To say that we treat everybody the same would be a lie. You don’t treat your brother the same as your sister or your mom the same as your dad. Likewise, teachers treat boys and girls in their classroom differently. Whether subconsciously or deliberately, teachers reflect their personal beliefs onto their students. The treatment boys and girls receive differs, and this influences their behaviour and beliefs about themselves as a result. As we all know, children are very observant, and the power teachers have is in their influential role. Teachers’ voices can be internalized by boys and girls, and what they hear becomes what they believe.

I will start with explaining why the dreaded or beloved physical education class is heavily gender-biased in the majority of schools. Virginie et al (2007) showed that gym teachers interacted with boys both verbally and non-verbally much more than girls. No matter the teacher’s gender, boys were criticized more, and girls received more encouragement and correction. Since boys receive more positive and negative attention overall, they are noticed whereas girls are just seen. This tells girls that they need more help and have to put in more of an effort. Gym teachers unintentionally reinforce the stereotype that girls are background characters in the gym. Who attention is directed to tells kids who deserves more consideration and why. Additionally, teachers need to be aware of how they deliver feedback because kids perceive their physical and intellectual competence around a teacher’s tone and word choice. “You are __” turns into “I am __.”

Juxtaposing this argument is a compelling study done by Consuegra, Engels, and Willegems (2016). They videotaped 13 secondary school teachers in three schools and then did video recall for verbal confirmation of their actions. The videos and conversations with teachers afterwards showed that quality interactions were more important than the frequency of them. Students varied in “their interpretation of and response to teacher behaviour, meaning that […] students play an active role in whether teachers’ bias and negative expectations are internalized or whether they are actively resisted” (Consuegra, Engels, & Willegems, 2016). Whether kids accept or question what they are told influences how they perceive themselves. I cannot leave out the fact that continual negative feedback has been shown to impact boys and girls alike. Myhill (2002) showed that “high-achieving boys tend to become underachieving boys towards middle school.” Girls are less likely to feel the effects academically because their peer group encourages trying in school. For adults and kids alike, the old ‘think before you speak’ quote is essential.

The next study I looked at analyzed 1025 first-grade students from Germany (Gentrup & Rjosk, 2018). It concluded that “almost all Western countries [have] significant gender differences in students’ proficiency in reading and, to a lesser extent, in mathematics in the first years of schooling.” Although the gap between girls and boys in math is smaller, the jump between literacy rates is not focused on as much. Swan (2017) would argue that since boys are spoken to more frequently inside the classroom, their academic weakness is not as big of a deal. Their social interactions with their teachers give them the opportunity to have weaknesses but still not be perceived as weak. Contrarily, girls are condemned if they are too loud and off task, thereby making their academic struggles a result of their behaviour. The passive stereotype is reinforced because academic weaknesses are pinned to be the girl’s own fault. Boys are supposedly rowdier by nature, so teachers see off-task behaviour as a genetic presupposition instead — seems fair?!

Swan (2017) goes as far to say that girls have to work harder for equal credit and recognition from their teachers. Fagot (1981) supports this finding because he discovered that male preschool teachers assigned more leadership roles to male students. However, Legewie and DiPrete (2012) found that “boys are overrepresented among high school dropouts, special education students, and every failed or special needs category.” There is no doubt that teachers influence children’s ambition and inclination towards school.

What does this mean for our education system? We have learned from previous blog posts that girls and boys biologically learn differently. The conclusion I have reached is that we should cater to these biological differences but should not subject gender biases. Teachers focus more on correction for girls because girls are told that they need to be perfect in order to match the level of a boy in society. Boys are allowed to be rowdier, thus receiving more attention, because ‘boys will be boys.’ My research has pointed me to believe that teachers treat boys and girls differently and shape them into people that correspond to popular stereotypes. How teachers treat their students often predicts students’ futures. Although kids have agency, teachers must be cautious on how they dedicate their time and treat certain students.

Citations:

Els Consuegra, Nadine Engels & Vicky Willegems (2016) Using video-stimulated recall to investigate teacher awareness of explicit and implicit gendered thoughts on classroom interactions, Teachers and Teaching, 22:6, 683-699, doi: 10.1080/13540602.2016.1158958/

Fagot, B. I. (1981). Male and female teachers: Do they treat boys and girls differently? Sex Roles, 7(3), 263. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uleth.ca/docview/1308094166?accountid=12063.

Gentrup, S. & Rjosk, C. (2018) Pygmalion and the gender gap: do teacher expectations contribute to differences in achievement between boys and girls at the beginning of schooling?, Educational Research and Evaluation, 24:3-5, 295-323, doi:10.1080/13803611.2018.1550840.

Legewie, J., & DiPrete, T. (2012). School Context and the Gender Gap in Educational Achievement. American Sociological Review,77(3), 463-485. doi:10.2307/41723041.

Swan, C. (2017). Gender Socialization in Chinese Schools: Teachers, Children, and Gender Roles. SIT Digital Collections, iii-27. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3666&context=isp_collection.

Virginie, N., Julien B., Stuart, J., Fairclough, A., Amorose, J., & Geneviève, C. Girls’ and boys’ perceptions of physical education teachers’ feedback: Effects on performance and psychological responses, Journal of Sports Sciences, 25:8, 915-926, doi: 10.1080/02640410600898095.

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