This quote from Atwood’s The Testaments really resonated with me. It’s true that the perception of gender and sexuality is changing. But until there is a conscious effort to address the imbalance, the present will continue to rhyme with the past. Over the past month I have explored this area with the incredibly helpful recommendations from those of you commenting on my previous blog post.
Of particular use was Improving Gender Balance and Equalities 3-18, a vast resource on the National Improvement Hub. An Action Guide for Primary Schools provided information about unconscious bias and how it can affect our interactions with children, noting that ‘everyone has biases as a result of years of exposure to gendered patterns’. After taking the Harvard Implicit Association test I realised that, despite considering myself to be unbiased and aware of the negative impact of gender stereotypes, I did in fact associate certain personality traits, careers and emotional responses to specific genders. This has only made me more determined to explore ways in which I can bring about positive change in my practice and in the wider school community to improve experiences and remove barriers for our learners. The document had fantastic ideas for tackling stereotypes and monitoring sexist language, and in fact the entire online resource provided me with so many ideas that I didn’t even have to research any other literature about gender in education – although I’m sure I have only skimmed the surface.
However, the subject of LGBT inclusion in Primary Schools proved trickier to research. LGBT Youth Scotland have an incredible range of resources and have always been incredibly helpful over the phone (and they will continue to support the school as we work toward our LGBT Schools Charter Award). Supporting Gender and Sexual Diversity in School: Teachers’ Perspectives, Challenges and Possibilities notes that any work done around addressing gender imbalance or discrimination based on sexuality has to be undertaken by a task force (e.g. teachers, students and parents) and needs to provide students with the tools to understand and challenge gender norms.
With all of this in mind, I think the focus of my enquiry will be addressing gender expectations and stereotypes in a primary setting. Not only does there seem to be a wealth of research to support me on my journey, but it seems a necessary foundation to any work on building LGBT inclusion.
Links to resources related to this post:
Education Scotland – Improving Gender Balance and Equalities
Harvard Implicit Association Test
Supporting Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools
Stonewall Guide to Tackling Homophobic Language
L x
Hi Louise Maria,
I really enjoyed your most recent post and amd posting what I did to Kirsty in your group – I wonder if you are attending the Unconscious Bias TLP workshop today at Lasswade HS as I’m sure it would be of interest? Our Improving Gender Balance and Equality (IGBE) team at ES is out and about doing lots of work and if you use Twitter and follow them you’ll get a sense of their work, They are offering ‘meets’ for face-to-face get togethers as well. if you’d like to be put in touch do let me know.
Best wishes,
Lesley
Thank you Lesley. Unfortunately i wasn’t able to attend the workshop due to other commitments. I’d love to liaise with the IGBE team at some point and already follow them on Twitter. Sounds like a great resource.