Proactive Teaching - Gender Bias

Target Audience: Elementary School Faculty & Staff Managed by: Hailey Schwartz

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TEACHERS: A Call to Action

Teachers -

I hope you learn many different aspects of gender bias in the classroom through this blog. I have given many sources in order for you as LEADERS of the classroom to act as leaders in creating an equal and inclusive classroom. Through different video tutorials, links, and my personal writing, I hope you implement what you have absorbed and utilize it in your teaching strategy. Best of luck and remember that the first step to any change is always to acknowledge that there is a gender bias issue in the classroom which YOU and specifically you have the power to overcome.

Thank you for your time and your attention.

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http://humaneeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/WhenIGrow2013.pdf

Here is another incredible classroom activity link that involves children drawing four professions and recognizing gender stereotypes certain career fields may have. Such a great learning experience and is created for children ages Pre-K through 3rd grades. 

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Here is an entire game tutorial called “Boys Like, Girls Like, Kids Like” that is specifically created for children age levels K-2nd grade. This is a great tool to get in a very important lesson about gender roles and how genders are alike/different!

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Eliminate the gender bias around STEM subjects and encourage girls just as much boys to participate in these areas! Female’s desires to pursue STEM degrees and STEM careers starts with you, as an elementary educator!

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Tips for Teaching More Inclusively

Here are some crucial points in order to teach in a more inclusive manner:

1. Expand students’ knowledge of diversity by exposing them to role models through literature, lessons, and guests in the classroom.

2. Ensure any analogies used while teaching do not reinforce heteronormative or gender normative views.

3. Find ways of grouping students in a gender equal manner. Avoid lining up students by using “girls to the right, boys to the left”.

4. Manage activity time to make sure students aren't separating themselves into groups of their same gender.

5. Create a more inclusive way of speaking, avoiding words that separate boys and girls.

6. Be aware of ways you yourself may be supporting any gender stereotypes in your expectations of your students. Also, make sure to intervene if you find a student acting in a gender biased manner.

7. Practice respectful attitudes and behaviors each day in the classroom as it will take time.

Source: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KCiEZZeWit4J:www.glsen.org/download/file/MzE3Mw%3D%3D+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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Gender Bias and Teaching Strategies

Video for Dr. K.'s Class.

Gender bias in the classroom can appear in several ways. Some of the ways this video addresses are:

1. Unconsciously favoring the male population in the class.

2. Referencing or crediting a female’s findings back to a male’s answer or findings.

3. Teaching with an androcentric (focused or centered on men) pedagogy.

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TEACHERS: This is an incredible TED Talk by Rowen Rubien, a senior at the Anglo-American School of Moscow and also the founder of their Gender Equality Club. She has several strong points as a lesson for your teaching and leading in the classroom!

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Tips for Elementary School Teachers

1. First and foremost, create an equal and inclusive environment in your classroom. This includes any hanging representations of gender in examples such as posters, books, toys, etc. When teaching on gender roles, be able to explain both gender biased and gender unbiased examples, such as women working both in and out of the home. And when you do come across moments of bias in your curriculum, UTILIZE this opportunity to teach about biases that may occur! And of course, always keep an unbiased teaching and speaking style, using phrase such as “Okay, everyone” instead of “okay guys”.

2. Secondly, always address your students’ questions and/or concerns they may have. Even if the question makes you uncomfortable, attempt to answer it the best you can in the most gender unbiased way you are able. Another key to children’s questions is to keep parents informed so that they can play their part at home as well!

3. Lastly, do your best to be prepared to deal with discriminatory behavior against the opposite gender. The best way to do this is by being the example role model in the classroom and ALWAYS teaching each and every student equally. You have to keep a balance between not ignoring discriminatory behavior while also not humiliating those who have acted unfairly towards another. Practice a level of empathy and even possible role-playing activities can help the level of empathy the students have for each other as well!

Do these things, and you are on your way to being a leading teacher who role models equality in your teaching as well as your life!

Source: http://www.understandingprejudice.org/teach/elemtips.htm

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This may be a little too in depth for an elementary student, but what an awesome and simple way to introduce the idea of gender in the classroom and create discussion! 

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This young girl, Riley, is questioning the reinforced biases of gender that she experiences and is thinking critically about a subject far beyond her age. How can you, as Riley’s teacher and leader in learning, help her understand these biases? How can you help reinforce her ideas that these biases do not have to necessarily exist?

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NY Times: Dispute on Transgender Rights Unfolds at a Colorado School

How can you ensure “that every child has a safe and supportive learning environment” in your classroom?

NY Times posted an article regarding the controversy of a 10-year old child, Coy Mathis, who was born genetically as a boy but wanted to identify as a female. For more information, read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/us/in-colorado-a-legal-dispute-over-transgender-rights.html?_r=0

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Gaming to re-engage boys in learning

In her talk, Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.

Incredible TED Talk by previous third grade teacher Ali Chessman about how to re-engage boys in their schooling via gaming!

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Current Education Issues: Gender Issues in Elementary Education

In current education issues today gender variances have become fairly common in children of all ages.

Dr. Patricia Fiorello has posted incredible posts via drpfconsults.com including advice on improving gender biases in education!

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A Quick Introduction

The social construction of gender is something we are not born with. The character of our sex, either having male or female reproductive organs, is innate. But, gender is not. But from the time parents have announced the sex of their child, they are gendering them: with pink or blue toys, nurseries, and outfits. The beginning of our education experience also teaches us how to be appropriately gendered, depending on our sex. Our experiences in education can tend to be just as influential as our family, and therefore what they teach us in elementary school and beyond is crucial for the beings we will become in our future world.  

Many elementary educators have a preconceived idea that boys are stronger in certain subjects while girls are stronger in others. As a result, these “stereotypes” end up affecting their ways of teaching. This in turn, typically subconsciously affects the children in the ideas of their own levels of success in school.  This blog’s purpose is to bring to light the several gender biases in elementary education that can mostly be eliminated by the leader of the classroom: the teachers. Once an elementary educator acknowledges that here are biases in the classroom, they can then begin to implement different teaching tactics to lessen them. Developing a fair system will not only help the teacher teach more strongly and equally to each and every student, but will help the students be better prepared for success in any subject or field in their future, not just the ones they have been told they are good at.

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Kindergarten Bias Sets Boys Up For Failure

Academics from the University of Georgia and Columbia University think they have more insight into why girls earn higher grades on report cards than boys do, despite the fact that girls do not necessarily outperform boys on achievement or IQ tests....

This is a link to a study performed that shows a slightly different spin to the gender biases in elementary education than we would typically have come to mind. Both boys and girls are stereotyped, not just one!

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First and foremost, the beginning step for any educator to create a level of gender equity in their classroom is to ACKNOWLEDGE that there is an issue.