RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2009)

Kelly,

I think you are exactly right, that gender stereotypes exist because many, not all, but many kids fit well into these stereotypes. Typically in my class, my boys have more behavior issues than my girls do. That's not because of any stereotype, it is just the way things are. Probably has more to do with hormones than anything else. Since we can't control hormones in our kids, we have to look for other options.

I hadn't really thought about it much more in depth than that, I just always kind of accepted the fact that boys tend to be more rowdy than girls and that's why they get into trouble more and dislike school more. I never really considered that the fact that I am a girl may help me relate to my female students more easily than the males, but that makes perfect sense. I really admire men who are willing to go into the teaching profession especially in the lower elementary, but they are rare. These little boys really need male role models and some of them don't have dads to fill that place. I don't have any sons so that probably makes it more difficult for me to relate to my boys at school and understand how boys are.

I know it's always sort of annoyed me for an adult to blame a boy's bad behavior on the fact that he's just "all boy". You rarely hear somebody say that a girl is just all girl because of her behavior. Is is okay for boys to run wild just because they are boys?

I really think that each child is unique and has special learning needs; not just the boys, not just the blacks, not just the Hispanics, and so on. Even a middle class American white girl has needs and issues and her own learning style. With the way our education systems works now, there is only so much individualization we can provide, especially with limited resources and high class sizes.

I agree with you so much that it does seem to be the boys who get lost along the way, more often than girls, and lose interest in school. I think in middle and high school they have sports to connect with but in elementary, there isn't much outside the classroom walls to make them feel excited about school, especially if academics are difficult for them.

Lorie Hedrick

You mention hesitancy at stereotyping male/female learners. In our classroom, we say a stereotype is “when you take what is true for some people in a group and make it true for all people in that group, without getting to know them.” I think to a certain extent, if we never stereotyped anyone, we wouldn’t be able to make effective change for groups. However, I appreciate your awareness to individual differences in students and subsequently in instructional practices.

I wonder how much would change for reluctant male readers if we had the resources needed to teach in boy-friendly ways. In other words, if I had a huge classroom space where we had room to romp about—whether in an attempt learn vocabulary words or so boys could wiggle in their own personal space during reading time—resources that they would want to read, snacks for them to much when their bellies are forever growling, and enough males around to help us know how to teach the guys effectively.

I’m a middle school teacher, so we have a few men on staff, but primarily in the fields of science and math. However, I’m not above asking spouses of our largely female staff for help, too. I did an all call for magazines, car brochures, fix-it manuals, and anything that had gross, mysterious, or natural-based topics. I love to watch my male students fight over the Ripley’s Believe it or Not book. I picked it up for $4 at Ed McKay’s—by far the best $4 I’ve ever spent for my classroom library.

Lorie mentioned that you don’t hear girls called out because of their gender behaviors. I would say that you do, in fact, hear girls being stereotyped all of the time, especially at the middle level. Think about the percentage of girls in higher level math and science courses—they’re much lower than boys. Is this behavioral? Nope. It’s because our expectation and communicated encouragement for girls tends to be lower in science and math. Maybe it’s also because science and math are areas where we can grab male students’ interest, so we gravitate toward male students in these areas. Or, if you want to extend this idea to extracurricular activities, girls are often hesitant to play sports 1) because they aren’t comfy in their own bodies 2) they haven’t been taught how to play since they were tiny 3) we don’t celebrate female athletes like we do males 4) examples of well-rounded, physically fit ladies are hard to find.

Just things to consider.

Kelly, I believe that elementary school literature caters to mostly girls. I have said so on a number of occasions. When you look at the main characters in beginning readers, you find many female characters. Most of the boys’ reading comes in the form of non-fiction. Now, non-fiction is fine but a boy needs fantasy characters too. He needs characters with which he can identify in typical and atypical gender settings. I don’t mean just football stories and that sort of thing, but roles like a male Junie B. Jones. They need to see boys enjoying to read and write, to investigate, to play and socialize with others in ways that aren’t about fighting, playing ball, or being a firefighter. Emily Elizabeth just hangs out with her dog. A boy would be interested in that too. Anyway, those were just some thoughts on girls having the lion’s share of fictional literature in K-1.