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AUTHOR Kleinfeld, Judith; Yerian, Sue TITLE Preparing Prospective Teachers TO Develop the MatheMatical and Scientific Abilities of Young Women: The Development of Teaching Cases. Final Report. INSTITUTION Alaska Univ., Fairbanks. PUB DATE Jul 91 NOTE 165p. PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Case Studies; Classroom Environment; Curriculum Development; Elementary Secondary Education; *Equal Education; Females; Higher Education; Instructional Materials; Material Development; *Mathematics Education; Preservice Teacher Education; *Science Equcation; *Sex Bias; *Womens Education IDENTIFIERS *Case Method (Teaching Technique); *Reality Research; 'Iniversity of Alaska Fairbanks
ABSTRACT The project described in this report was designedto develop curriculum materials on gender equity issues for prospective teachers in education programs both at the University ofAlaska and nationwide. Practicing teachers, together with university researchers, developed 10 teaching cases which present real-world classroom difficulties centering on gender issues, particularly the development of scientific and mathematical abilities inyoung women. This report summarizes project activities and presentsabstracts as well as cases developed by teacher colleagues. Thecases are being tested and refined in both elementary and secondaryprograms at the university during the 1991-92 school year and will thenbe published and submitted to selected national publications. An appendixprovides relevant research articles on gender equity issuesto accompany teaching cases with special reference to science andmathematics. Titles include: "Gender Equity and Educational Reform";"...About Girls and Science"; "A Gender at Risk"; "Finding Realityamong the Myths: Why What You Thought About Sex Equity inEducation Isn't So"; "Sexism in the Classroom: From Grade School to GraduateSchool"; "The School Experiences of Black Girls"; "What'sa Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Math Class?" "Sexism in Our Schools";"Encouraging Girls in Science Courses and Careers"; and "Integratingthe Sciences." (LL)
*********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** FINAL REPORT:
Preparing Prospective Teachers to Develop the Mathematical and Scientific Abilities of Young Women:
The Development of Teaching Cases
Principal Investigators: Judith Kleinfeld and Sue Yerian
Teacher Colleagues:
Leslie Gordon Badger Road Elementary School Theresa Hall North Pole High School Janine Lombardi Nenana City Schools Betty McKinny Ryan Middle School Pamela Himsworth Randles University of Alaska Fairbanks Deb Reynolds Lathrop Higt School Stephanie Rudig Weller Elementary School Michelle Saiz Immaculate Conception Elementary School Sue Yerian North Pole Middle School Gerry Young North Pole Middle School
U.3 DEPARTMENT OF EOUCAT/ON "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Otfice of Educational Research and impipyenem MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMAlION CENTER (ERIC) rTh.S doCument has been -produr..0as recevect Iron, the person or organi:at,on cy.gmehnd C Minor changes have been made to .mproye University of Alaska feprOduclion quality Fairbanks, Alaska Points of view Or opinions Slated in IhisClo:u TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES menu 00 nol necessarily represent Official INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." July 1991 OER1 posoon of policy
BEST CRYFILABLE TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
PART I
Purpose of Proposal
Project Activities
PART II
Case Abstracts
Cases
1. Krn Schools to the Ground
2. ,The Hunt for the Golden Egg
3. The Square Parachute: Cooperative Science Groups in Rural Alaska
4. Angie, Her Mother, and Mathematics
5. The Vertebrate Dilemma
6. The Reluctant Mathlete
7. Heterogeneous Groups: It Didn't Work
8. Mrs. Johnson Hates Me
9. The Teacher Who Knew Too Much
10. One Pareat Counts for Thirty Teachers ABSTRACT
A:Vs,
This projent was designed to developcurriculum materials on gender equity issues for prospective teachers ineducation programs both at the University of Alaska and nationwide. Practicing teachers, together with university researchers,developedten "teaching cases," which present real-worldclassroom difficulties centering on gender issues, particularly the development of scientificand mathematicad abilities inyoung women.
Thi- report briefly summarizes projectactivities and presents the ten cases developed through this project. Also included is an appendix ofrelevant research articleson gender equity with special reference to scienca andmathematics. These cases will be tested and refinedin both the secondary and ==. elementary programs at UAF duringthe 1991-92 school year. After further revision, thecases will be published through the Rural College and submitted to selectednational publications, such as The Journal of Teacher Education. PART I:
PURPOSE OF PROPOSAL
This project addressed the third objective of thefaculty Research and Curriculum Grants to Promote Educational Equity:
"to provide (a) course modules and bibliographiesfor designing new courses alat focus on women or integrate knowledge of and about women and (b) strategies for curriculum change."
This project was designed to provide,as its major product, a course module oneducational equity issuesfor use in basic, required courss at the University of Alaska Fairbanksand in other education programs throughout thecountry. This course moduleon gender equity will be used in education courses at UAF during the 1991-92 academic Specifically, we have produced ten teachingcases centering on issues of gender equity problemsof young femalescience teachers in rural Alaska, difficulties ofsustainingtqe interest of girls in mathematics as they enter adolescence, thesudden dropping out of high school of an exceptionallytalented young woman, difficulties of female science and mathematics teachersin a schord environment they perceive as uncongenial towomen, and so forth.
While the original proposal soughtfunding for the preparation of fourcases, we have actuallyproduced tencases. Teacher enthusiasm was very high, and the principalinvestigators, Judith Kleinfeld and Sue Yerian, choseto decline the $1000 budgeted for each of them in this project in orderto provide additional support for the teachers to develop thecases.
We note as well that the original proposalspecifically called for the development of teachingcases in the area of science and mathematics. While teachers originally proposed suchcases, and all teachers patticipating in the projectwere female science and mathematics teachers, severalcases, when actually written, dealt with gender equity issuesmore broadly. We have included these additional cases in this projectreport because the cases are well within the basicpurpose of the Faculty Research and Curriculum Grants to Promote Educational Equity.
The original proposal called for thetry-out of the teaching cases in education courses taught inthe 1990-91 academic year. While we began project activities inuhe spring of1990 and were well underway in the fall of 1990,many of the teachers did not produce final drafts until May, 1991. Thecase writing process took a good deal more editing and revision thanwe originally anticipated. We therefore plan to try out the completedcases during the 1991-92 academic year, evaluating studentresponses as described in the original proposal. After further revisions,based on student response, we will publish these cases in the Case Series of the Rural College.
We.also expect to publishsome of these cases in national journals in teacher education.The field of teacher education is undergoing a major shift toward qualitative and narrative modes of thinking and is beginning to welcome the publication of"teaching cases" (as opposed to the traditional research case) in professionaljournals. The kind of "teaching cases"we have developed are in the forefront of this change. As Sykes and Bird, in a forthcoming article in Review of Research in Education, frame thistransition:
We are undergoing a "refiguration" in thesubstance, methods, and genre of social thought, and teacher education is participating in that refiguration. At the risk ci oversimplifying avery complex business, one may discern a set of connected (and relative movements), from a law-seeking toan interpretive aspiration, from a more masculineconcern for universal principal to a more feminineconcern for particular relationships, from the positivistic stance ofan observer on the scene to themore pragmatic stance of the actor in the situation, from conditioned behavior to meaningful action as a model for teaching and learning, from a cooler appraisal of teachingas teachnique to a more passionate consideration of teaching as moral agency..., from lecture to conversationas the mode for interaction between professors and teachers, and from exposition to narrative--stories--asa genre for that conversation.
The cases we have produced under thisgender equity grant are examples of the type of materialsthat are being sought---stories about common and significant classroomdilemmas. These narratives raise ethical and value questions,as well as issues of pedagogical strategy, and provide the basis for valuableconversations about what the problemsare, how they came about, and what, if anything, can and could be done about them. PROJECT ACTIVITIES
1. Identification of Teacher-Researchers to Write theCases
Sue Yerian, who has extensive working relationships withscience and mathematics teachers in the Fairbanks NorthStar Borough School System, contacted teachers whom she thought might beinterested in developiny casesabout genderequityissues, particularly in science ahd mathematics. She sent out a generalletterof invitation to schools, talked withteachers at inservice programs, and contact as well teachers in certainspecialties, such as Gifted and Talented Programs. Judith Kleinfeldsimilary contacted science and mathematics teachers in the CatholicSchool System.
We were disappointed to finda lack of interest on the part of male teachers of science and mathematics inthe preparation of cases on gender equity.
Many female teachers, however,were delighted to participate in the project.While most wrote their owncases and the co-investigators didediting, two teachersfurnished background material and requested Yerian and Kleinfeld to write thecases. 2. Development of Cases on Gender Equity
The case-writing group met in the fallof 1990 to develop ideas about central issuesin gender equity,as these problems and dilemmas were actually expressed in theclassroom. The initial ideas developed from the classroom experiencesof these science, mathematics, gifted and talented, and otherteachers.
Each teacher was asked to identifya pardigm situation,a real world case which she hadd experienced, whichillustrated these gender equity issues.
Following the meeting, Yerianor Kleinfeld met with each teacher individually to help develop her ideas. After the meetings, Kleinfeld and Yerian wrotecase outlines which summarized the possible issues of the teacher'scase and gave suggestions for how to write the case throughan outline of crucial classroom scenes and valuable background information.
After assembling several draftcases, the case-writing group met to discuss the drafts and make suggestionsfor revision. The group helped thecasewriters interpret the situation, spot more significant issues, provide relevant detail,and increase the drama of the case. Each teacher then revised hercase, on the basis of these suggestions, and presented therevised case to the group. The group met four times duringthe spring of 1991 to discuss and revise cases.
7 During June, 1991, Kleinfeld and Yerian assembled theten cases, made stylistic and other minor revisions, and assembled thecases for the final report and for initial try-out during the 1991-92 academic year.
3. Securing of Permission to Conduct Research, Notification of Principals,_ and Procedures to Protect Confidentiality
Permission wassecured to conduct this research through the proposal review process established by the Fairbanks NorthStar Borough School District.Principals of schools were also notified. No concerns or objectionswere raised about the purposes of the research or the case themselves.
All cases are heavily disguisedso that the particular students and school stff members are not recognizable. Teachers hadthe option of publishing cases anonymouslyor not, as they preferred.
4. Try-outs ofCasesDuring the 1991-92 Academic Year and Revisions
As previously discussed,we were uable to obtain the cases in time to try them out during the spring of 1991. Therefore, we will use the cases for the first time in the fall of 1991 and revisethem for publication during the spring of 1992.
Kleinfeld will teach selected gender equitycases to all secondary students at UAF. Pam Randles, a case-writer, is oneof the team members in the UAF elementaryprogram and will teach selected cases in this program.
5. Collection of Useful Background Research Articleson Gender Equity Issues in Education with Special Referenceto Science and Mathematics
In ordov to provide a conceptual framework forinterpreting issues in the cases, we have collected central articleson gender equity and research summaries.These are attached in an Appendix to this final report.
These articles can be given directly tostudentsto help them understand the issues of thecase or the articles can be used by theprofessor teaching the case to enhancehis orherown understanding of gender equity issues. PART II. CASE ABSTRACTS
We summarize each of the tencases in a brief abstract below and then include the full text of thecase. Several cases are designed to be Laught sequentially.
In a number of cases, the narrativeis in two parts:The Part A of thecase presents a teaching problem or dilemma. Education students read Part A and then discussthe teaching issues posed and what the teachercan and should do.
Part B ofthe caseis handedto students aftertheinitial discussion. It describes what happened and providesa basis for appraising the teacher'sresponse to the problems. Some cases also contain an "Epilogue," which tellsstudents what happened over the long term as a result ofthe actions taken in the case.
Not all cases follow this format,however. In some instances, teachers preferred to tell theirstory as it unfolded.These cases follow the form the Harvard Business School calls the "retrospective case." After reading the case, the studentsframe the issues, appraise the actions of theteacher and other principal characters,and discuss what other strategiesmight have been taken.
1. "Burn Schools to the Ground" Prepared by Betty McKinny and written by Judith Kleinfeld
April, a young woman gifted inmusic and writing, comes to Ms. Adams, who has been her Gifted andTalented teacher at the Middle School, and announces herintentions to drop out of high school. She has refused to attend high schoolclasses, is spending her time with an emotionally disturbedfriend, has begun to get into trouble,and wants to leave high schooland finish up through correspondence courses.Ms. Adams considers what, if anything, she can do to prevent an exceptionallytalented young woman from leaving school and reflectsas well on what is causing April's difficulties.
Issues include emotional disturbance, counseling techniques, appropriate school programming for gifted children, and explanations and interventionsfor the downward spiral thatcan occur atadolescence ofwhat have appearedto bestable and academically successfulyoung women. 2. "The Hunt for the Golden Egg"
Patsy, a science and physical educationteacher, enjoys challenging stereotypes, particularly stereotypes aboutwomen. Patsy was the first female high school teacherto work in Shumayuk in many years and the first student teacherever. She saw herself as a role model for the youngwomen in an Inupiat community where men held public authority and women's liveswere circumscribed.
While Patsy succeeds in increasingthe interest and achievement of the junior highschoolgirls in science, she finds herself constantly confronted with challengesto her authority from the high school students. They refuse to follow her directives, goad her with obscene music,and are disinterested in science that doesn't come straightfromthe textbook. The teacheraides, maintenance man,and others in the community turn againsther, setting her up as a scapegoat inthe Easter Egg Hunt.
Issues include the natureof authority, gender role differences in the expression of authority,methods of handling challenges to authority,conflicts in gender role expectations in different communities, and Lhe effects of social change on tensions surrounding gender roles.
3. "The Square Parachute: Cooperative Science Groups in Rural Alaska" Prepared by Pam Randles
Meg Eliot,a new science teacher, comes to Goose Bay intenton teaching science through inquirymethods.She wants students to be able to frame scientific questions,observe and measure, and design experiments. But her carefully prepared activities and laboratories founder. The class careens out of control when she tries a laboratory dissection.Boys always assume leadership roles in group work,even when Meg Eliot specifically rotates the role of leader through thegroup. Meg Eliot's principal is unsympathetic to her aims either in scienceteaching or in developing the skills of young women. The case traces Meg Eliot's eventuallysuccessful efforts to teach inquiryskills, to develop the abilities of both boys and girls to work in mixedgender groups, and to teach young women to assume group leadership roles.
Issues in this case include developingyoung women's scientific and leadership abilities, problems of implementing cooperative learning, conflict between teachers and administration on instructional philosophies, especiallygender equity. 4. "Angie, Her Mother, and Mathematics" by Leslie Gordon Angie,a third grade student in the Gifted and Talented Program freezes in fear when she must deal with mathematics. Her mothee and Angie have nightly battles over mathematics homeworkwhich typically end with Angie having a temper tantrum and being banished to her room. Angie's mother threateas to pull her mathematically talented daughter out of the Gifted and Talented Program since the subject is causing her and the familyso much stress. The Gifted and Talented teacher must figure out how to deal not only with mathematics phobia but also with the problemsat home.
Issues include mathematics phobia among young women, relationships between teachers and parents, and the line between appropriate and inappropriate counseling roles for classroom teachers.
5. "The Vertebrate Dilemma" by Michelle Saiz When Ann transfers to a school with much higher expectations for science work, she finds herself failing seventh gradescience. Her teacher,Mrs. James, hasencountered thisproblem with other students andbringsup the issueof implementing a special "Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory" grading policy for transferstudents who lack the expected background. When the faculty greet this suggestionwith disinterest, Mrs. James tries a series of interventions designed toassist Ann. The case exploresthe variety of approaches a teachercan use to provide assistance to academically unprepared students.
Issues include grading policies and ways of assisting low- performing students while maintaining high levelsof expectation for science achievement.
6. "The Reluctant Mathlete" by Sue Yerian
A female middle school math teacher who alsocoaches O'te school's math team gradually realizes that withina matter of months onP of her top female team members has changed interestsfrom math to boys, clothes and parties. The case study follows the teacheras she prepares the four team members for the district andstate competitions, wondering at various moments if she should permitthe girl to drop off the team,as the girl wants, or if she should continue to encourage her in the competition. To win the state competition would mean a chance ata college scholarship for another student living at the poverty level, but theteam needs the girl's outstanding math skills and cooperation inorder to win. This case highlights the following gender issues: To what degree does a teacher support and nurture an underrepresented individual, a female, in the field of math at the expense of other students? How should math be taught to middle sLhool students, particularly girls, who may lose interest in the subject during puberty, fall behind boys in terms of math courses completed by the end of the high school, aro give up opportunities for further advancementand future career in math and science?
7. "Heterogeneous Grouping: It Didn't Work"
This case addresses the problems ofa new female teacher who tries to usein a 7th grade science lab the heterogeneous grouping techniques she learned at the university. The teacher notices that the students segregate themselves by gender and by ability. Her attempts to change the class grouping structure, two months after school has begun, result in a chaotic lab. A parent call and negative comments from her colleagues prevent the teacher from trying cooperative strategies the rest of theyear. The issues raised in this case revolve around gender and ability grouping patterns that have already been established and whether teachers can change patterns already ingrained by the timethe students reach the secondary level; whether teacher educationand in-service programs can effectively train educators to minimize gender bias in the classroom.
8. "Mrs. Johnson Hates Me"
Parental pressure encourages an elementary enrichment teacher with a strong math background to develop an accelerated math class for the school's 5th and 6th grade gifted math students. The female teachercarefullyfollows the guidelinesestablished by her collegues and principal for choosing the students and contacting parents, but her efforts are derailed by school politics, misunderstandings, and personal rivalries. The case follows the teacher as she attempts to place Nate,a math prodigy, atthe proper math level, and how this attempt eventually involves teachers and counselors at all school levels inan increasingly complex dilemma.
The gender issues in this case stem from the elementary enrichment teacher's strong math background and the discriminationshe felt from other teachers, both elementary and secondary, whomshe felt were threatened by her strong content background, math ability, the math awards she had earnedas an enrichment teacher rather than as a math teacher, and her persistence in trying to keep her gifted students out of the district's lock-step math system. 9. "The Teacher Who Knew Too Much"
In this case a teacher strongly identifies with a female student she has in her chemistry and physics classes. As she gets to know the student, she finds that the stuient's life parallels herown: an alcoholic father, too much family responsibility, not enough time for her own activities. The teacher has high standards and strict deadlines. The young woman cannot complete her spring project by its due date because of too many after school family dutier. The teacher debates whether she should allow the student to turn in a late project something she has never permitted before because she understands on a personal level what this young woman's life is like.
The gender issues that arise from this case include: How flexible should a teacher be with established classroom policy in order to encourage a young woman's interest in science?How involved should a teacher become in the personal lives of her students? At what point doesthetime taken to support and nurture one student interfere with the time needed by the other students? Does the science teacher's gender and non-competitive classroom environment positively affect the attitudes of her female studentstoward science?
10. "One Parent Counts for Thirty Teachers"
This case concerns a female math teacher who has difficulty witha male student in her Basic Algebra class. The teacher, who believes she is following school policy, will not issuepasses to students during the last ten minutes of the class period. The male student insists he needs a bathroompass; the teacher refuses to give him one. The student challenges the teacher's rule by leaving the class without permission. In the ensuing action,the teacher perceives that the school administrators establishan inappropriate degree of camaraderie with male btudents and give in to parental pressure by accepting the student's version of what happened in class, by not punishing the student for leaving the class without permission, and by implying that the problem resided with her classroom discipline.
The case brings up the following gender related issues: the differences between male and female classroom discipline styles; the standards by which female teachers are judgedas classroom disciplinarians when the standards have been determined by male administrators; and the degree to which female teachers need to be backedby the school administrationwhen physicalsize and intimidation cannot be as easily used as discipline measures as they are by some male teachers. BURN SCHOOLS TO THE GROUND
Betty McKinny Judith Kleinfeld (Writer)
ABSTRACT
April, a young woman giftedin music and writing, comes to Ms. Adams, who has been her Giftedand Talented teacher at the Middle School, and announces her intentionsto drop out of high school. She has refused to attend highschool classes, is spending her time withan emotionally disturbed friend,has begun to get into trouble, and wants to leavehigh school and finish up through correspondence courses.Ms. Adams considers what, if anything, she can do toprevent an exceptionally talentedyoung womanfrom leaving school and reflectsas well on what is causing April's difficulties.
Issues include emotional disturbance, counseling techniques, appropriate school programming for gifted children, and explanations and interventions forthe downward spiral thatcan occur atadolescence ofwhathave appeared to bestable and academically successfulyo'Ing women. BURN SCHOOLS TO THE GROUND
Part A
"Your mom tells me you are thinkingabout, dropping out of high school."
Ms. Adams looked at the fifteenyear old high school sophomore slumped into a chair in the Gifted andTalented Room. She recalled the exuberant April of twoyears ago when April was a superstar in her Gifted and Talented program. She could picture her hunched over the page layout for Writers' Cramp, the literarymagazine she and her friends published.
"It's the people, they're justso immature.They don't like anyone who is different," April replied.
"Is it the teachers?" Ms. Adams probed.
"They're OK. They're not that bad," April shrugged. "Is it the curriculum?"
"That's OK. But it's just so boring. Why do we have to learn all that stuff? It doesn't make any sense."
I'm not getting straightanswers, Ms. Adams thought.
April wasn't the first girl she had knownwho had done brilliantly in school only to fall apartwhen she hit adolescence. April was genuinely talented. She had won literary prizes for her creative writing.She was passionate about music, played thesaxophone and the piano, and composed and arranged herown songs. Was she going to be another girl who dropped outof school, got pregnant, and threw away her chances? Ms. Adams had seen this pattern before. Was there anything she could do? Would anything she said or did make any real difference?
Ms. Adams and April
Ms. Adams' Gifted and Talented Roomwas filled with half-completed student projects and videotape equipmentfor the media projects she encouraged. An experienced teacher,who had run a restaurant before getting her Educational SpecialistDegree in Gifted and Talented education, Ms. Adamsfavored an individualized approach where students wrote cortracts to do creative, independent projects. In both the seventh and eighth grades,April had been in Ms. Adams' room for two courses--Advanced Reading and Gifted andTalented (a course elective). Ms. Adams and April's mother also co-sponsored the literary magazine. The student-s,taff met after school andon some Saturdays. April had never missed a meeting.April's mother also attended, but the girl hadn't seemedto resent her mother's presence.
When April went on to high school,Ms. Adams no longer saw her. But she had run into the wife ofa fellow teacher in the grocery store who told her Aprilwas in trouble. Later April's mother called and asked if she could bringApril in to see her. Her daughter had runaway with a friend, she said, but she was just trying to help out the other girlwho had been sexually abused. April's mother had paidthe $70 cab fare and had driven toa neighboring town to get the girls.
April was not going toher high school classes. Her mother would drop her off at thefront door and she would leave through the back. April wouldn't even work inher favorite literature course. She had failed Introduction toLiterature three times because she refused to read the Iliad. She wanted to drop out and take correspondence courses.
Her mother brought April tothe G/T room and left the two of them alone.
April's School Career
April's teachers had oddly differentperceptions of her. Most of her elementary school teacherssaw her as a child exceptionally talented in creative writingand music but not especially gifted intellectually. Aprilwas an overachiever, they said, whose mother pushed her very hard to succeed. April's sixth grade teacher said her mother questionedany poor grade her daughter received and the teacher had to justify the gradeby showing her mother each entry in her gradebook.
April's middle grade teacherstook the opposite view. They saw her as an underachiever--a giftedstudent who didnot use her capabilities. Due to her high language abilities, Aprilhad been placed withthe G/T teacher forEnglish to work onspecial projects.
She achieved quite well untilthe middle of her eighth gradeyear. As an eighth grader, April hadmanaged to get into the G/Troom for social studies as well.April did very well in social studies,Ms. Adams found, if she couldpersonalize the projects. For example, April wrote a firstperson journal about what it was like to bea
, t) member 'of the first explorations in the Americas. She wrote a play on the Holocaust. But April did not do well on objective tests or even essay tests. Even though she wrote well, she did not have good general background knowledge, and shewas weak on specific information. April's test scores had started out high but had declined at adolescence, especially in mathematics. At age 5, she had scored in the superior range (IQ= 125) on the Slossen Intelligence test and she had received similar score (IQ = 127) when tested again at age 7. But her achievement tests showed a pattern of decline.
Reading Mathematics Grade Level Grade Equivalent Grade Equivalent
Kindergarten 4.2
Fifth Grade 12.9
Eighth Grade 12.8
When April entered high school, a comprehensive secondary school of about 2000 students,she had to leave the Gifted and Talented program offered at the middle school level. Other than Honors courses,the high school had no special programming for gifted students.
Of the 46 days of school during the fall of her sophomoreyear, April had only attended 28 days. She told the counseling office she was sick and she didn't like whatwas happening in school. April had been absent so much that none of her teachers remembered her very well. Even her high school counselor was vague about April. He did not know how old she was and seemed to think she was a junior or senior.
The reason April was doing badly, the counselor said,was that she had poor attendance and wouldn't do what was required of her. With the exception of a D- in Elementary Algebra, shewas failing all her high school classes.
"April isliving in thesixties," the high school counselor remarked. "She is just rebelling because it is the thing to do. When you get to high school, students really don't havea lot of choices. There are required courses they have to take, and many students don't understand that."
17 April in Her Family
April was nine weeks old when shewas adopted by her present family. She was the second adopted child. Her brother Robert, three years older than April,was also in the Gifted and Talented Program but got into the drug scene and then drifted out of school. April never got along well with Robert and has cut off communication with him.
April's mother adopted two other children, both froma mixed racial background and with disabilities. The first child arrived when April was three years old, and the secondcame when April was a fifth grader.
April resented the adoption of these children. She asked her mother why they had to take in misfits and why they hadto adopt all these kids. According to her mother, April sees herself asa premium baby because she is Caucasian and she doesn't likethe fact that she has to wait for things and make themoney stretch. April's father, an electronics technician who worksout of town every other week, doesn't havewhathecalls a "one-on-one relationship" with his daughter. April's problems with school, he said, come from her being unable to handle thepressure to conform. At times, he felt, the pressure to conform wasso hard on her she would explode.
April's mother calls herself a professional volunteer--active in all her children's school activities, BoyScouts, Girl Scouts, and community organizations. She adopted allthe kids,she said, because all she wanted to do was to bea nurturer and raise a family.
In her mother's view, she and April hada good relationship until the eighth grade. But April has pushed the limits.
April's mother had to go down to the police stationwpen she and two soldiers were picked up ina parking lot at 1A.M. The soldiers had helped April crawl out of her bedroom window. April insisted she had done nothingwrong. "All we were doing was talking."
April's closest friend rightnow, said her mother, was a disturbed child.But the friend shared April's passion for music and poetry. In elementary and middle school, April had friendsfrom stable families, children involved in scouting activities. Now she was forming what her mother termed "addictive relationships"with one friend at atime. She and her friend had been picked Lp for shoplifting, and Aprilwas seeing a probation officer. Her mother feared April would just disappear some day. When she finally does get to leave, April said, she wouldnever come back. Ms. Adams and April in the G/T Room
As she looked at April's stubborn face, Ms. Adams searched for what to say. It would be such a waste--a disaster--if April dropped out of high school.
At least it wasn't drugs. April's mother said she had taken the girl to a drug and alcohol assessment center and they reported that April was not using drugs.
Could April have been sexually abused? Dramatic behavior change was one of the signs. The music teacher at her high school had been convicted of sexually abusing students. But April's name had not come up, and April refused to talk about the subject.
Ms. Adams remembered a disturbing story April had written for her two years ago, when she was an eighth grader. (See Appendix). While a work of fiction, it described the suicide ofa young girl who seemed a duplicate of April.
Her mother said April's favorite remark was, "Who cares?We're all going to die anyway." But her mother also told the story of April at ten, when she had been pushed off the monkey bars and had broken her hand. She had convinced the doctor not to put a full caston her hand so she could play her saxophone for the Christmaspageant. She had learned to write with her left hand so she could do all her homework even though most of the homeworkwas excused. Could she come up with some way to channel this passionate energy? And, even if she could come up witha plan, how could she convince April to consider it?
"If it were up to me," April said, "there wouldn't beschool. I'd do everything on my own. We should burn schools, burn them to the ground!" .0:7401. 11.114,1Z. . .
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4 Part B.
"April," Ms. Adams said, looking at the girl slumped before her, eyes fastened on the table. "Have you checked out your options?" "I try to teach G/T kids how to approach teachers to get things changed. For G/T kids, it's a survival skill. I asked April if she had talked to her high school teachers about modifying the curriculum. I asked her if she had looked into the alternative high school. Had she thought about transferring to another high school? What about university classes? She said no, she hadn't done anything, she hadn't checked out anything.
"I said to her, 'There are possible options but I needto know what your goals are. What do you want?'
"I asked her to do a contract forme, like she had done in my G/T classes. The contract lists: 1. Goals 2. Steps 3. Resources 4. Roadblozks 5. Rewards."
April came back with the contract filled out:
1. Goal
To be able to attend a school in which I can:
A. work somewhat at my own pace B. use my creativity for credit C. use my music for credit D. get along with the teachers and students E. take the courses I'll really need in my career F. improve my attitude (towards every aspect of school) G. graduate H. (maybe) get a scholarship
2. Steps
I'm planning to:
A. withdraw from high school B. enroll somewhere else C. become more self-motivated and self-confident D. live up to everyone's, including my own, expectations of me 3. Resources
To reach my goal, I'll need:
A. my teachers' support B. a good attitude C. my family's support D. some quiet time at home E. my friends' support F. a Flat out miracle
4. Roadblocks
Things that might get in my way are
A. my laziness B. my self-doubt/self-criticism C. not enough praise and support for my work D. I might not get along with the teachers and/or students wherever I end up either
5. Rewards
If I reach my goal, I expect
A. a better attitude towards school and learning B. a diploma C. possibly a scholarship D. to be prepared for a musical career E. a few new friends F. at least one teacher recommendation letter for college
April promised she would check out the options before shemade her decision.
Ms. Adams swung into action. She called over to the high school, but none of April's teachers rememberedmuch about her or wanted to meet wi's.h Ms. Adams. The guidance counselor was no help either. She then spent three days on the telephone tryingto find out what April's options were.
She took a day of personal leave, picked Aprilup, and they set off to check out the possibilities. April wouldn'tconsider staying at her present high school,no matter what. She didn't even want to be inside the building.
They went to a different high school. The counselor was negative about the idea of arranginga flexible curriculum for April. They drove to the university. The head of the music department said April could take musiccourses while still in high school.
They swung back to the school districtcentral office and reviewed the correspondencecourses. The material was not challenging.
After taking April out for lunch,Ms. Adams ended with a visit to the Alternative High School, which shehad spotted as the best choice all along. The students worked on individual projectsand had alotof freedomto combine schoolwith work and other activities. April commented that the students looked tough,like they were involved with drugs,or might be. But she seemed to like the approach at Alternative.
Ms. Adams dropped April off athome and told her mother what she needed to do to get April intothe Alternative High School.
Two months later she ran into April's motherat the grocery. "What happened with April?" she asked. Epilogue
April refused to enroll at the AlternativeHigh School saying that "most ofthe kidswere druggies and really weird." Shewas speeding through correspondencecourses. Her mother had tried to enroll her in music courses atthe university,but April was skipping out of them.
At sixteen, April had a baby witha soldier she had met. Her parents encouraged her not to get married. She now is living at home with the baby. April recently enrolled ina vocational program where young mothers can bring their babies andleave them in a day care program at the school.
"I was so frustrated," Ms. Adamsconcluded. "I was frustrated because I couldn't fix it. In retrospect, I should have followed up with the Alternative High School.
"We can't identify kids at risk. We can't seem to do any effective interventions."
Ms. Adams is looking into correspondence schoolsof the performing arts for April. THE HUNT FOR THE GOLDEN EGG
Edited by Judith Kleinfeld
ABSTRACT
Patsy, a science and physical educationteacher, enjoys challenging stereotypes, particularly stereotypes aboutwomen. Patsy was the first female high school teacherto work in Shumayuk in many years and the first student teacherever. She saw herself as a role model for the youngwomen in the Inupiat community where men held public authority and women's liveswere circumscribed.
While Patsy succeeds in increasingthe interest and achievement of the junior high girls in science, shefinds herself constantly confronted with challenges to herauthority from the high school students. They refuse to follow her directives, goadher with obscene music, andare disinterested in science that doesn't come straight from the textbook. The teacher aides, maintenanceman, and others in the community itselfturn against her, setting her up as a scapegoat in the East Egg Hunt.
Issues include the nature of authority,gender role differences in the expression of authority,methods of handling challenges to authority, conflicts in genderrole expectations in different communities, and the effects of social change on tensions surrounding gender roles. THE HUNT FOR THE GOLDEN EGG
Part A
"I have bum ankles!" yelleda senior high school girl.
Soon (: chorus of kidsbegan to call, "I have a bum leg,ankle, knee
"I have a bowel movement!!"yelled a boy.
The situation developedso fast that the student teacher,Patsy, didn't know how to curbit. She gave them her "knock itoff" look, walked to the center of thesoccer field and said, "Time to begin. Set up your teams and let'sGO!"
Ever since she arrived inShumayuk, an Inupiaq village offthe Bering Sea coast,Patsy had been trying tocome up with good athletic activities. The high school hada tiny gym and little equipment. The high schoolstudents had already completedunits on fitness, aerobics, Native Youth Olympics, Eskimo baseball, badminton, basketball, andcross-country skiing.
Patsy decided to try snow-and-icesoccer outdoors. Spring had finally come, and she couldhardly bear to be inside.
The high school studentscomplained that they hadnever played soccer in the snow and ice, didn'twant to go outside, and didn't have the right shoes. But on Monday everyone had hada good time. "We are playing soccer today for gym, and we will beginNOW," Patsy said. She placed the ball in thecenter spot, and yelled "GO!!"
One boy, unopposed, tookthe ball and quickly scored. That got them started.
Play continued untilLorraine, the goalie, triedto kick the hall, missed, and landedon her back. She was laughing at first,but she didn't get up.
Patsy waited a minute andthen slowly walkedover and watched her.
"Don't stare at me!" shesaid, smiling and laughing. Patsy was aware that Inupiaq didn't liketo be stared at, but shealso knew this girl loved attentionand often played the "dumb,helpless girl" routine. Patsy could not tell if she not. was really injured or When Patsy asked the girl if she needed helpgetting up or wanted to go the clinic, the girl lit into her, telling her thisgame was stupid, that the conditions were too bad to be doing anything outside, and she didn't want to play. Theatrically, she arose, and, milking the scene for all itwas worth, hobbled like an old lady toward the school building.
