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| Gender in the Classroom http://forum.gayleturner.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=4763 |
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| Author: | Brynne Pulver [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Gender in the Classroom |
As a precursor to our new discussion topic of gender, I was wondering, Have any of you ever been in a classroom (or known anyone who has been in a classroom) where the teacher seemed to prefer a certain gender? I have never been in such a classroom, but I know several of my friends from high-school who used to complain that certain teachers seemed to be blatantly treating the other gender better. |
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| Author: | Maria Parker [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:13 pm ] |
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I've never had an encounter with that. Well, I guess being young and in Elementary School, I never noticed if it did. I know some people who have had situations like that. I'm curious about other people and their experiences with this as well. |
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| Author: | Paige Colbath [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:29 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I have never had an encounter with that in any of my classrooms either. I do know some teachers (especially in high school) who did prefer one student over the other just because of gender. There was a young and new teacher at my high school, and although I never had her, I heard a lot about her class. She seemed to prefer any guy over any girl, and flirted endlessly with all of the senior guys. It was mostly "jocks" in her class, and they probably wouldn't have made good grades in the first place, but somehow they all ended up with A's. I would have hated to have been in that class (being a girl), I think it would have been very frustrating. One of my friends was in that class, and no matter how hard she tried the teacher never acknowledged her good work--very unrewarding. I think as teachers we need to stray so far away from having any preferences in our classroom. |
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| Author: | katie h lewis [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:46 pm ] |
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I have never personally experienced gender bias in the classroom. However, I did have a simular experience to you Paige. During my senior year of high school a new, young, attractive teacher came to our school to teach english. Many of my guy friends instantly fell in love with her because of the extra attention she seemed to show all the guys in her class. From what I was told this teacher would laugh and joke around with all the guys in class and never really held them accountable for any type of assingments. If I had been in this class this would have been very frustrating to watch and be a part of. I would have been outraged if I had to sit there and complete my assingments while all the boys just got to cut up in the corner with the teacher! I really think it is important for teachers, especially young ones, to draw a fine line between teacher and friend. Especially in today's society when it is very easy to say the wrong thing to the wrong person, and wind up in a whole mess of trouble!!! |
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| Author: | Kristen Bumgarner [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:51 pm ] |
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I have experienced gender bias in my highschool. It wasn't much more than she talked to male, baseball players and made them seem a little more special in the classroom. I think she felt this way though due to personal reasons from her family though. I have also had teachers in middle school who have seemed to favor boys more because the "couldn't stand the drama of those middle school girls!" When I look back I can halfway understand why she felt this way but it still doesn't justify her way of teaching. I feel that since the schools that I grew up in didn't have much of any change in diversity other than gender that this was all that our teachers really had to look at and judge. |
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| Author: | zach yokley [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 5:10 pm ] |
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From what I remember nothing like that happened in high school, but I have had a few professors here at app that were preferential to one gender over another. And in theses instances the bias seemed to be limited to the calling on one gender over another. So I have never seen extremely blatant sexism in the classroom. |
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| Author: | Lianna Beard [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 7:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I have sadly experienced a gender bias. Both male classmates and male teachers, that I have had in the past, have preferred male company. I do not say this to be cocky or rude, but I know I am an intelligent human being. This being said, when I am ignored because of my gender I become quite irritated, and rightly so. I never said many positive things about a particular teacher, in high school, who required we call him Coach. I remember a particular project where "Coach" was more, should I say, complimentary towards the males in the classroom, but in particular the athletic males. I know there are instructors and teachers in this world who are biased towards males and others who are biased towards females; however, in my experience I have only seen a negative bias toward females in my classes. |
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| Author: | Cory Rycroft [ Sun Nov 16, 2008 6:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Coming from a PE perspective, I would think that some physical education classes experience some bias toward the male athletes or female athletes depending on what sport the PE teacher was coaching at the time. The coach may let his/her athletes of the class get out of doing the physical work that the non-athletes have to do on a day to day basis just to keep them fresh for practice or game. |
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| Author: | Jennifer Redmond [ Sun Nov 16, 2008 6:59 pm ] |
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I disctinctly remember a certain elementary school physical education teacher who would not let the girls play football. Instead, he would send us off to the soccer field or the softball field (by ourselves mind you) while he stayed to coach the boys in a football game. If any girls asked to play football he wouldn't allow it. |
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| Author: | Emily Fox [ Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:43 pm ] |
