Gender issues in Home Economics
Essay:
By drawing on lecture content and discussions, together with any additional sources you might wish to refer to, write a 1000-word essay to show how curricula and classroom pedagogy can be as free from gender bias as possible. Refer to the current Home Economics syllabus to give specific examples of what you would teach and how you would teach it.
(Whilst you may take a generic approach to the essay title, you would need to make reference to the teaching of Home Economics all along.)
Sitting in the same classroom, reading the same textbook and listening to the same teachers, boys and girls receive very different educations. Very often, sometimes unintentionally, subtle messages about behaviour, attitudes, and perceptions, are sent to boys and girls, through their surrounding environment.
Sex stereotyping occurs whenever unchangeable traits, roles and behaviours based on sex differences, are given to both males and females. Gender bias in turn manifests itself either when stereotyped characteristics, roles and actions are assigned to males/females or when pre-judgment takes place leading to gender separation which occurs in a way that prefers one sex over the other. This inhibits impartiality and results in discrimination. In fact certain subjects are still perceived as being either female or male oriented thus favouring a particular sex e.g. Home Economics is usually considered as a female subject whilst Technical Design is considered as a male subject.
In order to decrease gender bias, its source should be identified. Through decreasing gender bias males and females would be provided with equally accessible opportunities1. Gender bias is embedded in the curriculum, the teacher and the teaching styles, in textbooks, in student-teacher interactions, in traditional gender roles and in the students themselves. The National Minimum Curriculum2 has tried to reduce gender bias and promote gender equality in schools, through ensuring that boys
By drawing on lecture content and discussions, together with any additional sources you might wish to refer to, write a 1000-word essay to show how curricula and classroom pedagogy can be as free from gender bias as possible. Refer to the current Home Economics syllabus to give specific examples of what you would teach and how you would teach it.
(Whilst you may take a generic approach to the essay title, you would need to make reference to the teaching of Home Economics all along.)
Sitting in the same classroom, reading the same textbook and listening to the same teachers, boys and girls receive very different educations. Very often, sometimes unintentionally, subtle messages about behaviour, attitudes, and perceptions, are sent to boys and girls, through their surrounding environment.
Sex stereotyping occurs whenever unchangeable traits, roles and behaviours based on sex differences, are given to both males and females. Gender bias in turn manifests itself either when stereotyped characteristics, roles and actions are assigned to males/females or when pre-judgment takes place leading to gender separation which occurs in a way that prefers one sex over the other. This inhibits impartiality and results in discrimination. In fact certain subjects are still perceived as being either female or male oriented thus favouring a particular sex e.g. Home Economics is usually considered as a female subject whilst Technical Design is considered as a male subject.
In order to decrease gender bias, its source should be identified. Through decreasing gender bias males and females would be provided with equally accessible opportunities1. Gender bias is embedded in the curriculum, the teacher and the teaching styles, in textbooks, in student-teacher interactions, in traditional gender roles and in the students themselves. The National Minimum Curriculum2 has tried to reduce gender bias and promote gender equality in schools, through ensuring that boys
Bibliography: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html http://www.scre.ac.uk/rie/nl52/nl52scrimgeour.html http://tiger.towson.edu/~dlynei1/research/paper.htm http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/access-2002/gender_bias.htm http://www.american.edu/sadker/textbooks.htm http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/access/gender.html http://www.curriculum.gov.mt/docs/nmc_english.pdf Sex Bias in Education by Margaret B. Sutherland, Basil Blackwell Publisher Equal Opportunities in Schools by George Antonouris and Jack Wilson published by Cassell Educational Limited