Patsy ordered the students to resume play. She took Lorraine's place as goalie.
As Patsy defended the goal, the opposingteam kicked the ball as hard as they could directly at her. One of the boys on her own team would not play defense.
A kick for Patsy's goal missed and the ball took off downthe hill. Since Patsy had ducked, she didn'tsee where the ball went. "Go get the ball!" Byron ordered Patsy.
"There are not out-of-bounds in this game,"Patsy said. "The ball is still in play."
"The goalie is supposed to get the ball,"said one of the boys. Patsy responded,"Not true,the goalie CAN go get the ball but doesn't have to. There are no out-of-bounds. The ball is still in play."
No one moved. Patsy was fed up.
She decided she would go look for the ball, and,when she returned with it, they would go inside. She would have them do push-ups. Then she'd take them outsideto resume play.
The problem was she couldn't findthe ball. "Where is it?" she asked.
"Around that building," repliedone of the students.
Patsy looked around the building, a foul-smelling outhouse, but found no ball. The kids had deliberately misled her. She told them to follow her lack into the classroom and ordered them to do 50 push-uns. Shirley refused, and Patsy kicked her out of class.
After push-ups, the class went backoutside. Patsy saw the ball far down the alley and toldone of the students to get it. As Patsy walked towards him to take the ball, he acted likehe was goingto throw it at her. Patsysaid such a displaywas inappropriate and unnecessary.
"Man, what is your problem!" he demanded.
"I am not the one with the problem. You want to be treated like an adult---act like one."
All the other team members had been runninga lot, said a quiet boy, why couldn't she go get the ball.?
Were they just trying to egg her on, Patsy wondered,or didn't they really understand why she wasso disappointed in their behavior?
She began to explain her reasoning when Byron exploded. She was making them play soccer outside, he said, when theywere getting hurt and wet. He had sprained his ankle. Other guys were getting hurt. Lorraine got really injured, and Patsy didn'tcare and wasn't fair.
"Byron, you just do not understand," Patsy said. "I am the teacher in this class, notvou, and we will do the activities that I decide on. The behavior of the class will be tomy satisfaction, not yours, or there will be consequences to pay.If you do not want to abide by my decision, youcan take an F for the day. That is your prerogative. My prerogative is the activities that we will do, when we will do them, and how we will do them." "No, you're the one who just doesn't understand," Byron yelled. "You just won't understand. WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE. YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE. We won't do what you say, because WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE!!"
Patsy marched the students into the school building, told them to stay in the gym, and went straight to Darren Sawyer, her cooperating teacher. He told her she did the right thing and they both went back to the gym.
The school, Darren announced, would offer twogym classes for the rest of the year.One would be inside with him--gym out of a book. The other would be activities with Patsy. Each student could choose, but his class would entail homeworkevery night and reading and reports every day. He reminded the students that Patsy's gym class had the backing of the school.
"The only injury you will sustain inmy class," Darren concluded with heavy sarcasm, "is writer'scramp. We're doing this because YOU don't run the school. The principal, the teachers, and the school board run this school. YOU don't." He turned and walked out with Patsy right behind him.
Background
Patsy had been ecstatic when she found out she would getto do her student teaching in Shumayuk, her first choice school. After many years of trying to prepare herself for teaching and living inan Alaskan village, she fnally felt ready to tackle it.
Patsy looked at village teaching asa commitment to a community and a people. Her professors felt she exhibited a high degree of sensitivity and an eagerness to learn from Native people. Patsy chose Shumayuk,in large part because of Tim and Laura McNeil, teachers who had lived in this community formany years. Patsy wanted to find out what it took to be "long-term committed" and what difierence itwould make. The system oftransient teachers, she believed, created an educational climate whichwas not good for the students, the village,or the teachers. For this reason, Patsy did not choose to work with a well-known science teacher or to find a village ina fantastic setting. She chose to work with teachers who were committed toa community.
Shumayuk was exactly what she had hoped for---asmall, dry village, a Yupik culture she held in high respect. The village even had a church of her denomination. She was excited to find out that the current pastor was Native. She would teach science classes from grades 6-12 and mighteven be assistant coach of the cross-country ski team. A fantastic adventure was beginning!
When Patsy asked to become the first studentteacher Shumayuk ever had, the administrators warned her thatno community housing was available. Patsy ended up sleeping in a cubicle in the school. She used the home economics facilitiesas her kitchen, a high school classroom as her dining area, theelementary office as her living space,and the elementary school's only bathroomas her toilet and shower.
Patsy knew that privacy would be non-existent. The first week she arrived the toilets were backedup, smearing the bathroom with human waste. The smell was overwhelming. Toilet back-ups, she soon learned, were routine. But the cubicle wasn't so bad. Patsy had lived in a tent for 5 months at a time. She could handle roughing it once more. After all, everyone in Shumayuk was crowded into small houses. Gender Issues and Science Teaching
Patsy was not only the first student teacherin Shumayuk but also the first female high school teacher inseveral years. The last female high school teacher,people told her, had been run over by the students and had left not onlyShumayuk but teaching. The first hint of communityattitudes toward women came when she observed Darren Sawyer's junior high schoolsocial studies class. He had married a Nativewoman so he had a personal, as well as a professional, perspectiveon the local culture.
"Now let me get this straight... You are saying that girls are not as smart as boys? There is something genetic so that girlscan never be as smart as boys?" Darren was asking incredulously.
"That's right!" answereda chorus of students, mostly eighth grade girls. Most of the boys weren't saying anything.
"Girls are just dumb,"one female student said.
"Well, you have already toldme that girls can't be good athletes
"Yeah, that's right,"one girl said. "Girls are stupid and girls are weak."
No one was smiling.
"So if girls can't think and girlscan't do well in athletics, what can you do?"
"Nothing!" another eighth grade girlexclaimed, straight-faced. She appeared to be serious:
"Gee, I'm glad I'm nota girl growing up in Shumayuk. I wouldn't want to think I am good for nothing.What does that say about how you feel about yourself?"
As he gathered up his books, he said, "Youhave a lot of work to do here, Patsy."
Patsy thought the girls had been joking, butDarren later told her they had not been. Women have no place as authority figures within the culture, he explained. The last female teacher at the high school, he said,had given up trying to discipline them. He exhorted Patsy to remain firm andnot to negotiate. She should be authoritarian, he advised her. He gave several examples where male high school students literallyran their homes and ordered around their mothers and grandmothers.
Patsy felt she was ready forthe challenge. She had experience in the field of science. She was full of innovative teaching ideas. As a female in science,she had faced bias and discrimination before.
k) Patsy did not fit the mold of the typical femaleanyway. Not only was she teaching high school and teaching science and math, butshe was taller than most men in the village. She was single, without children when allthe village women ofher age had children, whether or not they were married.
Patsy enjoyed being different. She went to church, which no other local teacner did. One day she was delighted to surprise men cutting firewood, when shewas skiing 10 miles from town. She was amazed that people were afraid to venture farfrom town without vehicles or guns,especially women. Patsy was not afraid and thought it amusing that peoplewere in awe of this feat. She was hoping she would bea good role model for some of her female students.
Patsy approached instructionvery differently from the other high school teachers. Science class prior to Patsy's arrival had been a matter of reading from the book and copying from the book the answers to the questions at the end of the chapter. Patsy taught the students how to read carefully. She tried to get them to think about the process of doingscience rather than just doing experiments in a cookbook fashion. She tried to incorporate into her lessons examples of scientific principlesfrom village life. Her junior high science class centered around activities,labs, and educational games.
After the expected period ofiritialtesting,thejunior high students settled down and accepted Patsyas their teacher. Even though she had been warned thatsome junior high students had severe emotional and behavioral problems, these studentsseemed to catch on to Patsy's style of teaching. They realized they would have a lot more fun doing science Patsy'sway than just reading the textbook. Two junior high school girls went from barelypassing grades to getting A's an6 8.s and another girl'sgrades rose from F's to C's and D's.
Patsy also helped out with science mini-lessons for the kindergarten class and assisted in field tripsand activities. The kindergarten class and Patsy startedwriting letters and notes back and forth, and Patsy was their "guestspeaker" on a few occasions. When Patsy got them to sit stillfor a 20 minute lesson, she knew she was getting them intrigued with science.
With the high school students,however, the situation was out and out warfare. The initial testing seemed to intensify rather than recede. The students did not treat any other high schoolteacher the way they treated Patsy. Every day she had to send students outside the room or to the principal's office,and flunk them for the day. Even though science was all around them,the students could not make connections between science in the classroomand science in the world outside the classroom. They were not interested in learning how to think, when they had already learnedhow to read a textbook and regurgitate it foran exam. They vehemently resisted anything that was new or different,even though they were bored and uninterested in their classes. Whatever Patsy tried went wrong-- likethetimeshetook thestudents outside toexamine the snowmachines and one girl sprained several fingersby getting her hand stuck in the snowmachine track.
Ofthe twelve high schoolstudents inthe school, Patsy had constant problems with five of them. One student, whose father was the head of the local school board, quit school after a confrontation with Patsy.At least the principal had backed Patsy. While the student came back aftera week, she sought out fights with Patsy.
Patsy did not feel comfortable with the authoritarianmethods of discipline the other teachers used. She tried to speak with students individually to explain her actions andreactions. She entertained questions. She tried to be reasonable and appeal to their desire to be treatedas adults.
When itbecameapparent thatstudentsviewed her methodsof discipline as personal weakness, she tried othermethods. After talking with the other male high school teachers and observingthe waysthey disciplined stud3nts, Patsytried theirmethods--- sarcasm, anger, yelling, flunking students who were misbehaving, sending them to the principal's office. None seemed to work any better, and Patsy herself did not feel comfortable withany of them.
The Tape of "2 Live Crew"
As Patsy prepared her lunch one afternoon, musicstarted blaring from the gym. The boom box had been placed on the shelf next to the home economics room where shewas eating. Irritated by the volume of the music and her lack of privacy,Patsy first paid no attention to the words of therap song. She was soon shocked to hear the sexually explicit lyrics of 2Live Crew. She stepped into the gym and turned off thetape recorder. "Hey! What are you doing? We're allowed to play music after lunch," the boys yelled.
Patsy explained that itwas not the music itself, it was that music in particular thatwas unacceptable on the basis of the lyrics. The language of the tapewas inappropriate for school and wouldnot be tolerated. By the time Patsy had walked back intothe home economics room, the offensive tape had not only beenput back on, but the volume had been increased. Patsy turned and walked back into thegym where only Byron remained, shooting baskets. She snapped off the tape recorder, took the tape, and startedto leave.
"Hey, you have no right to take thattape. That's not even my tape!" Byron protested.
"No, Byron, you haveno right to play that tape here. And it's your problem that it is not your tape." Patsy walked out, slipping the tape into one of the drop pockets ofher jumper. Byron followed,furious, yelling at her to give back the tape. Patsy thought he would giveup but he kept walking after her.
"Byron, knock it off! You are not getting anywhere---you are only making things worse for yourself! Just button your lip!" said Patsy, turning toward him.
Byron faced Patsy, hands tightly clenchedinto fists with arms bent. He was trembling inanger and yelling over and over aat Patsy had no right to take that tape andshould give it to him.
Patsy ducked around him, intendingto go to the principal. To her amazement, Byron continued to followher, screaming as he went. Lorraine joined him, saying itwas her tape and she wanted it back. To Patsy's immense relief, thestudents left and she located the principal. He told Patsy to keep the tape.After he talked to the students, he said, he wouldreturn it to them.
Patsy asked, "You're going to give itback to them?" Tim said, "Yes, I will."
Patsy locked the tape in her locker. She did not want to have the tape on her person and certainly didnot want to return the tape to the students. Nothingwas being done for her benefit, she thought. The students would speak withthe principal, but no onehad apologized to heror served any punishment. She was in a daze.
At the end of the school day, Tim askedPatsy tor the tape. Byron and Lorraine were trailing behind him,laughing and joking. Patsy had no choice but to walkover to her locker, retrieve the tape, and hand it to the principal. The principal handed it to the students.
Patsy felt that shewas the one who had been punished and abused.
3 The rest of the week thatsame tape blared in the gym every day at lunch. The best way to handle it, Patsy decided,was to skip lunch and escape to her cubicle. To her,the tape represented the students' victoryover her authority. Detentions
The onedisciplinary methodthat Patsyfound successful was detentions. Students had to stay 45 minutes afterschool, and Patsy claimed detentionsas time for the students to help Patsy with her work---settingup bulletin boards or tying strings for an educational game. Students could not socializeor do homework during a detention.
One day Patsy sent Lorraine tothe principal's office during science class. After class Patsy went tothe office toask Lorraine what had set her off. Lorraine told Patsy to "Fuck off!" Patsy was shocked that a student wouldsay that to a teacher, in the principal's office yet. Patsy gave her another detention and told her to go to lunch.
As Patsy started to leave, she turned aroundto say something, and Patsy and Lorraine bumped into each other. Lorraine pushed Patsy. Putting both handson Lorraine's shoulders, Patsy told her to calm down and leave when shewas calm.
Lorraine's mother, Alice,was a regular substitute in the school and happened to be in school thatday. Patsy told her what had just taken place.
"I wouldn't let her getaway with saying that at home," Alice said. "I don't intend on letting her getaway with itin my class either," Patsy replied.
Later that day Alice and Lorraine approachedPatsy about serving the first detention that day ratherthan the next. Lorraine had made special plans to getaway for the weekend and didn't want to serve a detention on Friday afternoon. Why couldn't Patsy change her plans so Lorraine wouldn't haveto ruin her Friday afternoon? Patsy was irritated and reminded themthat a detention was a consequence of Lorraine's actions. Patsy was not going to change her plans for the convenience ofa student who was being punished.
Friday afternoon, Lorraine beganher detention and brought with her several friends. Patsy separated the other students from Lorraine and set her to workon a bulletin board. Immediately Larry, the custodian and Lorraine's uncle,came in. He started harassing Patsy, telling her that she couldn'thandle her classroom or teaching, that she needed a break from work, thatshe was suffering from spring fever and blaming the students for herown problems. Lorraine jumped right in and agreed with heruncle. Patsy had stopped her work when the custodiancame in to talk but quickly decided the best response wasno response at all. Patsy went back to her work and the custodian went backto cleaning.
Larry and his wife --iy had spoken with Patsy afew weeks ago about detention sii l. tsy had made up and sent home. Patsy's idea had been to send ilomea detention slip which the student and a parent or guardian had to sign before the detention. Patsy had thought it would open up communicationbetween herself and the parents, and the parents would knowmore of what was going on and how their children were being disciplined.
Larry and Wendy questioned whether Patsy couldmake up such a form asthe detention slip and start institutingdetentions without first checking with the local schoolboard. The tone of the conversation was pleasant. Larry and Wendy said they thought the detention slips were a good toolto keep parents informed but did not think a student teacher had the authorityto start enforcing such a policy. Patsy had discussed detentions with the principal before implementing them,and Tim had said it was her choice. Patsy had never thought about approaching theschool board with a matter this minor.
Patsy discussed the meeting with Larry and Wendy withthe principal and asked again about the detention slips.The principal said they did not need school board approvalto institute detentions and, if she felt detentionswere valuable, she could do so. Patsy was also concerned about thefriction that had already developed between her and Wendy, whowas a teaching aide in the primary grades. Patsy respected Wendy as did the other teachers. But Patsy noticed that if sheever disciplined Wendy's daughter, Shirley, Wendy was particularly unfriendly. Patsy was surprised because she knew Wendy had almost completedher teaching credential and should appreciate the importance of disciplinein teaching. Patsy had tried to encourage Wendy to finish her credentialand had thought they would get along well.
The principal explained that Wendywas jealous of Patsy. Wendy might have been the first student teacherat Shumayuk, not Patsy, except that herhusband hadnotallowedher to finishher education. Wendy was no longer taking classes. Every time Patsy tried to encourage Wendy to finishschool, said the principal, she was pouring salt into Wendy's wounds. The Lock-Out
Tim had told Patsy to lock the door to her cubicleright from the start, but Patsy had not seen any need to. Her few valuable items were in a locker in the hallway and she did not feel threatened.
After the problems with Byron and Lorraine, however, Patsydecided to lock her door. Patty felt she was losing her privacy. One morning, three different people walked inon Patty when she was in the bathroom takinga shower or in her cubicle dressing.
In April, Patsy's university supervisorwas observing her, and Patsy went down tothe kitchento seeif she could get her supervisor some juice. She left her book bag and books on the cot with the room key in full view ofthe small desk. When she returned a few minutes later the doorwas shut and locked. Patsy thought that was odd---surely she would have rememberedlocking the door as it usually stuck and it tooka couple of tries to lock it.
Patsy remembered that once she had gotten lockedout before and had gone to Larry the custodian for a spare key. Patsy approached him for the spare key, apologizing for somehow getting lockedout. But Larry said he had no spare key to that door.
The principal could not finda spare key either.They tried to pry open the wi.dow from the outside but that didn't work.Rather than break the window to get inside,Tim decided he would have the custodian saw off the door handle to theroom.
"Poor thing, now we have tosaw off the lock, and you won't be able to lock your room anymore," Larry said.
Patsy was shocked to realize thatLarry had been working just outside her room when she left,and his tone of voice was an admission that he had locked her out ofher room. Whan she told Tim what had happened, Timsaid he wasn't surprised and to try not to let it getto her. Her university supervisor suggested she pleasantly ask Larry why he didit. Tim said that would do no good, he would justdeny it, and then Patsy would have the additional problem of having madean accusation. Patsy knew the custodianwasbaiting herand wasglad to see that her university supervisor could witness her situationfirst hand. As soon as the doorknobwas sawed off, Larry sat down on the cot and said,"Well, looks like you can't lock your dooranymore, doesn't it? That's too bad---now what willyou do? Looks like you'll just have to trustus now, doesn't it." Patsy left the room. Later that morning Tim instructed Larry to remove the doorknob from thejunior high classroom and putit onthe door toPatsy's cubicle. Tim kept the extra key himself. Talking to an Elder
Did the entire village hate her and want herto leave? Had she tried to make too many changes in the classroom?The junior high did not seem to have problems with her and her teaching. So why did the high school students?
Patsy decided to ask one of the village elders for his opinion. While fearful of making cultural mistakes, Patsy decidedto ask him frankly if she was doing things that were insultingor culturally inappropriate that she didn't realize. Patsy knew the man from church, and several of his childrenwere on the ski team that Patsy was helping her coach.
To her surprise, the elder told Patsy that the villageas a whole thought she was doing a fine job and that he personally would like to see her return to Shumayuk asa full-time teacher. He cited examples where some of his children had commentedon what they had learned in her classes. His children liked her as a teacher and coach. The students she was having problems with, he said,were known to be trouble-makers.Many parents, he added, did not teach their children to respect teachersor education, but it was not her personally.
Patsy and the elder spoke for some time. In the olden days, he said, the harshness ot the physical conditions disciplined people. Childhood was an indulgent time,and children were considered precious indeed because mmy died before adulthood. As a child grew up, the elements would discipline them soon enough and life would be harsh. There was little need for discipline in those days.
His explanation regarding the detention slipswas also revealing. To some parents, he said, if a child needs discipline atschool, that is the teacher's responsibility, not the parents'. Sending home a detention slip was like pointinga finger at the parents. The Easter Egg Hunt
On the Saturday night before Easter, Claire,one of the women Patsy met at church whose husband was on the school board, stopped by Patsy's roomand asked forher help in hiding eggsforthe village's Easter Egg Hunt. Patsy was happy to help, thinking this would be a positive community activity to join andassist, and great fun for the young children. Perhaps her participation in a pleasant community activity would help her relationship withthe village and ease tensions. Claire especially asked Patsyfor help in hiding the "golden egg," wrapped in shiny gold foil andcontaining a note for $50. About 20 of the 200 eggs they would be hidinghad notes for money rewards. Last year, Claire told Patsy,the golden egg hadn't been hidden well, and people found it muchtoo quickly.
Patsy was not pleased when she realizedshe would have to get up at 3:30 a.m. to hide theeggs but decided to go ahead. As Patsy, Claire, and Naomi,a friend of Claire's, weed to hide the eggs around every home with children,she was sulp.ised to find a house with adults still up, gatheredon the porch. She asked the young men if they wanted to help hide theeggs but they refused. Following Claire's instructions,she hid the golden egg in a remote spot, near some spruce trees by the airstrip.
Next morning Patsy was awakened at 6a.m. by children begging for hints as to where she had hidden the goldenegg. She was dismayed to find that the majority of theeggs had been retrieved not by the children of the village but by theadults. The young men who had been up at 3:30 in the morning watchingher hide the eggs had gathered them up, including theones with money notes.
Patsy was disgusted to think that theadults would take these eggs from the children, especiallyon Easter.The children kept coming to her all day long, begging for clues tothe golden egg. Some had been searching in vain since 6a.m. Claire said she had children participating in the huntso she did not want to know where the golden egg was hidden and didnot want to talk to Patsy about giving hints. Naomi had left town togo fishing for the day and wanted nothing to do with theEaster egg hunt.
The other teachers seemed to thinkthe situation was hilarious. That's the reason,they said,that they didn't get involved in village affairs.
If the golden egg weren't foundby 8:00 p.m., the village council said, Patsy should retrieveit. At 8:00, Patsy started walking from the school building to the airstripto get the egg. Along the way children joined her. When they asked her who would get the money, she told them to ask Claire,as the decision was not hers to make.
Accompanied by her entourage,Patsy walked onto the airstrip. She was surprised to see about 20 people, mixedbetween adults and children, combing the airstriproad again and again. No one was looking off the road. Patsy went directly to where she remembered hiding the egg, praying itwas where she thought it was. To her relief she could see theegg from the road. She quickly picked up the egg and the children startedshouting that the egg hunt was over. People came over asking wherethe egg had been hidden.
:3 J Patsy started to explain when a cloud of smokeswept into the airstrip. It was Claire on her 4-wheeler, rushing toward Patsyas fast s she could and yelling, "Don't pull the egg! Don't pull the egg! The IRA Council decided you shouldn't take it until 9:00!"
Patsy just stood there, hand outstretched toward Claire,with the golden egg in her palm.
The crowd yelled their disapproval. Now, not only had she hidden the golden egg so people couldn't find it, she also disregardedthe IRA Council's directions in retrieving it. Who did she think she was, anyway? The crowd was clamoring for the goldenegg to be rehidden so someone could find it before 9p.m.
Patsy made it back to her cubicle before thetears came. The past 24 hours seemed like a perfect setup to her. Instead of improving her relations with the village, and doing something positive,she had succeeded in alienatingmore people,and found herself much more likely to be condemned. How cou2d this happen? Why can I try so hard just to fail so miserably? How could I 'ave foreseen this? What could I have done to have prevented this wholething? Part B
Patsy decided to talk with the principalTim McNeil.
"I an give you fourreasons why you are having these troubles with the high school," Tim explaineC. "First, you are female. Second, you are new. Third, you are temporary. And, fourth, you are young. Don't take it personally."
She had heard this advice before.Although the other teachers were nice to her, they did notseem to grasp how she felt.
When Patsy talked with Darren Sawyer,her cooperating teacher, that weekend, he finally caughton to how desperate Patsy was feeling. When he told her not to let itget to her or make her think about leaving teaching, Patsy exclaimed"THINK about leaving teaching?!" She said she had wanted to leave Shumayukweeks ago and would have packed her bags in an instant.The gravity of the situation dawned on him.
After talking for hours with Patsy,Darren decided to speak with every one of the high school students onan individual basis. He would look over their grades and emphasizeto them that Patsy was indeed a realteacher,that her grades counted,and that they should begin to treat heras a teacher.
Thestudents' response blew Patsy away. Their behavior was exemplary, and most were trying academically.
Evidently most of the studentswere shocked to discover that after getting four weeks of F's, these grades counted. Patsy wondered if the concept of "student teacher" hadnever been explained to them. She began to understand their view thatschool with Patsy was just "play school."
All along Patsy hadbeen telling themthat she had thesame authority as their regular teachers, butshe had no authority to tell them she had authority. Patsy was thankful that Darren had spoken with them. But why did it have to get to this point before anything was done? THE SQUARE PARACHUTE: COOPERATIVE SCIENCE GROUPS IN RURAL ALASKA
By Pamela Himsworth Randles
ABSTRACT
Meg Eliot,a new science teacher, comes to Goose Bay intenton teaching science through inquirymethods. She wants students to be able to frame scientific questions,observe and measure, and design experiments. But her carefully prepared activities and laboratories founder. The class careens out of control when she tries a laboratory dissection.Boys always assume leadership roles in group work,even when Meg Eliot specifically rotates the role of leader through thegroup. Meg Eliot's principal is unsympathetic to her aims either in science teachingor in developing the skills of young women. The case traces Meg Eliot's eventually successful efforts to teach inquiry skills,to develop the abilities of both boys and girls to work in mixedgender groups, and to teach young women to assume group leadership roles.
Issues in this case include developingyoung women's scientific and leadership abilities, problems of implementing cooperative learning,and conflict between teachersand administrators on instructional philosophies,especially gender equity. THE SQUARE PARACHUTE
Part A. "Eeeeeeeeeeee!" Marilyn screamed. She was one of the younger girls, pretty and very feminine. (She spent a lot of time working on that.)
Teddy was smart and smart-mouthed.He understood the fish lab, had completed thetasks, and, when he was done,he wanted to do something fun. Like take a skein of fish eggs, sneak up on one of the girls, wave it in her face, and yell, "Yaaaaaaaaaah!"
Predictably Marilyn screamedand sentthe fisheggs flying. Immediately all the girls were screeching and all the boyswere laughing and grabbing fish guts.
The fish lab, thought Meg Eliot, thenew science teacher in this Yupiq community, had beena bust. The kids had been loud and rowdy. The room was a mess. The principal had warned her to keep things under control. He would have her hide.
In an effort to control her risinganger, Meg Eliot calmly asked the kids about the "lesson."The students didn't have the foggiest idea what part of the fish was the stomach, liveror brain, let alone what any of these parts did for the fish. "If I had any brains,I would stick with my tightly structured activities," Meg thought. When the kids werein their seats talking about fish anatomy and fishing in Goose Bay, things went all right. They could handle observing the fish in the c-assroom aquarium. But they had never dissected anything before. They had only watched her. The dissection lab was falling apart.
Meg had set up the dissection lab with clear objectives. Students would come to know the names and functions of the parts of the fish. They were also supposed to investigate the age of the fish through observing the scales. They were to weigh, measure, and determine the sex of the fish as well. Meg set up dissection trays and broke the students into groups.
First she demonstrated what she wanted the studentsto do, and what she wanted them to find out. "This is how you cut open the fish." "Be careful to be gentle so that nothing gets cut thatyou don't want cut." "Open the fish and look carefully at the internal organs.""See how many you can identify, then carefullyremove the ones on top so you can see what is underneath."
The students were clearly interested and delighted at the opportunity to do this dissection themselves. They allet to work diligently until Teddy's group got done first. Meg reminded the kids that th3y had promised not to be rowdy. To her surprise, Teddy pled with her.
"We were just having a little fun,Mrs. Eliot," Ted said. Background
Meg Eliotlovedteaching science. Since herfirstyearof teaching, she had takensummer courses in science education and Alaskan science, especially if thecourses were held outdoors. She had come to the conclusion that science could best be presentedto students as something thatone does, rather than something one reads about. She had a strong bias toward showing students how to do science rather than telling them whatscientists had learned over the centuries.
When she accepted the job to teacha middle school class at Goose Bay, she decided this was an opportunity to try outsome new ideas about teaching science. She felt she wanted to try to teach science in such a way that, at the end of theyear, students could independently arrive at a question tobestudied, state the question as an hypothesis, design and implementan experiment to test the hypothesis, collect and interpret data,draw conclusions and apply the understanding gained. She felt it could be done, but had nagging doubts about whether it couldbe done in a year, or if she could do it.
Goose Bay was a small, coastal village of about150 Yupiq people. Her class consisted of 14 students in grades 5 through8. She had been told ather interview that they werea difficult class, especially the older boys. She knew thatjunior high school students could be difficult. She was also told that three of the students had "moderate tosevere problems learning at school," whatever that meant.
When she arrived, the principal told her thatthe students were three to four years behind academically, andhe expected her to make them work quietly and diligently. While he wanted them to achieve at grade level, he really didn'texpect that to happen. He said that their former teacherwas "burnt out" and had found these students difficult tocope with. The former teacher spent his energies getting the students to behave andfelt, according to the principal, that bringing them to grade levelacademically could not happen until they learned to behave inschool and have respect for learning. The nrtvious year, the principal thought,the students had all been s-ie fifth grade adopted text, regardless of grade level.
He also informed her that she would have girls'P.E. and shop, and the male high school teacher would havethe boys. He explained that the shop teacher had felt that the boysneeded a real shop class, while the girls really neededcrafts more.
"The girls make all those knickknacks," he said,"but the boys really need to know this stuff."
Meg spoke to the high school teacherand they concurred that they didn't want to have boys'P.E. and girls' P.E. because the kids ranged from small fifth graders toadult-sized twenty year old high school seniors. Instead, they felt it would be safer to have the
4.11 P.E. by grade level junior high P.E. and high school P.E. That way, the kids would be of similar size and strength, and the fifth graders wouldn't get runover.
"I understand whatyou are saying," responded the principal, "but we'll do it this way. This is what the shop teacher wants."
"Well, this sounds like a challenging year!" Meg thought,"but at least I can try to make the science good." She wanted to try inquiry techniques with her students. Prior to the start of school, she perused the science equipment and Eitudentfiles. The school had quite a bit of good science equipment, butmost of the chemicals were quite old and the equipment inpoor repair and scattered throughout the school. The student files seemed to verify what she had heard about the students. The First Semester
The first week of schoolwas the honeymoon period. Students were docile and well behaved. Meg established classroom routines, outlined the year, and got to knowthe students. Yes,indeed, there were fourteen distinct personalities, few of themweak. More than half of themwere outspoken to the point of being disruptive, had a negative attitude towards school and enjoyed tryingto get the teac.ler's goat. One student was described by the principal as very bright,but lazy and prone to throwing tempertantrums. Another showed the effects of Fetal Alcohol E"rndromeand had great difficulty concentrating. Another was a sixth grader who read on the second grade level andwas as large as a professional wrestler. Another was from out of town andwas picked on by other students until he blew up. Several students took great delight in making obscene remarks in Inupiaqas well as English. Throwing objects, spitting and slugging each otherwere common practices. Indeed, it was necessary to be more of a disciplinarian than she liked. But Meg felt that learning couldn't happen inan environment of back- biting and vulgarity. The principal encouraged her to "run a tight ship." She tried to do that. She established strict behavioral guidelines with rewards and punishments.
In science, sh e.tried to establish an atmosphere of questioning. She asked studelitb about the local animals,plants, weather. On weekends, she walkedover the tundra, trying to get to know the area. She brought plants and small tundra critters intoclass to look at. She asked about the Yupiq names of things. When students asked questions,she askedthem how they could find out the answers. When she was able, she told them what she knewabout the permafrost, the caribou, the willow, andthe small water creatures.
Students started to bring things from theirenvironment to class lemmings, a wounded kittiwake.The students began to show a strong interest in these things. She got an aquarium and planned a unit on fish and fisheries for later in theyear. But she also noticed that these kids were quite cruel to the wildanimals, going after the parka squirrels with sticks and killingthem, wanting to shoot every animal they saw. They were also cruel to each other, calling each other names that caused tears, hittingand spitting on each other. She decided it was time to find out where these kidswere in science. Had they done labs? No. She would try a lab that was straightforward, and would give heran idea of the skill levels of the kids: Could they devise ways of finding out? Did they know about controlling variables?Could they interpret data? Did they know the necessity of accurate measurements? Could they make these measurements?
The lab was a fairly simple observation lab. Students were asked to make observations on a burning candle. All she wanted from it was to find out where the students were. She discussed observation.How does one observe? What are the senses? How does one use the senses? How do tools extend the senses? Students were asked to observe a candle mounted in clay before, during,and after it burned.
She discovered that studentssaw the less tightly controlled lab as a time to play, an opportunity to get out of their seats and have fun. They looked at the candles, described themas red or blue striped, litthem,burned them untilthey were gone and then launched into their favorite topic of late: farting.
"Eeeuuu! Mark farted!" "I did not!" "You did too!" (Gales of laughter) "Well, at least I don't fartas much as Tina!," Mark snarled at this sister. (Gales of laughter)
Tina spit at her brother. He slugged her and she cried. Meg told them to settle down, that farting wasn'ta topic for school. They did settle down, sort of. Meg tried to findout if they had made any observations at all. She discovered that the observations were very few and the measurementsnone. Meg was dismayed. Was thisa result of assigninga lab that was too "dumb?"Was it a result of poor directions?Or was it a result of lack of experience with labs by the students? She tried to probe to find out. The students said that they hadnever done any labs before.It never occurred to them tomeasure anything, even though she had talked with them about using toolsto extend the senses. Meg felt she would haveto try thebasic processskills of scientific inquiry one ata time before they could design anything. They needed to learn how to observe,measure, classify, predict, infer, hypothesize, design experimentsand interpret data first.
She decided next time to trya quite controlled demonstration with the whole class. She would do a unit on air pressure and all the labs would bedemos with onestudentat a timetrying the experiments. But the experiments would then not beas accessible to all students. Air pressure experiments could be straightforward with clear variables, results thatwere easy to see, and data that were easy to measure and interpret. She could model behavior, she hoped, that would foster inquiry and elicit questionsthat could be tested.The demonstrations went well, but basically, studentswere
4i; observers and not participants. When they sat in their rows, with their eyes front and no one talking, the lesson proceeded smoothly. When it was spooned out to them and they could give roteresponses, they performed well. But if they were allowed to do something themselves or work in groups, they went berserk. Meg did acknowledge that some progresswas being made in the students' abilities to work in mixed gendergroups. Meg chose working groups on the basis of several criteria. The first was who would get along with whom without friction. She had discovered that the social innuendos of the students were extremely important. At the beginning of the year, she could not mix boys and girls in groups. Some of the boys "took over" at the expense of the girls. The girls were always the recorders andnever the leaders, even if she designated them to be leaders. Some of the students were socially so self-conscious that they simply opted out of participation when the groups were mixed. She had spoken to the kids about this and said that in the real worldmen and women had to work together, so she war'ed them to learn how to do that and to practice it. The class had finally gotten to the point of being able to work in mixed gender groups if shewere very careful about which girls worked with which boys. The second criterion had to do with the various strengths of the kids. Some were better leaders, some were better writers, some were sick of always being the better writers, some had language difficulties and needed to be placed in roles that allowed them successful participation that contributed positively to the effort. This choice of groupings was an ongoing effort that changed every other week. Meg accepted it as a personal challenge to try to keepa finger on the collective pulse of the students and choose groups that worked. Sometimes she managed the task and other times she didn't.
