#fieldwork4

[oliverjah-anthropology-blog]

Question 6. After evaluating the class I do not believe the instructor takes into consideration their gender. Like I said previously she tends to just call on whoever has their hand raised first, and whoever raised their hand after is able to speak. Though it was mainly women who spoke, it was not because the instructor is a woman.

[jazzdaathlete]

Language & Gender in Classroom

The class i chose to make my observations on was my English class with Professor Matunda. This class meets Mondays,Wednesdays, and Fridays at 1:00-1:50pm. While i was observing, I noticed there were 14 females and 5 males that were in the class.

In class we’re reading a novel called “ Their Eyes Are Watching God” and dicussing about marriage, relationship, and sisterhood. The way the professor approaches the class, he talks in a very low voice with no aggression. However, he has a strong Kenya African accent which makes it harder to understand him when he teaches. Even though he has a strong accent, he tries to communicate with us by writing it on the board, or repeating whatnhe asked more than once. In the class, the females are more responsive to the questions he asked unless he chooses a boy to answer.

The males in class barely speak due to the fact there are majority girls in the class that speaks out openly. On the topic we discussed on Friday, 3-5 females spoke towards the topic of marriage and loyalty. Each female spoke about 50 words in full detail. However, on the male side was totally different. They would rebuttal with short answers that included about 20 words, which only one male spoke out that day out of 5 males that attended class. The way the females spoke, they spoke clearer with assertive tone while the males spoke low voices but still made sure they made their point of view clear on the topic. I also, noticed the position of where the males would seat and the females; females would we seated near the professor up front filling the seats while males would go straight to the back of the class.

I also observed that the professor, when teaching, would only chose the females to answer the questions or to read instead of the males; Possibly because females were right in the front. At first the professor wouldn’t pick anybody to do anything because the females in the room would already be engaged into the lesson and answer themselves, but however , if nobody answers his question or volunteer to read he’ll choose somebody randomly. Most of the time when he speaks to the class he makes great eye contact and vice verses.

Furthermore, in my opinion I dont believe his gender has to do with anything on how he communicates and teaches the class, but I do feel as though his culture is really what impacts on how he tries to teach.

[findlaterashley-blog]

Language and Gender in the classroom

The class I decided to observe this week was my English class. In this class, in total, the number of times men participated in the class discussion was 5 times and the number of times women spoke was 3 times. The men in the class spoke more times than the women in this class. The men usually spoke for 20 seconds or less using 15-20 words, while the women spoke from 20-30 seconds using 20-25 words. The women took more time explaining their answers to the class while the men focused more on giving straight simple answers. The men didn't feel the need to explain further than just answering the question. They didn’t want to put more thought into what they were saying if they had done the bare minimum. The teacher had to keep asking them questions in order to get a full answer out from them. As opposed to the women, who wanted to share more and sometimes even related their personal life to their answer. Women made sure their bodies were facing the professor when they were speaking and used their hands while explaining. As opposed to the men who tended to be more hunched over and spoke with just their head facing the professor. Women used understanding and open ways of speaking while the men used more assertive tones. I had a female professor who was more open to calling on men because it seemed as though she wanted to add them to the conversation. She engaged and encouraged the men to speak more and called on them more. The professor was standing and would lean in closer and gave them direct attention when speaking. When speaking to women, she was still interested but she seemed more relaxed when talking as if she didn’t have to work as hard to pay attention and listen. She called on men 3 more times than she did women. I think gender does influence the way the professor interacted with the students. I think that the fact that women would be more comfortable in the small discussion class and because it was a bit more intimate they would naturally participate, more. Therefore calling on men more is an attempt to include them and make them more interested in participating. I don’t think the professor did it on purpose but it was more of an instinct to call on men more because otherwise, they wouldn’t speak as much.

[mallyakito-blog]

A brief summary of notable non verbal communication I observed in one day. The gestures were experienced at both work and school.

  The face palm and its variants.

We’ve all been there before. Sometimes you hear something so incredibly….. “are you serious???!” that the only possible response is closing your eyes and trying to wish the speaker out of existence. Usually my response when listening to customers at work. The associated emotion is incredulousness.

   Also common, pointing with the whole hand. This is indicates disbelief with a health mix of disagreement. 

BYE!!

(Enough said) 

   A shrug and raised hands. The gesture can have several meanings but primarily indicates some form of apathy to the current situation. The secondary emotion is usually amusement, or resignation, or annoyance.

Bonus image. 

It might not be a hand gesture, but the side eye is too iconic and occurred to many times to not include on the list. Frequently (very, very, frequently) used to silently express disbelief towards whatever nonsense the speaker is stating.