Gender

I was always very interested in the gender courses that I took as a sociology major because the topics discussed seemed so basic, but yet unnoticed. I always found the power that we have as a society in terms of gender fascinating. Individuals are born as either one sex or the other but their "gender" is something that they are socially taught and brought into. I have always found this so interesting because we automatically have certain expectations for males and females, and treat them as such. Therefore we continue this cycle of gender and give a very strict definition of what it means to be male or female.

While I was reading the articles, I began to wonder about age-appropriateness in terms of talking about gender and gender roles. It is hard to articulate what I mean by this, but I'll try to present it in terms of a question: How does the age of children factor into our discussions of gender and our use of literature?

In the Smith article, the girls in the group are 6th graders. Smith writes "the girls teetered on the line between childhood and adolescence." Davies observes (mostly male) pre-schoolers, and Wason-Ellam works with girls in the primary grades. Obviously, each of these age groups read different things and responded in different ways. But how are teachers supposed to react or address the rifts amongst gender, depending of the age of the students? With only a limited knowledge of child psychology, I am wondering if addressing (not "correcting" necessarily) boys' and girls' stereotyped ideas about gender too early leaves them confused rather than enlightened. Is there a base of knowledge about gender that teachers need to work from, or should we intervene as soon as possible in getting students to look at themselves as dynamic within their gender? What affect does it have on their view of themselves, and/or their view of gender?

Saab Commerical

I am dying to share this and it can relate to our class.
Last night I saw a local Saab commercial in which the 'car' was speaking as if it was joining a dating service. Everything was innuendo and in a low, raspy, sexy voice. It was incredibly suggestive and [I thought] inappropriate.
Sex sells and unfortunately this dealership will probably see an increase in sales. This is what little girls look up to.

In response to prompt 9

I am a male teacher who teaches in the elementary grades and I guess that I just got used to the fact that I am always a minority in my workplace. I have asked some of my female coworkers over the years, some questions similar to this prompt. "Why did you become a teacher"? "Why did you become an elementary teacher instead of a high school teacher"? Most of them said similar things. I like children, I like watching them succeed, I wanted summers and holidays off to be with my kids. If you watch tv and movies, FBI field agents are men, CEO's and bank Presidents are men. Men might love their children, but STILL feel like they can be more useful making the money of the house... You don't find that in teaching. Men look at their dads and uncles in the business world, when it comes time to choose a path (at 18 yrs old) they choose corporate over nurturing. AS to why there are less women in math and science, I can't speak for the math but at the school I last worked at, there were 11 women out of 18 science jobs in the middle and high school. My wife has worked for SUNY for 15 years and has worked for female science professors and with female phds in the field of science. I guess my point is that more women appear to be teaching high school science now than ever before which is great, unfortunatly, we will probably continue to see few men in elementary. Partly because of the salary and partly from listening to my guy friends say "my own Kids are hard enough to raise, now why would I want to raise someone elses"

Response to 6

I think we can all agree that whether or not we mean to, we are socializing our students towards certain genders. We absolutely have different expectations for certain genders, and gear them towards certain opportunities. I also notice myself disciplining students in different way sometimes, which I know needs to be reflected on and changed. What makes us feel this way and where are we learning to act on these stereotypes? Why do we give a male some supplies and expect that they will be interested in constructing something, and give a girl a blank piece of paper and expect her to like to draw something pretty? Seems so interesting to me.

In Response to Prompt 9

I find this prompt very interesting because I am always analyzing my own thoughts in terms of math and science. Growing up I was always disinterested in math and science, not because of bad teachers, but because I really felt like I "couldn't" do it. I had so many male friends that loved the subject and in turn, did really well. I have to say that I also had female friends that excelled in these subjects so I have trouble saying that it is completely a gendered situation. I do think that the encouragment level for girls is a little less than the encouragment levels that males recieve towards these subjects. I think that this has more to do with it, and as a society we glorify males in types of professions that deal with math and science, and glorify female professions that deal more with nurturing or teaching. It's all a very interesting stereotype which seems to prove true a lot of times. I do think that we are starting to turn a corner, is this true?

While reading these articles, I was able to think back to my own childhood and reflect on my own gender identity. I was not the typical girl growing up. I had an older brother and I think that had a lot to do with it. First, I hated playing with Barbies. I remember on my fourth birthday one of my friends gave me Barbies, and I immediately cut the hair to a short haircut. I didn't like having those Barbies! Also, my mom dressed me in my brother's "hand me down" clothes, so I was always mistaken for a boy. I had a short hair cut and I commonly wore navy blue and green. My mom still laughs when she tells me about people saying hello to me in the supermarket by saying, "Hey Buddy." I think I can attribute this to my mother being sort of a tom boy growing up and also having an older brother. My mom played many sports and did not take on the traditional female role. My mother was always out on the lawn mower, gardening, and playing soccer with us in our yard.