She also noticed, with a shred of hope, thatmore students asked questions and wanted to know:they asked "what if?" more often; they tried things at home. She also noticed that they became impatient withtheir pecet3 if they were disruptive, but the disruptions didn't decrease.
But by Christmas Meg was thoroughly dismayed. Never in her career had she felt so discouraged. She decided to take the break to sort it all out. She considered breaking her contract. She flew into town and found a place to house sit that was quiet, where she could think. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she still believed that she could provide a learning environment that would not only allow, but encourage, these kids to learn and think independently. But...That was a loaded word! The kids were out of control when given activities that allowed them to get out of their desks. They had been unable to have a class council, although she still wanted totrythat. They were interested when shetalked about or demonstrated scientific principles. That was something. She wanted to empower the kids, shewanted them to think for themselves, but evry time she undid the balland chain, they went nuts. They didn't have the math skillsor the ability to observe (though that was clearly improving). They didn't know how to measure, to predict and infer, to think an idea through. It did seem that the iron fist was necessary here.
4 7 She decided several things. She would back up and teach the basic process skills necessary to scientific inquiry. She would clearly and overtly state what she wanted them to learn during the rest of the year and relate that to the district curriculum. She would tell the students she wanted to have labs, but felt she couldn't because they got out of hand and the kids didn't learn anything. She would tell them that she wanted them to make decisions and think for themselves, but could not allow anyone to hurtanyone else or interfere with any other students' learning. She would tell them that she had to keep the classroom a place where ALL students could learn in comfort. She would ask them how they felt about that. She would offer them a choice: the existing system of extreme structure and control ora system where they could have more freedom, but they must respect the rights of others to learn.
When she returned, she discussed these matters with her students. Of course, they wanted the freedom; of course they were willing to behave to get it.
One girl asked, "Last year, Frank used to give us gum and pop so we would be quiet and get our work done. Why don't you try that?"
Meg was appalled. She knew there was a school rule against gum and pop in the building. How could he give them gum and pop? Why would he set himself up like that? More importantly, why was he trying to buy learning? She said she wouldn't do that,that she thought learning was important, that it was reward enough. The students argued with that, but only a little.
It was agreed that all would try. Meg was unsure about all of this. But she would try. Then came the fish lab. The kids were out of control; they had learned nothing. It seemed all her Christmas plans were down the tubes.
Teddy looked at her, "It was onlya joke, Ms. Eliot." "Now what!?!" she thought in exasperation. Part B.
Meg looked at Teddy. He looked contrite. (She thought, "Yea, sure you're contrite, you little creep!") For reasons unknown to Meg, she began to laugh. It was so absurd! Now she was sure she had lost it completely.
"Teddy, it may have been onlya joke," Meg said,"but what about learning? I'm here so you can learn. I already know this stuff. It's for you, not me. Yeh,I know, you've heard all that before and it sounds like a bunch of garbage toyou. But it's true. If I'm not here for that, whatam I here for?" "The money. You're here for the money," someone shouted.
She'd heard that before. She looked right at the kid and said, "There is no amount of money that couldpay me for this job. Your parents make more than I do and don't have nearly the grief. You know that. Wages here are very high. I would do better painting the community center."
There was a silence. She surveyed the class, all downcast eyes and what looked like remorse. She felt something very tender. "The little rats," she thought...affectionately.
Sherry, one of the "good" kids, said, "We couldtry it again, Ms. Eliot. We'll get it this time. Promise."
"I don't know if I have enough fish. We'll see." She felt skeptical.Should she pounce on this moment of apparent contrition and risk another fiasco?
"Well, what the heck," she thought, "younever know."
She had enough fish, so the next day she triedthe lab again. The cooperative learning book said to keepsmall groups together for a time before changing them. So she tried to create effective working groups. She puta natural leader in each group. She divided up the kids who had readingand writing problems into different groups. All groups were mixed gender exceptone. In that one, she put a boy whowas overcome with bashfulness when he had to work with the girls. She asked one member of each group to keep track of how welleveryone in the group listened, one member was in charge, one was the artist and onewas the researcher. She told them that they would remain inthese groups for a while and that they would change jobs foreach activity. She also reminded them that the purpose herewas for them to get to know what the inside of a fish looked like and whateach part did, as well as to make some measurements of the fish.
Meg Eliot mentally crossed her fingers andhanded out the fish. She wandered from group togroup, talking to students. They were doing what she had asked themto do. They were even asking intelligent questions. Occasionally a student would look up
4 %; something in the biology referencesor wash his hands so he could draw. There was a gentle murmur.At one point, one student picked up a skein of eggs and asked what it was and why all the fish didn't have it. A discussion ensued about male and female fish. One student shot a knowing glance at Marilyn and waved theeggs. Teddy told him to knock it off.
A question got asked: Are males bigger than females? Meg didn't know. The students had weighed the fish at the beginning. Meg made achart that gave data on the fish weight, sex, age, length. When the stduents were done, one asked if they could take the dismembered fish home.Meg gave them plastic bags and, with a knowing glare, told them not to take them out of thebags until they were off school grounds at the end of the day. She had learned from a previous event not to throwan enticing gross object into the school trash. It had a way of returning from the dead to be thrown about in the hallway.
The discussion of the chart of datawent extremely well. All the students were attentive, asked intelligent questions andoffered ideas that showed thought. The discussion of size and gender couldn't be resolved due to the small sample of ninefish. She asked them how they could find out iffemales were smaller among herring of all ages.They understood sample size.They -nderstood the need to control for bothage and gender. They wondered if a different specieswouldshowgender differences. Then they discussed how they had listened to each other in theirgroups. They had worked well. They had enjoyed working well and learning something. They said it was interesting. All of the students participated in the discussion. ("This is too good to be true," Meg thought. "I wonder if we can actually get on to experimental design and controlling variables!")
Meg finished the day ina daze. She had told the students how pleasant it had been to work so well that day. They had agreed. She didn't want to get saccharine for fear ofbreaking the spell. But she felt like weeping; it was wonderful. They were wonderful.
In the days and weeks that followed, she didmore group activities. Some Rubicon had been crossed and Meg didn't know what itwas. The kids were great. Not perfect, but vastly improved. Several physics labs anda few biology and chemistry labs went fairly well. Little by little she letup on the strict rules in the classroom. Meg let the students move their desks occasionally. She let the students listen to theirWalkmans when they were done with their work if they didn't disturbanyone. In turn, they were more inquisitive, more interested,more self-policing. She asked each group member to change roles eachtime they started a new project: leaders wouldbecome artists/expediters, then reporters, then observers. That way everyone would practice each set of skills. At first, when she had shifted the jobs in the groups, there was some dissent. The students wanted the natural classroom leaders to be leaders. All these leaders were boys. Sometimes when the girls were leaders, they abdicated the jobto a boy in the group. Meg made sure she expected the girls to be leader and report when it was their turn. She encouraged them to stand up and make reports. She required more oral presentations. She waited for the girls to talk when itwas their turn. She waited past the uncomfortable point. She also made a point to praise them. Little by little the class changed. The girls began to insist on being leaders when it was their turn. Classroom talk was more often about classroom subjects. The subject of farting rarely came up anymore.
One day, in the middle of a social studies lesson about transportation, Teddy asked, "Which kind of parachute is better? A round one or those square ones?" Meg didn't have a clue.
She asked, "What do you mean by better?" Some discussion followed as to whether better meant faster, slower,more maneuverable, prettier or cooler. Consensus was that better meant that the person using it fell to the ground more slowly. Someone mentioned that the difference in size might make a difference rather than the shape. Meg pulled out her by now well-worn question, "How couldwe find out?"
It was one ofthose magic days. The kids all were interlely involved in the discussion and what became the planningol the experiment to determine which shapewas better. Meg hardly spoke at all. The kids just went on with their ideas. She could almost stand back and watch. This is what she had wanted back in August and thought she would neversee. These kids were defining a question,dii-ussing thevariables,designing theexperiment, designing the parachutes and the methods of recording data, making sure it was all fair and that everyone was involved ina positive way. They were even using the right vocabulary in an unselfconscious way.
"What is your hypothesis, Mike? That the shape isn't the difference, but only the area of the parachute?"
"We'll each have to take turns practicing timingthe drop of the parachute so we will all do it thesame way."
"But Tim is taller than Marcia,so we will have to measure the height of the drop so it will all be the same. Height can't be another variable; it won't be fair."
"We could go to the ledge of thegym and drop them from there, then we won't have to worry about wind messing up the fall."
"I get to drop it from the ledge. YOU can time."
Well, nothing is perfect. But they were working together as a group, fair and square, boys and girls,younger and older, enemies and friends, and theywere planning a well-designed experiment. This wasn't part of the curriculum. But that didn't matter to Meg. What was important here to her was that these "rotten" kidswere working together to plan a well-designed experimentto solve a problem, and they were behaving like the best of adults. They built and tested their parachutes. They practiced their timing. They discussed the ramifications. Two days later, they were ready for the test. Meg found a time when the gym was empty. The droppers had to go up through the storageroom to get to the ledge. All the otherstudents wereat thebottom, timing, observing, and recording. The students did several trials to perfect their technique, then several drops thatwere recorded. It was getting close to lunch time and the tables had to be set up in the gym. They returned to the classroom and made up a chart of data. Mike had taken a tennis ball from the storage roomon his way down from the ledge.Meg sent him to return it.The principal found him in the halls and started to sternly return him to class. Mike showed his pass, returned the ball and returned to class. The kids decided they needed more trials because their results weren't clear enough.Then they went to lunch and the rest of the day went according to schedule.
Meg was delighted. "Itisn't such a big deal," she said to herself, "but, damn it, they did it. All by themselves, they did it and they knew what theywere doing! These kids, who couldn't weigh a pencil or measurea string at the beginning of the year, can design and implement a real experiment!" She felt giddy all day.
After the students had left for the day, the principalcame in to speak to her. "What were you doina in the gym today?" She went on excitedly about the experiment and how well the kids behaved. She said that they were going to repeat ittomorrow. The principal said no. No repeats. Don't go into the gym and use it for those purposes. He had caught Mike with a tennis ball. Students shouldn't be in the storage room.
"But...it went so well." She was astonished. "How about if I go upstairs with them and...." EPILOGUE
For the rest of the year, Ms. Eliot's class continued togo well. The kids devised several more projects (Meg related the projects more closely to the curriculum). They came up with a recycling project for the whole village. They collected pop cans from the houses, flattened them and found an air carrier to ship themto Anchorage for sale.They did acid snow studies and discovered some toxic substances had been spilled. Meg found her classroom an exciting place to be. Her kids were motivated, interested and learning faster than ever. They liked school, in fact attendance in her class was the best in the school. They published a literary journal. They finally got the class council off the ground and running.
But theprincipal continued to disapprove ofthe activities. Students were out of the classroom. They were not always working at their desks. He did have to change the P.E. and shop classes to grade level, mixed gender classes because the smallerboys were getting hurt and refusing to participate. The shop teacherrefused to teach the girls welding, despite the girls' interest. Relations between Meg and the principal becamemore and more tense; she left the following year. ANGIE, HER MOTHER, AND MATHEMATICS
by Leslie Gordon
ABSTRACT
Angie, a third grade student in the Gifted and TalentedProgram, freezes in fear when she must deal with mathematics. Her mother and Angie have nightly battlesover mathematics homework which typically end with Angie havinga temper tantrum and being banished to her room. Angie's mother threatens to pull her mathematically talented daughter out of the Gifted and Talented Program sincethe subject is causing her and the familyso much stress. The Gifted and Talented teacher must figure out how to deal not only withthe mathematics phobia but also with the problems athome.
Issues include mathematics phobia amongyoung women, relationships between teachers and parents, and the line between appropriateand inappropriate counseling roles for classroom teachers. ANGIE, HER MOTHER, AND MATHEMATICS
Part A
Angie's mother came boiling in tomy elementary gifted and talented room after school one day.
"Angie was in tears last night and the entire eveningwas ruined for all of us. How could you give sucha horrible homework assignment?If that's the way you're going to teach,we don't want our daughter in GT math." Angie's mother wanted to pull her daughter out of GT Math because shewas tired of the almost nightly temper tantrums over math homework. I didn't blame her. Angie really knew how to push her mother'sbuttons, that was clear immediately. Surprisingly, her mother seemed totallyunaware that this was happening. Angie was making it worse by exaggerating problems in class and even twisting the truth inan effort to upset her mother. One time Angie had frozen with panic in classover a newly introduced concept, did not get herclasswork done, and had to take it home. Angie told her parents that the classwas not given enough time to complete the work,even though all the other students had finished early. It had gotten so bad that the minute the math book came outnow, her mother was tense and ready to explode.
"The math is not easy for Angie," I countered,"but her attitude is her worst problem. If she quits now, she'll never getover her fear of math,and she'll see temper tantrums get her what she wants. She is showing frustration anda very negative attitude in class, too." Her mother was not listening.
After her mother stormed out of theroom, I realized that I didn't know whether or not I'dsee Angie in math tomorrow. Clearly it would be easier all around not to dea) with thisstressed-out woman and her negative daughter, but could I live with myself if I dropped Angie from math? Was there any chance of turning this situation around andwas it worth my effort? On the tare occasions that Angie was in a good mood, she haddone very well. Lack of ability was not her problem. Angie would be happier initially if she were in regular math, but she wouldbe forever afraid of math. Even worse,if she dropped out,she would keep on using these negative strategies with her parents. If I kept this little girl in GT math, I would not only haveto help her get rid of her math phobia, bit I would have to help herlearn to work with her very difficult mother.
I Background
I first met Angie when shewas in first grade,and her teacher referred her to me for GT testing because shewas such a good reader. Angie was very tall, very shy andvery intense even as a five year old.Everything was serious business to her. She had no idea how to laugh. Several times I tried to relax her with gentle teasing, but her only reactionswere a set jaw and tears. Both her parents were very bright and intense. Her father was an economist, and her mother an accountant.
She qualified for theprogram with very high reading scores and good math scores. As soon as I began working with her, it became apparent that she was a perfectionist. She was an incredibly focused and creative child, both in writing anddrawing.In second grade she wrote and illustrateda huge book on birds. The book was entirely her own idea. She did all the research, drawing and writing herself, including the final drafton the word processor. The birds were beautiful, done wonderfully in blendedcolor pencil. Many of those birds were redrawn fiveor six times until she felt that they were perfect. She is the only second grader I haveever had do an independent project of s's1(11 dimensions.
But from the very beginning, she had great difficultywith any new concept in math--no matter how simple--orany math requiring thinking. On math lab days when the other children would be the most enthusiastic, I could watch Angie literallyfreeze up. She would become paralyzed with fear.Her face and body tensed and her mind shut down. It took almost nothing to set this off, trading base ten blocks in an addition problemor answering orally a simple addition problem. When she got frustrated, she couldn't do the simplest task. She would sit, and not move or makea sound except to cry. This happened on nearlya daily basis. I tried time and time again to get her to relaxor even just to look up at me when I talked to her. But my efforts were getting nowhere. The episodes were justas frequent.
In third grade the GT students begifi'comingto me daily for their math, so I became Angie's officialmath teacher. Angie was not happy, but she survived because thethird grade math curriculum was not difficult. I'm not exactly sure why,but she and I became close friends that year. She would stay after school and helpme work. She began to taJk to me for the first time atoutwhaL. was going on at home.
In fourth grade Angie hit bottom. She had never been able to make friends and the girls around herwere establishing fast friendships and leaving her out. Angie was a very niceyoung lady, but she radiated tension and insecurity andwas not fun to be around. I used to see her wandering aimlessly alone out on the playground during recesses. She would regularly ask if she could have lunch with me instead of the other children.
Her stress was now not limited to math alone, but included every other subject as well. The GT re-evaluation test coming up in the spring was already worrying her. Stress and unhappiness seemed to have become a habit. Her fourth grade teacher told me Angie was a negative spoiled brat and that her "mother needed psychiatric help" wecause she was such a destructive force. Part B
Somehow I became close friends with Angie's parents and spent quite a bitof time with them socially. AsI gotto know Angie's parents, I began to understand the problem more. Her mother, who had chronic migraine headaches, did not handle stressany better than Angie, and tended to get quite workedup over truly minor problems. I remembe/ one episode in particular that seemed so overblown. We had a school rulethat short-shortswerenot allowed, but Angie and her sister both wanted towear shorts. Angie's mother took on the principal over the issue and when that didn't work she went to central office to complain. This battle went on for weeks and weeks and had many people upset. Angie's mother seemed to thrive on these upheavals. She needed a job to channel her energies, but her husband did not want herto work. When Angie got frustrated with homework, her mother would consistently overreact. A nightly battle would ensue when Angie hit a tough spot in her homework and her mother attemptedto help her. These screaming battles invariably ended with Angie being sent to her room for the rest ofthe night without doing her homework. Angie's father worked better with her, b-.t hewas gone most evenings leaving her mother to deal with the problem. At the beginning of the fifth grade I started working with Angie seriously and consistently about learning to control herselfand calm herself. We discussed the fact that she was the real loser when she shut down and got so upset that she could notcope. Every time a new problem appeared I listened and helped her formulatea way to cope. I taught her some quick relaxation strategies and she began to use them. For the first time she saw that she could indeed do the math, IF she kept herself calm. Anytime there was a sign of frustration,I took time right then to deal with it and talk to her.
Her attitude in class at that pointwas improving daily and so was her ability to do math. But she was still a mess emotionally because the nightly battles still continued.I remember sitting at my desk late one night after another phone call from Angie's mother, feeling so frustrated and sad. The situation had always upset me, but it was even worse now, because Angiewas blooming under my eyes in class intoa marvelous young lady and rapidly becoming mv favorite student in allmy years of teaching. Both she and I could, for the first time,see what wonderful potential she had. All it took now was an occasional reminder fromme about keeping herself under control. I would watch her visibly stop herself,takea deep breath, anoget backto work. It was wonderful! But how could I even hope to help her solve the problem at home and was it even my place to try? I had seen what Angie's parents could do to a teacher theywere angry with, and I wanted no part of it. It was clear, too,that this entire situation was causing me stress that I was taking home tomy family. Was that fair to them? All my other students got shortchanged when I took class time on a daily basis to take Angie aside z.....d talk to her, sometimes at great length. A large part of my job had always been counseling. I accepted that, but this time I wasmore involved than I would have liked.
Somehow all the reason in the world madeno difference, and in the end I plunged ahead in my efforts to help Angie and hopedfor the best. The problem at home was indeed muchmore difficult to deal with. I couldn't be there to reinforce all the positive behaviors she was learning in class,so initially she would fall right back into her same old habits, getting frustrated and givingup. Part of the problem, too,was that her parents expected her to lose control. They over-reacted when she showedtheleastsignof frustration instead of working with her.
Every time the frustration homework problemarose, I took time the next morning to talk to her. What had happened?Did she like the way her parents treated her when she got upset? Did she like spending the night in her room? Did she feel it was worth the consequences to behave like that? What could I do to help her? What could she do to help herself? My focus and energies at this point were directed at Angie inan effort to show her she had the power to control a situation at home that she didn't like. I never told her parents what we talked about andthey never asked. She finally realized from these dialoguesthat she was the loser for the night; and the way to fix itwas to change her behavior. The behavior pattern was very entrenched,so it took quite a while to change it, but it did change. Angie used the same strategies to calm herself that she used in class. It took a lot longer to see the results, but it did work.
She also stopped asking her mother for helpon her homework, preferring to wait for her father's helpor mine the next morning. She even called me at home when she hitan especially difficult roadblock. Her mother graduallybeganto realizethather relationship with Angiewas part of the problem. When there was a very difficult assignment, she agreed to allow Angie to put itaway and wait to get help from her fatheror from me.
Angie was learning tocontrol her stressat home andin the classroom, but she still had to dealwith the GT re-evaluation test. I purchased a good book written for upper elementary students. It outlined in delightful cartoons fiveor six simple strategies to reduce stress and to do wellon tests, such as a breathing pattern and positive thought.We read it together during the month prior to the test inevery spare minute I had, and Angie
5l) practiced the strategies in it dailyfor a total of about threeor four hours. Angie had by now become aware of herown power to accomplish great things when shewas in a positive frame of mind. She started the test feeling confidentand used the relaxation strategies whenever she felt the need. She passed the test with very high scores even in math another boost to her growing confidence.
f; , Epilogue
As Angie relaxed, she began to make friends and takesome risks. In her last year of elementary school, sheran for school treasurer and won. Then, in middle school, she joined the girls' basketball team and is now one of the star players. She isa straight A student in all her classes, including algebra. She voluntarily took the PSAT for Johns Hopkins Talent Searchprogram and was accepted. She is a leader who leads with both compassion andself- assurance. Because she had taken such a close look at herselfover the last five years, she is very perceptive in her dealingsother students. THE VERTEBRATE DILEMMA
by Michelle Saiz
ABSTRACT
When Ann transfers to a school with much higher expectationsfor science work, she finds herself failing seventh gradescience.Her teacher, Ms. James, encounters this problem with otherstudents and brings up the issue of implementinga special "Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory" grading policy for transfer students wholack the expected background. When the faculty greet this suggestion with disinterest, Ms. James tries a series of interventions designedto assist Ann. The case explores the variety of approachesa teacher can use to provide assistance to academically unprepared students.
Issues includegradingpolicies andways of assisting low- performing students while maintaining high levels of expectation for science achievement. THE VERTEBRATE DILEMMA
Part A
Ann, a thirteen-year-old seventh grade student, transferredfrom a rural elmentary school toa small junior high school in a nearby town. According to her ITBS scores, she has somewhatbelow average reading and writing skills and belowaverage math and science skills for seventh grade work. Ann is shy, polite, and seldom volunteers to answer questionsor share information, but always volunteers toassistwith passing out papersor distributing science equipment to her classmates. Assignments, homework, and projects arealmostalwayslate and require constantteacher supervision.
Ann's firstsciencetest score (46%) causedteacher concern. Comparing her responses to another student'sanswers caused Ms. James even more concern. For example, a question asked Ann to list at least four characteristicscommon to all vertebrates. Ann answered: all have scales all live in water all have systems all eat insects
The other student responded: All have backbones, all have hearts, all have endoskeletons, all have complexsystems. Also, as part of a uniton the different classes of fish, each student was asked to sketcha bony fish by following a diagram and labeling its externalparts. Hereis Ann's finalassignment compared to another student's ofaverage capability: Ann's computer diagram of a fish spinal cord stomic 11 fiti%al spine Drain
uscie segment
tongu Jiver ggs anusair hearT intesne ovary DI adder gall bladderwloriccaecum
The other student's diagram
first dorsal ,seconddnrsal fin fin caudal nostrillateral line ,".spiny ray fin \ scale \ soft ray / premailla \V7,./ // .,... gr-T. . . .. ,..,:, , :...... ,..,,yt, ...... ::.::,::,:;:.:.:.... ,-.. ...c.'.%.:.*V- :::,...,..;,..i.r. . ..;"; , 1,1'*...4..tt....'4,.....,t:" :..:..:.!,-...
pectoral fin anal finq mandible operculun0-\,N-,..pelvicfin Ann always handed in her science work firstor close to first. Her proofreading consisted of taking her finger and rapidlyfollowing each line she had written before handing in herassignment. She would then turn to the teacher and ask whatshe should do next. The teacher would indicate the front board where theprocedure had been explained at the start of the class period andwas listed in the sequence the classwas to follow. A common response of Ann's was, "Oh,I didn't know I was supposed to follow that." Both her oral and written responseswere of minimum quality and she seemed disinterested in her work, whether it bea lab, an activity, or a lecture. After Ann scored 20% on another chapter test the teacher requested Ann see her duringa 20-minute free period each day for extra help. Ann only showed up when the teacher sought her out, but Ann's body actions, mood, andresponses indicated she did not want to come. Her performance did not improve so the teacher left it up to Ann to seek assistance when shewanted it. Ann never sought this extra help again.
Ms. James was disturbed not only at Ann's sciencescores, but also at the issue of what grade to give her. Ann had transferred into her classroom without the science background requiredfor her to succeed.Was it fair to fail her?Ann was not the only student to have this problem.Several students were in similar circumstances.
Ms. James considered the possibility of using a special "Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory" grading policy in these circumstances. She approached the principal, who then scheduled the issue for a faculty discussion.
The faculty brought up these comments andquestions during the discussion:
a. "Parents would need tobe informed ofthis separate grading policy. Does it require their consent? What if they do not want a separate grading policy?"
b. "How it would be determined what student would qualifyfor this special grading policy."
c. "We're talking about the justice of the thing,someone working hard and only comingup with F's."
d. "If this new idea became effective andwe used an 'S/U' grading policy it may make students lessresponsible by not trying as hard as they might." This person then gave an example ofa previous seventh grader,now in eighth grade, who barely passed with a 1.0 GPA, but whonow is working very hard and displaying average skills. Would she show this progress if she had been given the "S/U?" e. "Why make the "S/U" schoolwide when an individual situation arises and we are already accommodatingthat student with frequent parent contact, extra help, and fewer requirements?"
f. "What constitutes an 'S' and a'U?'"
g. "What would a high school think of this idea? What effect would it have on an entering student?"
h. "Implementation should wait and be put into effect later after lots of careful thinking."
The idea ofa special grading policy didn't have much initial faculty support, Ms. James concluded. She would have to handle the situation in her own classroom. What steps should she take?
136 Part B
After Ann's mid-quarter progress report of 52%, Ms. James telephoned Ann's parents, explaining Ann's present performance and asking them for their opinions, comments and insights regarding Ann and science. Her father and stepmother attended a conference and indicated that Ann had always struggled with her schoolwork but that she had been tested by the school district which found math and science to be Ann's best areas.
Ann's cumulative recordfor grades 1-6from her ruralschool verified her parents' statements. Her card indicated C- to C performance in all subjects. There were no records indicating any testing done by the district. Ann's ITBS results from the fall showed her overall achievement to be well below average with a national percentile rank of 23 in science (whichwas Ann's second highest score next to reference materials) , 7 in reading, and 10 in mathematics.
Her parents asked for a weekly check-up giving Ann'sscores and a brief comment regarding homework and quality. Ms. James approved and also suggested Ann might benefit as well froma tutor. The parents said that, since her father's employment required him to be close at home and the stepmotherwas employed full time in the nearby town, an after-school tutor would be out of the question due to transportation difficulties. The teacher then suggested guided use of Ann's daily study period with a parent aide who would work with her each afternoon for 40 minutes. Ann's parents concurred.
Ann's science work in the second half of the quarter improved. She completed tasks, homework assignments, and projectson time, and began to pass her science tests, though not science quizzes. Her attitude was more consistently positive,and she would share information with the teacher quietly.Due to the extra effort Ann was putting in with her work and with the tutor she received a passing score for the quarter.
This pattern of poor performance in the first half of the marking period, then improvement in the second half, repeated itself into the second quarter. Whenever her parents requesteda written teacher check-up on their daughter's progress, Ann would improve in written responses, in attentiveness and participation,and in attitude. After her parents requested a written check-up, for example, Ann wrote this description of her lab assignment: One day in Science class Ms. James said "Tomorrow we will disect (stet) an owl pellet. Now an owl pellet is the fur and bones of a small animal that the owl had eaten.
f -1 t) l In some owl pellets you will find more then (stet) one skull and barly (stet) any bones but in others you might just find bones and no skull and in others you don't know what to expect.
In my group, we found a house mouse in our owl pellet. Renee and I had fun and Wendy, well she didn't even touch it. After we got all the bones out of the pellet we throw (stet) away the fur and soaked the bones in a cup for 1 hour. Then on Monday we glued them on a black piece of paper.
Ann'sscience classroom is designed for cooperative learning whereby three students are grouped with a specific task to perform when applicable. Ann's group consisted of two other young ladies, one a C-/B student and the other a B-/A student. These three were selected on the basis of a socic,ram which asked each studentto list three other students in the room with whom they could best work. Ann's group works well together when Ann decides to do her part or assigned task. Otherwise the other two work around her with Ann sitting back and observing. EPILOGUE
The idea ofa special grading policy,whether itbe"S/U" or something else, did not receive much attention after the first discussion. There was no follow-up on the questions and comments and the concept was not pursued by either the principalor faculty members.
Ann has been seeing the school counselor periodicallyat the request of her parents for personal, not academic,reasons. The counselor is not at liberty to discuss Ann's sessions withher teachers due to the parents' request for confidentiality.
A recent sociogram indicated Ann still preferred to bea group member with the same two young ladies. However, neither of these two ranked Ann as someone they preferred to work with. In fact, Ann was not selected by any class member to be her/his working partner.
Ann's science teacher instituteda plan calling for class-wide student portfolios for the third and fourthquarters. Since the school did not seem to want to pursuea separate grading policy, Ann needed something to discuss her scienceprogress with her parentsand teacher besidesnotes sent home. Each student portfolio contained such workas creative assignments, lab write- ups, bar graphs of quiz/test scores, computer activities, project summaries, personal analysis of science progress, a skills checklist, and student selected science work. This portfoliowould be used asa catalyst for parent/teacher conferences in third quarter and as a personal "growth chart" for the student.
The portfolio idea seems to be working. Ann i7ept up with the portfolio requirements on herown, a success in itself. Her parents remarked on their comment section that theythought the portfolio was a good idea since it made themtake time out to actually discuss Ann'sschoolwork with her, rather thanjust monitoring Ann's completion of assignments. THE RELUCTANT MATHLETE
by Sue Yerian
ABSTRACT
A female middle school math teacher whoalso coaches the school's math team gradually realizes that withina matter of months one of her top female team members haschanged interests from math to boys, clothes and parties. The case stuly follows the teacher as she prepares the four team members forthe district and state competitions, wondering at variousmoments if she should permit the girl to drop off the team,as the girl wants, or if she should continue to encourage her in the competition. To win the state competition would meana chance at a college scholarshipfor another student living at the poverty level,but the team needs the girl's outstanding math skills and cooperationin order to win.
This case highlights the following genderissues: To what degree does a teacher support and nurturean underrepresented individual, a female, in the field of math at theexpense of other studehts? How should math be taught to middle school students,particularly girls, who may lose interest in the subject duringpuberty, fall behind boys in terms of mathcourses completed by the end of high school,and giveup opportunities for further advancement and future career in math and science?
II; THE RELUCTANT MATHLETE
"No, you can't miss the state math championships, not fora stupid party!"
Linda Johnson shook her head. "That's what I wanted to say to Jane when she asked me, the coach, if she could drop off the mathteam-- but I didn't. It's true she had been frustrating me with her boy crazy behavior in class for the past few months,butI was so pleased that her team hadwon the district competition two weeks before and made state. She and her three teammates would compete in Juneau against other district winners. So imagine my shock when Jane stopped at my desk after class and announced she wasn'tgoing to Juneau because she didn't want to miss her girlfriend'sparty that weekend. I felt Jane was making a bad choice throwing away a chance to use her considerable math talents.
"I gave Jane my usual 'youcan do it' pep talk, even though I was fed up with her recent behavior: her boy craziness,poor attitude, unwillingness to work closely with her team, and disappearancesat critical times during the district competition. I thought how easy it would be to coach the team without Jane, andhow motivated John, the first alternate,was. I also thought about Sean, the only boy on the team. Sean,Jane,Krista, and Deidre worked very well together. Each one had strengths that had contributedto the current success of the team. Introducing a new student at this point would have disrupted that cohesiveness and jeopardizedSean's chances at ',inning a college scholarship,one of the prizes offered for winniott at the state competition. No one in Sean's family had gone beyond high school. Without financial help, Sean would never get to college. I felt committed to doing the right thing for both Sean and Jane. I wanted Sean to have the best chance at that scholarship, and Jane to get the recognition andawards that she deserved as well. By the end of my r.ep talk, Jane looked unhappy. I was confused, and didn't know whether toencourage Jane to stay on the team or to let her quit. Background: Jane
Jane was in 7th grade at Fairview Junior High,a medium sized suburban school of approximately 800 students. She was a year ahead of her peers mathematically and,as a result, placed in the 8th grade AlgebraI class. The math competition was one way students could complete the requirements fora math "project" that each student had to do by the end of theyear. Practice for the school's math competition lasted from Octoberthrough December. The school level testswere held in January; the district tests were in February; and the state competitionwas in March.The four team members were chosen on the basis ofscores on the school tests. These four students practiced together for themonth prior to the district competition, andanother month ifthey placed either first or second at the districtlevel and went to state. Jane; algebra class had 27 students, 22 of whom elected toenter the math competition.
IL According to Linda, Jane's testscores in all academic areas were superb--99th percentile on both achievement and aptitude--andshe was a straight"A" student. There wasno doubt from Jane's performance, comments, attitudes and quick wit in class thatshe was an extremely bright girl. Her parents (mother an engineer; father self-employed) were very supportive and permittedJane to make many of her own decisions about her schoolcourses.
In the beginning ofthe year,Jane wasa model student. Her cheerfulness contributed to the overall positive atmospherethat existed in Linda's class. Jane was eager to take risks, paid attention, and enjoyed learning. She was happy,outgoing and friendly.
"I began to notice a change in Jane aroundDecember," said Linda. "I was halfway through the three months worth ofpractice sheets for the math competition, and aboutone month short of the school competition that determines which people form the team goingto district. Jane was forgetting to do her assignments,seemed unconcerned about her grades, socializedmore often, became more sophisticated in the way she dressed, daydreamed inclass and talked constantly about boys, clothes and parties. She had become friends with a differentgroup of students in my class who were more popular and less academically oriented.There were many kids in that class who wanted to beon the math team. Because it was a voluntary activity,most ofthe students who chose to do the competition were diligent about getting theirwork in on time and getting the right answers. I mentioned to Jane and her group that they would have to get their work done in orderto have a chance to go to the district competition, but they would shrug, do their work for a day or two, andsoon begin missing assignments." Background: Linda
Linda had spentthree years developing and refining the math competition materials so theywere both fun and challenging. The first year she had had only five students who wanted to participate. Now there were students begging to be allowed to compete,andasking her eachfall whenthey would start the practice sheets. Younger sisters and brothers told her they were eager to get to Fairview so they could get into theprogram and have as much fun in math as their older siblings.More pleasing to Linda, however, was the increase in the numberof girls who entered the competition.
