kids are really tolerant. Just curious...
Hey Kristen! First of all I love the picture you uploaded of you and your dog! My dog is my firstborn even though I have two children! Anyway, to your research project on gender. I have explored this with my sixth graders when researching for my project. I have found that gender doesn't play too much of a role in project-based learning. However, when I see my students at recess, even though they are in sixth grade, the females and the males seem to stay in their respective groups although a few will mingle (this is the age of first boyfriends and girlfriends). I think it is a comfort level that children have. Have you made any connections to what is taught at home regarding gender?
You have an awesome topic that everyone in the education field has to deal with it in their classrooms. I would love to see what results you get. I think that all of this begins at home. Many parents depending on race/ethnicity can play an important role as to what their child chooses and whom they choose to socialize and interact with. This might be a good area to look into.
Kristen, it seems as if the boys and girls at my school stay in gender-separate groups until 5th grade. Of course, around that age, puberty is starting to kick in, as mj also noted. When the 5th graders do regroup by sex, it's usually to discuss boys, at least for the girls. However, there are always a few who decided to cross the gender lines, no matter what their peers think.
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