Confronting Our Discomfort: Clearing the Way for Anti-Bias in Early Childhood

When you send your children off in the morning to go to school, no matter what grade they are in whither it be elementary, junior high, or senior high, you expect that they will receive the best education that they can get. They should be asked challenging questions, encouraged and called upon to participate in class, they should also be given as much help as they need to secede by the teacher. However, this is most commonly not the case. Parents and the children themselves are unaware of what is going on because gender bias is not a noisy problem. Most people are unaware of the secret sexist lessons that occur every day in classrooms across the country. In this essay I will use two essay's from the reader:

As a Family Advocate, I work with families and children from different backgrounds and cultures. After completing the observations, anti-bias curriculum is a must to reflect the cultural and background of the families and children in the program. Many families I work with are low income. My goal is to create an environment where children and families from different backgrounds can feel comfortable and belonging. I would like to work closely with families and provide the support that they may need.

Schools have adapted, in general, by now offering lessons to females, because of their greater involvement in the modern work force. When only men were allowed to work many people felt no need in educating women and saw female education as a waste of time. Author of educational works Alan singer discusses, how "teaching was … a temporary job, for women until they married, or for men until they entered a profession," as support for his strong belief in the need to improve education. Singer wants to prove how low the education field was measured in terms of jobs, basically not considering teaching a profession. A constant cycle of teachers, in and out of the field, forced the curriculum to be able to be taught universally and with ease through the lecture approach (Singer).

There is change concerning perspective on gender inequalities in schools. I In and article written by Diane Reay, called “Nice Girls” “Girlies,” and “Tomboys”: Gender Discourses, Girls’ Cultures and Femininities in the Primary Classroom, explains that contemporary gender power relations within an elementary classroom, is more complicated than “girls versus boys”. Reay found that girls were split into identifiable groups, each group defining how feminine they were or weren’t. She concluded that gender either operates as oppositions or hierarchy or most commonly both at the same time. These studies can lead us into why later on in life, during the time we are looking for jobs and professional work, men and women are seen on different playing fields. When you think of a CEO of a company or of world political leaders, does a male or female come to mind? Many, if not most of us, see these positions as being held by men. Even though we are approaching the twenty-first century, women in our society are still not equal to men when it comes down to the professional world. This discrimination in the workplace results in women not receiving the same benefits that men do. In certain cases women do the same job, for the same amount of hours, and still do not receive the same pay for their work. The average women’s paycheck is usually less than the average man, consistent with any field of work. Is there a

Historically, many reasons exist for teaching being a female-dominated profession. One reason is that women had been deemed better suited to serve as role models and teachers of moral behavior. In addition, women were believed to have the emotional qualities to work with youth, in

Only 45% of academics with female leading to the amount of female professors being just 22%. People believing that women shouldn’t have a good education didn’t just recently start, but it’s been a thing for years. “57 million children worldwide, including 31 million girls, are out of school and two thirds of illiterate adults are women. In developing countries, adolescent girls are more likely to drop-out of secondary school than boys, particularly in rural areas.” ( Right to Education Project). In most cases girls and women just don’t drop out of school because they don’t want to be there, but because they have to. Women are seen as the caretaker in many culture and we made to cook, clean, and take care of our families while the men go get jobs and provide. Men are seen as “stronger” and “smarter”. Many believe that females are suppose to be a being that’s sensitive, small, and very feminine, while men are strong, big, and extremely masculine. This isn’t the case, women SHOULD be able to be as masculine or feminine as they want while men SHOULD have the same

In the future, I would like to see gender equality in terms of toys, clothes and other things. It is important that children have choices to learn, to play, to dress and other choices they preferred. Parents or any adults may allow children what the girls and boys do and not to be afraid to give this opportunity. For example, the book states that boys tend to dominate block play than girls. We should give some opportunity for girls to play with these blocks to experience mathematical concepts. On the other hand, boys should try dramatic play too in order for them to try variety of emotions and domestic relations. Moreover, we should not label all the things, such as these activities and materials are for boys and for girls only. Let them explore

