Feminism and teaching

[yellowraincoat]

Hello all,

I have a question that I thought fellow teachers might be able to help me with, or anyone else who has ideas. Don't worry if you're not a teacher, any ideas more than welcome.

I've been teaching English as a Second Language for some time now. Mostly to adults, but I've now moved onto kids and I'm going to be doing my PGCE in primary teaching come September.

It is really important to me to try to ensure equality between sexes in the classroom. Something I've noticed though is that even at the age of 7 or 8, the boys are putting their opinions forward more vociferously and demanding more attention than the girls. This is something I really want to work on. The girls seem to be so shy and quiet, even if I ask them a question directly they will be too shy to answer. Meanwhile the boys are shouting the answer out as soon as it's asked.

I already try to ask the girls for their answers before the boys, I have systems to stop people shouting out.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for what I can do? For this particular issue and other activities that increase the girls' confidence too. And any other feministy teaching activities.

It makes me so sad that at such a young age the girls have already learnt to not put their opinion forward. It seems to be a universal theme across continents and ages.

Thanks all!

You really can't stand over the kids and make them answer if they don't want to! But you might try announcing that you aren't hearing from the girls enough, and from now on, you want answers to come from girls and boys, in alternate turns. Then if the boys will shut up (but will they?) you might find a few girls who are willing to open their mouths. And then you could say, "Lucy and Marie are showing that they know something, how about some of you others?" But you probably can't say, "Yes you, trying to hide behind the kid in front of you." Probably some of them will just be hopelessly shy.

No hands rule (you pick someone), talk partners, shared talk, everyone show answers in whiteboards - lots of good ways to help all children (inc quiet ones and less confident ones) be heard.

I've seen some classrooms where the pupils' names are written on lollypop sticks and then chosen at random by the teacher. This helps with the calling out too, as the children know there is no point.

I do lolly sticks. Ask the question first, give everyone a chance to think, then pick a stick. Give time to answer. Put the lolly stick back, so equal chance of being picked again. No chance to relax! And then I might ask a directed follow up question to someone else. I like show me cards too.

I was about to say lolly sticks.

I think the idea of getting children to think about their answers first, write on whiteboards or do partner work is good, because it encourages everyone to think their answer is valid.

I'm guessing the main thing is to be aware of the issue and offer children the same opportunities at all points - (sorry, I am going to go off topic now)
I was upset, I think is the word, to find that in a recent class play DD did, the boys were all offered stereotypical boy parts, and the girls were offered stereotypical girl parts. I watched it with a sense of unease bordering on dismay [as part of the 'girl' bit included a hairdresser/beauty salon], even though the children were brilliant and a lot of work had gone into it.

DD told me later that she had wanted one of the 'boy' parts but she wasn't even given that choice.

I realise this goes beyond what you ask, but I guess your post has worried me that, even at a basic level of answering questions, there is a gender issue. DD's report stated that she was 'quiet and well-mannered', which I now wonder what that means for her academically.

Actually, I disagree- I encourage shouting out in my lessons, as it builds children's skills to notice and listen to each other. Putting up hands is too much of an artificial construct, and does nothing to develop skills outside of the classroom. You will still need to guide them, but after a while, you notice a big improvement in not talking over one another. Essentially, it teaches them conversational and debating skills.

A really good exercise to reinforce this is to use a circle time activity (can't recommend circle time enough, as long as it's proper circle time, not just kids in a circle!) where the children sit in silence and one by one stand up. They must use non-verbal cues to communicate their intention to stand up with the other children; if two or more stand at the same time, they must all start again from the beginning.

IME, boys need to develop listening and turn taking skills, and girls need to feel that what they are saying is worth listening to (something boys (rightly) seem to assume). Of course, these are massive generalisations, and each child has different needs and abilities, but it can be a struggle to divide your time equally between boys and girls, particularly when girls seem more able to work quietly and independently without actively seeking teacher approval.

I think dd's teacher has lolly sticks but also you can stick your hand up to ask or comment if you need to.

Guys, thanks for these suggestions, they're great.

Ime sitting students in alphabetical order or similar is really good for this. For most things I prefer to let them sit in friendship groups, but for equality of opportunity there's nothing like a mixup and arranging students alphabetically, while it may seem draconian, is so effective. They will grump about it at first, but once set a task, they generally seem to work much more comparably genderwise. The girls don't huddle together and hide (sorry for generalising) and act more independently, and the sort of boy who may be quite bolshy around his mates will listen more.

I'm secondary btw, interesting thread.

But don't always start things from the start of the alphabet - studies suggest that the cumulative effects of being chosen first, coming at the top of lists, and in some cases being seated nearer the front of the class, give people with surnames near the start of the alphabet a small but statistically significant advantage in life. (I say this as a bitter end-of-the-alphabet student!)

I'm secondary but have done a little bit of year 5/6. I usually arrange my classes in groups, making sure that each group has a fairly even gender split as well as ability split (mostly we're in groups of 4 with 2 boys and 2 girls if possible, then ability wise we have 1 top end, 2 middlish and 1 bottom end pupils in each group). The groups always have to agree on any answer to a question that is set, and ime this gets the girls talking more as they only have to speak to 3 other people rather than 29 others. They all also seem to realise that the girls are right just as often (if not more often) as the boys (I teach maths btw so there are definite right and wrong answers, not just opinions)

I also use the lollipop thing that's already been suggested, lots of pair work, mini whiteboards so everyone has to give an answer (I probably use these too much actually as I love them )

You will probably need to be aware that focussing on helping girls will not be a particularly popular approach in many schools as girls perform significantly better at GCSE and A level than boys do, so a lot of schools and LAs have boys achievement as a particular target, ours definitely has had this year. Everything i have done this year has had to have a slant of 'how will this improve boys achievement?', so I have had to spin all of my strategies as 'developing boys' listening skills' (while also encouraging girls to share their opinions). At the moment all the teachers I speak to seem to be saying the same thing about the focus at their school being avoiding disenchantment in boys, challenging boys' involvement, improving academic outcomes for boys. It's rather soul destroying :(. I sincerely hope this trend is only in my area and not a massive national trend.

Ooh, you want StickPick for iPhone/iPad: random picker and bloom's taxonomy!

I do a mixture of all methods depending on activity/mood.

I teach secondary science - an odd area for feminism, since the majority of top science jobs are held by men, yet science education is dominated by women/girls.

In my experience, confidence/participation is pretty equal between the sexes, in my classroom at least.

If I do any sort of competitive game, I do boys versus girls. The boys then don't get a chance to shout over the girls' contributions as they are on a different team and the girls get a chance to have their say.

The girls often win, which is interesting as the boys seem to be more competitive.