Gender Dynamics in Educ Org

Gender Dynamics in Educ Org

Gender Dynamics in Educational Organization: Research and Observation

The subject of gender dynamics in educational organization has been and continues to be a subject of lively debate among educators in the United States and elsewhere. According to "How Context Mediates Policy: The Implementation of Single Gender Public Schooling in California" (Datnow et al. April 2001) when single-gender schools, as a legislatively-mandated pilot project in California, were established for a two-year period, the issue of possible gender discrimination in K-12 classrooms was politically "hot" within the legislature, although not necessarily a serious subject of ongoing state educational reform. As Datnow et al. observed, short-term experimentation in California with single-gendered schools, then, in fact lasted only as long as state legislators' interest in it:

in the face of other competing demands in public education (for example literacy, high stakes accountability), this gender-based reform was simply not priority for new state policy makers and for district and school administrators. The support for gender-based school reforms has typically not been strong in the United States... And is arguably likely to grow weaker in the future... (p. 201)

Further, as Datnow et al. imply, gender discrimination in California K-12 education, as problem genuinely worthy of long-term attention and educational reform, was not actually taken seriously enough, when a new crop of California legislators came in, to continue funding the original pilot programs that had offered same-gender classroom instruction in several districts throughout the state. Administrators, parents, and students, moreover, as the authors also point out, must depend on legislative interest and largesse which may or may not occur, from within each separate legislative session, in order to maintain such experimental programs. Therefore, as the authors of "How Context Mediates Policy: The Implementation of Single Gender Public Schooling in California" suggest (and as this researcher concurs) gender-segregated instruction is not a high priority in the United States, although it needs to be one.

Based on my own experience of informally observing three separate tenth grade math classes in three separate high schools (one public, two private), the first, a mixed-gender class at a public high school; the second a males only class at a private parochial high school; and the third a females only class at another private parochial high school, it was clear (to me at least) that learning dynamics in all three classrooms were very different, in terms of teacher-student interactions, student seriousness, and overall classroom atmosphere. Though this experience is, admittedly, strictly anecdotal, and various other factors (e.g., public vs. private K-12 education; student abilities; teacher abilities, etc.) may also help to account for these differences, it is still enough to cause me to basically concur with Datnow et al., that although single gender education would not necessarily always provide a "panacea" ("How Context Mediates Policy: The Implementation of Single Gender Public Schooling in California," April 2001, p. 203) of educational opportunities or academic progress, it is nevertheless worthy of more than just the "political football" approach of the California experiment.

For example, students in the mixed gender public school math class seemed, first of all, most heterogeneous in terms of math ability; interest, and commitment to learning and understanding math. More boys than girls (by about a 3:1 ratio) seemed to take interest in the subject; to ask questions of the (female) teacher; and to answer questions asked by the teacher. Of the 19 students attending that day (gender breakdown was nine boys and ten girls) the boys asked questions 9 times and answered questions (those of the teacher and/or classmates) 13 times. By comparison, the girls asked questions 4 times, and answered questions 5 times. Then, when the students split into groups toward the end of the class to check each other's previous work, the groups were split along gender lines. The focus of the students, and the atmosphere of the class overall, was more diffuse than those of either of the other two classes. One interesting thing I noticed during this small group work (which could perhaps also have a bearing on the findings of Datnow et al.) was that in these groups, the now gender-segregated girls asked for teacher help with and clarification of the task at hand a great deal more than did the boys, in their similarly gender-segregated small groups. This led me to wonder if in fact the girls had "saved up" their teacher questions for a time when they would not have to ask them in front of the male students.

The second class I observed was a single-sex (male only) class at a private parochial high school. Fifteen students attended that day, and eleven of the fifteen were actively involved, for the whole class period, in asking questions, answering questions, completing short problems on their own, and sharing their work on the blackboard. This class (taught by a male teacher) was focused and on task, and at times, intense. There was much less student chit-chat, and more involvement in the class session by a greater number of students.

In the third math class I observed, at another (this time all female) parochial high school, there were twelve students present that day. The class was taught by a female teacher. The female students seemed similarly engaged (in comparison to the previous, all male class), and many more of them asked and answered teacher questions than in the mixed-gender public math classroom. There was more chit chat among students than in the all male math class, but not nearly as much as there had been (among students of either gender) within the mixed student public school class.