Media and the Curriculum

Topic 9: Gender and Education

There has been much debate, contention and moral panic about how gender bears upon children’s learning. Indeed, because sex/gender has become so fundamental to our identities, most people have very strong beliefs about sex and gender, although it is a concern that many of those beliefs do not have a basis in fact. Topic 9 introduces you to only one aspect of this field of study.

You are encouraged to think about your own gendered assumptions and expectations of boys and girls, and how these assumptions and expectations may impact on the learning of your students. Luke’s article illustrates one way in which the construction of stereotypes of sex can be addressed in the classroom.

On successful completion of this topic you should be able to: reflect in a critical manner on some of the issues around the relationship between gender and education; examine how your understanding of males and females shapes your pedagogy; and create learning experiences that effectively disrupt sex stereotypes.

Readings

Sanford, K. (2006). Gendered Literacy Experiences: The Effects of Expectation and Opportunity for Boys’ and Girls’ Learning. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 49(4), 302-315.

Luke, C. (1994). Critical Media Literacy: Cultural Studies, Cultural Representations: Femininity and Masculinity, Interpretations, 27(1), pp 1-12.

Recommended:
Hopkins, S. (2002). Girls Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture. Pluto Press. Annandale NSW, pp. 182-213.

Activities

Focus Questions

1. What did Sanford find concerning about the acrostic posters made by the students she observed?
2. What observations did Sanford make about the computer class?
3. Have you witnessed any situation where a teacher made stereotypical assumptions about a student or group of students? Describe it.
4. Have you observed any behaviour in your school experience that may be problematic for boys or girls? For example, where boys monopolise equipment or girls media products are stereotypical.
5. Girls are more likely than boys to conform to school-based/traditional conceptions of literacy. Why might this be a problem according to Sanford and others?
6. Marketers often employ stereotypes for their advertising campaigns. Find some shopping catalogues and note the differences in how males and females, boys and girls are trgetted and represented. Create a list of campaigns or advertisements that employ sex norms and create a critical literacy learning activity for one of these.

Activities for External Students

1. Complete the above focus questions.
2. Complete number 2 below.

Workshop Activities

1. Individual workshop presentation and discussion.
2. One way to address stereotypes in the classroom is to encourage students to challenge them in their thinking, reading, viewing and text creation. The analysis of advertisements can be used to this end. Compare the representations of gender in the advertisements below. How are these different representations constructed? How does the context of the text shape its meaning? Do you find any of these offensive?

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