I think it's a great idea to expose all children to literature that goes against the typical role of a male or female. In exposing children to this literature, they are able to relate it to their personal lives and see females/males in non-traditional roles. This is important because children will be able to make their choice on whether to stay in the traditional role or not. Everyone has a choice in this and I think it's just important that the children know that there is a choice involved. The more the children are exposed to in literature, the more possibilities they will be aware of.

I agree with Tory about gender roles and learning from siblings, parents, caretakers, etc...Many of us and our students learn these particular roles without putting much thought into who (male or female) is participating in what activity. For example, my mom always cooked dinner while my father mowed the lawn. I never put much thought into it because that was just how things were done. These genered positions are what we learned and we are just following what we were taught.

Girls and Science & Math

In response to Prompt #9, I have personally seen the discrepency between male and female math and science teachers. I am a middle school science teacher and I am one of the few females in my district. Also, remembering back to when I was in high school and college, most of my math and science teachers were men as well. I think that one of the major reasons thatthis continues is that as a society, we still reinforce values that steer girls away from these subjects. Most of the famous scientists and mathematicians that children hear about are men. It is not just the exposure to this kind of ideal in school that perpetuates this, think about clothing for kids. You would never see a little girl's t-shirt with huge bugs all over it, unless they are lady bugs or butterflies. I can remember girls in middle school who would pretend to be afraid of spiders not because they actually were, but because they thought they should be. These were the same girls who weren't afraid to touch or pick up a spider when they were younger. It just seems to me that in so many ways, we are saying to kids that science and math are for boys and english and reading are for girls. I think in order to steer kids away from these ideas, we need to break the mold and show the girls that it is ok to be good at science or math and that there are jobs in the world that they can get because of their success. Sorry about the rant, but this is a sensitive topic as a female science teacher.

Discussion Prompt 9

Does it any longer seem "natural" that the teaching profession is occupied mostly by women, especially in elementary schools? Why are there so few female math and science teachers in high schools? Might these facts be related to the "status" of teaching in comparison with other professions? How might these social facts affect teachers' and students' gendered identities in relation to different subject areas and possible selves and possible careers?

Discussion Prompt 8

How do these articles and chapters build upon and extend ideas presented in earlier readings and in our discussions? How do these articles and chapters help you deepen your understandings of earlier readings, say Luke or Reder or Gee or Alvermann or Hicks or Purcell-Gates?

Discussion Prompt 7

Presuming they did, in what did these articles and chapters make you think about how you think about your own gendered identity (as a woman/man both in your everyday life and your teacher life)? If they didn’t talk about that instead.

Discussion Prompt 6

What are some of the ways in which we (and our students) "take up" particular gendered positions without really thinking about them too much?

Discussion Prompt 5

What are the ways in which we can use literature to expose and deconstruct our students’ developing dispositions about gender?

Discussion Prompt 4

Let’s say that we all agree that certain kinds of “boy talk” and certain kinds of “girl talk” are offensive, even dangerous. Let’s say we all also agree that such talk serves important identity functions. We have a disjunction here. What can we as teachers do to with/about this disjunction?

Discussion Prompt 3

Did the stories and curriculum ideas presented by Blair, Blair & Sanford, DeBlase, Wason-Ellam, Smith, and Blackburn change or challenge your thinking about "gender" and about connections between literacy teaching/learning and gender? If so, how? If not, why do you suppose this was the case?

Discusssion Prompt 2

How did gender influence the positioning strategies and developing predispositions enacted by the girls and women described by, Blair, Smith, DeBlase, and Wason-Ellam? What are some of the ways in which they took up particular gendered positions without really thinking about them? How were their gendered understandings, positionings, and practices linked to particular texts and literacy practices? How did the instructional practices (or how would the suggestions for instructional practices) shape or reshape the students' "practiced identities" in relation to gender?

Discussion Prompt 1

Reflect upon the ways in which gender influenced the predispositions and positioning strategies enacted by the boys and men described by Davies and Martino . What are some of the ways in which they took up particular gendered positions without really thinking about them? How were their gendered understandings, positionings, and practices linked to particular texts and literacy practices? How did the instructional practices (or how would the suggestions for instructional practices) shape or reshape the students' "practiced identities" in relation to gender?

Using Blogger

This is definitely the way to go! Thanks, Tina. I'm just testing out the site by letting you know that since I already had a gmail account, I was able to follow the link to the blogsite and then just click new post. It was easy.