"I have always felt thatwe needed to approach math teaching a little differently with girls. The boys seemed more competitive, enjoyed getting thatone right answer, and were more self-assured. The girls preferred to work ingroups, and took wrong answers more personally. I tried to make the practice sheets fun, downplayed the fast response and rightanswer aspect, played a lot of math games, let groups rather than individuals findanswers, and held more after school and lunch time parties for mathletes only." Linda paused,"It seemed to work. Each year in the competition, all my teams werr very strong. And the girls were just as good as the boys." The Competition
In January Linda gave the math students the three day testthat would determine who was to beon the official school team. Half the points would come from this test and half wouldcome from the grades on the practice sheets. She could usually tell ahead of time who would be on the team basedupon the practice sheet grades and a guess at the exam scores. ThiE year's results surprised her.
"I couldn't believe the totals," Linda said. "I calculated twice to make sure I had it right."
Sean had made it, as expected, from the consistent high markshe had made through the semesteron both his practice papers and tests, but also three of the girls had placed,one of whom was Jane.
"I didn't think Deidre and Kristy hada chance at this," Linda said. "Tneir practice papers were very good, but they tended to score low on the tests. I thought they wouldn't be able to handle the time pressure. I thought Jane had blown her chance because of the lousy papers she had been handing in, but hertest score was so high that it brought her up. I thought she had made a tremendous final effort to join the team."
Jane's performance throughout the next month, practicing withher three teammates for the district test, was--at best--poor. Linda reflected, "This is the timewe build team spirit and camaraderie, and Jane just wasn't participating. She participated just enough, though, that I kept my hopes up."
At the district competition Linda's teamwon a place in the state competitions. Although Jane had done well on her section of the test, she had become enamored withone of the boys on a team from another school, and had spent a good share of her practice time walking around with himor calling friends from a nearby phone. "The team didn't do as well as they had expected, but they still won the opportunity to go to Juneau. This was an exciting moment for all of them, especially for Sean and hisparents. Sean came from a large, blue collar family. His father, a carpenter, barely made enough to keep his family in the small trailer they rented near the school. I think they realized at that moment that Sean had a chance of going to college if hewon first or second place at state. He had a good chance IF his overallscores were high, and that included the team round.
"I started to drill the four studentsevery day. I wanted all of them to feel successful. I knew a good place at state would open doors to other programs, trips,and prizes,and Iwanted those opportunities for my "girls," and for Sean. It was after one of our practice sessions that Jane came up tomy desk and asked to leave the team. I "flashed back" to a recent talk I had had with the school's wrestling coachon how I should handle my math team and Jane's superior ability but lackadas:cal attitude. With no hesiation he had said,'Kick her off the team. Winning isn't as important as learning to work together. I don't care how good my wrestlers are, if they mess up, they're off.' That made a lot of sense, but in my case the team wasn't just going for junior high trophies and a little bit of glory. There was more at stake. Part B.
The State Competition
"I gave Jane the weekend to think about continuingthe competition. That night I called Jane's motherto let her know what was happening and hoped she would have the goodsense to convince her daughter to stay on the team. I felt that her mother had to know if Jane were to decline the honor ofrepresenting the region at the state contest. I would want to know ifmy daughter won such an award and tuined it down."
On Monday, Jane announced that she would continueto participate. "I had some doubts as to how seriousshe was," Linda said. "I thought her mother rad persuaded herto continue and that maybe Jane wasn't as serious about itas I hoped she would be, but when I asked Jane about that she happily insistedshe had made up her own mind. Knowing how otten Janewas allowed to makethese important school decisions byher family, I thought she had."
Jane joined the other students ata separate table near the side of the room. Their work was primarily self-directedgroup practice with periodic help from L4Ida. "The other students in the class needed my help with thej- prk. By now,I felt that the math team consisted of very able Jhly motivated students. They knew what they had to do and didn t need muchdirection from me."
Linda began noticing how quiet Jane had become. She sat back in her chair, rarely talked to the otherteammates, and daydreamed. "I encouraged her as muchas I could, but little worked. She didn't seem to associate with the twoother girls. They were more academic, and not as popularas Jane socially. But they were friendly, and occasionally Jane wouldbe drawn into an animated conversation with them.
"By the time the team arrived inJuneau three weeks later,the girls were getting along again. That didn't last long. I began having trouble with Janeon the second day of the competition. She disappeared at critical times generally to find a phone, or 'to findA store.' I warned her to stick around. She spent lots of free tilha with the boy she likedfrom the other team. The boy stayed with his team,so at least I could see her on the other side of the gym, talking to him.
"I got very angry with her whenthe teams were called together by our hosts to do some practice drills thatwere designed to be fun. All the teams were busy--you couldlook out over the gym and see the students' heads bentover the papers--that is until you got to our table. There was Jane, sitting apart from herteammates and reading a Seventeen magazine. I was furious: 'Get busy,' I hissed, and took the magazineaway. Later, she did very poorly in the competition. That afternoon while our teamwas shopping at the mall, she disappeared, andour team had to look for her. She was shopping at another store and saidshe had forgotten the time."
1--.1 - % Linda settled into the chair. "The last straw was at the awards banquet. Everyone sat as teams at their own tables; Jane sat with the team the boy belonged to. I could have forced her to sit with us, but decided to let her enjoy the evening. I was kicking myself for not letting her leave the competitiona month before when she wanted to go. The worst part was that Sean didn't havea chance at winning the scholarship becauseJane's scores were low and pulled down the group total. I felt I had let everyone down. Jane's past performance should have toldme that her behavior was too erratic for her to be part of theteam. She enjoyed her social life too much. I had tried to support her because ofmy commitment to helping girls in math, but instead preventedSean, the alternate boy, and the other two girls from doingtheir best. Though many years have passed since that competition, I still thinkabout the poor decision I made and how it affectedso many other lives. HETEROGENEOUS GROUPING: IT DIDN'T WORK
ABSTRACT
This case addresses the problems of a new female teacher who tries to use in a 7th grade science lab the heterogeneous grouping techniques she learned at the university.The teacher notices that the students segregate themselves by gendel and by ability. Her attempt to change the class grouping structure, two months after school has begun, results in a chaotic lab. A parent call and negative comments from her colleagues prevent the teacher from trying cooperative strategies the rest of theyear. The issues raised in this case revolve around gender and ability grouping patterns that have already been established and whether teachers can change patterns already ingrained by the time the students reach the secondary level; whether teacher education and in-service programs can effectively train educatorsto minimize gender bias in the classroom.
71 HETEROGENEOUS GROUPING: IT DIDN'T WORK
Introduction
"It was chaos!" Shannon Pearce shook her head in despair. I thought I could apply all the theories on heterogeneous grouping and cooperative learning that I had learned in my education classes last year to a lab Iwas running in my 7th grade life science classes. To prepare,I made a special point of rereading the handouts we had gotten from the September school in-service on gender and ability grouping. What a waste of time! I should have listened to Bob Jacobs in the class next door who has taught here for 15 years. He said to let the kids group themselves and ignore what I had been taught. After the disaster that day, I concluded he was right."
"I wasn't prepared for the hostility that broke out when I tried to rearrange the kids into heterogeneous groups. I philosophically believe that brighter kids should help slowerones, that boys and girls should be given equal opportunities to leadgroups,take notes and collect data, and that everyone in a group should strive to help everyone else succeed. I assumed the students felt the same way I did. During my substitute teaching last year, I didn't get to see how ,9 experienced teachers formed their students into groups. I would tell the students to get together in twos and threes and they had already been taught how to arrange themselves quietly and efficiently. My host teacher during student teaching was the traditional sort of guy who lined kids up in rows by their last names. I never had a chance to apply any of the grouping or cooperative learning theory I had learned at the univerity. But I had always assumed that when I did apply it,my students would respond positively, as the literature seemed to suggest. I wasn't prepared for the destructive personal comments and hostile behavior among my student groups, nor was I prepared for the verbal abuse directed at me for enforcing the arrangements. I had a migraine by the end of that day. It was one of the worst experiences I have had since I started teaching, and I feel I've emotionally damaged the slower and more insecure students."
Shannon's Background
Shannon had graduated the pastyear from Westmont College with a BS in biology and secondary science certification. Immediately after graduation she had found temporary employmentas a summer swimming instructor in a special education recreation program sponsored by the local school district. That experience plus her work as a popular substituteteacher at Northland Middle School landed Shannon a permanent position the following fallas one of two new
7 hires at NMS. Shannon taught 6 classes: 4 classes of 7th grade life science, one class in basic math, andone reading class. Her science classes averaged 28 students. In addition, for the past four years, Shannon was a Saturday morning volunteer teacherfor the Literacy Council. Her experience teaching illiterate or ESL (English as a Second Language) adults had sensitizedShannon to the problems of individuals who had learning difficulties and needed additional help.
The Science Classroom
Shannon's classroom was cluttered with fall collectionprojects that her students had turned in over the past few days. Geology trays containing favorite rocks lay next toa box of bones, a display offur samples, and cross sections of tree trunks. Laminated poster boards, colorful compositions of leaves,student drawings and essays,and photographs of nature lined the walls. Fish tanks, animal cages, lab tables and storage binscompeted for space in Shannon's room. The School
Northland Middle School is a large urban school in Anchorage, Alaska. Its 800 students come from a population that is predominantly white and middle class. The 15% ethnic minority are composed primarily of blacks and native Athabascan Indians. A small number of students are Asian immigrants. Fiveper cent of the students have beenidentified as gifted; 20% ofthestudents receive some kind of remedial help. Special education students are mainstreamed into regular classroomsas often as possible. In a single period it is not unusual fora teacher to have as many as five identified special ed students, two giftedstudents and at least one student for whom English isa second language. Many students have learning disabilities for which theyreceive no special help.
In order to become a middle school and maintaina team meeting period every day, teachers have voted to keepclass numbers high: 27-30. The majority of teachers at NMSare older and have taught more than 14 years. Many teachers have been at NMS their ertire careers. The school functions smoothly; the teachers are comfortable with the statusquo and with the relationships they have established intheir teams over the years. The community values are conservative. Parents are not involved in day-to-day school issues,but are vocal if there isa perceived problem. Within the past year parentpressure resulted in the removal of certain supplemental science textsin favor ofmaterialthat expressed more conservative values. Although many students come fromsingle parent homesand the majority of mothers work, traditional aender rolesare favored.
7' The Students
The seventh grade Life Science class metevery day for 50 minutes. Hands-on activities or labs were part of Shannon's dailylessons. Students had selected their own seats in the beginningof the year, arranging themselves around eight black topped lab tables,each of which accommodated up to four students. Shannon observed that in each class the students segregated themselves both by genderand by ability with the seemingly brighterand more outgoing girls and boys forming the two most cliquishgroups. One boy, Danny, sat by himself in the back of theroom during his 1st period science class.
Shannon shared her observations from the beginningof the year. "I was too busy with all the other class details to be too concerned about grouping when I first started teaching. The students had formed groups naturally, and though thesegroups were obviously gender segregated, and possibly ability segregated,I decided to leave this problem to a later date when I hadmore time to deal with it.
"I did notice certain grouping patterns.The 'bright' kids grouped immediately-- boys in onegroup, girls in another perhaps based upon their friendships formed in their gifted/talented classes. These boys tended to look downon the less able boys and would constantly tease them. If another male student had to work with this 'alpha' male group, the brighter boys wouldmake the new boy do the work while they overviewed and critiquedhim. I seemed co have in each class a group of girls whowere less academic than the othersand more uncooperative and defianttoward me. They reluctantly formed a group of theirown, but did not enjoy working together. The equivalent group of boys -- uninterested in academics -- invariably found each other rightaway, e I tended to spend the class period reinforcing eachother's off tatc behavior. I spent most of my management timeon this type of group. "The kids who were hardest to deal with,and the ones I worried about the most, were the loners the kids who didn't quite fit in with the others. One of these is a girl who is neglected at home. I thought she was slow until I discoveredshe didn't have glasses and couldn't see the board. She needed to be at the front of the room but another group of girls was there and didn't want her to join their table. Another girl has learning disabilities. She achieves at the llth grade level when she isallowed to listen and write, but when she has to read fromthe board and write, her achievement drops to the 2nd grade. Her erratic performance was driving me crazy until I talked toother teachers and tne counselor about her problem." Shannon pointed to the back of theroom. "Danny never found a group because of his peculiar quirks. I put him with one group, then another, but he couldn't get along withanyone.No one wanted to work with him. Kids complained that Danny leaned into their space, or kicked them, or disrupted their work. He tattled on them, and was often inappropriate in what he said and did. He never turned in assignments.One day I sent him to the back of the room for punishment and discovered he like playing there alone with Ratso, the class rat. Eventually, I let him stay at the back study carrel with Ratso if he did his work. That seemed to make him happy."
Groups
"After two months of teaching, I felt fairly comfortable withthe students and wanted to do something about the inequities I had observed in the lab groups. I didn't like the same sex groups we had because the boys and girlsnever had a chance to, work together cooperatively over a long period of time. I also found that unless I had specific tasks for each student in thegroup, the weakest person would be forced to do the writing. Generally, one person would emerge as the leader of the group and get the others working. A few students were doing most of the work and therest were copying. My evaluation was coming up in a couple weeks and I wanted to have the students working in heterogeneousgroups using cooperative learning skills prior to that.I decided to apply some of the strategies I had learned at the universityto the lab the next day. We would have two weeks to work out any bugs that occurred."
The Incident
"The boys and girls in first period hated thenew grouping from the beginning.They argued with me that I wasn't being fair; that they worked best with their friends. Some of the kids swore, and a few told me they wouldn't do the assignment it was "Stupid." The shy kids and loners who didn't fit into thegroups got most of the negative comments. Jason yelled, "He's a jerk, no way!" when told he'd have to work with Bill. With a lot of effort I managed to get the students seated together in mixed abilitygroups of three, with ee-lh group having at leastone girl. I left Danny in the back of t. ! room doing a lab of his own. I gave instructions for the lab: individual group was to havean experimenter, a secretary, and a director. For this first lab, they were to choose their roles, finish the lab by the end of the period,and turn in their written observations. I thought everyone would be very democratic and get along...how naive I was!
"Some groups argued among themselvesfor half the period over who was going to be secretary, the most unpopular task. In two-thirds of an my groups the girls became the secretaries. In several classes the arguments over who would be the writer would nontinue until a girl would say,"OK, I'll do it." In one class all the secietaries were girls. Boys actually stood up and said, "This is a girl's job," or "Men sholldn't be secretaries." The director's role generally went to the most assertive student in thegroup. The more non-assertive studentswere picked on bythe class bullies.
"The lab took two days to complete instead ofone. Several student directors stopped working and asa result their groups fell apart. Two boys in one grouo stArted to fightacross the lab table over a slur one had made about the other. They apparently had conflicts outside my classroom that I didn't know aboutbefore Iput them together. The girls who didn't get along and who were in thesame group tended to be very sarcastic with one another. The students hated me for trying to keep the mixedgroups going. I sent a few boys to the office for disrespect, anda couple others sat outside the class door from time to time to cool off. The number of lunch detentions and referrals was higher than usual.
"I spent a large amount of time working with individuals, getting them to turn in anything. The work was sloppy. No one seemed to put much effort into it.Afterward, when the students went back to their original self-selected groups, they seemed muchmore vocal in their dislike of other people inthe room. The result of my 'experiment' was that putting the kids in heterogeneousgroups reinforced the negative stereotypes rather than sensitized kidsto them. The weaker kids, boys and girls,were treated worse than they had been before my grouping experiment." Reactions
"I struggled through this one lab, then abandonedmy plans to use mixed grou!.ing for the rest of theyear. A parent called me after that first lab day and wanted to know why herson was put in a group with another boy who always bullied him, and why I didn't stop some of the name calling that wenton. He had come home in tears and didn't want to go back to school the next day.The truth was that I didn't hear a lot that went on between students in the class. It was too noisy, had too many students, andwas out of control. I only heard the most. vocal students.
"I don't know anyoneelse here inthe school who usesmixed grouping. I think it would benefit the students, but I don'twant to take a chance on this disaster happening again. It took weeks to get the class to trustme. My management was shaky and the kids took advantage of it.The shyer kids didn't come around to talk as often..as if I had lost something in theireyes. The class bullies were worse. Other teachers heard what had happened from the students, and approached me with this 'You poor new teacher, you'll learn' look. That made me angry. I didn't feel I should be blamed for trying something new in the class." Reflections
"I may try to do mixed grouping next year,starting from the beginning of the year. I know that these kids have friends and they know who they work best with from being together in elementary school. I wonder how reasonableit isto puttwo orthree strangers,or kids from different social groups,together and expect them to work well. But how long doesit taketo get students to work well together, and how do vou do that? Is it possible for me to counter years of stereotypes in just one year in my class? The girls want to be popular, so is it fair to expect them to become assertive and stand up for themselves when they hurt their popularity? Could I expect the brighter kids to want to help the slower ones when it seems so boring to have to slow down? How do I taach kids about- acceptance ot differences when all theywant is to be like their friends? And I never figured out what to do with kids like Danny who never fit in anywhere. I do know that T never want to face a day like that again. MRS. JOHNSON HATES ME
ABSTRACT
Parental pressureencourages an elementary enrichment teacher with a strong math background to developan accelerated math class for the school's 5th and 6th gradegifted math students. The female teachercarefullyfollows the guidelinesestablishedby her colleagues and principal for choosingthe students and contacting parents, but her efforts are derailed by school politics, misunderstandings, and personal rivalries. The case follows the teacher as she attempts to placeNate, amai-,h prodigy, atthe proper math level, and howthis attempteventually involves teachers and counselors at allschool levels in an increasingly complex dilemma.
The gender issues in thiscase stem from the elementary enrichment teacher's trong math background and the discriminationshe felt from other ceachers, bothelementary and secondary, whom she felt were threatened by her strong content background,math ability, the math awards she had earnedas an enrichment teacher rather than as a math teacher, and her persistence in tryingto keep her gifted students out of the district'slock-step math system. MRS. JOHNSON HATES ME
Introduction
Nina Martin looked at the sobbing 6th grader standing nextto her desk.
"Mrs. Johnson sent you to the principal?"
"She said I was wrong when Itold her she had a mistake on the board. And when I tried to explain it to her, she got mad andsent me to the office."
Nate wiped his face with his sleeve. "Mrs. Johnson hates me."
Nina, the enrichment teacher at Wood Lake Elementary School,knew that Nate had been getting poor marks allsemester in his regular math class for what seemed to her to be minor things: forgettingto put a period after "ml" and "gm," as Mrs. Johnson insisted; solving simple arithmetic in his head; skipping problems he could easily do; having sloppy writing. Mrs. Johnson criticized Nate unnecessarily, Nina thought, for asking inquisitive questions and challenging the teacher's answers. But Nate was one of the most brilliant math students Nina hadseen in her nine years as an enrichment teacher. In her math enrichment class last year, he was an "A" student who easily grasped algebraic and geometric concepts.
Nate was in the regliar 6th grade mathprogram this year. He was bored with the work and the slowpace of the class. "Mrs. Johnson makes a lot of mistakes," he had told Nina. "She doesn't explain things very well. All we do are dumb worksheets, and then she gives us the answers from the back of the teacher'sbook."
Nina was tutoring Nate secretly,at his father's request. The three 6th grade teachers at her school, led byMrs. Johnson, had convinced the principal to eliminate Nina'sproposed advanced math class this year because it "would take the'briaht lights' out of the regular math classes." From the enrichment class, Nina knew that Nate tIlrived on challenge and extraattention. The advanced math class would have been perfect for Nateand for other students with high math ability.
Nina looked at the disheveled, rumpled boy. She had counseled him in the past to "toe the line" withMrs. Johnson; not to challenge what she said and to do the work she asked. Now it appeared that Nate was bearing the brunt of the conflict thathad occurred last year between Nina and the other teachers at her school. Maybe her advice to Nate had been wrong. Mrs. Johnson would always find fault with Nate, no matter how hard he tried. Perhaps Nate should be moved to another classroom...but whose? The two other 6th grade teachers were no better in math than Mrs. Johnson. The principal backed his regular classroom teachers and the statusquo, so there 4 was no point in taking the problem to him.
Nina had to tell Nate something...but what?
Background
Nina Martin had been Wood Lake's enrichment teacher for thepast four years, ever since the school opened. She had established a reputation as a highly creative, bright,student-centered, and energetic teacher, well suited to the emotional and academic needs of the gifted students who qualified for herprogram. Nina had a math specialist credential from Michigan State University, anda master's degree in math education from Harvard. In 1989 she had won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math Teaching. Her original curriculum materials in writing, math and social studies had gained recognition at the local and state levels.
Nina's enrichment classes were structured to supplement the regular classroom curriculum. Students who had composite scores at the 95th percentile and aboveon both achievement and aptitude tests were eligible to enter the program. Students generally worked on projects within their own areas of interest. In specific content areas, Nina would broaden the child's knowledge by giving the student more diverse, creative work at thesame grade level rather than accelerate the student to the next grade's material. This clas- format enabledher tochallenge the studeats without "steppinc on other teachers' toes."
Last spring, Nate's father, Evan Parker, hadcome to see Nina. Mr. Parker was moving his family across town to a larger house in the Wood Lake area. His son was in an accelerated math class, through the enrichment program at his current school, and Mr. Parker wanted to know if Nina would provide thesame acceleration opportunities for Nate in next year's math cllss that he had been getting since he was a first grader. Nina thought accelerating some students in math rather than giving them broad enrichmentwas a good idea and something she could easily put into practice within herprogram. For the past few years, she had been bothered by the remarks her high math students hak2 Aade about their regular math clPsses how boring they were. SI.le knew that in at least one instance, the teacher was excusing one of her high math students froth theclass so he could grade his classmates' math homework. She promised Mr. earker to get back with himonce she had checked things out with her principal. Nina's principal told her the accelerated classwas fine, but that she should come up with a plan that she could present to the other teachers during the next week's faculty meeting. Nina spent most of the week thinking about how she could schedule all the qualified students from grades K-6 into herroom at least twice during the week, and still have one block of time free foran accelerated math class of 5th and 6th graders. She decided to open the class to any student who might benefit from it. She would have to ask the teachers to coordinate their math teaching times,so that all the qualified students could be "pulled out" together.
At the faculty meeting the following week, theteachers reacted favorablyto Nina's plan. Nina suggestedthat theteachers themselves choose the students they felt would benefitfrom the accelerated class, as her principal had suggested. Nina offered several criteria that would help the teachers in their selectionof qualified students: scores in the top 5t4i percentileon standard math tests, consistent "A" work in math, students who seemed bored or unchallenged. The teachers agreed to look for these characteristics and to adapt their next year's teaching blocksto coordinate with Nina's class.
By the next week, thirteen students had been identifiedas having the potentialto benefit from Nina's accelerated class. The students' math scores ranged from the 60th to the 99th percentile. The teacher descriptions of the students' characteristicsran the gamut: hard-worker, brilliant, involved in lots of extra-curricular activities,lazy, spoiled,introverted, arrogant,"space case," manipulator, forgetful, responsible,careless, doesn'tlisten, artistic, argumentative, "BS'er."About half of the class would be composed ofNina's enrichmn.nt students; the other halfwere identified as "having potential." The next year's acceleratedmath class was shaping up. Nina realized it would take a lot of effort on her part tobring these diverse students together andto challenge all of them, but shewas excited at the opportunity she would have to use the creative teaching strategies, manipulatives, and higher level thinking activities ina regular accelerated math class.
Confrontation
Two weeks -,t..er the faculty meeting, Mrs. Johnsoncame into Nina's room. WAri .4as grading papers at her desk.
"I've thount about your math class nextyear. I don't think it's going to work. June andI have changed Jur minds about having those students pulled fromour math classes next year." "Why?" "Those students are our 'bright lights.' If they leave, the whole class is pulled down. They're the only ones who know the answers, or ask questions. IfI didn't have someone like George in my class, I'd have to stand there all day beforesomeone gave me the right answer. I'd never get through the material quickly enough."
"But do you think it's fair for the good math studentstu have to slow down for the poorer ones? George is far beyond what he's learning now. HE's bored with the regular class. Don't you think he should wora, at hio own level?"
"He can work at his level throughyour enrichment class, and he won't have to miss his regular math period. I don't want those kids pulled out of my math class. The other students would suffer for it."
When Mrs. Johnson left, Nina pondered her options. Mr. Parker and the other parents had alreadybeen told thatthe class was available to their children. It seemed too early to involve the parents or the principal in what might beno more than a bad day on Mrs. Johnson's part. Nina decided to check with June and Ralph, the other 6th grade teachers in the school. June and Ralph seemed mach less enthusiastic now about Nina's accelerated classthan they had been t the staff meeting. Both echued Mrs. Jchnson's concern about thoir classes falling behind ifthe "bright lights" were taken out. Nina knew that, although June and Ralphwere excellent language artsteachers,neither one liked teaching math.Both relied heavily on traditional lecture, seat work, and drills. All three 6th grade teachers were balking atthe new class,even though, Nina felt, their bright studentswere the most likely to bc.nefit from it.
Nina stopped in the office to talk to the principal beforeshe left school that day.
"I'll do whatever the 6th grade teachers wanto do," he said. "If they don't want an accelerated mathprocrar-,, we won't do :It." Politics
At the grocery store that evening, Ninaran into Mr. Parker.
"I saw Mary Seiglund the other day," he said. "I told her about the new math class you would be starting.Her daughter, Karin, has been placed in Mrs. Johnson's class nextyear and Mary isn't too pleased about it. Her daughter's pretty good in math, her mother says, so I suggested she talk to the principal about getting in your class." Nina realized that this girlwas not one of the students the teachers had selected. Mrs. Seiglund was, however, one of the main parent volunteers in the building, andvery active in the local and state PTA. The next morning, Nina talked to the counselorto see who had been added to her next year's math class.
"We added Karin Seiglund to the list,"she said. "Mrs. Seiglund asked us to do it. The principal said OK." She closed the door to her office. "That afternoon Mrs. Johnson came down here, hotas could be. She really lit into Jack for approving another kid being taken Jut of her class nextyear without her permission. She said she thought the tPachers had thefinal say on which kids were pulled for your new math class. Jack finally said that whatever the 6th grade teachers wantedwas what he wanted. When Johnson left the office, she wasa little cooler. But it wouldn't surprise me if she convinced Ralph and June not to agree to this classnext year. I hear from other teachers that it might not work out."
Nina was troubled the rest of the day. It was difficult to keep hcr mind on her teaching. In the teacher's lounge at lunch, a friend confided that she had heard thatMrs. Johnson thought Nina was encouraging parents to call the principal in order to get their children out of her math block nextyear. Too, Nina remembered the caustic comments Mrs. Johnson had made when Ninahad vehemently complained about a particular sub that tbe principal hadinsisted on calling first if there happened t: bea teacher who needed a substitute. The sub had been the secono finalist for a job at the school this past year, andrumor had :it that she had been promised a first call each day as a consolation.This sub had no experience in math,and Nina hated to be r.orcedto use her. When Nina returned to school afteran absence, the students were always a day or two behind.Also, it took much longer to write her instructions to the sub in greater detail. Mrs. Johnson had said something about letting the kids havPan easy day with the sub once in awhile; that they were "too brainy" already. Nina knew Mrs. Johnson thought the enrichment classwas elitist. She wondered if Joyce knew the sub outside school.
That afternoon the principalcame to Nina's door. "We're going to have to cancel the math class nextyear, Nina. A parent of one of your accelerated students called earlier. She said that a boy her son knew from another stat, was coming to live with them, and wanted the new bov to be with herson in your math class. I heard the 6th grade teachers have changed their mindsabout having an accelerated math class nextyear, so I told her the class was being dropped. Sorry, but I have to Reep the other teachers in mind, too."
Nina thought of the thirteen studentsshe had on her original list for the accelerated math class. She had called parents,looked ove- files, and had made a point of greeting them inthe halls and talking to them on the playground. She thought what a waste of potential it was to keep these kids in the regularmath class, and how much her students had enjoyed the math sessions sheran in enrichment classes.
She looked at Jack, and wondered what she could doto help these students.
Compromise
"What about running an after school math class? I'd be willing to stay after school with the kids who couldcome, and that way the students wouldn't haw, to miss their regular mathclasses."
Jack thought for a moment. "Well, if you're willing to do it, I don't see how that could interfere with the otherteachers. I'll let you know."
In a few days, Jack told Nina that her after-schoolclass would be OK. He asked her to call the parents to let them knowthe in- school accelerated mathprogram had been eliminated, and that the after-school option was offered in its place. fhe school received many calls from irate parents,but Jack refused to change his policy. The parents wantrsd to schedulea meeting for all concerned parents and involved teachers. The enrichment teacher from the junior high school called Nina to ask why Ninawas trying to mess up her junior high enrichment program.
"If you accelerate these kids I'll haveto fit th.m into advanced classes here.With our schedule-driven classes that's impossible. After a year,they'd have to be bused from their regOar math classes at the junior high to the high school mathclasses, and back again. Our secondary schoolsare on differentrotating schedules. It would be a nightmare to coordinate each student's schedule. And I don't have the time or the inclination to teach different levels of high school math to eachgroup of kids as they come ovc-:...that's not my field."
The parents' meeting was attended by the highschool math teachers and couaselor, the junior high enrichment teacher,the elementary school parents who had asked for the meeting,and Jack, Nina, Mrs. Johnson,and Ralph. The high school math teachers said that accelerated students had been allowedinto the high school math frograms in the past, and though most of themwere extremely good at conceptual understanding,they lackedthe basic arithmetic skills, organizational skills, and emotionalmaturity required for high school classes. Many of them had not done well, and their lack of basic skills, combined with theirimmaturity, toot too much of the teacher's time. The counselor said these students would eventually "get lost in the system." The mathstudents should stay
!iv with their peers through the junior highlevel where the academic and personal support structurewas better. by the end of the meeting, the prircipal's decision stood. The thirteen students would remain inthe regular math classes, but could attendan after-school accelerated class if theparents desired. After Effects
In the weeks after the meeting, Nina noticeda change in the 6th grade teachers' attitudes toward her enrichment class. Ralph's students began staying in the regular classroom instead ofcoming to her room during the enrichment time. "He gives pop quizzes when we're gone," one student said. "We can't make them up and they count on our grade."June was outwardly supportive, but still used her "bright lights" to gradepapers and xerox. She occasionally asked Nina to help with the math material. Mrs. Johnson never asked for Nina's help.
Nate was placed in Mrs. Johnson's eass the nextyear. Mr. Parker asked Nina to tutor Nate in advanced math outside schoolhours. Mr. Parker insisted on paying Nina for her time. Both of them agreed to keep the arrangement secret because oftheethical considerations, the professional ramifications if the other teachers found out, and to protect Nate fromharassment. Already Nate had begun to complain that Mrs. Johnson hated him,and picked on him in class. Nina knew Nate was an outspokenyoung man who needed proof before he would believe anythinga teacher said. Nina enjoyed the intellectual challenge Nate provided.He needed to be in an environment that stimulated him,not held him back.
And now, five weeks into the new schoolyear, Nate was standing in front of her, crying. Epilogue
Nina told Nate to stay quiet in Mrs. Johnson's class untilshe could work something out. By working closely with Mr. Parker and the counselor, Nina was able to get Nate switched into Ralph's class. It wasn't the best placement for Nate's math talents, but at least Ralph wouldn't destroy Nate's self-esteem.Nina continued to tutor Nate privately through the rest of the year.
As Nina expected, most of the identified gifted math students could not attend her class after school. Many of these youngsters were also involved with music lessons, or after-school sports,or had to take the bus home right after school. The few students who could attend did so sporadically. Eventually Nina dropped the program.
At the beginning of the next schoolyear, when Nate entered junior high, Nina discovered that all her math students hadbeen placed in the regular 7th grade math class.l.s. She called the counselor to tell them that most of these studentswere beyond that level; that they should be tested and placed appropriately. She got no response. Mr. Parker continued to be an outspoken advocate for acceleration, but in the end nothingwas done.
Nina heard that the high school teachers felt shehad "stirred things up" and had tried to "screwup the algebra program" at the high school level. She wondered if her national award had anything to do withtheresentment shefelt fromthe secondary math teachers, many of whom competed for thesame award. Nina's enrichment class has becomea de facto accelerated math class for students who choose to do the work. Nina doesn't want trouble; she calls it enrichment. THE TEACHER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
ABSTRACT
In this case a teacher strongly identifies witha female student she has in her chemistry and physics classes. As she gets to know the student, she finds that the student's life parallels herown: an alcoholic father, too much family responsibility, not enough time for her own activities. The teacher has high standards and strict deadlines. The young woman cannot complete her spring project by its due date because of toomany after school family duties. The teacher debates whether she should allow the student to turn in a late project something she has never permitted before because she understands on a personal level what this young woman's life is like.
The gender issues that arise from thiscase include: How flexible should a teacher be with established classroom policy in orderto encourage a young woman's interest in science?How involved should a teacher become in the personal lives of her students? At what point does the timetakento support and nurture one student interfere with the time needed by the other students? Does the science teacher's gender and non-competitive classroom environment positively affectthe attitudes of her female students toward science? THE TEACHER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Introduction
What does a teacher do when sheknows too much about a student's personal life? Does she give the student extra time, attention, and help --time that could be spent preparing, grading, and helping her other one hundred and nineteenstudents?Does she make exceptions tor deadlines becauseshe knows why the work is not getting done? Isit beneficial forthe student to be given preferential treatment? Is it fair? The School
Manning High School is consideredthe elite high school in town. Itis relatively new and,in contrast to the other three high schools in the district, has carpetedfloors, clean bathrooms, and unmarked halls. To visitors, MHS gives the appearance of beinga well-rounded college preparatory school wherestudents and faculty find togetherness of spiritandpride inbelonging. To an "insider," however, it doesnot feel this way. After five years of teaching at MHS, I havenever felt a cooperative spirit among staff or students.
