Update 3

What’s Happening?

This post is well overdue for obvious reasons. As i’m sure is the case for many of the TLP participants, all normality went out the window weeks before the schools even closed and my focus was ensuring the wellbeing of pupils and staff.

Having had time to reflect, I have decided to continue with the program this year. It seems a shame to lose all of the work i’ve done thus far and furthermore be left without any kind of answers to the questions i originally posed.

 

What’s Working?

  • I will definitely still be able to survey parents about attitudes toward and perceptions of gender (and my survey may even get more responses than anticipated, given that parents are currently more attuned to school emails).
  • My current role involves delivering lessons around equality and diversity for pupils from Nursery -P7. This gives me a platform to continue to explore gender with pupils.
  • Twitter continues to be a source of support and ideas for my practice.
  • I am undertaking an online CPD run by the University of Strathclyde entitled Gender Representation in the Media.

 

What Am I Not Sure About?

  • Setting survey questions that provide meaningful data
  • Opening the school up to potential criticism by doing the survey
  • How to gather the views of pupils. It may be that i select a few ‘focus’ year groups

4 Replies to “Update 3”

  1. Hi Louise,
    Hope you’re keeping safe and well.
    Just popping over from my ‘usual’ Critical Friend groups to say Hello.
    What a really interesting enquiry – I’ve enjoyed spending time this morning reading through your posts and learning more about it. I love how you have looked outwards as well to beyond just the four classroom walls.
    Just at the time of the school closures, I was about to do a project on ‘Fairness and Equally in Sport’ with my ASN pupils (where part of it was looking at gender imbalance) so your enquiry struck a particular chord with me.
    Interestingly, I’ve found gender stereotyping in my senior pupils too – I have an S4-6 Employability class (with a wide range of needs) and we do a starter activity looking at their ideas of gender-specific roles. I’ve had quite a few “heated discussions” going on in the class around police OFFICER and fire FIGHTER, etc, etc….!!
    Thanks for the link to the Strathclyde Uni online CPD – must have a look at this.
    Take care & best wishes,
    Gill

    1. Thanks for popping over Gill. That sounds like it will be a really meaningful project to pick up again when things settle down. I find it really interesting that your senior pupils have biases regarding gender/employability (i’m sure they are unintentional biases!). I had a really good – also slightly heated! – discussion with some P6 pupils a few weeks ago. They are adamant that boys and girls can do the same things and shouldn’t be treated differently, but then they were still asserting that it would be ‘weird’ to find girls doing certain jobs or boys exhibiting certain qualities. It was really difficult to help them realise that they did have biases, despite thinking they didn’t, because they are essentially a product of their society. It’s an incredibly in depth idea to try and help primary aged pupils comprehend! I want to write a blog post about the discussion but need to sit and really get my head around it!

      Thank you for the input and i hope you’re staying safe.

      Louise

  2. Hi Louise,
    I’m so pleased to read your update and to see that you are continuing with your enquiry. It’ll be nice to continue our connection during these strange times.
    I also found it difficult to create survey questions which would provide me with meaningful data. I surveyed my nursery parents and the trickiest task was not to give them ‘leading’ qs and as, with my concern being I ‘knew’ what the answer would be or wanted to be!
    With having such a small group of families, I actually got my most in depth results from the ‘comments’ boxes added at the end where they could answer freely and anonymously.
    I can see your passion for enquiry with the theme of ‘gender’ continues. I am interested to see what focus you will take with this, with our new set of circumstances.
    I remember you talking about the issue of gender in relation to football and the playground – had you already gathered data on this? I also remember you thinking about the gender of teachers and how this impacts the experiences of learners. I guess both these themes look at how gender affects the ways pupils behave and interact. Will your enquiry focus on just this broad idea in relation to a specific group of pupils?
    As you can tell, I’m keen to hear more! Looking forward to seeing how you are getting on.
    Stay safe! Best wishes, Louise x

  3. Hi Louise
    I just popped in for a wee read, and this does sound like an interesting enquiry.
    Why do you think the school would be criticised if you did your survey? I hope you find a way forward in these challenging times!
    Kirstie

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