[MUSIC] "Celebrating difference". And in this session we're going to focus on gender. Now, the first slide is a useful slide to start off with because it talks about a world of difference and here we talk about gender difference, and boys and girls. I want you to quickly think about if you were to write down the roles of girls and boys with a list - the roles of girls, the roles of boys - what would that list look like if you had to generate one? I'm sure it would be very interesting. Now, if you look at that list again, think about the opportunities you allow for girls, and what you allow for boys. So, let me give you an example: if you spoke about girls being mothers, looking after children, staying at home, and cooking - would that be limiting their opportunities to get a further education? To be doctors in our societies? To be teachers in our societies? By looking at boys as bread-winners, as courageous, as brave, occupying all the top jobs in our society. Look at the access and expectations you've created for boys. Now, in just that exercise, can you see the gender differentials? Just by looking at roles and expectations and opportunities, you've opened up a whole different space for boys, and a different space for girls. But with maturation that is happening at the moment, girls mature quicker. So at the same age of twelve, girls are more mature than boys. And think about the issues in the class, when looking at gender and the gender differential, of what are some of the dynamics that become operational in your class. Now, the new research - and there's a whole lot of new research that talk about the areas of the brain involved in language, spatial memory, motor coordination and getting along with people develop in a different order, time and rate in girls compared to boys. In other words, sex differences diminish as a function of age. And that is a useful slide to help us in terms of how we think about boys and girls. Now, I want you to go back again and think about what are the cultural factors that influence how we treat boys and girls in our own classroom. Think about your family, think about yourself as you were growing up: how were boys and girls brought up? What were some of the toys they played with? What were some of the roles they had to do when they were at home? What were some of the responsibilities they were given? In what ways were girls given more privileges than boys? In what ways were boys given more priviliges than girls? Can you think of those? Think about the media - here, I want you to think about how men and boys are represented in the media, and how girls are represented in the media. Think about some of the images of beauty, for instance, how girls are constantly portrayed as very slim and very thin, whereas boys are presented in whatever body shape. Now, that has implications for boys and girls, because girls are constantly told: "This is the image that you need to look like", whereas boys are not given the same message. In some ways we could say that media, and the images of men and women, priviliges men, and at the same time puts a whole of strain on young girls growing up. If one just has to think about eating disorders, which is largely amongst girls, and you can see the influence there. Now, in schools, how do you look at the differences between boys and girls? When you choose prefects or school leaders, who are the students that are chosen? Are they largely boys? Are they only boys? Or are they boys and girls? Do you also see the ability of girl students to play leadership roles in your schools? Now, all of this is linked to societal expectations, social behavior and also the peer groups. All feed into how we treat boys and girls within our schools and our societies. I'm going to spend some time on gender representation. In our previous session we looked a little bit at race and the representation of people of color. For instance, in textbooks, in history. Think about gender representation in textbooks. In accounting, are the examples always the examples of businessmen rather than also businesswomen? Think about the images in media and the images also on our classroom walls. Think about the expectations about achievement. What do they expect of girls? What do they expect of boys? Do they have far more expectations for boys to go far, much more than girls or are the expectations equal? What are some of the preconceptions about behavior? I remember when I was very young my sister often would love to play outside, but she wasn't allowed to. She had to stay in and she had to help my mother with the cooking and cleaning of the house. And I was allowed to play. Often, when I talked to her much later, she would always tell me how much she envied that I had the freedom to go outside and play, whereas she didn't. Now, think about the preconceptions about behavior. When girls are assertive, when girls have an opinion, do you silence them? Because there's a preconception about behavior, about boys and girls. What are some of your responses in your teaching style? Do you privilege or pay attention far more to boys than to girls, or do you give equal attention to boys and girls? Do you have some stereotypical information that, if I ask questions, if I ask closed-ended questions I should ask them to the boys because they'll give me a clean yes or no answer. And if there was an open, quantitative question that I will ask girls because they will be able to give me a far more profound answer, a far more complicated answer. Is that something you work with in your classroom? I want you to think about the textbooks you use, the stories you tell, or the images you present. Do they perpetuate or challenge gender stereotyping? Think about it. Are all the heroes in the books about how boys rescue girls? There are many brave and courageous girls as well, you know. Do we tell those stories? Do we tell the stories about how young girls are able to climb trees, and to take on particular positions? Think about, do your expectations of girls and boys differ? There are many common misconceptions about achievement in different subjects. Could this have any influence on how you assess your pupils ability? Do you have the false assumption that girls will not be as good as boys in maths and in science? In many schools that still happens. I recall at a girls' school I taught at, that girls were not encouraged to do maths and science, but the boys' school that was across the road every boy, whether they were good or bad at maths, had to do mathematics and science. Now, what do you think drove that decision? What do you think those schools and those teachers believe about girls and boys in their subject choices? Of course, the school that I was at, the girls were encouraged to do consumer studies, or home economics, and those were associated with how to cook or how to sew, but in boys' schools that was not something that was offered. So, it makes us think a little bit about how our schools also can prepare boys and girls for two very different roles and responsibilities. Think about, how you respond to or interact with your pupils in your class. Are you conscious of any occasions where you'd respond differently to boys than girls? Perhaps you may be guilty of some of the things that I've mentioned in this lecture. Which pupils do you interact with most and why? What questioning techniques do you use? Would you ask complicated, open-ended questions to boys as well as girls? How do you perceive boys' behaviour in contrast to girls'? Are girls expected to be much quieter? Are girls expected to be submissive? Do you encourage girls to take risks and to be courageous? Do you reward compliant behavior in boys? When boys choose not to be courageous or to be sporting, do you reprimand them? Or do you look at alternative options for them? Perhaps, there's drama club, or music. So, you encourage boys and girls, and not encourage boys and girls in the very specific misinformed roles that we have grown up with. The different approaches you use in a classroom, do some work better with boys than girls? And perhaps there are. Perhaps one of the things you could be looking at is "How do I build on this?" Do you use a variety of assessment factors to make judgements about pupils, both boys and girls? Remember, polarized approaches to education fail to recognize a middle ground for children who are not strongly gender typed as masculine or feminine. The aim should be not to only stop labeling children as such, but also to accept and encourage androgynous behavior for both genders. And this is particularly in the early years, when boys and girls are learning about their own gender identity. Perhaps we need to allow them that space to explore that identity for themselves, rather than for us to punish, and box them, really early in age. So, look at the words in this table: which do you associate with girls, and which do you associate more with boys? Think about some of the words. And I'm going to pick up on one: Gentleness. Who would you associate "gentleness" with? Boys or girls? And why? So, the whole point of this lecture is how do we treat boys and girls in our class? Do we have very specific roles for them? And how do those roles inform the expectations and the opportunities that they will have? [MUSIC]