I believe that the lack of cooperationis a result of the high percentage of MHS students whocome from professional homes where parents have high standards for theirchildren as well as for the MHS staff. The pressure fromparents and administratorsfor teachers to perform above and beyond theircolleagues creates an atmosphere ofstressthat no one acknowledges. This is the atmosphere in which I work, and in whichI first met Katie. Katie
Katie was in my chemistry class duringher sophomore year. She was a quiet young woman who sat in the back of theroom on the right hand side. She didn't participate in class discussionsvery often. The only interaction Isaw between her and her peers was with a girl whosatnextto her andlater became her bestfriend. Academically, Katie wasan A student earning a D. She had problems with any class that requiredoutside work and constant attendance, mentally or physically. I sensed she wis a conscientiousperson but I couldn't understand why shewasn't turning in her work or coming to class.
I found out ayear later when Katie was in my physics class. Little by little she beganto see that I was trying to create a safe place so students couldtrust each other and learn to work together. She saw that I cared; that I was interested not only in her academic performance but in her. Eventually, she began to tell me about her life.
Both her parents worked. Her dad was almost always drunk at night. After work, her mother sat in a chair all evening and watchedTV. She told me that her sister and her sister's twoyear old son lived with them. Her sister worked and went out a lot and her parents . had given Katie the responsibility of takingcare of her nephew as well as taking care of the household chores. She told me that these things needed to be done and that she alonewas the one responsible for them. She believed this sincerely. Occasionally she seemed resentful that she couldn'tgo out with friends or join a schoG1 activity. As I learned more and more about Katie and her home life,I felt sad and angry. I suppose a little sadness and anger was for myself, having grown up in similar circumstances. The Teacher
I am the second oldest in my family,as was Katie. I, too, had to take care of the household chores andmy little brothers. My sister, like Katie's, went out drinking and partyingand took none of the responsibility for the family.My father drank constantly, and my mother was either yellingor watching TV. I got good grades in school and found some esteem in that. Katie, however, didn't do well academically.
I grew up with a lack of caring and consistency inmy life just as Katie had. I think I went into teaching so I could providea safe place, a class, where teenagers could get excitedabout science; where they could be loved for themselves,no matter how badly they performed. I wanted to provide students with a consistent environment where they had certain responsibilitiesand knew the consequences of their actions.
My classes are known as being hard yet fun. For the most part, I teach upperlevelscience classes(chemistry andphysics) to college bound kids. I expect a lot from my students in terms of doing their own work and getting it inon time. I heavily penalize late work and in some cases will not accept it under any circumstances.
The Problem
In my physics classes, the studentsare required to do two major experimental projects. The first isa group effort during fall semester, and the second is an individual projectduring spring semester. The projects in the springare displayed in the library for three days so that individuals in theschool can look at and play with them. This arrangement makes itimpossible for the projects to beturned in late. I made no exceptions. I had devised a system by which the students had to giveme a data update every two weeks for eight weeks before the project was due. This helped keep some students current, but there were stilla few who chose to put their projects off. Katie was one of these people. Two weeks before the projects were due I talked with her again about getting started. She had chosen the difficultcask of setting up a holography lab at the university. Since mv students had been using equipment and lab space there for fouryears, I knew that wouldn't be a problem. The problem was with the time it would take to set up the optics and find the correct laserexposure and developing time. Katie responded sheepishly that she had tried to go to the University lab two nights before. She had gone home from school first and was told by her mother that she had too muchto do at home; that it was more important for her to be at home, and who the hell cared about a stupid physics projectanyway because it certainly wasn't going to get her anywhere in life. I asked her if she wanted to do something else,a project she could work on at school or at home. Her response was a soft-spoken but emphatic "No."
Two days later, Katie approached me. I rarely saw her so excited. She had been to the University, she said, and had talked with Don Maler, a professor of physics,and with some of his graduate students about setting up the optics lab to do holography. Since they had never set up the holography lab before, theywere eager to have the opportunity to assist Katie. Katie was to be the one in charge of the project. She was scared but enthusiastic. She went to the university two more times that week to look at equipment and go through catalogues to find film and developer. I heard from Don that Katie was doing a great job; that both he andthe grad students were impressed with her knowledge, enthusiasm, and.3snse of whatneededto be done. He feltshewould make a good physicist.
The next week Katie told me that she had ordered the film and chemicals but that they wouldn't arrive until the day the projects were due to be displayed. I knew that even when the materials arrived there was no way Katie could get her project done before the end of the three day display period in the library. This was agonizing news. Although Kati.1 never specifically asked foran extension (she would never ask for special treatment), I feltthat I had to make a decision. I had made a deadline. I had never made an exception to a deadline. Should I make an exception now because I cared for this youngwoman and her success? I knew she could have started the project earlier. I also knew it was hard for her to get away from her family responsibilities and parents' attitudes. I could see a glimmer of self-esteem when she talked about her project. Did I have a right to squelch her feelings of worthiness for an arbitrary deadline that I had set?Or did I have an obligation to her and the rest of my students to stick by my rules and deliver the consistent system that I promised them? It was a dilemma I wrestled with for many hours. Epilogue
I allowed Katie to turn in her project late. In lieu of displaying it in the library, she was to givea presentation to the class. It was two weeks past the deadline before Katie finally completed all the project requirements. The presentation went well. The other students in the class saw a home-made hologram and learned about the process and concepts of laser photography.
As I look back, I don't know how my other students felt aboutmy decision. I never asked. I know that Katie felt good about completing it,and about gainingthe respect of Don andthe graduate students, but I don't k-pw how she felt aboutmy xtending the deadline for her. I wonder if she felt it was fair. As for me, I still don't knowwhatdecisionwouldhavebeenmore beneficial to her in the longrun. In my life, people have made exceptions for me.The funny thing is that the ones who didn't are the ones I remember and respect the most. ONE PARENT COUNTS FOR THIRTY TEACHERS
ABSTRACT
This case concerns a female mathteacher who has difficulty with a male student in her Basic Algebraclass. The teacher, who believes she is following school policy, willnot issue passes to students during the last ten minutes ofthe class period. The rale student insists he needs a bathroompass; the teacher refuses to give him one. The student challenges the teacher'srule by leaving the class without permission. In the ensuing action,the teacher perceives that the schooladministrators establish an inappropriate degreen of camaraderie with malestudents and give in to parental pressure by accepting the student's version of whathappened in class by not punishing the student forleaving the class without permission and by implying thatthe problem resided withher classroom discipline.
The case brings up the followinggender related issues: the differences between male and femaleclassroom discipline styles; the standards by which femaleteachers are judged as classroom disciplinarians when the standardshave been determined by male administrators; and the degreeto which female teachers need to be backed by the school administrationwhen physcial size and intimidation cannot beas easily used as discipline measuresas they are by some mcle teachers. ONE PARENT COUNTS FOR THIRTY TEACHERS
Part A
"Mrs. Brown, I have to go to the bathroom. I've had to go real bad since the beginning of class," said Trent. I looked up atthe clock and saw it was 12:48. It didn't surprise me that Trent would be asking to use the restroom considering the talkwe had a few days earlier.
"Trent, there are only twelve minutes left. Class will be over at one o'clock and then you can use the restroom." For a moment I thought back to my rookie year at Timberville High. At that time, the vice-principal in charge of disciplinewas adament about not over-using hallpasses, and he was especially criticalabout tea'hers issuing them during the last ten minutes ofclass. Those days 3eemed to come froma different era.
I shifted my attention to Anne who had her handup for help. I wanted Trent to drop his request to leave classand I hoped my attention to Anne would putan end to Trent asking again to leave the room. Besides, there were only twelve minutes left before the lunch bell would ring.
For several days I had been expecting Trent to askpermission to use the restroom to test me on an issue he had discussed withme a couple of days earlier.Then, Trent had asked me what I thought of a student who askea to use the restroom during class anda teacher who refused to let himgo. "A covr..23lor told me it was a form of child abuse if a teacher wouldn't $:,t a kid use the bathroom." I imagined a class of 23 students all demandingto use the restroom during the last 10 minutes of class.This could become a problem.
I explained to Trent that the 15 minute breaks betweenclasses provided the time to take care of students' personalneeds. Trent didn't accept my reasoning. He stated, "If you have to go, you have to go, and you should be allowed to go."
I told him that if a person had thjstype of problem, he needed to plan ahead and make more use of the breaktimesto use the restroom. He interrupted and siid, "There's not always enoughtime to go to your locker, the batlroom, and then to class."
I told him I thought ten minutes betweenclasses was enough time to do all that. I also realized this conversationwas making the initial child abuse questionseem ridiculous. I felt an urge to end the conversation with Trentas quickly as possible, which brought me back to my current classroom conflict.
1 L I aware of Trent walking back to his desk and of his negative boay language. He began talking to Mary, his closest friend in the class. I could not hear what he was saying but I could tell by the way she was looking back at me that Trent was about to make his move. He looked at the clock, straightened his black leather jacket, picked up his math book and notebook, and, while walking out the door said, "Write me up."
Immediately after the bell rant, I went to the office with Trent's detention form. I planned to explain the episode and the earlier conversation between Trent and me to an administrator. I noticed the time at the office. It was two minutes after one o'clock.
I was surprised to see Trent in the office lobby talking with Mr. Hammet,the principal,and Mr. Gregory,the vice-principal of discipline. I assumed Trent was telling his side of the story. I was also eager to hear why Trent did not return to class after using the bathroom.
"Mr. Hammet, we need to put a time on the school calendar forour Timber carnival," Trent said. "We want to have it during Spirit Week."
I realized after a few moments of confusion that Trentwas not talking at all about leaving my class early and not being permitted to use the restroom. I was watching a completely dii.ferent Trent: In contrast to his behavior with me, he was very respectful of the two administrators. He didn't appear to be suffering discomfort, as he had minutes earlier, from not being able to use the restroom. I also noticed he didn't have his math books with him.
My initial plan to speak with both principals and Trentwas delayed when one fo the French teachers ran into tne front office yelling that there was a fight near the front entrance. Both administrators left immediately, leaving Trent andme looking at each other.
"I would like to hear why you did not return to claus. I noticed when you left you took your things with you."
"You wouldn't have let me back in and besides therewere only a few minutes left before the bell was going to ring," saidTrent.
I was surprised by his comment. "That is not true. Where did you go when you left class?" I asked as the tardy bellrang for the next class.
"I went right to the office. Right now I've got to go to shop class," said Trent. The front office had their hands full and I realized this affair would have to wait until afterschool.
101 When school was dismissed, I spoke with Mr. Gregory. I explained that Trent had left class twelve minutes early with his things and without permission. I told him about the conversation Trent and I had earlier, and Trent's feelings that denying studentspasses to the bathroom was child abuse. I also refreshed Mr.Gregorl's memory that he had been talking with Trent a couple of minutes after one o'clock, just before the fight.
Believing I had past school policy to backme up, I also mentioned to Mr. Gregory about thenumerous requests I had from students to leave class. The requests from Trent's class were especially abundant and I was concerned that this might becomecommim practice in classes throughout the building and possiblya staff concern.
Students wanted to leave class fora veriety of reasons. "I sprained my finger. Can I get some ice from the nurse?" or "Can I call my mom so she can pickme up after school?" or "I'm thirsty. Can I go get a drink of water?"or "Can I get some tissue from the bathroom to blow my nose?" I can remember Mr. Hammet telling the staff at an earlier faculty meeting, "Just tellthem no!"
I asked Mr. Gregory the buildingpolicy about usingpasses especially during the last ten minutes of class. He told me he couldn't make a blanket policy aboutpasses, because every teacher ran his or her class differently. This surprised me because I thought the ruleweenforced during myfirst few years at Timberville High was to minimize student time in thehalls and maximize student time in the classroom.
Before I left Mr. Gregory's office, he informedme Trent did not serve after school detentions, at his mother's request, and that when Trent had accumulated three detentions, he wouldserve a day of in-house suspension instead.I felt frustrated and disappointed in the system.
The next day before lunch, Mr. Gregoryspoke with me about Trent. Trent's mom had called him home at during the previous evening. He said she was not happy that Trentwas not allowed to leave math class to go to the bathroom. She claimed her son had had diarrhea. She wanted to schedule a parent conferencedimmediately with the teacher who forced herson to leave class under such conditions.
Mr. Gregory asked me if therewere alternative ways, such as lunch detention, to den ].with the situation. I told him I did not monitor lunch deteltion for studentsI disciplined. I thought this was an unusual req est from an administrator considering the school has an in-house suspension andafter school detention room.Before I left for lunch, Mr. Gregory maded thestatement that office- generated detentions may not existanymore and teachers may have to find alternatives for handling theirown classroom discipline. 1( 2 Mr. Hammet, the principal, called me into his office later that afternoon and wanted to know the details of the incident with the students who had diarrhea in my class. I was feeling slightly concerned about the apparently negative perspective that administration now took of my problem. What was the real issue here and what had the issue turned into? This situation seemed to be detourilg the wrong way and I did not likemanner in which my judgment WilS being doubted and criticized. I felt as if I were running an obstacle course, and I had better things to do thanto spend a lot of time explaining and defendingmy position.
Was allthis discussion and time worth it? I decided itwas because passes to leave the classroom interfere with learning and affect the goals and objextives I plan formy students. Spending time now seeking a solution points out to students that I value classroom time. Although I felt my jugment was being doubted, I did not make these concerns and feelings known to Mr. Hammet.
Mr. Hammet said there would not be a parent conference. Instead, we would meet with the student. He advised me,"You need to be more clear, Mrs. Brown, about instructing how students are to leave your room." He said he would personally ask the student if he indeed relieved himself and tell him that this behaviorwas not to be regarded as a way to leave class whenever he pleased.
When the meeting ended Iwas left with the impression that a decision had been made on the phone with the parent and that itno longer mattered what my opinion was. The next day, Trent and I met with Mr. Gregory in his office. Trent was asked to explain where he went after he left class. Trent said,"I went downstairs to the bathroom across from the office, then put my books away and went straight to the office."
Both Trent and I sat across from Mr. Gregory's desk. He said, "The detention will be dropped this time. Trent, do not go back to class and say 'I got out of this one,' andencourage comments from Jeff and Dan. And you understand that it is not child abuse from Mrs. Brown to ask your or another student to wait."
I felt as if I had been knocked down and Iwas the one who had been disciplined.
Teacher History
I have been a teacher for nearly ten years withmy first teachign position in Alapaka, a small Native American villageon the mouth of the Kwinluk River. I also student taught in a small rural village outside McGordon. I taught in Alaska for three and one half years before moving to Pine Ridge. *4-41 1: swr..1
I have been at Timberville for sixyears and have taught different levels of algebra, computer programming,trigonometry and analytic geometry. The math department has six teachers and, except forone year,I have been the only woman in the department. I feel the members of the department work extremely well together andaccept each other's teaching and personality styles. The Class
There are 23 students (11 boys and 12 girls) in this class. Twelve of them are repeating the course from theyear before. There are 11 freshman taking the class for the first time. Three of the students who are repeating are integrated from theresource room. Three other students failed Algebra I theyear before and have been dropped back to elementary algebra. Two of these students, Jeff and Don,are extremely bright. Jeff has taken "The Nature of Technology" course and passed with aCgrade which seems to indicate he would do well in his mathclasses. Jeff recently commented, "I swear the onlyreason I come to school is to know where the parties are on the weekend." Even though both have been failing, I feel they are misplaced inmy class because they already know much of the course skills and content. Jeff and Don have recently started working harder to improve theirgrades. Neither wants to be in this class another semester. After this positive change in behavior, Doncame to class the other day and said, "I'm going to transfer to East Pine RidgeHigh School soI can play football there next year."
Three other students, a freshmanboy, a sophmore girl, and a junior boy, are brothers and sister from thesame family. Katie, whom I had in the same course lastyear, sits in the front of the class and has been a model student thisyear. She says, "I want to pass and never have to takea class over again especially with my brothers." This year she is achieving in the B+/A-range. Her older brother, Dan, often comes to class late witha pass from the office or had an unexcused tardy. He behaves like he has just rusheu back from someplaceor is impatiently waiting toget somewhere else with littleconcern for math inbetween. Dan also was participating in the STARS drug interventionprogram and is usually absent oncea week for his group's meeting. Katie's younger brother, Sam, has a learning disability and occasionally asks to work in the resourceroom because the class is too noisy. Three other boys in the classare athletes on the football and basketball teams. Bill's personality appeals tomany of the girls in the class.Bill and his female "fans" work routinelyon passing notes back and forth rather thanon math. Mark, a sophmore, is starved for attention and frequentlyinterrupts direct instruction by sighing, leaning back in his chair,or slamming his book down on the desk and then apologizing. He tends to do what is necessary to get the class focused on him instead of the lesson. He seems to know when and what "buttons" to push without suffering toomany negative consequences. Phillip, a senior, has math anxiety. It took the administration several weeks to track him down and get him to attend class. During this time he had his counselor, parents, and teachers convinced he didn't need this class because hewas taking math correspondence.The bottom finally dropped out and the charade ended after a quarter when hewas told he needed the credit to graduate.
It is difficult to predict how this class will respond tome,to e_Ach other, or to the lesson from day to day. It depends upon student absences, a student arriving late from another class, students being uplled out by counselingor the office or their frequent requests to leave class. It literally feels like riding a roller coaster.
The School
The town of Timberville, population 4,000 is located 20 milessouth of Pine Ridge, a community of 45,000. Pine Ridge supports several major businesses, transportation, tourism, an international airport, and a university with 12,000 students. Timberville is supported by two major businesses,a pulp and paper mill which employes 600 people and mining in rural areas.
Timberville High School, home of the Lumberjacks, has nearly700 students who are busssed in from as closeas two miles and as far away as40 miles. Many ofthe high schoolstudents have a reputation of being rough,undisciplinedand disinterested in academics as compared with the two other high schools located nearer to the university.
The Timberville High administrators consist ofone princpal and three vice-principals each one individually responsible for discipline, attendance, and extra-curricular activities. Since teaching at Timberville,I have noticed a change in the manner discipline is handled by the administration.
The past discipline policy had firmconsequences. If a student did not show up for detention, the student spent the next day at in- school suspension. Teachers wereresponsible for assigning homework to students in in-house suspension. If a student did not follow the rules during in-house, the studentwas giving three days of out-of-school suspension.
During my firstfew years are Timberville,students were not allowed to be in the building after school unless theywere under
a direct supervisionof a sponsor. The gates preventingaccess upstairs werelocked daily at 3:30 p.m. It was routine forthe vice-principal tocome on the intercomsystem at 3:00 direct studentsto the commons p.m. and area. Sponsors were asked bythe administration to bewith their students. seemed to be fewer During this time,there students not involvedwith school activitiesin the building after3:00 p.m.
The present policyappears to be more relaxed. staying after school More studentsare who are not participantsof a school sponsored activity. When a student is asked, "Where isyour sponsor? Where are you suppose tobe?", the student typciallyresponds,"I'm waiting formy mom to get off workfor a ride," homework."The school or "I'm doing my appears to be more invitingfor students to stay after school. But these students activity are who are not involvedin an more likely to beunsupervised. During the timeI've been at Timberville, the schooldistrict adopted a new policyfor dealing with for drug and students who werereprimanded alcohol use at school. There is more consideration and effort to findways for students-at-risk to stay in school. In th epast ifa student hada drug problem and school, the student was using drugs at was suspended for 10or 20 days. Under the present policy, thesame student will be and is required suspended for threedays to participate inthe school's drugintervention program in order toremain in school.
It alsoappears that studentswho are easy to students who are reprimand are the disciplined and whoserve detention. offendersappear to get The chronic more breaks, moreconcurrent detention time, or "get offthe hook."It appears that when loudly, the situation parents complain is re-evaluatedand dealsare made. Some teachers havecomplained about students say they discipline inconsistencies. Some never have to serve detentions. Also, several female teachershave commented that the male administrators they do not feelsupported by when studentsare written up for discipline matters. Many of thesecases are not dealt require more than with quickly and one meeting with theadministrator, phonecalls back and forthwith parents,and a conference before the situation with the student is remedied. A union representativein the building begandocumentingcases that dealt with handled. how disciplinewas As one femaleteacher said, "WhenI gi,e a detention, expect the administrationto back me up. I professional judgment I don't expect my to be questioned tosuch lengths regarding discpline in theclassroom." End of Issue? Three days after the meetingwith Trent andMr. appeared thiscase was over, Gregory, it or was it?Trent didn't receiveany 1 6 discipline other than speaking withthe principals a couple of times whileI had to defend my decision notonce,but several times. I initially felt I made the rightmove by asking assistance from the administration. Is it not their job to support teachers and classroom instruction? But once the administration became involved, another set of confrontationsemgerged.
I am bothered by the fact that it tookso long to work outa solution, andeach time anotherperson becameinvolved the situation became more complex. I am not responsible for how trent behaved, and was disappointed with the administration'sreaction. Why couldn't the administrationunderstand by position that Trent's leaving class was unacceptableand merited consequences?
If Trent's mom had never called theschool and complained, would the outcome have been the same? Would theadministration's actions have been the same if Kent "Viking"Hensen, a strong disciplinarian from the P.E. department, had writtenup Trent instead of me?
1(, Epilogue
It is several months later and Iremember the incident clearly. Trent's class continues to be challengingthough we have made some valuable educational gains. I rarely write detentions other than for tardies. T feelI have the support of the class if I am consistent and hold them to expectationsthey believe they can achieve.
Now, when I write a pass fora student,I think momentarily that "one parent counts for thirty teachers"and the consequnces that developed. This experience has requiredme to think about my teaching approach and mannerismsas I dealwi.th conflictand discipline inappropriateclassroom behavior.
I have examined my own style ofcommunication more closely and realize that I am a quiet and steady type. I value loyalty, dedicationand commitment. I could benefit bybeing more extroverted in communicatingmy expectations. I tend to come across to others as a complianttype which is not how I see myself. This is why I felt frustrated withthe results of this incident.
I learned a valuable lesson aboutinviting the administration to handle my classroom discipline. My involving the administration, I was saying I needed help and consequentlyI lost some control in what the outcome would be.
If I know the student'sparents and the parents have a history of siding with their child, then isit worth it to force the issueor do I compromise? Am I choosing to deal with conflicts thatare easy and avoid ones that are difficult?Ultimately, what have the student and I gainedor lost in terms of education and reputation? APPENDIX
Background Articles
on Gender Equity Issues to Accompany Teaching Cases
1 MYRA SADKER, DAVID SADKER,AND SHARON STEINDAM
Gender Equity and EducationalReform
A review of the literature anda survey of practitioners' views showthat the reform movement has done littleto promote educational equity or close the genderachievementgap.
The glaring omission of equitymaintainirg inter-rater reliabilityat 85able students meet the new higher concerns, particularly the needs stan- percent agreement dards. Specifically targetedwere the det- of girls in schools, from reform The 138 articles we analyzedcon- agendas suggests that the movement rimental effects of tracking and theneg- tained 68,660 lines, of whichapproxi-ative impact of competency testson itself is in need of reform. We recentlymately 10 percent addressed the broadminority teachers. asse&sed the state of reform from thetopic of equity. Sometimes writerscon- Only 1 percent of article perspectives of policy and practice, content centrated on this issue, butmore oftenpertained to gender equity, andeven undertaking a comprehensive reviewequity was only one of severalconcernsthen it was an afterthought. Typically, and analysis of professional literature they raised about reform. Authorswor-phrases such as gender equiv,sex and, at the same time, conductinga ded chat the movementwas elitist, withequity, or the needs of girls andwomen nationwide survey to determine thetoo much avntion paid to the college-were tagged on to an article whose reactions of practicing educators tobound and too little effort to help lessmain focus was a different topic. Except the reform reports. Herewe discuss the major emphasis of our study: the in one article, no author noted the reform treatment of educational achievement gender gap as measured eq- by the National Assessment of Educa- uity, with particular focus on the gen- der achievement gap. tion Progress, the Scholastic Aptitude Only 1 authorout ofTest, or the Graduate Record Exam. The Silent Treatment 183 discussed Only 1 author out of 183 discussed In our study. to obtain a clearer pic- sex differential treatment in class- sex differential room interaction, in athletics, or in ture of the professional response to the curriculum. the reform movement, we conductedtreatment in Containing by far the largest a line-by-line content analysis of each num- article on reform appearing betweenclassroom ber of articles in our study, Phi Delta Kappan was slightly above the equity January 1983 and January 1987 in niiieinteraction, in average with 13 percent of content professional fournals, selected for their prominence in the field) We hadathletics,or in the devoted to the broad issue of equity and 3 percent of this on gender equity. trained a team of raters to use thecon-curriculum. The four articles in Harvard Educa- tent analysis instrument we had de- tional Review gave 30 percent of signed, subsequently establishing and con- tent to equity. Almost 60 percent of the 44 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSIIIP content of the two articles in Review oftion of Elementary School Principals, Educational Research was on equity.and National Association of Secondary and 7 percent of this was on genderSchool Principals. Out of the 537ques- equity. Journais that gave the leasttionnaires mailed to representatives in attention to equity were the .V.-Lc.cPevery state, 304 (57 percent) wereThe reform reports Bulletin,Educational leadeshIp.completed and returned. and the professional joiawal of Teac.ber Education, Teach- The majority of the respondentsre- ers College Record,and The Elemen-ported that the reform movement haddialogue they have tary School Journal. done little to increase the academicspawned fail to take Women were absent not only fromachievement of females, with 57per- narative content but from authorshipcent seeing no increase in their aca-into account the and illustrations as well. Of the total ofdemic performance and 11 percentsubstantial body of 183 authors who wrote the 138 articlesbelieving that it has improved. Nor included in this study, only 38 121have minorities benefited, accordingresearch concerning percent) were female. Of the 685au-to 65 percent of the respondents.different educational thors and researchers noted in bibli-When asked to rank-order the factors ographic citations, 518 (76 j:ercent)that have promoted educationalop-experiences and were men. portunities for females and minorities,outcomes for boys Sometimes the journals, particularlythese educators cited civil rights legis- PhiDelta Kappanand Educationallation and political action; the reformand girls. Leadership, attempted to enhancenar-movement was far less often seen as a rative with drawings and photographs.beneficial influence (see fig. 1). The 157 photographs we examined included 86 males and 71 females. However, only 12 minority group members were depicted in photos. Further, the drawings, products ofan illuF,r4tor's mind rather thana snap- shot of reaLry, were farmore biased than photos: the drawings depicted nearly twice as many males Percents as females. Don't Amazingly, only three minoritygroup Yes No Know members populated these drawings. and none of the three was female. Has the reform movement increased female Thus, we included that, in thepro- academic achievement? 11 57 32 interest in math and science? fessional dialogue about educationre- 17 52 1 form, gender equity received thesi- entrance into education administration? 34 60 lent treatment. 6 interest in nontraditional careers? 31 37 32 participation in sports? Voices from the 5chools 33 53 14 When we found that fewer than 10 self-esteem? 24 34 42 retention in school? percent of the articles analyzed had 7 52 41 been authored by teachersor admin- istrators, we deduced that practicing Has the reform movement increased minority educators had been relegatedto a academic achk.vement? 22 65 24 minor role in improving their field. To interest in math and science? 14 54 32 determine what practitioners thought. entrance into teaching? 11 78 12 we surveyed their reactions to specitic entrance into education administration? 16 76 8 reform recommendations and their entrance into college preparatory programs? 12 impressions of the impact of the 49 39 career exvectations? 20 41 39 movement on daily school practices in self-esteemi general and, in particular,on opportu- 20 44 36 nities for females and minorities. retention in s.-hool? 6 58 36 We targeted teachers and adminis- trators in three national organizations Fig.1. PracticingEducators' Perceptions of the Impact of the to receive questionnaires: National Ed- Reform Mowament on Educational Equity ucation Association, National Associa-
MARCH 1989 lii 45 ment gap between the sexes hasnar- What the World Needs Now: rowed as girls' performanceremains More Women in Mathematics and Science stable and boys continueto make achievement gains. A 1985 National lo Wallace Assessnwnt of Educational Progress showed that by ages 21-25, males have "Expanding Your Horizons in Science andMathematics" conferences are designed caught up with females in reading and to nurture girls' interest in science and mathcourses and encourage them to consider literacy proficiency (Mullis 198-). nontraditional career options. The conferenceswere originated in 1976 by the Math/ Science Network in Berkeley, California; Males outperform females sub- since then, more than 142,000 students stantially on all subsections of the and 21,200 parents and educators ha%e participated. Every year about 75 meetings are conducted in 20-25 states. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the A typical conference takes placeon a Saturday at a college or university and is American College Testing Program Ex- attended by 200-500 youngwomen from middle schools and high schools. The amination (ACT). The largestgap is in agenda includes a keynote addressencouraging girls to persist in mathematics and the math section of the SAT followed science courses and two varieties ofworkshops. In some of the workshops, role by the ACT natural science reading, models share career awareness information, including job satisfactions,necessary the ACT math usage, and theAa training, and a description ofa tvpical day on the job. Other workshops feature social studies reading (Dauber 1987). hands-on activities related toa math or science career; workshop titles include On the College Board Achieve- "Designer Genes" (classifying genes usinga microscope); "Are There Stars in Your ment Tests, which are required for Eyes?" (assembling and usinga telescope); and "You've Got to Draw the Line Somewhere!" (designing and draftinga building). admission to more selective colleges Three major outcoines result from and universities, males outperform fe- Expanding Your Horizons conferences.First, each participating community establishesa volunteer conference planning commit- males in European history, American tee representing a wide range of communitygroups. Next, each committee develops history, biology levels 1 and 2. and an active pool of women who work in math- and science-relatedcareers to serve as mathematics (Stanley 1987). role models for these students. In 1988, forexample, over 5,500 professionalwomen Girls attain only 36percent of the volunteered as conference planners andcareer role models. Last and most important, National Merit Scholarships (more than young women take more math and science coursesandbegin to think of 6,000) awarded each year. These awards themselves as future mathematicians andscientists. are based on the higher Preliminary The Math/Science Network providessponsors with technical assistance, confer- ence and planning materials, and support services such Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)scores as coordinated publicity, attained by boys (PEER 1987). public relations posters and buttons,and networking among sites. For information about sponsoring a conference in On tests for admission to gradu- your community or school, or to receivea list of conference sites, please call the authorat (415) 841-MATH or write to her at the ate and professional schools, males address below. outperform females on the Graduate Author's note: SPe B.G. Davis and S. Hurnphreys,(1983). Evaluation Counts (Berkeley, Calif.: Record Exam (GRE). the Medical Col- MathiSciei ice Network) for the results of a 'National Science Foundation longitudinal studythat lege Admissions Test (MCAT), and the measured the impact of the conferences. GraduateManagementAdmissions Test (GMAT) (Brody 1987). loy Wallace is Program Director, math/ScienceNetwork, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Girls encounter sex bias in the class- room aswell as on theathletic field (Sadker and Sadker 1985).Report card grades, awardedfor compliance as Gender: Our National well as achievement, mask much of Blind Spot this educational deficit; but othermea- The reform reports and the profes-sures, including standardizedtests, In the professional sional d!alogue they havespawnedhighlight the need for genderequity in fail to take into account the substan-schools. Girls are the onlygroup who dialogue about tialbodyof research concerning dif-enter school scoring ahead and 12 education reform, ferent educational experiences andyears later leave school scoring behind. outcomes for boys and girls. Con-The decline of academic achievement gender equity sider the following: experienced by half our population received the silent Between 1970 and 1984 the Na-remains an invisible issue. treatment. tional Assessment of EducationalProg- ress conducted three assessments ofThe Case for Real Reform reading achievement. While girlscon-To ensure all America's childrena tinue to outperform boysat the9-, 14-,windowof opportunity in the nation's and 1--year-old levels, theachieve- classrooms,areformed movement -46 EnttATIONAL 1' should address the academic deficits Elementary School Journal. 4 in llanard of girls and minorities with the same Educational Review, and 2 in Releu. of fervor and finances devoted to resolv- Educational Research. ing academic problems that histori- callyplagueboys.Low readingA contradiction References achievement, for example, has beenexists between addressed with federal programs and Brody, I.. (1987). "Gender Differences in funds; this priority has been especiallynational Standardized Examinations Used for Se- helpful to boys, who have outnum- lecting Applicants to Graduate and Pro- standardized test fessional Schools." Paper presented at bered girls in these programs at a ratiosrores, where boys the annual meeting of the American of more than five to one. The math and Educational Research Association. Wash- science deficits that so frequently trou-outperform girls by ington, D.C. ble females and minorities should re- Dauber, S. (1987). "Sex Differences on the ceive similar attention and resources. the secondary SAT-M, SAT-V, TSWE, and ACT Among Although half of America's class-school level, and College Bound High School Students." rooms are sex segregatedin class- Paper presented at the annual meeting room seating, work groups, and infor-report card grades, of the American Educational Research mal interactionseducators and thewhere girls Association, Washington. D.C. Klein, S. (1985). Handbook for Achieving public seem unaware of this genderoutperform boys. Sex Equity through Education. Balti- line or of its implications. We know that more: The Johns Hopkins University there are boys' areas and girls' areas of Press. the classroom, but we do not know Nor are these the only nationalMullis, I. (1987). "Trends in Performance enough about the impact of this infor-blind spots. Steps toward economic for Women Taking the NAEP Reading mal gender separation (Sadker andimprovement for women and minori- and Writing Assessments." Paper pre- Sadker 1986). ties have been slow, and persistent sented at the annual meeting of the In addition, a contradiction existseconomic differences suggest the need American Educational Research Associa- between nationalstandardizedtest to look more closely at academic and tion, Washington, D.C. scores, where boys outperform girlscareer counseling at school. And school PEER(ProjectonEqualEducational by the secondary school !eve!. and Rights). (May 29, 1987). Equal Educa- itself presents a model of economic tion Alert 7. report card grades, where girls out-inequity, with too few women and mi-Sadker, D., and M. Sadker. (March 1985). perform boys. The contradictory re-norities in positions of leadership. The "Sexism in the Schoolroom of the '80s." sults of these two assessments need toeducationalmedium andmessage Psychologr Today. be examined, as well as bias in thecombine to form a subtle pattern thatSadker, D., and M. Sadker. (March 1986). standardized tests and bias in reportslowly takes an academic and psycho- "Sexism in the Clzsroom: From Grade card grades. logical toll. School to Graduate School... Pbi Delta Girls andminoritiesareshort- The present reforms. promulgated Kappan. changed in the critical currency ofwith little participation from practicingStanley, J. (1987). "Gender Differences on classroom interaction. Teachers fromeducators and unresponsive to the ma- the College Board Achievement Tests grade school to graduate school ask and Advanced Placement Examinations: jority of the nation's children, are in- Effect Size Versus Some Upper Tail males more questions. give them moredeed a limited blueprint for education Ratios." Paper presented at the annual precise feedback, criticize them more,in the 21st century. From the class- meeting of the American Educational and give them more time to respond.room to the workplace. real education Research Association, Washington. D.C. Whether the attention is positive, nega-reform will require well-informed re- tive, or neutral, the golden rule of thesearch, policy, and day-to-day action. Authors' note: If you are interested in American classroom is that boys getAs practitioners and policymakers, receiving more information on the studies more (Sadker and Sadker 1986). Theprofessors and politicians struggle todecscribed in this article, you may write to David and Myra Sadker at the address that inequities in teacher-student interac-reform education reform, equity must follows. tions are reinforced in the curriculum.take the highest priority.0 Females are less likely to be studied in Myra Sadker and David Sadker are both history and read about in literature; and 1. Fifty-eight of the articles were pub- Professors, School of Education. American math and science problems are more University, Washington, DC 20016. Sharon likely to be framed in male stereotypiclished in Phi Delta Kappan, 26 in Educa- tional Leadership, 26 in NASSP (National Steindain is Principal, Thomas Jefferson In- terms. Even the illustrations in most Association of Secondary School Principalsj termediate School, Arlington, VA 22204. and textbooks depict a world populatedBulletin, 8 in purnal of Teacher Educa- a doctoral student at American University, and shaped mostly by males (Klein tion, 5 in The American School Board Jour- C Copyright Myra Sadker and David Sadker 1985)- nal, 5 in Teaches College Reccori, 4 in The 1989. All rights reserved.
