Gender in STEM and in the Classroom

[Alec Kotler]

Gilligan’s response to Kohlberg not only suggests that gender identification has a role in student development and learning, but it also highlights certain educational implications for the ways in which teachers understand what may motivate a particular student’s learning and behavior; with this sort of understanding, a teacher can better respond to a student’s needs. This definitely includes the importance of teachers being self-aware, and then aware of potential bias. Overall, Gilligan’s piece can aid teachers in understanding how gender identification can impact how students learn best – this does not include a “one size fits all approach”.
The classroom I am observing is a biology classroom. This class appears to be pretty evenly split in terms of gender distribution. As usual for high school students, and really any students I have observed to date, the boys tend to stick together (as do the girls) whether they are in their seats or when they are split into groups. In my 4 weeks of observing this classroom, I have noticed Mr. Johnson gently pushing for more mixing of male and female groups, but the students have not budged. I’m not sure why he doesn’t make his own groups or even seating assignments, perhaps high school is too old for that. I can see both positives and negatives to the students self-selecting into gender groups, but I do think in some cases it would be beneficial to mix this up a bit.
This being a STEM class adds another dimension to the gender conversation. Science is a field in the United States that has historically been predominantly occupied by white men. (Carleton is refreshingly rather unique in that there is a diverse faculty of male and female professors in STEM (hence why Carleton has the best professor rating in the country!)) There is nothing I have noticed explicitly in the classroom that would make one gender feel less comfortable or welcome than another, but given STEM’s history, I do think it is important to try and have a diverse faculty. For one thing, teachers are role models and MKOs and send important implicit messages to students about what is possible. Further, as Gilligan laid out, the teacher background might also play a role in understanding and motivating student behavior. Mr. Johnson can do some things to help this issue. For example, in my high school, in 9th grade, the physics teachers took a day and had the students research women in science. Obviously, that alone is not going to do it but it is just an example of some things teachers can do in STEM classes to make sure everyone feels like they belong.
Nothing Mr. Johnson does do is clearly obvious to me as something done to incorporate a particular gender directly, but he does use subtleties that may make everyone feel welcome to the STEM culture. Perhaps, this more subtle (and natural?) strategy is even more beneficial than being blatantly obvious with something as that my come off as not really genuine or forced. Certain experiments Mr. Johnson chooses seem tailored to a variety of interests, such as using art and going outside in nature, in biology. Bringing in artistic aspects to the classroom shows a new and different dimension to scientific study. This might not be gendered per se, but it brings in a wider spectrum of interests and skill sets. I’ve mentioned before a perfume example Mr. Johnson used once as well. Mr. Johnson is also really good about using a mix of teaching approaches (groups and individual tasks) and he works to engage all students regardless of personality. Overall, there are not any clear gender regimes or expectations in the classroom. There is more of a feeling in the classroom of collaboration where everyone is in it together and there for one another. There is a group respect feeling in the air that facilitates inclusion and brings effective learning into the class for everyone.
The memory that sticks out when thinking about how gender influenced my education comes from when I was in lower school. As a young student I was VERY energetic and I had a lot of behavioral issues. I didn’t listen to my teachers and felt as my teachers didn’t understand me so I retaliated by being disruptive and disrespectful – not only to my teachers, but my peers. I can recall really vividly the one year, in 4th grade, these disruptions stopped, thanks to Mr. Schneider. He was my first male teacher and I respected him. Mr. Schneider really understood me and he was a huge role model and I remember thinking I wanted to be like him; I wanted to be an impactful, fun, cool leader in a room of significance, such as a classroom. He made me feel like I belonged and I that I can do it. I cannot say for sure this was on account of his being male, but I do think the fact that he was male helped me to see that I could be like him. This is an experience that I bet, for example, more female students wish they could have in their STEM classes.
One thing I wanted to note about my classroom observations is that when I see students who are not focused or engaged, the easiest thing to notice is whether or not they are on their phones. The last class I observed was the class before a long weekend at NHS. They had Thursday and Friday off so I went on Wednesday. The students seemed as if the long break hit a few hours early. How did I know? The phones were out. Mr. Johnson had enough so he took away all the students’ phones so they could focus on their worksheets. I hate when someone takes my phone. I assumed these students would respond terribly to this. Nope! Instead, they looked happier than when they had their prized possession. And of course, they were a lot more productive.
Another interesting thing to note is in some of the classes I observe, there is a helper, an aide. It is an older woman who the kids love and she is very cheerful and supportive. In my experience, most “helpers” or “assistant teachers” in the schooling community seem to be females. Obviously, I have no idea if this is a consistent theme at NHS but I don’t think I would like it if I were female and the assistant teachers were always female. At the same time, all through school where I went the school social workers were also always female. As a middle schooler, I would have never gone to see a female social worker at school with a social problem I was having. Gender is of course just one issue, and not everyone can be everything to all people – but in the school environment I’m not sure these issues are given as much attention as is, perhaps, needed.

[Anastasia Romanova]

Your observation that all the classroom “helpers” or “assistant teachers” you have seen so far are female is very interesting. I personally work at the Student Service Center (SSC) that main function of which is to help the students that somehow have fallen behind. The SSC has several branches (catching up on school credits, doing assignments, quiet study time, etc), but every single one of those branches is run by a female supervisor/administrator. The only male authority figure at the SSC is the promise fellow, Sebastian. I find that interesting in terms of traditional gender roles because females are typically associated with compassion, nurturing, and providing help. I a not sure what the implication of this would be for the school or the students, but I have also noticed that the “helper” role is more often than not assigned to females at the High School.

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