Feminist Theory Flashcards
Feminist View
According to feminists the role of education is to maintain patriarchy by segregating boys and girls into segregated gender roles. Gender inequality for the benefit of men(boys) and at the disadvantage of women (girls)
Textbooks - Bottigheimer
Their view of schoolbooks is that they reinforce a view of females as passive and dependent upon men. Particular focus has been placed upon fairy takes and messages about gender roles that they contain in their imagery and language
Textbooks - Kelly
argues that there is a masculine bias in science texts, in which a women are either passive or invisible. Thus examples used in these texts tend to utilise male images and ignore famous female scientists
Textbooks - Culley
argues that computing textbooks tend to show men in decision making positions and females carrying out deskilled tasks such as inputting data
Textbooks - Lobban
claims that early reading schemes reinforce gender stereotypes found in the wider society. From a study of 179, she found that only 35 stories had heroines compared to 71 heroes. In 1992, best found that 75% of female characters were portrayed in domestic roles
Teacher interactions with students - Hicks
found that many female teachers often see male teachers as better educators than females, because men are able to concentrate on their careers more than women.
As for male teachers, Spear found that many science teacher are hostile to equal opportunities and express traditional attitudes supporting a subordinate role for women.
Teacher interactions with students - Spender
argues that girls get less attention than boys in the classroom and argues that this is a reflection of the domination that reflection of the domination that men have in society as a whole. Those without power are always the most vulnerable and tend to play a submissive role
Teacher interactions with students - Spender
argues that girls have to wait longer for what attention they do receive in the classroom, and that females are usually treated dismissively by the males present. Boys often insult girls, yet teachers fail to tell them off for doing this
Teacher interactions with students - Platt and Whyld
found that boys are asked to move furniture by teachers, while girls are asked to tidy up
Teacher interactions with students - Stanworth
found that attitudes displayed by teacher impede the educational achievements of girls. Teachers found it more difficult to remember girl’s names than boys. Teachers held stereotypical views about what girls would be doing in the future
Teacher interactions with students - Sadker
Boys are given more teacher time and are generally more prominent in classroom interaction than girls. For example, Sadker found that boys receive more criticism of teachers than girls, but also more praise
Curriculum - Wolpe
argues that the examples that are used by teachers in an effort to make subjects relevant to everyday life all too often relate mathematical as well as scientific technique to activities which boys can more readily identify than girls
Curriculum
The 1975 report on curricular differentiation noted that 98% of co-educational schools segregate boys and girls for some aspects of their work, e.g. in P.E lessons. When boys and girls are taught together in mixed classes the style of teaching may incline pupils to believe that the subject is more appropriate for one sex than another
Subject Choice
There is a marked divergence between boys and girls in choices of subjects and careers. women are clustered in the Arts, Languages and Social sciences, males in sciences and mathematics. This pattern is more marked in co-educational schools where pupil options tend to be more sex stereotyped than in single sex schools.
Subject Choice - statistics
statistics show that girls are the most underrepresented in the subjects that lead to high status occupations. These to high status occupations. These are, not surprisingly, areas such as Physics, chemistry, maths and technology