MARCIf 1989 47 1 What Research Says
AboutGirls ndScience
BY Carol A. Klein
/f we are to improve science edu- Classroom Experience male to female ratio of studentsen- cation for girls and young women, The results of the National Assess- rolled in chemistry, where students we must begin early. As the ment Test, the Minnesota Assessment actuall,, work with the equipment. assessment tests and the research Test, and the British Columbia Assess- studies indicate, differences between ment Test indicate that girls in grades The Nature of the Test boys' and girls' achievement, attitudes, 4, 8, and 11 have had less directexpe- Areas of the British Columbia and interest begin in the middle ele- rience with materials than they would Assessment Test showing the mentary school years. greatest like. Observers in elementary, junior differences between girls and boys Current research studies and na- high, and senior high schoolscience were examined. At grade four, boys tional and state assessment tests show classes see progressively less activein- scored better on items relatedto activi- that after the fourth grade, girlsare volvement by girls as theirage in- ties that boys participate inmore often less likely than boys to havean inter- creases. As early as fourPh grade, girls than girls, such as using flashlights est in science, to elect a science class, tend to take the role of recorderor and batteries and making inferences or to experience success in the science passive observer in laboratory about the motion of balls struckor classroom. This development contrib- activities. thrown. Erickson and Erickson (1984) utes to the fact that %vomen represent Responses to the "recognition of only 9 to 10 percent of the scientific suggest that although girls also play equipment" questions from the Min- with balls, they do not doso to the and engineering work force in the nesota Assessment Test reflect the dif- United States, Great Britain-ind same extent. Thus they have a lesser ferent types of experiences boys and context of experience in which to place Canada. girls have. Fourth-grade boys answered subsequent class discussions about What factors influence the interest these questions correctly only 1.2per- motion. Girls, however, did better and achievement of girls and on yt..ung cent more frequently than girls did. items such as opening a jar, using heat, women in science? What can educa- By eighth grade, however, the margin and recognizing a word tors do to improve the situation? as a mirror grew to 3.6 percent. The increase may image, again reflecting relevantexpe- The summary of research presented be due to boys' tendency towarda rience outside of class. By twelfth below is based on an extensive re,"-w more active role in the science class- grade, there were 34 points difference of the literature and analysis of assess- room and to their participation in a between the achievement of boys and ment tests (see Resources). This review greater number of outside-the-class- girls in questions about functions was the first step in a project (partially of room science activities. Eleventh-grade fuses and circuit brelkers and funded by The Bush Foundation, May 54 points boys recognized equipment12.5 per- in questions about carburetors in 1986) designee to provide car concrete cent more frequently than did the girls. engines. Boys scored higher in both strategies for teachers to improve sci- This may be related to theapproxi- cases. ence education for girls and young mately 5:1 male to female ratio ofstu- In both the Minnesota Statewide women. dents enrolled in physics and the2:1 Educational Test in Science and in the
October 1989Science and Children
l 1.4 National Assessment Test, the focut.4 of the question influences perform- ance. Boys did better on test items that had to do with mechanics, forces, and model construction. Girls did bet- ter on those about plants or health- rela ted topics. Science as Masculine Science, particularly physical science, is viewed as "masculine" by many of the girls and boys responding in both the assessment tests investigated and the research studies reviewed. As girls reach adolescence, the view of science as masculine is most pro- nounced. At this age, girls have the most intensified interest in sexual identity and the greatest need to con- form to what they believe to be the model of "femininity." Physical science is seen as masculine because of its perceived emphasis on industrial and military applications. Biology may be more acceptable because of its in- volvement with living things and pro- tection of the environment. (In the National Assessment Test results, for example, girls proved more willing Involving girls in science requires direct cicusroom experience like that pkturtd above, than boys to help improve the en- vironment.) Because of these percep- traditional packaging and advertisingof-school activities of boys and girls. tions, fewer girls enroll in science continues to send a sex-appropriate Many studies showed that girls have courses in secondary schools. message. equal or better spatial abilities than The image of science as masculine boys do in the early elementary grades. comes from many sources. Studies of Spatial Abilities In Piagetian spatial ability tasks, males textbooks, particularly for physical and Many educators feel that the abil- were superior in block rotation at the Earth science, convey this message ity to mentally manipulate or rotateages of 7, 9, and 14, but there were no throw+ their illustrations and narra- an object in space and the ability to sex-related differences in mental rota- tive statements. Texts, both at the construct three-dimensional models are tion or shape assembly tasks. In other elementary and secondary level, show necessary skills in science. Understand- studies, the spatial abilities of both boys many more male than female figures. ing microscope cross-sections, recog- and girls were improved by periods of The males, in most cases, are actively nizing a crystalline form in order tochissroom instruction in model build- engaged in science with direct hands- ,dentify a rock, and constructing a ing, working with three-dimensional on ativities. Females, when shown at molecular model as a three-dimension- objects, and solving spatial visualiza- all, are usually passive observers or al figure are applications of such skills. tion puzzles. By the beginning of senior recorders of data. More than one There is no consensus among re-high school, boys began to show, on researcher described the males as searchers as to the degree and nature the average, a slight performance "doing" and the females as "posing" in of the differences in spatial abilities advantage in spatial ability skills tasks. the illustrations, between boys and girls. The majority Many researchers attribute the ad- Other masculine images of science of research indicates that spatial abil- vantage to typically male activities, come from the idea of "se.t-appro- ity differences do not appear until age such as constructing models (car, priate" toys. Chemistry sets, nechan- 14 or 15. A few studies suggest theseplane, building), map making in Boy ical toys, models, and puzzles are differences are genetically sex-linked Scouts, and using telescopes. usually packaged with illustrations of and that males have a definite ad- male figures, and the advertising media vantage. Most researchers, however, Lack of Role Models focus on the.- use by males. Certainly beheve that the disparity comes from Some studies show that the number some exceptions were found, but differences in the in-school and out- of women science teachers influences . p
enrollment. while other studies show no relationship. However, studies clearly indicate that the lack of role models in the science and engineering professions affects girls' perceptions of those careers, Several studies report that girls don't want sciencecareers because they see scienceas cold and impersonal, and they believe women scientists are iust the samenoncaring people who live "in theirown world." The students were not surprised at the small number ofwomen in the science fields; they felt that these women were probably like the stereo- type in the preceding description. As girls move ahead in the school system, they express even less inter- est in science as a career. Assessment tests show that little career education exists in science courses at any level. Adult Expectations If society considers scienceto be masculine, then parents probably won't encourage their daughters to pursue science in school or as a career. While these factors were relatively difficult to assess in their influence on girls Girls need to lake an active role in laboratoryactivities, not passive observation. and women, several studies outline the effect of expectations. In Saudi Arabia, scheduling is notan accident of the presented to students clearly include for example, where society limits the computer nor a necessary concession science. number of acceptablecareer choices to time constraints. In many instances, for women, only 5 percent ofwomen the schedul.e is set thisway deliber- The Classroom Approach pursue science-related careers. In ately because of the perception thatit Studies indicate thata problem- Poland, societal views differ, and 60 doesn't matterchemistry and phys- solving approach is usedmost often in percent of the women go into science. ics are boys subjects and language and physics and chemistry, with Some studies are in progress where more of a art are girls'. lecture and directed laboratoryap- early intervention has occurred and Many srudies have compared proach in biology. For the mostpart, girls have been encouraged in science. achievement in, attitude toward, and the girls in the studies liked themore These programs focus on earlycareerperception of science in single-sexdirected approach and "felt intimi- counseling and active parent involve- schools with that in coeducational dated" by the more open-endedprocess ment. So far, secondary science en- schools. The achievempt level of girls approach. Some researchers suggest rollment has increased, butmore time in single-sex schools'was generally that physical science formats should will be needed to find out if college better than the achievement level of be made less open-endedto appeal to course choices and career plans were either boys or girls in coeducational girls, while' .rs thought it impor- affected significantly. The studies schools. Girls in single-sex schools tant for girls to learn to approach show that the schedule structure of achieved as %veil or better than boysin science as problem solving. Many stud- many schools also conveys expectation single-sex schools. In single-sex girls' ies also suggested that the problem- messages to girls about their enroll- schools, manymore students take solving approach intimidates girls not ment in science. In many cases, physics physical and biologicalscience, and because of their inability to do it, but or chemistry classes are scheduled at when available, Earth science.More because of their lack of confidence in the same time as advanced language, girls in single-sex schools selectcareers science. writing, or art courses. Girls partici- in the sciences. Families of girlsin these This lack of confidence and reluc- pating in the studies frequently report schools, as wellas the school person- this forced choice tance at problem solving is not appar- as their reason for nel, don't appear to bearany sex-role ent on the part of girls in elementary not electing chemistry or physics. This ejudices, and thecareer options school. In the 1981-82 National Assess-
1 /I 10 5,:. r' 1' n 1 6 me' Test, 65 percent of thet.rls strategies for different developmental Science Assessment and Research answered that they would rather :.nd levels. Project, University of Minnesota. out an answer themselves than 'nave Make up for lack of role models and mis7 Kahle, J.B. (1982). The disadvantaged it told to them, compared with 57.,er- taken expectations. Implementa K-12 majority: Biology education for cent of the boys. It is after gradeur plan for career education in science. women and minorities. American that other factors have an influer;e Devise a scheduling plan that does not Biology Teacher, 44(6), 351-357. on this skill. force choices between arts and lan-Kaminski, D.M. (1982). Girls and guage and science. What We Can Do About It mathematics and science: Ananno- Adjust your classroom approach. Focus tated bibliography of British work The Following strategies should it.elp on inquiry skill development in the (1970-1981). Studies in Science Educa- improve the interest, achievement..Ini elementary school. Incorporate single- tion, 9,81-108. attitudes of girls and young women in sex laboratory groups. Manthorpe, C.A. (1982). Men's science, science if started in the early elemen- women's science or science? Some tary grades and continuing throu0 In Conclusion issues related to the study of girls' high school. Numerous factors influence the science education. Studies in Science Increase direct experience in the classrwm. achievement of girls and youngwomen Education, 9, 65-80. Provide more hands-on experience f.or in science, their interest in science, and McLeish, J. (1984). Children's girls by doing science in single-sex super- their attitudes toward science. Now stitions: British and Canadian. Can- groups. This should begin in the e:e- that research has isolated the negative adian Journal of Education, 79(4), 425- mentary school and continue until g:rls factors, we can at least begin the task 436. have had enough experience to be of eliminating them. If girls andyoung Minnesota Department of Education. confident in taking the active role in women are not to remain the ."disad- (1985). Results of the Minnesota State- laboratory experiences. Before using vantaged majority" (Kahle 1982), then wide Educational Assessment in Science. new equipment, such as batteries and a commitment to improve their science St. Paul, MN: Assesiment Section bulbs, allow students timeto become education must become a joint effort and Elementary and Secondary familiar with it. Do this particularly in for all of us. Since many negative fac- Section. areas that are traditionally male or tors come from society at large, peo-Smail, B., and Kelly, A. (1984). Sex where boys have more experience, pleincluding parents, guardians, and differences in science and technol- such as using a compass. people in business and industryneed ogy among 11-year-old school Take the bias out of assessment h.:S. to become more actively involved. children: 1Cognitive. Research in Sci- Work through local and state science In addition, college and university ence and Technological Education, 2(1), organizations or professional teac'rer faculties who work in science educa- 61-76. organizations to apply politicalpre-- tion for preservice teachers mustcon-Smith, W.S., et al. (1983). Early adoles- sure to testmakers. The questions Ned cern themselves with answering the cent girls' and boys' learning of a to be balanced between traditional special needs of girls andyot.mg spatial visualization skillReplica- boys' and girls' activities or be genr- women. This goes for those leang tions. Science Edueation, 67(2), 239-243. neutral. Work with groups who,:re inservice workshops as well. OnceSmith, W.S., and Schroeder, C.K. assessing standardized tests for \- taken, these steps should result ina (1979). Instruction of fourth grade bias. much needed increase in the number girls and boys on spatial visualiza- Change the perception of science as ma Sal- of girls in science. tion. Science Education, 63(1), 61-66. tine. Evaluate text and curriculum Steinkamp, M.W., and Maehr, M.L. material for sex-bias both in the illus- Resources (1984). Gender differences in moti- trations and narrative sections of Blin-Stoyle, R. (1983). Girls and phys- vational orientations toward achieve- elementary and secondary science ics. Physics Education, 18(5), 225-228. ment in school science: A quantita- materials. Refuse to use those that are Cohen, H.G. (1979). Developing abil- tive synthesis. American Educational sex-biased. Enlist local, state, and ity to organize space. Science and Research Journal, 21(1), 39-59. national organizations in educationto Children, 17(3), 3%35. (1983). Affect, ability, andsci- apply political pressure to the pubkh- Erickson, GI., and Erickson, L.J. ence achievement: A quantitative ers. Get together with the ent're (1984). Females and science achieve- synthesis of correlational research. faculty and administration to plana ment: Evidence, explanations, and Review of Educational Research, 53(3), strategy to eliminate sex-bias from implications. Science lineation, 369-396. the curriculum. 63-89. Correct disparity in spatial abilities. Be- Hawkins, J. (1985). Computers and Carol A. Klein is a professor of education at ginning with grade one, implement girls: Rethiliking the issues. StT Roles, The College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Min- programs devised to improve spatial 13(3-4), 165-180. nesota. Photogruphs by Maria R. Bastone, abilities. Understand how spatial abili- Hueftle, S., Rakow, S., and Welch, W. courtesy of the Girls Club of America, Oper- ties are developed and use appropriate (1983). Images of science. Minneapolis: ation SMART. New York, New York,
17 [WOMEN IN EDUCATION
The guest editor ofa Kappan special section onwomen in education asserts that females are still accorded neither equality of treatmentnor equality of outcome inmost schools. The situation qualifies as a major crisis in education, asserts Ms. Shakeshaft. A GE1 1DER SINCE THE CALL for excellence was first sounded in 1983 inA Nation at Risk,a lot of loose talk has blamed the so-called lack of excellence in the schools on the pursuit of equity. In retrospect, it appears that the release of ANation at Riskwas the event that those who are ideologically opposed to equality of educationwereAT awaiting to launch their attack. President Reagan, for instance, claimed thatone reason that the schools were failing was the attention that had been focused on female, minority, and handicapped students. He asserted that, if the federal government and educators hadnot been so preoccupied with the needs of these specialgroups of students, education in the U.S. might not have succumbed RISK to the "rising tide of mediocrity." What the President failed to note is that, if these three groups of studentsare eliminat- by Charol Shakeshaft ed, only about 15% of the school population remains. As troubling as it is to hear political and educational lead- ers falsely blaming the mediocrity of the school system on those who seek a system that offers women, people of color, and handicapped students a fair shake, it iseven more dis- turbing to chart the failure of the public tosee the reliance of excellence on equity. At best, the twoare described as "twin goals"; at worst, the importance of equitable practices to excellence in education is flatly denied. By failing to artic- ulate the relationship of equity to excellenceor by perpetuat- ing the myth that the two are unrelated (or,as the President and Secretary of Education William Bennett would have it, opposed), we make it easier to disregard equityas a national concern. The rhetoric of both President Reagan and Secretary Ben- nett has created a false and dangerous dichotomy. The logic behind the attack on equity goes something like this: excel- lence and equity are different; equity threatensto take resources away from excellence; therefore, let's abandon eq- uity as a national concern so as to pursue excellence exclu- sively. Not surprisingly, this is precisely what has happened. Funding and support for equity-related issues have nearly disappeared at the federal and state levels. Equity isnot merely out of fashion in the Department of Education it has been declared an enemy. The reality is that excellence cannot be achieved without equity. Although an equitable system mightnot be an excel- lent one, true excellence in education cannot exist without
CHAROL SHAKESHAFT is an associate professor and directs the doctoral program in Administration and Policy Studies at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N. Y. 3 Illustration by Andres Ostrow* MARCH 1986 499 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
equity. The two are not at odds; rather,ly or physically safe environment forreflected in everything from what is they are dependent on each other. them and that they are valued neither by taught in the classroom to the goals of Although all equity-related concernsthe system nor by society. Few schools education in general. For example, an have fared badly in the press, in theare equitable, and, not surprisingly, fewanalysis of the purposes of schooling Department of Education, and in the re-schools are excellent. by Jane Roland Martin concludes that form movement generally, gender equi- Although & number of definitionsschools were created to serve the public ty has been hardest hit. An occasionalof equity exist, there is no universallypurposes of men's lives, not the private reference is made to racial or class in-agreed-upon approach for achieving it.purposes of women's.4 Martin suggests equality as a threat to excellence, butSome educators favor equality of treat- that education should serve both the nowhere in the reform literature is thement offering each student equal ac-public and private needs of all individu- matter of gender raised. For example,cess to programs while ignoring in-als, rather than merely the traditional in an analysis of the school reformdividual differences. Others hope forpublic needs of men. Because schools reports, Mary Tetreault and Patriciaequality of outcome arguing that stu-began in response to what males needed Schmuck point out that "gender was notdents' needs and backgrounds differ andto know in order to become public peo- a relevant category in the analysis of thethat, if they are to leave the system withple, the very nature of schooling is excellence of schools." Elsewhere, theequal outcomes, they must receive in-shaped in a male image. authors of ANation at Riskinform usdividual treatment. Structure of schools.Not only are the that: "All, regardless of race or class or In attempting to understand the edu-goals of schooling primarily male and economic status, are entitled to a faircation of females, choosing one or thepublic, but the process by which knowl- chance and to the tools for developingother definition of equity is largelyedge is transferred in schools is based their individual powers of mind andmoot, because females are accordedon male development. Although fe- spirit to the utmost."2 neither equality of treatment nor equali- males mature earlier, are ready for ver- Perhaps the failure to include sex be-ty of outcome in most schools. In thisbal and math skills at a younger age, tween the commas in the precedingarticleIwill articulate the ways inand have control of small-motor skills quote was more than an oversight. May-which an inequitable system results ina sooner than males, the curriculum has be the writers were influenced by thepoor education for female students, andbeen constructed to mirror the develop- reality that gender does limit the educa-I will demonstrate that, without gender-ment of males. Decisions about the tional and life choices of females andequitable schools, excellence will re-grade in which students should learn that many people are satisfied with that - main ever beyond our reach. long division, readHuckleberry Finn, situation. or begin to write evays are based on the Unfortunately, few schools provide developmental patterns of boys (and an equitable culture in which all stu-THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLS primarily white boys), not on the de- dents and faculty members can grow. There is a myth that the culture ofvelopmental patterns of girls (or of Most offer white males more options inschools is female and that traditional fe-minority students). The result is that an environment that is hospitable tOmale behavior is rewarded while tradi-girls are often ahead of the game in their needs. Females and members oftional male behavior is punished. Con-some areas and never in the game in minority groups, on the other hand,sequently, some educators have con-others. Some grow bored, others give must obtain their education in systemscluded that school is a good place forup, but most learn to hold back, be that are at best indifferent and at worstgirls but not for boys. For instance,quiet, and smile. hostile to them. Women and membersTheodore Sizer writes, -It is revealing Even the very composition of schools of minority groups learn that their con-how much less discrimination there is inshows more eoncern for male develop- cerns, their lives, and their cultures arehigh schools than in other American in-ment. There is strong evidence that girls not the stuff of schooling. They dis-stitutions. For many young women, thelearn and grow better in all-female en- cover that school is not a psychological-most liberated hours of their week are invironments, while for boys the opposite school." Sizer's conclusions strike meis true. Academically, boys do equal- as shockingly out of touch with the bulkly well in single-sex and coeducational of research on the experiences of fe-schools, but coeducational schools pro- males in school. While the truth may bevide a secondary curriculum in social that schools are not good for boys orbehavior for boys. Thus the besten- girls, the evidence shows that they are vironment for a boy is one in which both certainly not a nurturing environmentmale and female students are represent- for females. ed. For girls, a single-sex schoolpro- Two messages emerge repeatedlyvides more positive academic and from the research on gender and school- growthexperiences.Insingle-sex ing. First, what is good for males is notschools,girlsexhibithigherself- necessarily good for females. Second, ifesteem, more involvement with aca- a choice must be made, the educationdemic life, and increased participation establishment will base policy and in-in a range of social and leadership ac- struction on that which is good fortivities. And yet, when decisions about males. coeducation are made, one very seldom Goals of education.Most of the time,hears the question, "How will this affect educators are unaware that a choice isfemale students?" Coeducation is a good being made and even kss aware thatthing for males, but not for females. they are choosing to perpetuate a maleNevertheless, it is what we have in most "I think I'm on her hit list." model of schooling. These choices arepublic schools.
500 PHI DELTA KAPPAN ;-) EDUCATION
Instructional techniques. Teachingsorted that females were deficient in If techniques also reflect the pattern ofmoral reasoning, rather than that his Lfl male needs. An examination of the uomodel was inaccurate. Unfortunately, Both majority and of competition as a learning style pio-Kohlberg's methods are not unusual. .it vides an illustration of the ways inThe majority of what we supposedly minority girls learn IC which male development guides instruc- :e know from social science research that their opinions tional style. From the bluebirds againststems from studies of white males. Is the cardinals in a spelling bee to the Teacher/student interactions.If in- are not valued, that boys against the girls in a game of mathstructional methods aren't enough to al- A- theirresponses to facts, pitting student against student inienate female students, then the interac- il a win/lose contest is a common and Is tions between teachers and students questions are not accepted means of instruction in U.S.trumpet the message that girls are not as schools. Students learn not only howimportant as boys. A number of re- worthy of attention. to compete but that competition is a is searchers have studied teacher/student worthy endeavcir. interaction patterns and have found be- This "I win, you lose philosophy ishavior similar to that described else- seldom questioned, is constantly rein-where in this Kappan by Myra SadkerMan, female students are told repeated- forced in classrooms and on playingand David Sadker. ly that their identities and experiences fields, and, according to Carol Gilligan, :d In the classroom, male students re-are not the stuff of literature or history. is not the best learning environment forceive more attention from teachers than Although a unit on women's history in girls. Gilligan found that boys gravitatefemale students do. They are more like-a social studies class may deliver the toward competition while girls preferly to be praised, but they are also moremessage that women have a place in his- connection.3 For girls, "I win, youlikely to be reprimanded. Teachers in- Is tory too, it also announces that there are lose is a problematic stance. since it isstruct male students in performing atwo kinds of history: American history, potentially divisive and threatens con-task, but they often do the task for fe-which is important and about men, and nections between group members. male students. Teachers allow more op-women's history, which is peripheral. The implications of this dilemma for :.n portunities for boys to respond toCertainly teaching a section on women's pt, girls are illustrated in the different waysanswer questions, engage in activities,history is better than not teaching any- in which girls and boys respond to con-give opinions, help out, etc. The resultthing about women at all. However, the ie flict during a game. Janet Lever, con- id is a classroom in which boys dominate.failure to integrate female experiences firming the observations of Jean Piaget,They talk more, interact more, receiveinto the general curriculum drives home of studied how children play and foundmore teacher time, and have more op-the message that girls and their ex- that in games "boys were seen quarrel- at portunities to learn. Boys learn to han-periences are somehow *other," that ling all the time, but not once was adle criticism because they have opportu-they are not part of general literature in game terminated because of a quar- in nities to respond that allow them toand history. And if girls in general feel rel.% Girls, on the other hand, tendedgrow. Boys also have more opportuni-left out of the curriculum, minority fe- ve to end a game when a dispute arose. ties to build self-esteem because they Pe males receive even less attention in the These two approaches reflect twospeak more and are more often praisedinstructionalmaterials usedin most moral ideologies that Gilligan labels theand told that they have ability. classrooms. 'Is ethic of rights and the ethic of care. p- The average female is ignored nei- Female students are also ignored in Schools are primarily organized aroundther reprimanded nor praised. The high-textbooks and instructional materials the ethic of rights a morality more of- n- achieving female receives the least at-through the use of male-exclusive lan- ten comfortable for males than for fe-tention of all students. Both majorityguage language that is also used by males. The female morality of responseand minority girls learn that their opin-most educators. Studies of language 11- and care is not highly valued, nor is it !al ions are not valued, that their responsesdemonstrate that the generic "he" and o- the basis of many teaching and learningto questions are not worthy of attention.other kinds of male-exclusive language al strategies used in the schools. If weConsequently, female students come toare coded by both males and females to were to base instruction on Gilligan's re- n- believe that they are not smart or impor-mean males only. For example, in one search, we might change the learningtant. They learn that, if they do well instudy in which young children were th environment in schools to make more It- school, it is because they are lucky orasked to draw a picture of a caveman, use of cooperative approaches to learn-wol ''. hard, not because they are smartthey drew pictures of a man. When they ing. id or capable. The interactions of teacherswere asked to draw cave people, they In addition to the inherent value ofwith students reinforce the societal mes-included women and children.7 Male- Gilligan's work for education, If- it re-sage that females are inferior. exclusive language in the classroom minds ua that much of educational and :a- Curriculum materials. Girls are fur-relentlessly chips away at female self- on psychological research has been con-ther distanced from school life throughesteem. If a girl always hears that "he" ducted using males particularly white AC- the curriculum materials they encoun-means everyone, while "she" means fe- M males as subjects. Male behavior haster. Bias in books, movies, and hand-males only, that girl is learning that fe- all too often been ifeneralized to all stu-outs takes many forms, including the in-males are less important than males. )rn dents. Gilligan's Initial work was in .ect visibility of female characters, blatantThose who argue that gender-exclusive od reaction to Lawrence Kohlberg's re-or subtle stereotyping, selectivity, un-language is unimportant should change search on moral development. Kohlbergreality, fragmentation, and male-exclu-all their "he's" to "she's" and see how im- :s. of lan- J5t studied males but generalized to bothsive language. Whether it is the portray-portant it really is. If the issue sexes. When female behavior failed toal of doctors as males or the assignmentguage were truly irrelevant, therewould conform to his model, Kohlberg rea-of A Portrait of the Artist as a Youngbe little resistance to changing it.
5 II 12d MARCH 1986 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
Remediation.As Selma Greenbergthe ideal profession for a female. But isthe educational system at large. It leads has pointed out, schools remediate thethis really so? In this Kappan, Sari Bik-to a system that teaches students that po- deficiencies of boys.9 Remediation islen points out that female teachers viewsitions of formal leadership belong to largely a male business; the majority ofthe teeching profession differently frommen, and it deprives education of some students in special education and in re-male teachers. The research on womenof its most capable leaders. medial reading and mathematics pro-in administration finds similar differ- There is overwhelming evidence in grams are males. But this is not becauseences. the research literature that women do females do not have problems. L'nfor- The unwelcoming environment thatnot become school administrators be- tunately, girls' problems are left unat-female students experience alsosur- cause of sex discrimination that de- tended in schools. If they are addressedrounds female teachers and administra-values women. The primary reason that at all, they are dealt with when the fe-tors. A not uncommon illustration of fe-women are not hired or promoted into male becomes an adult at her own ex-male marginality occurred twoyearsadministrative positions is solely the pense and usually for the profit of someago in a Long Island, New York, schoolfact that they are female.Literally male who had his remediation at publicdistrict in which the male teachers past-hundreds of studies have documented expense when he was much younger. ed a nude centerfold over a poster an-direct discrimination against women, Safety.School life for a girl often in-nouncing Women's History Week. Thewhether from negative attitudes toward cludes many kinds of abuse. Whether itmessage was not only that Women'swomen or from behavior that is harmful is a male student calling her a bitch orHistory Week is unimportant, but alsoto them.9 A comment from an aspiring a male heterosexual teacher proposi-that it is acceptable and humorous toschool administrator reflects the sexism tioning her, a female student is alwaysequate Women's History Week with thethat controls the staffing of schools: a potential target, just because she isviewing of women as sexobjects."Silly as it seems, the fact that I was a female. Awareness of racism and anti-Women teachers were told that theywoman seemed to be my biggest obsta- Semitism in schools has enabled ad-lacked a sense of humor if they didn'tcle. My training is as good as many ministrators and teachers to demand thatlaugh. Female students learned thatmen's. My track record in school posi- racist or anti-Semitic words be eliminat-women's history is a joke. Sadder still.tions is good."19 Interestingly, "compe- ed. Most administrators will take actionthe teachers who organized the eventstent" is an adjective used to describe when a racist or anti-Semitic word isfor Women's History Week were unsureacceptable women and minority candi- spray-painted on a school wall, and fewwhether they would make themselvesso dates for administrative positions, but teachers will allow a racist insult to passvulnerable in the future. If a similar in-seldom white male aspirants. Only the unnoticed in a classroom. Such slurs setsult had been made to Black HistoryMarines are looking for afew good off alarms for most educators. Week or to a commemoration of the men;schooldistrictpersonnel are And yet, when a sexist word isHolocaust, school administrators andnotorious for looking for lots of white scrawled aCrOSSthelockers or when ateachers would have been outraged, andmenand a few good women and minori- male student usc f.sexist language, thethey would have responded immediate- ties. silence can be deafening. Few teachersly, whether or not they were racistor even code it as a problem, and many ofanti-Semitic themselves. the insults and put-downs of girls come This same environment encourages EXCELLENCE DEMANDS EQUITY from teachers and administrators them-women to remain as teachers and dis- A school culture that is hostile to fe- selves. After all, boys will be boys,courages them from seeking to becomemale students, teachers, and administra- and girls will continue to receive theiradministrators. This sex-structuring oftors is not a place that is conducive to schooling in a hostile environment. the career ladder in education harmstheir best efforts. If schoolsare to be women students, women educators, andhallmarks of excellence, they mustpro- THE SCHOOL AS WORKPLACE Not only are the needs of female stu- dents ignored in discussions of excel- lence, but the contributions of women teachers and administrators to excellent schools are also invisible. Perhaps even more dangerous, the suggestions that have been made for upgrading the pro- fession of teaching are aimed at the needs and values of male teachers and administrators, not female profession- als. Studies of male and female teachers and administrators indicate that for a number of reasons (socialization, dis- criminationthathaskeptcapable women in teaching but allowed capable men to enter other professions), women teachers and administrators are more likely to exhibit behaviors conducive to good schooling. Teaching is often acknowledged as
502 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 121 WOW, IN EDUCATION
in instruction than are men, and theyof VICIMii educators find that higher sal- exhibit greater knowledge of teach-aries, though always welcome, and Aschool culture ing methods and techniques. Womenmore levels in the hierarchy are not administratorsnot only emphasizemotivators for women. For women, less that is hostile to achievement, but also coordinate in- hierarchy and more emphasison educa- female administrators, structional programs and evaluate stu-tional coreent and the development ofa dent progress. Women administratorscooperathe culture that validates both teachers, and students know their teachers, and they know the public and private values are what is not a place that academic progress of their stUdents.draws them into education. The solu- Women administrators are more likelytions to the problem of the flight of the is conducive to to help new teachers and to directly su-best and the brightest from edutation their best efforts. pervise all teachers. Women adrninia, are currently solutions that target male, trators also create a school climate morenot female, teachers and administrators. conducive to learning one that is Excellence means providing a sup- more orderly, safer, and quieter. Notportive environment for all student% and surprisingly, academic achievement isstaff members, including females. Edu- higher in schools in which women arecators have not token sexism and its ef- vide environments that allow female principals. fects seriously enough, and, until we students and professionals room to 3. Building community is an essentialdo, .we cannot begin to change the cul- grow, to achieve, and to develop self-part of a woman administrator's style. ture of schools from one that is hostile esteem. From speech patterns to decision-mak-to female% to one that is educationally The work of the Sadkers and of others ing styles, women exhibit a more demo-sound for everyone. demonstrates that teacher behavior cancratic, participatory style of leadership Paraphrasing the introduction to A be changed and that these ch-.nPos ti- than men, a style that encourages inclu-Nation at Risk,one might characterize rectly benefit students. There siveness rather than exclusiveness inthe environment for female students and real relationship between a supportive, schools. staff members in public schools asa nonsexist environment and the produc- Women involve themselves moremajor crisis. If an unfriendly foreign tivity of students. with staff and students, ask for and re-power had attempted to impose on The same is true of female profes- ceive more participation, and maintainmales the limiting and harmful educa- sionals. Studies indicate that when more closely knit organizations. Staffstion that exists for females today,we female values and behaviors are allowed of female principals have higher jobmight all have viewed it as an act of to dominate in schools teachers, ad-satisfaction and are more engaged inwar. In American schools today, fe- ministrators, and students benefit. In their work than those of male adminis-males are truly a gender at risk. schools and districts with female ad-trators. Staff members who work under ministrators,researchtellsus that female principals are also more aware achievement in reading and math isof and committed to the goals of learn- I. Mary K. Tetreault and Patricia Schmuck, higher, that there is less violence, anding, and they share more professional "Equity, Educational Reform. and Gender."Is- that student and staff morale are higher. sues in Education,vol. 3, 1985, p. 63. goals with one another. In schools and 2. National Commiuion on Ewellenee in Educe- Studies of men and women administra-districtswith female administrators, tion, ANation at Risk(Washington, D.C.: U.S. tors have found differences in the waysteachers receive a great deal of ad- Government Printing Office. 1983), P. 4. they approach the job and in the climate ministrative support. These are also dis- 3. Theodore R.&ler, Rowel. Compromise they create.For example, in schools tricts and schools in which achievement (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. 1984), p. 79. and districts with female administrators,is emphasized. Selma Greenberg de- 4. Jane Roland Martin,Reclaiming a Conversa- tion: The Ideal of Educated Women(New Haven, the following things tend to occur: scribes the world of the female-admin- Corm.: Yale University Press. 1985). 1.Relationships with others become istered school: "Whatever its failures, it5. Carol Gilligan,In a Different Voice(Cam- central.Women spend more time with is more cooperative than competitive, it bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1932). people, communicate more, care more is more experiential than abstract,it 6.Janet Lever,"See Differences in theG1MCS about individual differences, are moletakes a broad view of the curriculum Children Play,"Social Prabkms,vol. 23. 1976, concerned with other teachers and with p. 482. and has always addressed `the whole 7. Cited in Myra Sadker and David Sadket.Sex marginal students, and are better moti- child.' "12 Equity Handbook for Schools(New York: Long- vators than men. Not surprisingly, the The descriptions of schools headed hy man, 1982), p. 71. staffsof women administrators are women tend to sound very similar to the8, Selma Greenberg, "So You Want to Talk The- more productive, have higher morale, descriptions of exxllent schools. Andory?," paper pruented at the annual meeting of and rate women higher. Students in the American Educational Research Association, yet very little has been done to examinespecial interest group, Research on Women in schools with women principals alsowhy women tend to be more likely to Education, Boston, October 1985. have higher morale and are more in-promote and uxhibit such behaviors,9. For an analysis of the literature on this topic, volved in student activities. Further- The link between female socialization see Charol Shakeshaft,Women in Educational Ad- more, parents are more favorably dis- and styles of effective leadership is ig-ministration(Beverly Hills. Calif.: Sage, 1936). posed toward schools and districts run 10. G.C. Coffin and Ruth B. Ekstrom. itoed- nored in the literature on school im-blocks to Women'sCOMMin Educational Ad- by women and are more involved in provement. If one studies the culture ofministration," in M.C. Perry, ed., Women in school life. female educators, one begins to ques-Educational AtbninIstration(Washington. D.C.: 2.Teaching and learning are the tion whether the strategies proposed to National Association foe Women Deans, Admin- major interests of women teachers and encouragetop-flightprofessionals to istrators, and Counselon. 1979), pp. 53-63. administrators. I I. Shakeshaft,Women in Educational Adminis- Women teachers andchoose and remain in education aretration, administrators are more instrumental passim. methods that will retain women. Studies 12.Greenberg, loYou Want...."
