Critical Pedagogy
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Gender Discrimination on any level can pose a negative influence on the progress of individual students, both male and female. Since schools serve as "gatekeepers" providing opportunities, it is imperative that they try to provide opportunities for all, moving away from the discrimination by changing their methods of teaching (the pedagogy).

Where is gender discrimination seen in the classroom?

High-Stakes Testing: particularly those that are used to determine scholarship awards.
  • There are significant gaps between the scores of males and females, middle and lower class, as well as between white students and students of color. 
  • The gaps range between various content concepts - math, natural science, geographical, as well as verbal and written language.
  • There are also gaps between different age groups and between the types of questions asked (multiple choice vs. free response). 
  • Males tend to fare significantly better financially as a result of these gaps, receiving more National Merit Scholarships than females. 
Classroom Environment:
  • Often times girls receive less attention in the classroom - although depending on the specific classroom, boys are also affected.
  • Issues relating to the classroom environment include 1) who is called on, 2) how students are disciplined, 3) teacher/student interaction, 4) the use of competitive vs. cooperative work, as well as many others.
  • Gender discrimination that occurs due to the organization of the classroom and teaching strategies is not always visible to the naked eye.
Tracking:
  • Based on "physiological, cultural, socioeconomic, or academic criteria."
  • The concept of tracking is designed to select educational prerequisites, develop a specific skill set, or to prepare students for specific careers.
  • With their lower test scores (as described earlier), girls often times find themselves tracked at a lower level - however, boys can be affected in the same way.
  • Both genders have the potential to be tracked into certain curriculums that do not fit their personal strengths and weaknesses, based on a generalized idea of where they stand as a group (race and class play significant roles here as well).
Classroom Text and Software:
  • In many major concept areas, textbooks tend to portray men significantly more than women (women often times are discussed in small, side note boxes).
  • Although software and textbook companies claim to have androgynous figures, students say that they identified more with these figures as males. 
  • For many girls technology is often associated with males, in some respect to the fact that girls are unable to identify with images on the screen (tracked away from computers).
Relation of Gender with Culture and Class:
  • Gender roles vary greatly between cultures and classes for both boys and girls. In America, we tend to believe that our specific gender roles apply to everyone no matter their class or cultural background.
  • Example 1: in a lower socioeconomic family, young children may be expected to work earlier to help provide for their families. The type of work they end up doing may be influenced by their gender. Often times those in middle/upper class families do not hold that same burden.
  • Example 2: the expectations of African-American men might differ from that of a white man (i.e. the types of jobs they are expected to hold).
How do teachers go about creating a "Gender-Fair" Classroom?

Testing
  1. Scholarship requirements should take into account the primary predictors (advantages and disadvantages based on the gaps in concepts, age, and response form) that tend to favor males.
  2. Have classroom grades play into the scholarship requirements - females tend to have higher grades in all major subjects.
  3. However, for complete equality between males and females there has to be equal emphasis on both test scores and classroom work.
Classroom Environment
  1. Group work (i.e. projects or peer tutoring) has been proven to be effective in breaking down the barriers put up by the social issues that burden our society. Through interaction and communication in groups, students are learning various ways to fulfill leadership roles as well as learning to work effectively in groups with their peers who are of different genders, races, classes, etc.
  2. Positively reinforce students who work well together in coeducational arrangements. This increases the amount of time that boys and girls work together in the classroom.
  3. Move around as you teach. This tends to make you aware of different students in different areas of the classroom that you may forget to call on.
  4. Have an impartial party (or if need be, a student) sit in on your class and keep track of the number of times you call on students of one gender as opposed to the other. This will make you aware of any unintentional gender biased behaviors you may exhibit when you are leading class discussions.
  5. DO NOT tolerate any prejudice or biased behavior exhibited by students. Use these circumstances to initiate discussion and dialogue about the importance of fairness and respect (this also applies to other issues such as race or class).
Tracking
  1. Encourage students to explore all their interests when thinking about future careers, especially those that they may not be commonly encouraged to explore (such as nursing for boys or medicare and other science related fields for girls).
  2. Focus on the students as individuals (test scores, interests, personality, etc.) rather than how they are may be caught in a generalization of a group. 
Classroom Text and Software
  1. Address the issue of gender biases in textbooks with the students and provide supplemental information if certain groups are ignored or underrepresented in texts.
  2. Give all students equal time with technology such as computers. This keeps aggressive students from dominating important resources.
  3. The curriculum should be authentic, realistic, and inspirational for all students, even if that means going beyond what is written in textbooks and the types of literature students read in the classroom. 
  4. Having "genderless" creatures is NOT beneficial for students. A better way to address gender discrimination in text and software is to demonstrate gender equality through quantity (amount) and quality (what is written). 
Relation of Gender with Culture and Class
  1. Students should be able to use their personal class and cultural differences to find ways identify with the curriculum - through comparing and contrasting their own personal lives as girls or boys, lower or middle class, or as a white student or a student of color with what is presented in the class.
  2. Journal writing can be a great way for students to express their personal lives in relation to the course material.
  3. Having students write monologues from the point of view of people other than themselves can challenge them to see things from other perspectives.

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