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I did a paper for another class recently on the differences in learning for boys and girls. We were supposed to think about our past experiences and discuss whether we noticed some of the things that some articles we read spoke of. I noted that I remember many of the "troublesome" kids being boys...and then related that to the tendency for male learners to need extra nurturing, visual images, and interactive activities. They became distracted and bored and therefore, got in trouble more. Because of this, it seemed that teachers favored girls over boys. The girls in the class tended to be the ones who always wanted to help the teacher or could concentrate on a worksheet or reading long enough. I think teachers unintentionally tend to show preference for students based on their abilities to perform in the environment the teacher has created for them. Maybe instead of falling into that, we should step back as teachers and reevaluate whether a certain gender type "does better" at something or whether we're just not teaching in the most appropriate way for everyone. |
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| Author: | Jessica Mundy [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:01 am ] |
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I have never really experienced gender bias, but I have experienced other biases. I had the cheerleading coach for Spanish in high school and she seemed to favor the cheerleaders. I think that a lot of times teachers do favor individuals whether they realize it or not. I have heard from some people that female teachers generally favor their male students. I have never noticed this though. Actually, I have always thought the opposite. I have always seen teachers call on girls more often to answer the questions. I also think that female students are often labeled as teachers' pets because they are the ones who the teachers favor. I think as teachers we have to become very aware of all these biases so that we treat all our students equally. |
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| Author: | Heather Rulifson [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:26 am ] |
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I had a history teacher in high school who was the baseball coach. It seems as though he spent more days out of school with his team than he did in the classroom. He tended to favor the jocks as well as pretty, smart girls. I also had a PE coach who often divided up the girls and the boys when it came time to learning different sports. The girls played tennis and volley ball while the guys had free time in the gym. The guys wrestled while the girls had to embarrassingly stand in the hallway located in front of the main entrance to the school (with a lot of foot traffic) and do aerobics to a Richard Simmons tape. A lot of gender biases occurred in the classroom, but I was oblivious at the time. |
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| Author: | Heather Holland Crow [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:25 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I can only think of one class where a teacher favored girls over boys. The teacher was much more friendly and much more responsive to girls. I wouldn't say it affected the boys' or girls' grades, but it was more of a social aspect in the classroom. For instance, it was obvious that the teacher talked to girls more and got to know girls better. I really do not know what this stemmed from, but it was obvious to everyone. However, no one ever said anything about it to the teacher, but everyone knew who the teacher's favorite girls were. As an elementary school teacher, I do not believe I will do this. I have been around enough children in my life that I can value and respect boys just as well as girls. I do not buy into the whole "boys are smarter at math and girls are smarter in language arts." While socialization may play a role in these things, once boys and girls are equally educated in the classroom, they have the same chance of excelling at either one or both. It is important for us to remember that boys may bring different things to the classroom than girls do and vice versa. We should value and respect those, but not hold them in higher esteem against the other sex. |
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| Author: | Tracy Gardo [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:26 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I have had a few teachers, sadly, who seem to favor a group of students over another. The first on I remember was my sixth grade social studies and English teacher, she was the first (and only) African America teacher that I had and she definitely favored the minority studies more than the white ones. She once even told us that we should be ashamed of ourselves for being white (not in those exact words but that was the point). She also once told us that she could get ketchup removed from the cafeteria if she wanted, because she was old and black (and those were her words). When it comes to gender differences, the only place I ever noticed it was in high school. I played sports so of course I knew a lot of the coaches very well and sometimes they would have me run errands for them instead of sitting in class. I never missed any work, but again I didn’t have to sit in class. You might consider this favoritism, but the only reason they would allow me to do this is because I did get good grades, and it probably didn’t hurt that I knew them and they knew me. However, I do know that some of the baseball and boy basketball players did receive special treatment, not only getting to skip class but also not having to make up work. They were not always making good grades, but they still got to miss class (normally English). I would hope that in my class I don’t show favoritism to one gender, race, etc.. This not only hurts the students but also gives you less credit as a teacher. |
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| Author: | Maria Parker [ Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
In reading other people and their posts I did have a few teachers like that. One was a coach in high school who favored the pretty girls that wore revealing clothing. He was eventually asked to leave the school. Also, I had a female teacher that seemed to have good intentions with everyone, but she loved sports. All we heard about while we were in there was what was going on with the male athletes. When one of them in the class would score, she would go and buy them a soda out of the vending machine. It annoyed the rest of the class....the majority of which were not atletes. We accomplished many things as well, but since they weren't sports related, it didn't seem to matter. Did I ever get talked about for 20 minutes of her class for going to a solo festival and receiving a superior rating for singing? I don't think so! |
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| Author: | CaseyDavis [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
In high school I did have one teacher who would show guys more attention than girls. The teacher was a woman, but I really don't feel as if it was like a sexual attraction she just in general seemed to like girls more. Also, it was the guys who played sports who seemed to gain more attention as well. I believe that we will all struggle with these situations, and I don't feel like not one person can really say that they will not ever show a bias. |
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