Scout Heizer EDU 2150 4/7/14 Action Research- Gender Bias in Utah Schools

Phase I- Problem Identification

I chose to research gender bias in Utah schools for many reasons. I think it is important for teachers to realize the differences in the ways they teach their female students compared to their male students. This is a very important problem that every teacher will face whether they realize it or not. Most teachers arent aware that they treat their students differently based on their gender. I definitely believe that the time and effort I put into this research will pay off in the end. Not only will it be very beneficial to me as I take the steps towards becoming a teacher, but it will also be beneficial to many others such as fellow teacher and my future students. So my question is why does this bias exist in classrooms? How do teachers treat their female students compared to their male students? And what can teachers do to prevent it?

Phase II- Plan of Action

To do the research on this particular topic, I will take information from a few articles I have read while also looking for differences I find in the classroom I will be observing. I will write down the differences that I notice in the way the teacher treats her male and female students. I will then keep track of how often it happens so I am able to distinguish her behavior towards her students based on their gender and see if it is reoccurring or not.

I will be focusing my study around an article I found by Kathryn Scantlebury discussing gender bias in teachers, the effects of it, and also how to reduce it. I found this article very helpful with my research. It gave me an idea of what to look for during my observations and a strong background on the issue. I believe that I can get the information I am looking for within a few weeks of my observations. It will only take about one day of observations for me to identify the issue, a couple more days to solidify it and come up with a thorough plan to help teachers identify the problem and hopefully slowly eliminate the issue all together.

Phase III- Data Collection

In terms of data for this project, I will be taking many notes while observing the teachers every day interactions with her students and see what differences I can find, I will use to information from Kathryn Scantleburys research as well to see if I can detect the same biases as she did. If there are a lot of similarities between what she found and what I found we can only assume that is happening in classroom all across the U.S. After I am done with observing, I will talk to the teacher about the research I am doing and I will ask her to take a few days to see if she can see the differences in her classroom. I will then go back and ask her a few questions about if she was able to recognize the biases going on, if it was easy for her to identify them and if she has been doing things differently since her realization. There are many helpful resources available to me while doing this particular project. While looking online, I was able to find many articles regarding the issue of gender biases going on in classrooms across the country as well as many different

perspectives on the matter. I also found it very helpful to talk to people that I know that have been working in education for a very long time. I was able to see how many of them knew about the issue and what they have done to change it. They were also very helpful with telling me what to look for while observing and how to distinguish the differences because they are not always noticeable.

Phase IV- Analysis of Data

There is much to be learned from the data I have collected. While observing a classroom for many days, I was able to identify many gender biases. I started with the biases I had expected to find. By reading Kathryn Scantleburys article I learned about target students, which are the students that dominated the teachers time and classroom resources. The majority of these target students are white males. I was able to pick out these students very quickly; they were the ones that spoke out without raising their hand, answering most of the teachers questions, and asking the majority of the questions. There were a few of them in this particular classroom, most of them were white males and one was a white female. I also focused on the bias that males are better at math and science than girls, girls are not expected to be good at these particular subjects. When they are it is automatically assumed that it is all due to hard work, not natural talent like boys. In the class I was observing this was a little harder to find. The way their teacher had her lessons set up, made it so they all worked together as a classroom. She would not let anyone speak out; she would randomly pick names from a jar. This made is easier for me to see how she responded to the answers based on her students genders. I found

that when a boy was called on and he was having trouble with the question she would walk him through it and help him find the answer. But whenever a girl had trouble she would not give her the same amount of time and help that she gave the boys, she would simply move on to another student to get the answer. Another bias I was looking for was the way the teacher gave her students feedback. I was surprised by how equal her praises were between the genders. The research I had done prior to my observations said I could expect her to give girls less meaningful and less critical praise than boys. The boys work would be critiqued for the content and the girls would be based on appearance. When she asked me to put her students work in their cubbies for her I took the opportunity to see what kind of feedback she was giving her students. I found that she was very in depth with every student. She stayed away from the appearance and just critiqued their actual work and provided them with advice. This showed me that she really took her time with ea ch students assignment and gave every assignment the critique it deserved. The biggest thing I noticed in the classroom I was observing was the way she had her students seating chart. Within the first few hours of observations I was able to get an idea of who her calm students were and the students that had trouble paying attention and following the rules. I had noticed that her students were sitting in boy girl order. However, not every boy was rowdy and not every girl was quiet and calm. I think she put her students in this order hoping that the two genders would complement each other and the behavior in her classroom would be better, but it didnt. Whenever there was a group of students acting out, I noticed that she would always speak to the girl

about calming down and paying attention first, like she expected the boy to be acting out but it was not okay for the girl to be doing the same. The information I was able to find was very insightful. I now see how easy it is to create gender bias in your classroom without even noticing that you are doing it. I think that the more the teachers influence these biases the more the students are going to start falling into them. I believe it is very important for students of both genders to know that are alike in the classroom. The same things should be expected from them and there should be no special treatment just because of their gender. It will get in the way of their learning and could influence their personalities in a bad way.

Phase V- Plan for Future Action

After doing this research, I have a whole new outlook of how I want to do things once I become a teacher. This paper not only made me observe what is happening in schools right now, but it also made me look back on my experiences as a female student and recognize the biases in the classrooms I was a part of. When I become a teacher, I will be very conscious of the way I run my classroom. I will create a classroom that will appeal to all types of students. I realize that not every student is the same but that doesnt mean their differences are completely based off of gender. I definitely recommend that others look into this issue and understand the genders biases that occur inside the classroom. It is amazing how many teachers arent even aware that this is going on and what they are doing to create it. If more teachers were aware and took it upon themselves to the make a change, I think everyone would be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.