1 O MARCH 1986 503 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
Finding Reality Among the Myths: Why What You Thought About Sex Equity inudon Isn't So .0 , .6 tryfr '6% Ike. 4 N *. 3.4. e .;;,.. :la:sr/Pt. 4.t.4° 1+ i I .4 . . . . "?.. :14:-4"'.z: . 7. ; 4 ajj ' 7."4 . . fp'It ;. "r'N't 40. :, .`" . 4 , iia: . 1 . - :, . . . , " I:: a*syj . ; .1t ft 114:, ' . .: iLtr. ...4afe s7r . be.. 'a ..: .11.ii...q.114;4.11/41:4::...11.V. . ez,..11 r 11 t , tik ' ''N !".17, 0" V--91 '. ;4: eV. K.,ft9. :" a .4,4.. 4, ' ;.-. t;. 44ity" ; 1;.te 04,1561;4e. . 1 4- c '1 '...:3 I z..... "C '3 .67P ''' iN'i:;: "7". .. ::14 4' ...,. . ...:.,.. ler...P., . , . ' .. l' - 4, .. ; V.* ....!I: I.,' '. .. . % .. , :,4 . 0
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I. N THIS ERA of education reform,we actually achieved sex equity in edu- we often hear that inequitabie edu- cation in just two decades? Are femalesby Glen Harvey cation is a problem of the past, now receiving the same educational op- Ahaving been laid to rest in the Six- portunities and services as males? And ties and Seventies. Now it is time, the must we, therefore, assume that persist-Today we often hear that in- argument runs, to turn our national at- ent disparities between the sexes are ex-equitable education has tention to achieving excellence ratherplained by individual differences and than equity. preferences? been laid to rest. Has it? Is this an accurate portrayal of the Recently. many people have begun toMs. Harvey explores a reality of education as it is experienced answer these questions in the affirma-number of myths that cloud by women and girls in the U.S.? Havetive, pointing to such statistical evi- GLEN HARIEY is director of planning dence as higher rates of female enroll-the discussion of this and conumenication for the Regional Labo- ment in postsecondary education and in-crucial issue. Equity and ratory for Educational Improvement of the creased numbers of advanced degrees Northeast and Islands, at the NETWORK, earned by women. But do these figuresexcellence can be achieved, Inc., Andover. Mass. provide a reliable picture of the educa-she argues.
Illustration by Lr% 12 3 MARCH 1986 509 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
tional experiences of femalesor are theyOnly in writing did females a hall of mirrors, seemingly valid test higher butthan males. And, againwith the excep- reflecting only widespreadbelief in per-tion of writing, between 1980 sistent myths about and 1982 sex equity in educa-it has been malesrather than females Lthe classroom, tion? who have made To provide a reality-based more progress.' boys actuallyreceive appraisal By contrast, the resultsof the Nation- of the educational conditionof womenal Assessment of Educational more instructional and girls, 17 researchers Progress and educators(NAEP) have consistentlyshown that from across the U.S.were invited to a attention than girls symposium on "Changing females outperform malesin reading Myths Aboutability, though thatgap narrowed slight- do; they also Sex Equity in Education"at the I 1thly between 1971 and Annual Research 1980. Grade-point receive on Women in Educa-averages present another contradiction. more praise tion Conference, held In October 1985Although males oftentest higher than and criticism. in Boston.' From this sessionemergedfemales on standardized a clearer understanding both tests, females of thereceive higher gradesthan boys in all myths that influencethinking and deci- subjects, including mathand science. sion making about theeducation of fe- Obviously, then, the males and of the reality relationship be- that such mythstween student achievement and disguise and distort. genderamples of the inaccuracy ofthe percep- is anything but clear.The data are com-tion that elementary schools Academic performanceand studentplex and even somewhat are hospita- achievement provide the contradictory.ble to girls. At thesame time, they are foundation forWhat is evident, however,is that verbal one of the most prevalent mythsabout the source of another mythabout sex and mathematicalperformance cannotequity in education. The sex equity in education. This mythcanbe predicted by predomnant be stated simply: girls or even tightly as-myth runs as follows:the low percent- outperform boyssociated with a student's sex. This is in subjects that requireverbal ability; age of females enrolled in specialedu- a myth that is wholly unsupportedby boys outperform girls inmathematics cation programs reflectsthe fact that the facts. males do not need specialized and related subjects. Asis the case with However, the recent facts programs many of the myths associated do raiseto succeed in school and inthe work- with sextwo warning flags: whenthere is evi- equity, a grain of truth liesbehind this place to the sameextent as males. Girls dence of an achievementdecline, theconstitute only 33% of the myth and enables it topersist. But thescores of females have tended elementary myth disregardsrecent contradictory to declineand secondary studentsidentified as evidence and reflects more than those of males; whenthere isneeding special educational a distorted andevidenceof a gain, males services. oversimplified version of the have general-The greatest differencesin the rates of truth. ly exhibitedgreater gains than females. Data from the NationalCenter for identification for males andfemales are These factsraise serious questionsin the categories of Education Statistics (NCES)show thatabout the current learning disabled achievement testscores of high school educational experi-and emotionally disturbed both areas seniors in 1972 ences of females and thecauses of theirin which subjective support the relationshipachievement declines. judgments are par- between females and verbalability and ticularly influential. Boysare referred males and mathematicalability. Boys for possible programplacement as a re- achieved higherscores in mathematics, sult of academicor behavioral problems MISPERCEPTIONS OF fe- girlsin reading andvocabulary. By far more often than girls.In addition, 1980, however, male and maleachievementfemale referrals tend a different picturewas reflect but one to occur when stu- emerging. Between 1972 type of mythdents are older, whenthey are further and 1980 the about sex equity in educa- advantage of femalesover males in behind in academic work,and when the tion. An entire mythologyalso sur-problem is more pronounced reading was all but eliminated.Boys ac-rounds the curriculum than is the tually outperformed girls in and instruction tocase in typical male referrals.4 vocabularywhich studentsare exposed and the en in 1980, and they continued Another myth integrallylinked with to maintainvironment in which theyare educated. their edge over girls inmathematics.2 misperceptions of theeducational en- Scores on the Scholastic One dominant myth aboutthe early edu-vironment and the education Aptitudecational environment of of students Test (SAT) reflecta similar pattern of girls and boyswith special needs isthat male and fe- a myth shared by parents andeduca-male students receive equal increasing disadvantagefor females.tors alike is that elementary instruction- Since 1972 females have had schoolsal treatment in classrooms.During the lower ver-are hospitable to girls and hostileto bal and quantitativescores on the SAT last two decades,considerable emphasis boys. However, it istypically the aca-has been placed than males. The maleadvantage overdemic and behavioral on generating an aware- females in verbal ability problems of boys,ness of instructional inequities amounted tonot those of girl*, thatare the primary and on only two points in 1972,but it grew tofocus of the school's creating instructionalenvironments for 12 points in 1985. Boys energy and re-female and minority studentsthat are as outperformedsources. Thus what is perceivedto be a girls in math by 44 pointsin 1972 and supportive as those providedfor males. supportive environment forgirls is inAs a result, educators and by 47 points in 1985. reality one that ignores parents have These data are supported female learningcome to believe that inequities by an NCESdeficits. What is perceived in class- longitudinalStudy of high to be hostileroom instruction have been eliminated. schoolto boys is reallyan emphasis on early achievement, which found thatfemale Although this mayseem to be a logi- identification of and attentionto malecal conclusion, sophomores and seniors hadlower testlearning deficits. an extensive body of re- scores than their malecounterparts in search disputes it.s Inthe classroom, The educational servicesprovided toboys actually receive vocabulary, reading, math,and science.students with special needs more instructional are good ex-attention than girls do; theyalso receive 510 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 1 2 4 WOMEN IN EDUCATION more praise and criticism. In addition,ties, and in graduate and professionalteams and most of the men's teams were boys are more likely to be given detailedschools. Studies also indicate that thecoached by males. The status of female instructions, while girls learn to becomeclassroom environment experienced bycoaches in Idaho illustrates this down- "helpless" as teachers solve problemsfemale students discourages their class-ward trend: in 1974, 79% of women's for them. Minority females receive theroom participation, lowers their self-sports were coached by women; by least attention from teachers. More-esteem, and has a negative influence on1984 that percentage had shrunk to an over, the problem is compounded by thetheir course and career choices.9 alarming 43%. fact that most teachers appear to be un- One finaloverarching myth has aware that they treat students differemly helped to move recent decisions about according to sex. MYTHS ABOUT sex equity A variety of widely held myths deal ineducation areby no with subject matter. As Patricia Camp- means limited to students. bell argues in this Kappan, mispercep- Professional educators are tions about females' interest and abilityalso the subjects of many misconcep. in math and science have severely limit-tions. One particularly pervasive myth The problem is ed the opportunities for women andinvolves the unsubstantiated belief that girls in these fields. The related mythwomen now have access to the same compounded by the fact that females are necessarily lessin-professional opportunities as their white that most teachers terested and less proficient in usingmale counterparts and that,inthis computers than males persists despiterespect at least, sex equity has been appear to be unaware evidence to the contrary. Research sug-achieved within the education profes- that they treat gests that computer learning environ-sion. In fact, only 10% of secondary ments tend to favor males for a varietyschool principals are female a students differently of reasons, but strategies that alter the smaller proportion than in the 1950s. At according to sex. environments to meet the needs of fe-the elementary level, where females male students have successfullyin-make up more than 80% of the teaching creased females' use of computers andforce, fewer than a quarter of the prin- their interest in them. For example, fe-cipals are women; in 1928 women ac- male enrollment in computer classescounted for more than $0% of the na- increased from 20% in 1979 to 47%tion's elementary school principals.10 education reform away from the reali- in 1984 in schools that participated in There is no apparent justification forties of sex equity in education. This is EQUALS, a program that trains teach-the underrepresentation of women inthe educational myth of the 1980s which ers to encourage females and minori-the administrative ranks of education.claims that educational excellence and ties to enroll in math and computerMany studies have found that female ad-equity in education are not compatible. courses.' ministrators perform as well as or betterIn other words, one is achieved only at In higher education, the mythology ofthan their male colleagues. Schools withthe expense of the other. Those who es- sex equity is particularly widespread.female principals have been shown topouse this erroneous belief find them- Now that women constitute the majorityhave fewer discipline problems, higherselves forced to choose between achiev- of undergraduate students in institutionsfaculty and student morale. and highering excellence or equity in education. of higher education, the prevailing viewstudent achievement. n It is certainly true that achieving any is that they have achieved parity with Opportunities for professional womeneducational goal be it excellence, eq- men in enrollment patterns, financialin physical education and athletics ex-uity, or anything else requires diffi- aid, classroom participation, and post-hibit a pattern similar to that found incult choices and tradeoffs, particularly graduate education. However, despiteadministration. In the early 1970s mostin the allocation of resources. But it is the fact that women now earn half thewomen'sintercollegiateteams werenot true that equity and excellence must bachelor's and master's degrees awardedcoached by females; in 1984 more thannecessarily be achieved at one another's in the U.S. each year, their areas of50% of the NCAA Division I women'sexpense. There is ample evidence to specialization tend to be in fields that support the view that both equity and have lower status, pay lower salaries, excellence can be achieved when energy and have traditionally been dominated is directed toward making education by females. In disciplines with strong more effective for all students in ways scientific and technical requirements, that promote these dual goals. Similar- such as mathematics and engineering, ly, there are sound arguments for the women remain exceedingly underrepre- view that labeling as "excellent" an edu- sented. For example, less than 14% of cation that is inequitable is an abuse of doctoral degrees in the physical sciences the term. and mathematics were awarded to wom- Inequities can be reduced in ways that en in 1981-82.7 raise the *agility of education for all, not Women also receive less financial aid just for some, students. For example. from public sources than men,' and cooperative learning approaches have they are more likely to be enrolled in been shown to raise achievement levels public institutions and in community of students across the lines of gender. and junior colleges. Men continue to race, ethnicity, and ability; to break outnumber women in prestigious liberal I found out today that the ABC's don'tdown racial and ethnic barriers to artscolleges,inresearch universi-end with C. friendship; and to positively affect self-
][ 5 MARCH 1986 511 WOMEN IN EDUCATION esteem, attitudes toward school, and concern for others. Similarly, equity- oriented techniques for training teachers have also been shown to result in more equitable and effective teaching (e.g., more time on academic issues, more xism in the precise and clear responses to student comments). Thus the choice is not be- tween an excellent and an equitable edu- Clssroom:From cation, but between demanding that education be both excellent and equita- ble and agreeing to accept less. Grae To be both excellent and equitable re- Schoolto quires educators, parents, and research- ers to identify the educational reality ex- perienced by all students and to dispelGrauateSchool the myths that have distracted attention from providing eve') student with the best education possible. This is, after all, what our system of education should be designed to achieve. by Myra Saker and Dayid Sadker I. This symposium was organized by Susan S. Klein. Presenters of myths referred to in this arti- cle include: Ruth Ekstrom (student performance Classrooms ata1 levels're characterized and achievement), Selma Greenberg (elenentary school environment), Susan Bailey (spec al educa- by tion), David Sadker (instruction), Jane Schubert a general envi nmefit of inequity, say the (technology), Karen Bogart (higher education), Charol Shakeshaft (school administrators), Myra Sadkers, and bias clissroom interaction Sadker (educatkinal administration),Christine Shelton-Walters (professional opportunities for inhibits studentacit,4ement.The tools to women in athletics), and Glen Harvey (excellence versus equity). solve these problem have been forged. 2. Donald A. Rock et al., Factors Affecting Test Score Decline 1972-80 (Report under review by the National Center for Education Statistics, ROM GRADE school to gradu Our first study of classroom interac- n . d.). ate school to the world of work, tion was conducted from 1980 to 1984. 3. Rock et al., Determinants of Achievement males and females are éparated With funding from the National Institute Gains in Nigh School 198042 (Report under re- by a common langue.This view by the National Center for Education Statis- f Education (ME), researchers trained tics, n.d.). communications gender gap ects self- 1 the INTERSECT Observation Sys- 4. Jane Mercer, Labeling the Mentally Retardedesteem, educational attainment, career tep collected data in more than 100 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973). choice, and income. But ihidden les- fo -, sixth-, and eighth-grade class- 5. See "Sexism in the Classroom: From Gradesons generally go unnoti . rooiflp in four states and the District of School to Graduate School,- by Myra Sadker and For the past six years we have con- David Sadker, pp. 512-15, this Kappan. Colu bia. The sample included urban, 6. Susan Bibisi, "High School Girls Shown Su-ducted research on classroom inter- suburbss, and rural classes; classes that perior at Computer Programming." Educationactions in elementary and secondary were p ominantly white, predomi- Daily, 3 June 198$, p. 3. schools and in institutions of higher nantly blk, and predominantly inte- 7. Valena White Plisko, ed.7he Condition ofeducation. In this article, we will dis- grated. Thteachers observed in this Education (Washington, D.C.: National Centercuss four conclusiohs of our research. for Education Statistics, 1984). study were both male and female; they 8. Mary Moran, Student Financial Anistance: Male student,' receive more atten- representedpth white and minority Next Steps to Improving Educational and Econom- tion from teacheys and are given more groups; they taught in the areas of lan- ic Opportunities for Women (Washington, D.C.:time to talk in classrooms. guage arts, social studies, andmathe- National Commission on Student Financial As- Educators are generally unaware of matics. WhileAt tlsample reflected the sistance, 1983). the presence çfr the impact of this bias. diversity 9. Karen Bogart et al., Institutional Self-Study of rican students and Guide on Sex Equity for Posuecondary Educa- Brief bu focused training can re- teachers, the observations revealed the tional Institutions (Washington, D.C.: Project onduce or eliitiinate sex bias from class- pervasiveness of sex bias.' the Status and Education of Wcmen, Association room interaction. At all three grade levels and in all of American Colleges, 1981); and Karen Bogart, Increasing equity in classroom in- subjects, we found that Mille students Toward Equity: An Action Manual for Women in teraction increases the effectiveness of Academe (Washington, D.C.: Project on the Sta- were involved in more interactions than tus and Education of Women, Association ofthe teacher as well. Equity and effec- female students.Itdid notmatter American Colleges, 1984). tiveness are not competing concerns; whether the teacher was black or white, 10. Cited in Myra Sadker, "Women in Education- they are complementary. female or male; the pattern remained al Administration: Report Card 4," the NET- WORK, Mid-Atlantic Center for Sex Equity, MYRA SADKER and DAVID SADKER the same. Male students received more Washington, D.C., 1985. (Harvard University Chapter) are professors attention from teachers. 11. Charol Shakeshaft, 141W Patience: The Storyof education at American (hriversity, Wash- But the matter was not as simple as of Women in School Administnsrion (Beveriy ington, D.C. .1986, Myro Saar,. and David boys winning and girls losing the battle Hills, Calif.: Sage, forthcoming). Sadker. for the attention of the teacher. Class-
I512 PHI DELTA KAPPAN BEST COPYAVAILABL r WOMEN IN EDUCATION more: Jot= Hopkins University Press, 1985). . Moore and Smith, "Coursework. ,."; and Pal- I s and Alexander, ''Reply to Benbow andStan-
6. Carol Dwyer, "Test Content and SexDiffe en in Reading," Redding Teacher, vol. 1970, pp. 753-57; Camilla Benbowand Jul Stanley, "Sex Differences in MathematicalA W- V: Kict or Artifact," Science, vol. 210, 1980pp. The School 1262 ; and idem, "Differential Course-Tins HypoIeses Revisited,"Amencen EducationelRe- search Journal, Winter 1983,a). 469-73. / 7 . Locheedetal., Understanding. ..; and Ben- Experiences of bow an4 Stanky, 'Sex Differences... IL Elizabeth Famema and MaryKoehler, "The Affective Variable: Confidence inLearnipg Math- einatics," paper presented at the annualMeeting of Black Girls: the Ameutan Educational ResearchAsiociation, New York\ City, 1982; Lynn Fox,"The Problem of Women end Mathematics,'paper prepared for The Interaction the Ford Falundation, 1980; Stageet at, Increas- of Gendet; ing..."; arid Westin& Matthem, "Influenceson the Learning and Participation ofMinorities in Mathematicsr Journal for Research inMathemat- Race, andSocioeconomic Status ies Educatiork vol. 15, 1984.mi. 84-95. 9. IS. Haller and R. M. Haller.The Physician and SexualityI in VictorianAmerica (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1974),p. 51. 10. G. Stanley iHall, Adolescence, Vol.II (New York: Appletoni 1905),p. 633., 1 I. G.B. Kolata, "Math and Sex:Are Girls Burn w ith Less Ability?," Science, vol. 210, 1980,pp. 1234-35. by Diane Scott-Jones andMaxine L. Clark 12. Jane Stallings, Comparikonsof Men's and omen's Behaviors in High School Math Classes (Washington, D.C. Nati Institute of Educe- Girls who belong tion. 1980); and Lucy Sells -High School Mathe- to "caste-like minorities" matics as the Critical Filtr in the Job Market,' Graduate Education*, May 1983, pp. 39-47. experience discriminationat several levels,say 13. Josephine Davis, "Effectof Mathematics CourseEnrollment 1 ohMinorityStudents' the authors, who outlinethe researchon this Achievement in Secondery School," unpublished manuscript, Mathematics Department, Albany thorny issue. State College, Albanyu'Ca., 1985. 14. Patricia Campbell, "The ComputerRevolu- WE INTEND to examine inscience and mathematics and in verbal tion: Guess Who's Left Out?," InterracialBooks for Children Bulletin; vol. 15, this article the academic,skills. We will discuss the educational 1984, pp. 3-6. social,and motivational 15. Elizabeth Fennana and JuliaSherman, "Sex expectations, aspirations, and motiva- Related Differencesin MathematicsAchievement experiences of black fe-tions of black females and examine their and Related Factors: A Father Study,"Jourral males in the schools. Clearly, girlswhoeducational and occupationalattain- for Research in hfuhematics Education,vol. 9, belong to caste-like minorities experi- 1978, pp. 189-2(5; and Eleanor ments. We will describe theways in Maccoby and ence discrimination at several levels.which parental methods of socializa- Carol Jacklin, ThE Psychology of Sex Differences Since black males also experience (Stanford, CalW.:Stanford \ UniversityPress. dis-tion, teacher/student interactions,and 1974). / crimination, the relationship of black fe-peer interactions correlate withaca- 16. Fennema a/id Koehler, "TAffective Varia- males to their male ccunterparts isnotdemic achievement. We will also ble... ." sug- the same as the relationship of whitefe- 17. Lockheedyet al., p. 11 1. gest the directions in which research males to white males. Likewise, thepat-and practice ought to be moving. 18. Ibid. # tern of sex differences among blacks 19. Lockheed et al. Space does not permitus to examine Understan4ig.... may differ from that among whites. 20. Stage et al., "Increasing.. the school experiences of females who . ,ç p. 257. Few research studies have focused 2 1. Stage et al., "Increasing.... pp. 259-60. belong to other minoritygroups. More- 22. Mathematics Education of Girand Young on both race and gender; moreover,re-over, less data are available on many of Il'omen(Reston,Va.:National Council of searchers have frequently confoundedthese groups than on blacks. We do Teachers of Mathematics, 1980). \ socioeconomic status with minority-know that, with the exception ofa few 23. Caroline Ricks, "Encouraging\ Girlsin group membership. Though hampered Mathematics," TABS: Aids for EndingSexismin Asian-American groups that achie Schools4 vol. 3, 1983, pp. 3-4. by these realities, we will review inthiswell in school, minorities share article the findings that some- 24. Joyce Baldwin, "Ten Steps TowardNordex- are availablewhat similar patterns of lowschool ist Science Experience," TABS: Aidsfor\Ending on the achievement of black females inachievement. We know, as well, that &mini in Schools, vol. 3, 1983,p. 2. \ minorities differ. It 25. :home Your Options (Las Angeles: Univer- is important that sityf California st Los Angeles, n.d.).\ DIANE SCOTIVONESisan assistantwe consider the school experiences of 26. Selma Greenberg, "Educational Equityin professor of psychology at North Carolinaall minority groups; therefore, future Early Education Environments:in Klein, State University, Raleigh, and MAXINE L. research especially major national and Mary Budd Rowe, "Science CLARK is an associate professor of psychol- studies should focus on collecting cation: A Framework forDecision Makes." ogy at WakeForest University, Winston- Daedalus, vol. 112, 1983, adequate data from whichto draw con- pp. 12342. El Salem, N.C. clusions about such groups.
