Data Gathering Strategies Observing ]
By the very nature of their work, teachers are constantly observing and anticipating what might happen within a school or classroom situation. Much of what they 'instinctively' know about gender comes from their observations in and out of the classroom. Though the observations can be formalised, often they are not; they become part of the unstated cycle of observation, speculation and accumulation of teacher knowledge.
In this study, teacher observation was mentioned in a number of contexts. Though teachers observe all the time, there are some contexts which lend themselves to more naturalistic observations of children. In the playground, for example, where the teachers' presence is not so strong and school rules are not quite so clearly defined, students tend to interact more naturally. There are other occasions such as camps and school socials which are also good situations for naturalistic observations.
Observational data such as these are often impressionistic. Though it did not emerge strongly through this study, the use of teacher journals to record observations is a good way of ensuring such data do not get lost. Together with other information that may be gathered, it is these sorts of data that provide richness to the overall data on gender.
EXAMPLE 1 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Focus:
English classes
Teacher's own observations and 'gut' response to those observations.
Language a major issue - observations of language that boys and girls were using with each other
Observing how boys and girls worked in groups in classrooms, how they naturally started to gravitate towards certain types of people
Outcome:
A start to building up general picture of gender dynamics
EXAMPLE 2 FORMAL OBSERVATION
Focus:
Playground behaviour
Concern with violence and gender based aggression
Comprehensive school effort to determine the sort of behaviour students were being subject to, specifically with respect to gender
Within context of a range of other strategies, teachers undertook formal observing in the playground
Teachers on playground duty used 'behaviour incident reporting' where people on duty recorded anything that happened
Outcome:
Teachers' accumulated knowledge of, and empathy with, what students were experiencing actually encouraging students to talk more freely about what is happening
EXAMPLE 3 FOCUSED OBSERVATIONS
Focus:
Needs of girls from NESB
Looking at needs of girls from NESB and low socio-economic backgrounds
Cross-faculty 'brainstorming' of teachers' observations of the main needs of the girls
Observations on ...
Outcome:
Major effort in curriculum, especially literacy and activities to open up options for girls - under the umbrella of 'improving life chances'
EXAMPLE 4 INITIAL OBSERVATION
Focus:
Co-educational context
Heightened awareness of teacher coming from an all-boys' school to a co-educational one
Easy to observe - gender differences from one school to the other ...
Outcome:
New directions in Mathematics including some trialing of single sex activities
EXAMPLE 5 CRITICAL INCIDENT
Focus:
Teacher had been working in gender equity and inclusive approaches in her classroom
Teacher observation of a critical incident between a boy and a girl, where the girl was being put down by the boy - a boy the teacher thought genuinely valued equity
Revisiting of own theoretical position on gender
Outcome:
Teacher's decision to use a 'construction of gender' approach with class and focus on changing behaviours