Month: November 2019

 

After undertaking the required reading, I was immediately drawn to the Spiral Enquiry approach. For me that’s exactly what this experience has been – a non-linear journey to discover what the ‘gaps’ are, what my ‘itch’ is.

Whilst reading Action Research in Education i was struck by Schon’s view that teacher enquiry is both reflection on action and reflection in action.  This notion perfectly sums up my enquiry so far, something which has arisen from reflection of the changes in my current setting and also the daily, weekly, monthly reflections on where we’re at.

I have drawn my own version of the spiral approach with my own adaptations highlighted in green, specifically:

• The tangent of exploration on which we all inevitably go – in my opinion, a necessary step in the entire process in order to ensure that you have thought out the best line of enquiry
• Refining, because that is what i have been constantly doing throughout the time i’m developing my hunch
• And reflecting at the heart of everything – because if we are not constantly reflecting, then how can we even begin to measure the success of the enquiry?

I look forward to seeing other people’s drafts and approaches and to chatting about everyone’s journey at the recall day!

 

” I don’t understand why you’re making us do all this stuff about boys’ jobs and girls’ jobs when we all know that it’s sexist to say that kind of stuff.”

-Primary 7 pupil during one of                                                                                         my “inspirational” lessons

It has become apparent during my work that there’s a huge divide amongst pupils when it comes to their awareness of gender stereotypes. The majority of children i have spoken to are well aware that statements such as ‘football is just for boys’ are harmful and damaging; some are even bored when we discuss this topic, as if i’m explaining the obvious.

A minority of the school population have perceptions of certain activities, attributes and personality traits as being masculine or feminine. I suspect that a lot of these are influenced by factors such as parental opinion, advertising or social media.

What i’d like to focus on are the ways we as a school divide activities and routines by gender, why we do this, and how we can make changes to these expectations. Moreover, i’d like to find a way to measure how  this impacts pupils’ wellbeing.

Draft question:  What happens when a school explores its approaches to gender?