*Disclaimer that my observations are based on students gender presentation and students may have gender identities different than the ones I discuss in this blog post

While I do not get to observe the students’ work, the quality of their contributions in my Global Studies class has caused me to feel that the female students, on average, are more engaged and more willing to participate in class than male students. The geography of the classroom is reflective of this. The classroom uses swivel chair desks (almost exactly like the ones in our classroom) and Mrs. McDonald is flexible about where the students move them. There are a few clumps of female students and a few male students mixed in all near the front, and in the back, as far away from the teacher’s desk as possible, is a large clump of male students.

In my time in the classroom, I believe that I have seen every female student respond or ask a question at least once, while there are probably 5 or 6 male students that I have never seen participate in any way. I think this is especially interesting because as an untracked class, there should be a range of students of all ability levels. After a few weeks, I have been more able to identify the students who I would guess are in the upper tracks in their other classes, but in terms of engagement and participation alone, I think almost all of the female students outperform the male students.

Outside of average engagement in class, however, I have not noticed gender playing a role in the students’ learning. Perhaps this has something to do with the subject area. Social studies does not have the same gendered connotations that other subjects like Math or English have. The course content includes everything from discussions of military spending to culture and art, which allows for a wide range of interests, both stereotypical and real, to be represented. Particularly when it comes to more “political” discussions, both male and female students participate and contribute in similar ways. In class discussions, academic standing (between high and low-tracked students) seems to be a bigger divider than gender. Mrs. McDonald has a difficult balancing act here because students will bring their outside knowledge to these discussions, which means that students who have no knowledge of the subject matter outside of what has been covered in class are at a disadvantage. I have never seen Mrs. McDonald use gender-stereotyped language or activities, which helps to create a classroom culture where students can participate outside of gendered expectations.

I identify as male, and I think that experience has definitely played an important role in my educational upbringing. As an elementary schooler, I did not fit the stereotype of the boy who couldn’t sit still or pay attention in class at all, which I think helped to ingratiate me with my teachers. I was just as much of a model student as many of the girls in the class were, but I always got special praise and attention for it because I was a boy. I have only ever lived life as a male-identifying and presenting person, so it is hard to know how my experiences would be different in another way. However, I have always felt comfortable and encouraged to speak in class and trusted that my ideas would be openly received by my peers in a way that I do not feel like my female friends have always had. As I’ve grown up, I’ve tried to be more conscious of how my gender identity could shape the way I act in class, particularly in class discussions or in small group work.

I observed an interesting moment in class on Tuesday when the students had an opportunity to do a GIS lab. Mrs. McDonald had gone to special two-day training on how to incorporate GIS in the classroom, and she and I had talked about how exciting that was. I had not been exposed to GIS until college, but I find that it has applications in a lot of college coursework and is especially useful as a skill for many jobs or internships. I thought it was super cool that these students were getting to use it in high school. At the start of the period, Mrs. McDonald really tried to drive home how useful knowledge of GIS could be. She played a video from the makers of the platform the students were using where people from a bunch of different industries talked about how they use GIS. However, the students did not pick up any of her enthusiasm, and it was clear that this was just another assignment for them. Students are used to having teachers tell them that things are going to be useful for them later that they know are not true. For most adults, knowledge of long division or mitosis really is useless. Even when they are presented with something that is not only potentially useful, but something that could actually help distinguish them from other applicants in future jobs, it can be hard for students to believe that this time they are being told the truth.