Nancy Aguayo

sac 317

Dr. S

Classroom Setting Socialization

In search of how gender socialization develops in classroom

setting, there were some observations done in two elementary and

two high school level classes. The purpose of the observation is

to see how the teacher reacts toward the student's behaviors.

In regards the student's socialization, gender roles were also

evident in the observation. Gender role is also present in the

classroom setting. Orenstein illustrates various ways in where

girls are victims of unequal education in c~assroom setting, but

in the observation the opposite happened. Male students were

criticized more. Also in one observation females were praised

more by female teachers, while in the male teacher class, males

were praised more.

In the 2nd grade classroom the female teacher had 17 males

and 28 females. She called on the girls 24 times while called

the boys only 13 times. She praised the boys only twice while

praised the girls five times. She also accepted both boys and

girls five times. She remediated boys four times and remediated

girls five times. The teacher criticized the boys twice while

Aguayo 1
criticizing the girls three times. Finally, she had more

miscellaneous comments for girls than for boys.

In the AP English class, the female teacher had 15 male

students and 27 female. [She called on males 19 times, while

called on females 18 times. She praised the females more and

accepted both sexes five times. She also remediated and

criticized males more. Finally, she had more miscellaneous

comments for the females. As a female it is not hard to deduct

that the female teacher had more patience for the females than

for the males.

On the other side of the coin, in the Biology class, the

female teacher has 17 males and 24 female students. She called

on males 28 times while called on females only 25 times. She

praises and accepts males more than females. She also remediates

males more. Finally, she criticized and had more comments for

females than for males. Orenstein's suggestion of girls being

criticized more than boys fit in this classroom setting of

Biology.

In the Math course for 5th graders, the male teacher had 12

male and 31 female students. He called on females 25 times,

while calling on females 25 times. He also praised male students

more than the females. He also accepted, remediated, and

criticized the female students more than the males. Finally he

Aguayo 2
had much more miscellaneous comments for males than for females.

For the Math class, the amounts of miscellaneous comments were

evident and much different than in the other classrooms. The

teacher had more miscellaneous comments for the males. It's

interesting because he praised the females less and at the same

time criticizes them more.

Furthermore, other observation differences that were found

in the classroom setting were that in the second grade classroom

the girls were praised and criticized more. In two of the female

teacher classes the males were called on more. Also males were

remediated more than females. In "Learning Silence" by

Orenstein, he suggests that that there is inequality in the

classroom setting when the teachers call on males more than on

females. This data is true for the Biology and AP English

classes which are in the High School level, but this is not true

for the Elementary school. Females were actually criticized more

in three of the four classes observed. They were criticized the

same amount of times in the 2nd grade, 5th, and Biology class.

Orenstein was correct to analyze that females are negatively

judged in most class settings. Even though Orenstein states that

girls suffer inequalities, it's not always true for all

classroom settings.

Aguayo 3
 Therefore, males also suffer the inequalities of the

classroom setting. Males suffer the inequality of being

criticized when they are taught by females. In the AP English

the female teacher criticized males more than females. The

female teacher seemed annoyed when the male students wouldn't

get the right analization for the Great Expectations book that

the class was discussing.

The observation also proved that in the female directed

classes, females were praised more, while in the male teacher

class, females were accepted and praised less. The cyber-

lectures and Orenstein suggested that the girls are embarrassed

to be wrong and boys are not and that is why girls answer low

risk questions. Boys on the other hand, feel they are always in

charge of the classroom. "Occasionally girls shout out answers,

but generally they are the easiest, low-risk questions, such as

factors of four or six." In the SU grade class the girls

answered simple questions by raising their hands when the

teacher asked about easy equations while the boys would shout

out answers.

Gender role is another important factor that occurs in

classroom setting of any class and particularly happened in the

Second grade classroom. All the girls in the classroom were

dressed with girly like colors while the boys had dark colors.

Aguayo 4
When the teacher divided them into stations of workshops, the

coloring group was very interesting to watch. The boys tried to

draw cars, while the girls drew their mom and dad. Additionally,

the boys showed to be very territorial by grabbing whatever

color they wanted, even if they had to take it away from one of

their classmates.

The cyber-Iecture suggests how there is a "top dog" or a

person who is in control or has the power in the classroom

setting. In the AP English class which was directed by a female

teacher the males were mostly criticized, but particularly there

was a male who kept interrupting and making smart comments about

the discussion. The teacher kept an eye on this student because

she knows that he tends to interrupt her class. The AP English

class in high school demonstrates that compared to the middle

school classroom settings, the middle school was much better

behaved. In the middle school classroom setting, there were no

signs of a "top dog" or students having control over the

classroom or other students in class.

In the cyber-lecture, it was clear that there are two types

of internalization in the socialization of a classroom setting

and that is: children who have internalized the agreements and

those who merely imitate them. The concept of internalization

was present in the second grader's observation. There were about

Aguayo 5
four male students who kept talking without racing their hands.

The teacher tried her best to keep reading the book, but the

interruptions of these students were distracting her. These

students show an example of students who more than internalizing

the agreements, they were imitating them and not listening to

the teacher.

On the other hand, in the observation of the Biology class

the element of sex role socialization was present. In one of the

times that the teacher criticized the females she said, ~(Name)

you know better than that. Girls don't start acting like the

boys." This quote suggests that the teacher has formed a list of

ways that a girl should behave and for that reason she

criticized her. It seems that in a classroom setting and outside

boys seem to have more freedom because there were many times in

where the boys would blurt out answers, but the Biology teacher

wouldn't say anything. The fact that teachers expect the ~girls"

to act a certain way is what makes small bad behavior look bad.

On the other hand, teachers expect the worse from the boys and

for that reason boy's behavior is seen as ~okay."

Ultimately, cyber-lectures and Orenstein study demonstrate

that girls can encounter inequalities in a classroom setting as

well as being oppressed for their behavior in class. Other

important observation issues were that in some of the female

Aguayo 6
directed classrooms, males were criticized more than in the male

directed classroom. It is important to consider that there might

I
be some preferences when it comes to the teacher's same sex as

their student's sex. However, there were also teachers such as

in the 2nd and 5th grade classroom who criticized and were harder

on the girls than on the boys, due to the sex role

socialization. Lastly, in the observations, gender role and

imitation were present as issues in the classroom settings. All

of the issues as a whole demonstrate that there are some gender

and sex differences that create various inequalities that

manifest in different ways in the classroom.

Aguayo 7
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