In conclusion, the articles in the book were interesting. Each chapter provided a different outlook on the many complexities on the concept of gender. Gender can be and should be fluid in that there are a variety of ways to identify, perform, and express gender. The rigidity of the gender binary in our culture traps everyone in a box that many may not feel comfortable being in. If each person could make their own choices with their bodies and how they present gender, there would be more liberated individuals. This idea is brought forth in the article. “Children’s Gender Self-Determination: A Practical Guide” and it is the idea of gender self-determination. I like the thought of people overcoming limits that have been forced upon them and being

How many women can you name that are famous for something that they did in an educational field? One, maybe two on a good day. Now ask yourself how many men you can name that have done something famous in an educational field. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Isaac Newton, the list goes on and on. No one can seem to remember the names of famous women in education, because women never get the chance to to do anything to allow themselves to stand out. Are women deprived of critical education simply because of their sex? There have always been barriers for women to become as educated as men. Whether it be in schools, at home, or any other place, women aren’t receiving the same level of education as men simply because of their gender. Everyday we see a developing story on race equality, but maybe it’s time some of the focus shifts toward gender equality. Gender inequality in education exists and is making a large impact on today’s society in places such as Asia, Africa, and the United States.

Education as we know it today is based off the belief that every child deserves the chance to better their future. In modern times, the United States has nearly closed all gender gaps but in education you can see the differences students of both genders help create. Girls in high school tend to have an advantage in getting higher class averages and final grades than most boys in the same class. This “design” isn’t because of personal attributes though but more of a evolutionary curve.

According to the book the first lesson, “some inequities, including gender bias, simple fly below people radar. To make progress, people have to learn how to “see “subtle bias (291). This lesson points out that the influence of teachers show the biases. It highlights how powerful a little encouragement can play on students. Because early educational experience have an effect on them when choosing careers, eventually jobs they seek to work for. A great quote is given in the book when they say,” without training, without learning how to see bias, it is all missed (291). This quote tells us that teachers must first notice the bias in the class in order for students to learn equal opportunities and not to use gender biases. A prime example is the comparison when it comes to women in the world of math and science occupations. When we look earlier in the elementary school if teachers were to introduce women and younger girls to fields of computer science and engineering, then the reversing bias would increase the number of women in those fields. They are more likely to not choose those classes because they aren’t encourage to. In the book, teachers doesn’t always know when they are being bias. They may think, as they teach, they are simply practicing what year’s teachers, and educators taught. Teachers can reinforce gender by showing boy more attention and by simply drawing distinctions between

After many years focusing on female’s in education more recent studies have indicated that boys have actually suffered and are now in positions of disadvantage. This is indicated by retention rates, delinquency and learning difficulties (Yates in White and Wyn 1998, p.25). One explanation for this is that by the increase of women participating in education and their expressed enjoyment of it, the men are then associating education with femineity. Where strong gender roles of masculine and feminine exist, this then impacts male choices to participate in an activity that they

“Boys and girls learn and teach each other what are the appropriate behaviors and experiences for boys and girls and make sure that everyone acts according to plan. What’s less visible are the ways the teachers and curriculum overtly and subtly reinforce not only gender differences, but also the inequalities that go along with and even produce that difference” (Kimmel, p.197). In other words, Kimmel argues that education is considered an institution that reinforces and produces gender inequalities by separating the genders into different rules, sports, and play role, which results in gender inequalities in our society today.

- Underlying the history of women in teaching is the assumption that access to work opportunities has the same meaning for everyone.If we stop to ask what gender meant for the 19th century founders of American public education, however, the story takes on new levels of meaning.Some of its themes speak directly to our educational dilemmas today.Its interest lies not in the sex of the teachers who staffed Americaís one-room schools but in the political and psychological images that men and women held regarding the gender of those teachers (138).

Gender equity in terms of education is about the socialization of men and women and the results of this process on the life outcomes of the two genders (Husen & Postlethwaite, 1994). In the United States, the education system is required to treat males and females equally. There has been much research done to compare the genders in all areas. In the past, research has found that women fall far behind men in many areas such as math, and science, but men lag behind women in certain areas as well. Over the years, many provisions have been made with the goal of equalizing the treatment of girls and boys in public education. These improvements are proven successful as women, as well as men, are advancing in areas where they tend to lag