Data Gathering Strategies Linking To Regular Curricular Activities ]
The need for gender equity reform in schools ultimately comes down to improving educational outcomes for girls and for boys. Though this relates to the broader goals of schooling, an important measure must be educational outcomes in terms of curriculum areas. As a consequence, curriculum areas give vital clues to how well schools are managing their gender equity agenda.
While all curriculum areas need to be scrutinised for what they reveal about gender, some areas have traditionally provided a rich data base to inform gender reform. Areas which have been problematic in terms of girls' participation such as Mathematics and Science have helped in our understandings of gender. Similarly, the current emphasis on areas of boys' under-achievement, areas such as Literacy and the Arts, are providing a current focus for gender equity. Some of these are reflected in the following examples.
EXAMPLE 37 WRITING STORIES
Focus:
Stories (K-6) about gender
As part of comprehensive data gathering, children across all levels of the school wrote stories; kindergarten students told to teacher who wrote it down
Stories were about topics which would highlight gender, e.g., adventure story about a girl ... adventure story about a boy
Stories analysed for content, language used, role ascription, leadership, conflict resolution etc
Outcomes:
Children's perceptions of gender from a naturalistic perspective
Use of stories to look at construction of gender with students
EXAMPLE 38 ENGLISH
Focus:
Student journals
All students wrote in their journals for the first twenty minutes of their English class
Teacher did not check stories every time - just glanced through journals from time to time
Regarded as a free expression time for the students
Outcomes:
Raised issues (including gender) that might not have come through otherwise
Students freer to talk about issues
EXAMPLE 39 PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENTS
Focus:
More appropriate and inclusive assessment
Move to portfolio assessments where the students are gathering the data on their performance
Data readily analysed on the basis of gender and ethnicity
Particularly inclusive approach to assessment for students from non-English speaking background, Aboriginal students and girls - students communicating about their achievements
Also a way of Department Heads getting a perspective on their work and classes achievements
Outcome:
Alternative forms of assessment, more appropriate to all students
Good data base for NESB, Aboriginal students and girls
EXAMPLE 40 SCIENCE
Focus:
Review of Science program
Comprehensive project to review school's Science program, i.e.,
Data analysed with respect to gender and Aboriginality
Science data then matched with data on enrolment patterns and retention rates
Outcomes:
Comprehensive data base on Science to incorporate into overall data on other curriculum areas
For girls, especially, Science has historically illuminated many gender and education issues
EXAMPLE 41 ENGLISH
Focus:
Single sex classes
Interactive nature of English classes highlighted the problem of boys being very boisterous, dominating the classes and distracting the girls
Single sex classes a good source of data on boys' and girls' different styles of classroom interaction and learning
Single sex classes also highlight boys' under-achievement in this area
Outcomes:
Useful data base for English and for other curriculum areas
Like Science has been for girls, English highlights gender issues for boys
EXAMPLE 42 MEDIA STUDIES
Focus:
Content analysis of media items
Aim is to use a range of visual written texts
Daily focus on a newspaper item to look at differences in the way women and men are portrayed etc
Students encouraged to bring their own example and talk about them - illuminates and provides data on students' attitudes to, and understandings of, gender issues
Outcome:
Generation of attitudinal data from self-selected student topics
EXAMPLE 43 ASSESSMENT
Focus:
Gender audit
Concern with assessment and gender
Informal gender audit of comments made in student reports - teachers guessing whether report on a boy or girl
Correlation found between gender and comments made by teachers
Assessment also being looked at - collecting information on different assessment methods
Outcome:
Major change being undertaken in assessment, recording and reporting procedures
EXAMPLE 44 LITERATURE
Focus:
Intimate discussions and gender
Recognition that literature lends itself to intimate discussions about everything - and is often conducted in smaller class numbers
Conflict and drama in literature can relate to those in students' lives - especially sexuality and gender related problems
Especially where there is trust, literature classes and literature teachers are in a position to provide valuable information about gender
Ethics of maintaining anonymity where intimate information is shared needs to be considered
Outcome:
In-depth and often rich gender data base arising from informal situations
EXAMPLE 45 BOYS AND LITERACY
Focus:
Boys in special education classes
Increasing awareness of 'boys and literacy' issue
Profile compiled of numbers of boys and girls receiving help from Special Needs programs ... boys outnumbered girls 2:1
ESL participation data also collected ... boys require more assistance on an ongoing basis
Outcome:
Growing data for setting future directions
EXAMPLE 46 LITERACY
Focus:
Program evaluation
Evaluation and reorganisation of existing literacy program - in the process of developing units
Boys' literacy a sub-theme of the above - gathering data on ...
Learning Difficulties students ('a gender issue itself') also an important consideration
Outcomes:
Fuller data base from which to improve literacy program
Increasing teacher awareness of gender related issues and literacy
EXAMPLE 47 CURRICULUM AUDIT
Focus:
Construction of gender
Audit of the curriculum for gender in terms of ...
Audit will be undertaken by the staff as a whole
Students will also be surveyed in small group discussions to ascertain their perceptions on what the curriculum is about
Outcome:
Better understanding of curriculum construction to then deconstruct the gender in the curriculum