520 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 197 BEST COPY AVAILABLE MATH/SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT an inner-city school found no sex dif-times as great as those attributable to High achievement inmathematicsferences in mathematics and sciencegender. Whites scored higher than and science is a prerequisite for lucra-achievement. However, boys scoredblacks across grade levels. Whites in tive careers that have traditionally beensignificantly higher than girls on aelementary school also had more fa- closed to women and minorities. Gener-measure of science self-concept, and,vorable attitudes toward science than al agreement exists that blacks, females.when forced to choose between pairedblacks, but this difference disappeared and disadvantaged students achieve lessoccupations, they weresignificantlyat the middle sch 31 and high school well in science and mathematics than domore likely than girls to choose a sci-levels. white middle-class male students. How-er-related occupation over a non-sci- Socioeconomic status correlated sig- ever, information is not readily availa-r :e-related occupation.3 nificantly with the three performance ble on how the variables of race, gen- A mem-analysis of the characteristicsmeasures. The relationship of socioeco- der, and socioeconomic status might in-and science performance of kinder-nomic status to cognitive measures was teract to produce this outcome. gartners through 12th-graders indicatedconstant across grade levels. The effect Herbert Ginsburg and Robert Russellthat, of all the variables considere of socioeconomic status on achievement found few social-class or racial differ-gender had the weakest relationship toincreased with grade level. The rela- ences in the mathematical thinking ofthe three performance measures em-tionship of socioeconomic status to at- preschoolers and kindergartners,asployed.4 Males scored slightly highertitudes toward science was relatively measured by a variety of tasks. Thethan females on cognitive and achieve-small, disappearing by high school. sample for their study included bothment measures, and the difference wasHowever, Lynette Fleming and Mark boys and girls, but they reported nogreater in middle school than in elemen-Malone, who conducted the meta-analy- analyses for sex differences.' Mean-tary school or in high school. Gendersis, pointed out that the variables of while, a review of the research on sexdifferences in attitudes toward sciencesocioeconomic status and race are likely differences found that differences inshowed the opposite pattern: in elemen-to be confounded, since the studies that mathematical thinking that favor malestary school and in high school, malesthey included in the racial comparisons do not appear consistently until 10thhad more positive anitudes toWard sci-generally failed to report the subjects' grade; even then, the differences areence than females, but the reverse wassocioeconomic status. Thus, as is true in usually not large, and they are not foundtrue in middle school. On cognitive andmuch psychological and educational re- i n variably .2 achievement measures, the effects at-search, the findings that Fleming and A study of black eighth-graders intributable to race were almost threeMalone labeled racial differences may
Phmo by Carl Pope 123 MARCH 1986 521 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
actually be differences related to so-were controlled.' The mathematics tary grades. Among older children, fe- cioeconomic status instead. Althoughachievement tests assessed a variety of males perform better than males on sex differences for blacks were not ana-skills, including computation, arithme- many verbal measures, but males out- lyzed, the findings of this meta-analysistic, reasoning, graph reading, algebra, perform females in vocabulary and suggest that the science performance ofand geometry. Some research has found some higher-level verbal skills. When black females is more likely to resemblethat girls outperform boys in certain sex differences are found, they are often the science performance of black malesareas, such as computation, and that small, with much overlap in perform- than that of white females. boys outperform girls in other areas, ance between males and female! Sex Meanwhile, the National Assessmentsuch as reasoning.' Thus the breadth of differencesinverbal skills may be of Educational Progress (NAEP)these tests is important. The findings of larger for low-ability students than for showed that, ut age 13, black femalesthe High School and Beyond Project others.10 Black children score lower on and black males did not differ in theirsuggest that race and sex differences reading skills in the NAEP than do mathematics achievement. The NAEPin mathematics achievement could be white children, but the gap has de- also found no sex differences for whiteeliminated by encouraging black fe- creased steadily. 13-year-olds. However, the perform-males, black males, and white females ance of white youngsters was substan-to enroll in appropriate math courses. tially higher than that of blacks. So- Although the performance of blacks EXPECTATIONS, ASPIRATIONS, cioeconomic factors, such as parents'of both sexes in mathematics and sci- AND MOTIVATIONS educational and occupationalstatus,ence remains below that of whites (es- Astudy of fourth- through eighth- were related to students' performance. pecially white males), the performance graders showed that black children were By age 17, significant sex differencesgap appears to be decreasing some- no more likely than whites or Hispanics favoring males showed up for bothwhat.' The mathematics performance to attribute their successes or failures in blacks and whites. But the differenceof black 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds on the mathematics to external factors, such between the two racial groups was fiveNAEP improved between 1978 and as luck or low ability. However, those times as large as the sex differences 1982 and, for 13-year-olds, the gain black children who did behave in this within the races. For males and femalesof 6.5 percentage points was statistical- fashion were predominantly female and of both races combined, the best pre-ly significant. During the same interval, were not achieving wellin mathe- dictor of mathematics achievement atthe science achievement of black fe- matics.'" age 17 was the number of mathematicsmales increased among 9-year-olds, re- A study of male and female adoles- courses completed. On the average, stu-mained approximately the same among cents in rural schools in the South, dents who had taken two years of al-13-year-olds, and declinedslightly which examined both blacks and whites, gebra and a year of geometry answeredamong 17-yeac-olds. The scores of the found that black males and females have 82% of the test items correctly, whereasblack females were approximately equal high educational and career aspire- students who had taken none of theseto those of black males except among tions.13 Moreover, the sex differences courses answered only 47% of the items17-year-olds, where males performed that theinvestigators found among correctly.5 slightly better. In the part of the NAEP white adolescents with regard to aspira- When the groups are equated for thescience assessment that covered in- tions did not show up among blacks. number of mathematics courses com-quiry, the performance of blacks of both The researchers suggested two possible pleted, black females (and black malessexes declined only slightly, while theexplanations for this finding: I) the ex- and white females, as well) may equalperformance of whites of both sexes perience of being black may be more sa- the mathematics performance of whitedeclined significantly. lient than gender to black adolescents males. The High School and Beyond Computer literacy is a reated area of themselves and to others, and 2) similar Project. sponsored by the National Cen-concern. Although studies have been labor market opportunities for black ter for Education Statistics, found noconducted to assess the availability ofadults of both sexes may cause black race or sex differences in the mathe-computers in schools and the extent to adolescents and their parents to devalue matics achievement test scores of highwhich students use them, this research traditional definitions of female work school seniors, when two variables has not focused on the situation of black roles. sophomore achievement test scores andstudents per se. Linnda Caporael and Research conducted in the 19700 number of math courses completed Warren Thorngate have suggested that produced similar findings: at the high computer technology may intensify ex- school level, black females have educa- isting social roles.9 Clearly, there is a tional and occupational aspirations as need for research that examines the high as or higher than those of black computer literacy of black females,males or white females. But this re- black males, and children of the poor. search also showed that, at the college level, the aspirations of black females drop below those of black males. Like VERBALstauS their white counterparts, black females The general belief is that females out- of college age tend to adhere to sex-role perforn. males in verbal skills, but re- stereotypes in their educational and oc- search suggests instead a complex pat- cupational goals and choices. Indeed, tern of differential performance. Sex gender influences such things as the ex- differences in verbal skills are rarely pectation of obtaining a doctorate (rath- found among children younger than 10.er than a master's degree), grade-point aI dont know why she got so mad. IHowever, males are more often identi- average, and score on the Graduate had an excuse based on a true story. fied as problem readers in the elemen- Record Examination. However, black
522 PHI DELTA KAPPAN °--) I WOMEN IN EDUCATION
females differ from white females in their motivations for working outside the home. Black females tend to be con- cerned about contributing to the eco- nomic support of their families, while The social the motivations of white females focus environment in which on self-fulfillment. learning takes place
EDUCATIONAL AND can enhance or OCCUPATIONAL ATTAINMENT diminish the Both educational and occupational at- behaviors that lead tainment are gauges by which to meas- ure the success of earlier school experi- to achievement. ences. Moreover, the level of education and the level of occupation typically at- tained by adult black females may in- fluence the aspirations and expectations of young black females. The proportion of blacks who dider for younger teens and higher for old-2.1%. Black females earned 4.1% of all not graduate from high school declineder teens.17 However, some urban areasdoctorates awarded in edt cation; black substantially between 1970 and 1982.report dropout rates much higher thanmales earned 3.7%. In engineering, The number of black females who leftthose found by the Census Bureau. black males received .9% of all doctoral school without graduating dropped from In higher education, female enroll-degrees, and black women received 65.2% to 45.7% during that interval,ment has increased and male enrollment.03%." while the number of black males whohas remained stable. Thus by 1982a In a study of black eighth-graders in dropped out fell from 67.5% to 44.3%.majority of college students (52 %) werean inner city, sex proved to be a better For whites of both sexes, the compara-female. That same year, females earnedpredictor of preference for acareer in ble decline was from about 42% toa majority of the bachelor's and master'sscience than mathematics achievement, about 27%. Among all races and gen-degrees, one-third of all doctoral de-science achievement, or children's per- ders, older individuals are now moregrees, and more than one-fourth of allceptions of their abilityin science. likely than younger ones to have endedprofessional degrees. By contrast, the(However, the other three variables their schooling before graduation. Is enrollment of blacks and other minori-were also significantly linked to such a In the High School and Beyond studyties and the proportion of all degreescareer preference.20) In this particular of 1980 high school sophomores, thegranted to them have remained stable orstudy, career preference was assessed dropout rate was 14.1% for black fe-have shown only slight gains. is by forced choices between science-re- males, 20.3% for black males, 13% for In 1980 black females made up 5.3% lated and non-science-relatedoccupa- white males, and 11.5% for white fe-of the total enrollment in higher educa-tions that may not have reflected stu- males. The reasons that students gavetion; that same year. black malesac-dents' actual career goals accurately. ln for dropping out varied somewhat bycounted for only 3.8% of the total. Dur-other words, students may not have race and gender. Male and femaleing the 1980-81 school year 3.9% of allwanted- or expected - to work to- blacks, Hispanics, and American Indi-bachelor's degrees went to black fe-ward either of the careers in the pairs ans as a group cited poor grades mostmales, and 2.6% of all bachelor's de-presented to them. If none of the careers frequently (30%). Among minority fe-grees went to black males. Black fe-that were presented (e.g., biochemist, males, the reasons most often givenmales received 6.4% of all bachelor'saerospace engineer, lawyer, city plan- were pregnancy (29.2%), dislike ofdegrees awarded in education, but onlyner) seemed personally appropriate to school (24.9%), and marriage (19.2%)..5% of all bachelor's degrees awardedthe inner-city students in this sample, White females most often mentionedin engineering. Black males, bycon-they may have allowed sex-role stereo- marriage (36.4%), dislike of schooltrast, received 2.4% of all educationtypes, rather than their own abilities and (34.1%), poor grades (30%), and preg-degrees and 2.7% of all engineeringinterests, to determine their choices. nancy (20.5%). White males cited dis-degrees. like of school (45.6%), and minority Black females received 3.7% of all males cited poor grades (31.2 %).16 Be-master's degrees awarded during the ACADEMIC achievementis cause students could give more than one1980-81 school year, wh;lr. black males dependent on more than in- reason for dropping out, these findingsreceived 2.1%. Once again, black fe- dividual abilities and aspira- are difficult to interpret. males received 6.7% of all master's de- tions. The social environment Census Bureau data for 1981 showgrees awarded in education but onlyin which learning takes placecan en- lower dropout rates than those reported.2% of all master's degrees awarded inhance or diminish the behaviors that in the High School and Beyond study.engineering. Black males, by contrast,lead to achievement. According to the Census Bureau, thereceived 2.1% of all master's degrees in The school is a microcosm of the so- dropout rates among 16- and 17-year-education and 1.4% of all master's de-ciety. Therefore, the racial and sex-role olds were 7.2% for black males, 8.7%grees in engineering. stereotypes and biases prevalent in the for black females, 8.1% for white Black females earned 1.7% of allsociety find their way into the school. males, and 7.5% for white females.doctorates awarded during the 1980-81 The school environment reflects the fact Once again, the dropout rates were low-school year, while black males earnedthat the society values males over fe-
Mose by Carl Pope 13 '3 MARCH 1986 523 WOMEN N EDUCATION
males and whites over nonwhites. Thus couragement or heredity.27 Teachers students who are members of minorityare more likely to give white students Attending to groups must adjust to teachers and peers praise and attention, itnd they have as well as to schoolwork;in otherhigher performance standards for white inequities caused by words, they must live a oicultural exis-students than for black students. When race and social tence." teachers praise black students for their academic performance, the praise is of- class is at least as ten qualified: "This is a good paper; it is important as attending SOCIALIZATION BY PARENTS better than yesterriay's." Teachers tend Families influence theirchildren'sto praise white students who have been to inequities fostered cognitive developmentandschoollabeled as gifted but to criticize black by sex bias. achievement in a variety of ways.22 Thestudents who have been similarly la- widely accepted perception of blackbeled. This differential treatment may families as matriarchal and thus emas-occur because teachers do not expectteacher's role in the achievement of culating is not supported by contem-intellectual competence in black stü-black females: Do teachers encourage porary theory or research. Indeed, thedents." black females to achieve academically? socialization practices of black families The data supporting the fact thatAnd what is the nature of the interaction are relatively egalitarian.23 teachers treat boys and girls differentlybetween black females and their teach- The myth that black mothers encour-are just as solid as those supporting theers? age their daughters' academic achieve-fact that teacher expectations vary ac- In response to the first question, re- ment atthe expense of their sons'cording to the race of a student. Malesearch suggests that black females do achievement may persist, but it is notstudents receive more attention, praise,not receive at least,in the early supported by research." The myth mayencouragement, and criticismfromgrades the same kind of academic en- have arisen because of the strong sex-teachers than do their female counter-couragement that whites of both sexes role stereotypes regarding educationalparts.29 Boys have more contacts withexperience. In an ethnographic study of and occupational attainment to whichteachers overall than do girls, and thosefirst-graders, Linda Grant found that white families adhered until recently.contacts are more likely to relate toteachers were more likely to perceive Whites may have interpreted the lack oftheir academic work or classroom be-black female students as socially mature strict differentiation by gender of educa-havior." Teachers have more contactsand white female students as intellectu- tional and occupational roles amongwith female students during reading pe-ally competent. Teachers encouraged blacks as inappropriate encouragementriods and more contacts with male stu-the social competence of black gill.; by of black females. dents during math classes." seeking their help in nonacademic mat- In black families, a great deal of over- However, the relationship betweenters. Black females often served as "rule lap exists between the characteristics teacher expectations and gender of stu-enforcers" and as "go-betweens," bring- thatare considered appropriatefordents is not clear and depends on a vari- ing messages from other students to males and those that are considered ap-ety of factors, such as grade level andthe teacher. Meanwhile. teachers gave propriate for females. Black children ofcontent area. Elementary teachers havewhite girls intellectual encouragement both sexes are socialized to be inde-higher expectations for females thanand sought their help in academic mat- pendent and to achieve.23 for males.32 This pattern is rarely du-ters. They assigned tasks involving high In a study of second-graders, by con-plicated in high school, however."degrees of responsibility to white girls trast. middle-class white parents expect-With regard to expectations for abstractmore often than to black girls or to boys et. their sons to earn higher grades thanor mathematical reasoning skills, Bar-of either race. This increased the likeli- their daughters in mathematics (evenbara Simmons failed to find a biashood that white girls would be per- though actual grades for the two groupsamong teachers in fav or of male stu-ceived by their peers as intellectually did not differ). Working-class parents,dents." Some researchers have con- competent.31 both white and black, expected highercluded that teacher expectations for aca- Most teachers praised academic per- grades for their daughters than for theirdemic achievement are not related to theformance more often than they praised sons in both mathematics and reading,gender of students, although teacher ex-social behavior. However, black fe- however.26 pectations for students behavior and ad-males received more praise for behavior justment are weakly related to students'than any other subgroup of students. gender." Black males received the least praise TEACHER/STUDENT INTERACTIONS Several studies have investigated thefor, and the most criticism of, their be- Research has solidly established thedegree to which teacher expectations forhavior. White males received the largest fact that teachers' expectations of stu-achievement vary as a function of thenumber of teacher comments related to dents vary as a function of the stu-students' social class. When significantacademics, and black females received dents' race. Teachers look for and re-differences were found. the teachers ex-the largest number of teacher comments inforce achievement-oriented behaviorspected higher achievement from mid-related to nonacademic matters. These in white students more often than indle-class students than from lower-classfindings show that black children of black students. Teachers also attributestudents." both sexes were denied the degree of in- the achievement-oriented behaviors of A few studies have also tried to deter- tellectual encouragement given to their white students to such internal factors asmine whether race and social class in-white counterparts." Further research effort or motivation, while they attrib-teract in determining teacher expecta-is needed to determine whether these ute the achievement-oriented behaviorstions. However, the results of thesepatterns remain consistent throughout of black students to factors that studentsstudies have been inconclusive." the school years. cannot control, such as parental en- Two questions arise regarding the With regard to the quality of stu-
524 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 131 11111 1.1 II INI :a.I WOMEN IN -EDWA dent/teacher interactions, Grant found that black girls approached the teacher only when necessary. Their contacts were usually brief, task-oriented, and conducted on behalf of a peer. White girls, by contrast, had more prolonged contact with teachers and were likely to converse about personal matters in ad- dition to school-related issues. Black males had the fewest contacts with 1. 2 teachers and the most contacts with peers of all the subgroups studied.40 Peter Woolridge and Charles Rich- man4i studied teachers' responces to hypotheticallescriptions of lent misbehaviors. For fighting,ti were just as likely to prescribe.4., punishments for black females as tor black males. There were significant dif- 5 ferences in their treatments of white . . :Ca males and white females, however. The teachers were less likely to prescribe se- vere punishments for white females than for white males. (They prescribed se- 141.).) vere punishments slightly more often for white males than for blacks.) Teachers' perceptions of students are presumed to be the factors determining the quality of teacher/student interac- tions. Valora Washington found that both black teachers and white teachers evaluated white girls more positively C than they evaluated black girls or boys of either race. The teachers evaluated black males and black females similar- A different pattern of peer interac- ly, but they evaluated white males more PEER INTERACTIONS tions seems toexist among first- negatively than white females.42 Simi- The influence of peer interactions isgraders. Linda Grant found that black larly, Diane Pollard found that teach-more variable than that of teacher/stu-female first-graders had more extensive ers rated white females higher thandent interactions on academic achieve-peer interactions than any other racial or white males or blacks of either sex inment. In some studies, academic per-gender-based subgroup. In their interac- the areas of responsibility, compliance. formance has correlated positively withtions, they crossed race and gender lines persistence.performance/ability,andacceptance by peers and positive peermore often than other children. But relations with peers and teachers.-s- Ininteractions.46 Ralph Lewis and Nancythese peer relationships were generally other words, in evaluating their stu-St. John found that popularity withweak and one-sided, not strong and dents, teachers make gender distinctionswhite girls was a significant predictor ofreciprocal. Meanwhile, black girls and among white children more often thanblackgirls'grade-pointaverages.0black boys helped one another in both among black children. However. Martin Patchen and his col-academic and nonacademic matters, Black teachers may be more inclinedleagues found that interracial contactwhile white girls gave white boys more than white teachers to criticize blackhad little impact on the academic per-help than they received in return.% students, however. Robert Byalick andformance of black students.48 Sometimes black females must cope Donald Bersoff found that teachers rein- Are black females more likely thanwith a disproportionate number of racist force children of other races more fre-black males to experience peer accep-remit' its. In Grant's study, the racist re- quently than they reinforce children oftance in ethnically mixed classes? Themarks, which were generally made by their own race. In their study, black fe-answer is not clear. Some researcherswhite males, tended to come after the males were the group of students who have described black females in biracialteacher praised a black girl's academic received the least reinforcement es- junior high and high school classroomsperformance. Grant suggestedthat pecially in the classrooms of black fe-as social isolates. Black females alsowhite males may have used the racist re- male teachers, who reinforced males oftend to be more ethnocentric than blackmarks for self-enhancement, since the both races more frequently than theymales in their friendship choices andremarks were intended to emphasize the reinforced girls of either race.44 Wash- peer interactions.In predominantlylower status of black females. ington found that black teachers in in-white classrooma, however, black stu- tegrated classrooms were most criticaldents of both sexes make more cross- When it comes to schooling, black of black girls, whereas white teachers inrace friendship choices than do whitemales do not enjoy a "male advantage." integrated settings were most critical ofstudents ithough these choices are rare-Blacks of both sexes especially those white boys." ly reciprocated).49 from low-income families tend to
Moro by Cari Popo 132 MARCH 1986 525 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
achieve at lower levels than whites. For 12. Ann C. Willis et al., "Sociocultural and 29. Jere Brophy. "Teacher Praise: A Functional black females, then, attending to inequi- Educational Correlates of Success-Failure Attri- Analysis," Review of Educational Research, ties caused by race and social class is butions and Evaluation Anxiety in the School Set- 5p:111981, pp. 5-32; and Robert Byalkk and at least as important as attending to in-ting for Black, Hispanic, and Anglo Children," Bersoff, "Reinforcement Practices of Amerkan Educational Research Journal, vol. 20, Black and White Teachers in Integrated Class- equities fostered by sex bias. However, 1983, pp, 385-410. rooms," Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. blacks do encounter some sex-role ster-13. Larry W. DeBord. Larry J. Griffin, and 66, 1974, pp. 473-80. eotyping. Therefore, attending to sex Melissa Clark, "Race and Sex Influences in the 30. Jere Brophy and Carolyn Evertson, Student equity would probably enhance the edu- Schooling Processes of Rural and smail Town Characteristics and Teaching (New York: Long- cational attainment of blacks of both Youth," Sociology of Education, vol. 42, 1977, man, 1981). pp. 85-102. 31. Gaea Leinhardt. Andrea Solwald, and Mary sexes. 14. John A. Centre, "Graduate Degree Aspira- Engel, 'Learning What's Taught: Sex Differences Where appropriate, future research tions of Ethnic Student Groups," Anterkan Educa- in Interaction," Journal of Educational Psycholo- studies should cover all three variables tional Research Journal. vol. 17, 1980, pp. 459- gy, vol. 71, 1979. pp. 432-39. of race, gender, and socioeconomic sta- 78; and Elsie J.Smith, 'The Black Female 32. Barbara Bank, Bruce Biddle, and Thomas Adolescent: A Review of the Educational, Career, Good, -Sex Roles. Classroom Instruction, and tus. Researchers should adequately de- and PsychologicalLiterature," Psychology of Reading Achievement," Journal of Educational scribe their subjects in terdts of these Women Quarterly, vol. 6, 1982, pp. 261-88. Psychology, vol. 72. 1980, pp. 119-32. three characteristics. And finally, re- 15. Larry Suter and Valens Plisko, "Educational- 33. Thomas Good and Maureen Findley, -Sex searchers must seek to avoid confound- ly Disadvantaged Adults," in Plisko, pp. 129-48. Role Expectations and Achievement," in Dusek ing the variables of race and socioeco- 16. Richard E. Whalen. "Secondary Education: and Joseph, Teacher Expectancies, pp. 271-300. nomic status. Student Flows, Course Participation, and State 34. Barbara Simmons. "Sex Role Expectations of Requirements," in Plisko. pp. 149-82. Classroom Teachers." Education, Spring 1980. 17. W. Vance Grant and Thomas D. Snyder. Di- pp. 249-59. I. Herbert P. Ginsburg and Robert L. Russell. gest of Education Statistics (Washington, D.C.: 35. Jerome Dusek and Gail Joseph, "The Bases of "Social Class and Racial Influences on Early U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983), p. 71. Teacher Expectancies," in Dusek and Joseph, Mathematical Thinking," Monographs of the Soci- 18. Debra Gerald and Audrey Weinberg. "Higher Teacher Expectancies. pp. 229-50. ety for Research in Child Development. vol. 46. Education," in Plisko, pp. 149-82. 36. Ibid. no. 6. 1981. 19. Grant and Snyder, pp. 85-103. 37. Baron, Tom. and Cooper. "Social Class, 2. Elizabeth K. Stage et al., "Increasing the Par- 20.Jacobowitz, pp. 621-28. Race. and Teacher Expectations." ticipation and Achievement of Girls and Women 21. Diane Pollard, "Patterns of Coping in Black 38. Linda Grant, -Black Females' Place...." in Mathematics. Science, and Engineering." in S. Schoolchildren," in A. W. Boykin, A. Franklin. 39. Ibid.; and idem. -Uneasy Alliances: Black Klein, ed., Handbook for Achieving Sex Equity and F. Yates, eds., Research Directions of Black Males. Teachers, and Peers in Desegregated Through Education (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Psychologists (New York: Russell Sage, 1979). Classrooms," paper presented at the annual meet- University Press, 1985), pp. 237-68. pp. 188-209; and Bertha Holliday, "Towards a ing of the American Educational Research Associ- 3. Tina Jacobowitz,"Relationship of Sex. Model of Teacher-Child Transactional Processes ation. Chicago, 1985. Achievement, and Science Self-Concept to the Affecting Black Children's Academic Achieve- 40. Linda Grant, "Uneasy Alliances...." Science Career Preferences of Black Students." ment: in M. Spencer, G. Brookins, and W. Al- 41. Peter Woolridge and Charles Richman, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, vol. 20. len. eds., Beginnings: The Social and Affective 1983, pp. 621-28. "Teachers' Choice of Punishment as a Function of Developmera of Black Children (Hillsdak, N.J.: a Student's Gender. Age, Race, ani I.Q. Lever 4. M. Lynette Fleming and Mark R. Malone. Erlbaum. 1985), pp. 117-30. Journal of School Psychology. vol. 23, 1985. pp. The Relationship of Student Characteristics and 22. Diane Scott-Jones, "Family Influences on 19-29. Student Performance an Science as Viewed by Cognitive Development and School Achieve- 42. Valora Washington, -Racial Differences in Meta-Analysis Research," Journal of Research in ment," Review of Research in Education, vol. I I. Teacher Perceptions of First and Fourth Grade Science Teaching, vol. 20, 1983. pp. 481-95. 1984, pp. 259-304. Pupils on Selected Characteristics," Journal of 5. Lyle V. Jones. "White-Black Achievement 23. Pamela Reid, "Socialization of Black Female Negro Education, vol. SI, 1982, pp. 60-72. Differences: The Narrowing Gap."Amertcan Psy- Children," in P. Berman and E. Ramey. eds.. 43. Pollard, "Patterns of Coping... ." chologist, vol. 39, 1984, pp. 1207-13: Lyle V. Women: A Developmental Perspective (Washing- 44. Byalick and Bersoff, -Reinforcement Prac- Jones, Nancy W. Burton. and Ernest C. Daven- ton. D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human tices. . port, "Monitoring the Mathematics Achievement Services, 1982), pp. 137-55: and Diane Scott- of Black Students." Journal for Research in 45. Valora Washington, -Teachers in Integrated Jones and Sharon Nelson-Le Gall, "Defining Classrooms: Profiles of Attitudes, Perceptions, Mathematics Education, vol. 15. 1984. pp. 154- Black Families: Past and Present," in E. Seidman 64; and Westin' Matthews et al.. "The Third Na- and Behavior," Elementary School Journal. vol. and I. Rappaport, eds., Redefining Social Prob- 80, 1980. pp. 193-201. tional Assessment: Minorities and Mathematics." lems (New York: Plenum, forthcoming). Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. 46. Kenneth Green et al., "An Assessment of the 24. Smith, "The Black Female Adolescent.. vol. 15, 1984, pp. 165-71. ..- Relationship Among Measures of Children's So- 25. Scott-Jones and Nelson-Le Gall, "Defining 6. Lyle V. Jones. "Black-White Differences in cial Competence andChildren'sAcademic Black Families...." Achievement," Child Development, Mnthematics; Research Findings and Direction vol.51, 26. Doris R. Entwisle and D.P. Baker, "Gender 1980. pp. 1149-36. for Research," paper presented at the annualmeet- ing of the American Educational Research Associ- and Young Children's Expectations for Perform- 47. Ralph Lewis and Nancy St. John, "Contribu- ation, Chicago, April 1985. ance in Arithmetic," Developmental Psychology. tions of Cross-Racial Friendship to Minority vol. 19, 1983, pp. 200-9. Group Achievementin 7. Stageetal.,"Increasing theParticipa- Desegregated Class- tion...." 27. Mary Wiley and Arlene Eskilson, -Why Did rooms." Sociometry. vol. 37, 1974, pp. 79-91. You Learn in School Today? Teachers' Percep- 8. Jones,Burton,and Davenport, "Monitor- 48. Martin Patchen, Gerald Hofmann, and Wil- tions of Causality," Sociology of Education, Oc- ing.. liam Brown, "Academic Performance of Black ."; Matthews et al., "The Third Nationaltober 1978, pp. 261-69. Assessment.. .";and Audrey Weinberg and High School Students Under Different Conditions Debra Gerald, "Elementary/Secondary Educa- 28. Reuben Baron, David Tom, and Harris of Contact with White Peers." Sociology of Edu- tion," in V. Plisko, ed., The Condition of Educa- Cooper, "Social Class, Race. and Teacher Expec- cation. January 1980, pp. 33-51. tion (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Print- tations," in J. Dunk and G. Joseph. eds., Teacher 49. Martin Patchen,Black-iflateContact in ing Office, 1984), pp. 3-60. Expectancies (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1985). School: Its Social and Academic Effect (West pp. 251-69; Wiley and Eskilson, "Why Did You 9. Linada R. Caporael and Warren Thorngnte. Lafayette, lnd.: Purdue University Press, 1982); Learn in School Today' ".Linda Grant. David De Vries and Keith Edwards, "Student Introduction: Towards the Social Psychology of -Black Females' Place in Desegregated Class- Computing," Joumal of Social Issues, vol. 40. Teams and Learning Games: Their Effecton 1984, pp. 1-13. rooms," Sociology of Education, April 1984. pp. Cross-Race and Cross-Sex Interaction," Journal 98-110; Pamela Rubovits and Martin Maehr. 10. Kathryn P. Scott, Carol Anne Dwyer, and of Educational Ps)rhology, vol. 66, 1974. pp. "Pygmalion Black end White."Journal of Person- 741-49: and Maureen Hallinan, "Classroom Ra- Barbara Lkb-Brilhan, "Sex Equity in Reading ality and Social Psychology. vol. 25, 1953. pp. cial Composition and Children's Friendship." So- Ind Communication Skills," in Klein, pp. 269-79. 210-18; and Reid. "Socialization of Black Female cial Forces, vol. 61, 1982, pp. 56-72. I I. Jones, "White-Black Achievement...." Children." 50. Linda Grant. -Black Females' Place...
526 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 130 odds with the ideas of some teachers or parents or the central office. And then what?" "I guess I don't telegraph my vision because of a feeling of powerlessness, lack of credibility perhaps fear that no one would take it seriously, especially outside the building," said a third. "It's preten- tious. After all, I don't have the authority or national stature of a Boyer or a Good- lad." "It's because so many of us see our- selves as middle managers whose responsi- Is the O.K. Classroom bility it is to transmit the ideas, goals, and visions of those above us," one principal explained. "It's inappropriate to introduce my own ideas about school reform into O.K.? the formula. It's not wanted and not need- ed." "I have a pretty clear vision of how I would like my school to be in, say, five years," commented another. "But, stra- tegically, it is unwise to put all my cards by David Sadker andMyra Sadker out at once. Better to unveil portions of my vision, incrementally. The total idea would startle, threaten, or offend others. Criticsmay have overstated the After five years, it will all be visible," Finally, one principal noted, "I am case for harsh and punitive schools, working on a vision but to be worth a damn it has to be a vision that comes from but the bland and biasedclassrooms the school community. It's a very com- of today provide plicated process to try and find aconsen- cause for concern, sus where at the moment none exists. If say the Sadkers. we find that consensus, I'll be the first to engrave it over the door of the school." THE TITLE of Theodore Sizer's all levels, tended not to be marked with These comments implicitlyidentify book, Horace's Compromise,is exuberance, joy, laughter, abrasiveness, formidable obstacles to the development a stunning metaphor for the praise and correctise support of in- of a school-based vision and a school- silent bargain between teachers dividual student performance, punitive teacher behavior, or high interpersonal based plan for improvement.Ibelieve and students to expect very little from one tension.2 that, under certain conditions, schoolpeo- another. After five years of field research, pie will think through for themselves what Sizer described what these compromised Theseuninsp'-ing they want their schools to become and descriptionsof classrooms look like: school life appeared in print just then set out with conviction to make their as we completed a three-year study of classroom visions a reality. The current reports will (Glenial,orderly,limited,vacuous. interaction for the National Institute of help there. And I think that trying to find [Brody) signaled to the students what Education. Our findings not only support the minima .. . these conditions holds as much promise of were; all tenth- and the bleak portraits drawn by Sizer and improvingelementaryand eleventh-graderscouldmasterthese secondary Goodlad, but they provide additional de- withabsurdlylittledifficulty.The schools in the U.S. as does trying to work tail and a new perspective. through the resistance that accompanies youngsters picked up the signal and kept attempts to impose an orthodoxy from their part of the bargain by being friend- We conducted systematic observations without. ly and orderly. They did not push in more than 100 classrooms in fourstates Brody, and he did not push them. The and the District of Columbia. We were in- Ultimately,there are probably two classroom was tranquil and bland.' vestigating how teachers called workable strategies on stu- for improving the dents and how they responded to student schools:1) somehow get teachers and John Goodlad's Study of Schooling, comments. We were especially interested principals to work on closing the gap be- extending throughout a decade and based in sex differences in classroom interaction, tween the way their schools are and the on observations in more than 1,000 class- but we discovered a great deal more. way people outside these schools would rooms, reports the same landscape of edu- have them be or 2) work toward closing cational blandness. Goodlad writes: the gap between the way the schoolsare THE O.K. CLASSROOM and the way those within the schools The emotional tone is neither harsh and would like them to be. Both paths raise Mr. Gibbs began the class by discuss- punitive nor warm and joyful; it might ing the reasons for the early exploration of be describedmost questions and problems. I think that the accuratelyas North America. greater promise for school reform flat. .. [Title classes in our sample, at and "When did Columbus come to Amer- sufficient resources to achieve it now re- ica?" he asked. sides within the schools. Most changes in DAVID SADKER (HarvardUniversity schools may be initiated from without, Chapter) and MYRA SA DKER are professors "1942," shouted Andy, more energetic of education at A me rico n University, 'ashing- than accurate. but the most lasting changes willcome ton, D.C. ° 1985, David Sadker and Myra from within. "Close," Mr. Gibbs responded, evi- 0 Sadker, dently not wanting to damage a vulder-
358 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 134 able ego. "All the numbers are correct, "Well, that's 0 K for now. We'll ex- grade classrooms in New England, Wash- but who can get them in the right order?" amine these issues a bit more tomorrow," ington. D.C., and the Baltimore metro- "1492," replied half a dozen students in Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, such politan area. The classrooms represented unison. critics as Jonathan Kozol, in Death at an a wide spectrum of communities: urban, "O.K.," Mr. Gibbs continued. "And Early Age, sounded warnings about the suburban, and rural, some virtually all why did these explorers come?" harsh and punitive schools in which our white, others virtuafly all minority, and "By accident," answered Scott, always children were being squelched by uncaring still others integrated. Approximately half a bit of a w ise guy. teachers. Either these portraits were inac- of the classrooms were language arts and "O.K.." said Mr. Gibbs. curate from the start. or the authors were English classrooms, while the other half "For shorter trade routes," Andy piped confusing uninspired schools with harsh were mathematics and science classrooms. in again. ones, or the educational system in this The sample included black teachers and "That's good. And why were shorter country has done a complete turnaround. white teachers, males and females. trade routes important?" Indeed, criticism of students even of Ir. order to capture the range of teacher "To save time," Andy responded. the mildest sort is an unusual occur- reacttons, we spent almost a year in the "Any. othcr reasons?" rence: in many classrooms it is altogether classrooms, fieldaesting our instruments "It would probably be cheaper, and the nonexistent. and listening to the Interactions. When we traders would make a bigger profit," vol- Those who are concerned that praise is began field-testing our observation instru.. unteered Martha. too easy to come by in today's classrooms ments, we decided to categorize teacher "Uh-huh." Mr. Gibbs appeared to con- can also stop worrying. Although it is not responses as either praise or criticism. The cur. "Was ittheir intention to find new as rare as criticism, praise is also used in- first pilot test lasted about 15 minutes, but lands?" frequently in classrooms. we were unable to code anything. There "No," said Jane. Instead, "O.K. Gibbs" seems to be the was no praising or criticizing going on. "Then they must have been surprised norm. In analyzing thousands of teacher We were simply not prepared to analyze when they came upon America." reactions, the "O.K." or the "uh-huh" the flatness of the typical teacher's re- "Not really," answered Steve. "They type of response was far and away the sponse to students. Our final observation didn't know that it was a new land." most common. What follows is a brief re- instrument covered the following range of "O.K.," said Mr. Gibbs. "Some his- view of our study and a summary of our evaluative responses. torians think that other explorers actually findings. Praise included comments that ex- discovered this new land hundreds or plicitly and positively commented on stu- thousands of years before Columbus. THE STUDY dentperformance. (Examples include: Why don't we know the names of these "Excellent!" "Good!" "You've done a su- earlier explorers?" The sample for our study consisted of perb job of integrating your research ma- (Silence) more than 100 fourth-, sixth-, and eigt.th- terial.")
I/ lipreut:on Ao in Pop. 135 ANUARY 1985 359 Acceptance included teachercom- no such training). After extensive statis-rooms, teachers reacted to studentcon- ments that implied that student perform- tical analyses, the following pictureof mice was correct and appropriate. How- duct. The most frequent reactionwas re- classroom life emerged.) Hereare the ever, these comments were not stated mediation of conduct; the leastfrequent main patterns that characterizeteach- was praise. clearly and stronglyenough to be catego- er/student interaction, rindaspraise.(Examplesinclude: In approximately half of allclass- Of the four evaluative reactions rooms, a few students identified as sali- "O.K.," "uh-huh," "I see,"or simply(praise, acceptance, remediation, teacher silence.) and ent received more than three times their criticism), criticism occurred least often proportional share of classroominter- Remediation included probingques- and in the fewest classrooms, In two- actions. These few salient studentsre- tions and teachercomments that encour- thirds of the classrooms observed, aged or cued teach- ceived more than 20% of allclassroom in- a more acceptable or moreers never ciearly indicated that a student accurate student response. Remediation teractions. By contrast, approximately answer was incorrect. In those classrooms 25% of all students in all classesdid not comments implied a deficiency in student in which criticism didoccur, it accounted performance and suggested participate in any classroom interaction, a corrective for only 5% of the teacher/studentin- action. (Examplesinclude: "Check your As we reviewed our data from this teractions. study, we were particularly surprised addition." "Read the topicsentence again, by then give Praise accounted for only I 1gs of the large number ofacceptance responses me the main idea." "What ledclassroom interactions. In )ou to that conclusion?") more than one- in what we came to call the "O.K.class- fourth of the classrooms, teachersnever room." Certainlywe don't question the Criticism referred to explicitlynega- praised student answers. tive teacher value of accepting studentcomments; ac- comments. A criticism state- Remediation occurred in 99% of the ment was one in which the teacher ceptance is a legitimate reaction and clearlyclassrooms observed, averaging almost told a student thatan answer was inac- sometimes the most appropriateone a one remedial interaction per minute. It teacher can give. As most counselors curate or that a behaviorwas inappropri- will was the second most frequent teacherre- readily attest, acceptance is ate. It could include harshoutbursts, as, an extremely for example, sponse, accounting for approximately valuable professionalresponse, especially a teacher who might yell, "Ifone-third of all classroom interactions. ) ou don't start studying, you're going when dealing with affective issues. to Acceptance was the most freauent fail this course!"However, criticism also Our concern lies in the potentialover- teacher response. Teachersgave accep- use of acceptance responses, particularly includedmore moderate comments, as, for example, tance responses in all classroom. atan in classroom interactions thatfocus on a teacher who might stateaverage rate of one per minute. Accep- quietly. "Your answer to number 4 is academic content. Recent researchon %tong." tance accounted for more than half of all terter effectiveness has suggestedthat classroom interactions more than The data from three roundsof class- specific feedback is important for student praise, criticism, and remediationcom- achievement. David Berlinernotes: room observations, conducted in thefallbined. and winter by trainedobservers, were cod- The frequency of classroominterac- ed and analyzed.We gathered descriptive Substantial use of corrective feedbackin tion decreased as the grade levelincreased %tat is(ics and conductedtests for statistical the academic areas, contingent praise and as the school year progressed.On the for correct or proper behavior,and the mgnificance. We conducted univariateand average, there were slightly more than multivariate analyses two use of students' ideas as a way of letting using grade level, teacher/student interactions students know that their contributions Nubject matter, and per minute in treatment (comparingall classrooms observed. Approximately are valued, all show positHe relationsto classrooms in which teachers had received three out of four clasezoorn interactions achievement and attitude.... Criti- "pedal training in interactionand control focused on academic content. cism, as a form of feedback, if emotion classrooms in whichteachers had received In approximately 90% of ally neutral, has been foundto be ac . class- cepted by students, but it has long been T1111V4 k recognized that sarcasm and personal attacks are negatively related to achieve- ment and should not be used as feed- back for inappropriate behavior.4 )
s John Goodlad concurs. He writesthat "learning appears to be enhanced , when students understand what isexpected of them, get recognition for their work,learn quickly about theirerrors, and receive guidance in improving theirperform- : .? ;& ' ances." But Goodlad found thatabout 20% of students at both theelementary . .!-; and secondary levels felt that . ., they were neither informed nor correctedwhen they - : made mistakes.5 ;1:1.1;414;.:.is In addition to being the ) most common . . .. teacher reaction, acceptance is alsothe most diffuse and least specific. If . a student answers a question and the teacher C.1 says, "Uh-huh," what is the studentto con- clude? Is the answera good one? Does it "tpti: need to be sharpened 4, 4v;:1, a bit? Is it barely . iNi40 10V4 passable? Is the teacher listeningat all? , The fact that more than half ofteacher re- "Please, Jamie Just drop theiirap paper in the basicet.1DOn'tslam &ilk sponses fall into this bland and unin- formative category leadsus to wonder PHI DELTA KAPPAN 3f; iwT
%;te selves.This tendency was more pro- like praising students." Initially, the group A.% 4:0 nounced for male students. These patterns seemed startkd by this notion; however, of sex differences in student/teacher in- after some discussion, many other teach- .raisa;accounted teractions held whether the teacher was ers admitted sharing similar feelings. ford'onIiillWOf:dass black, white, male, or female and whether ... 04,00i, the academic content was language arts, roosn'intorsetioni: In . mathematics, or stiencu, TEACHERS CLEARLY need to moie;:tligimefourth know more about research on classroom interactions. They Of iiieAsusr6iiins, UR DATA SUGGEST that also need training to develop teacheriYnever praised classroom interactions between theirinteraction skills, and they need teachers and students are short supervision to help them Maintain and use student.4.. sanswers. on bt:11 quality and equality. these skills. 4,As' .F1:Y Critics have offerb2 many reasons why this As part lf our study, teachers in 67 ks 7.14' is so. Some claim that the talent pool from classrooms received four days of training which our nation's teachers are drawn is focused on equity in classroom interac- ismuly depleted. Others point to the unrealistic tions. Our data analysis indicates that whether the O.K. classroom isall that demands of burdensome schedules and training can eliminate inequitable interac- O.K. heavy student loads. tions and enable female students to par- However, a follow-up study of interac- ticipate at the same rate as their male tions at the postsecondary level, con- peers. It is interesting that training teach- SEX BIAS: A REPORT CARD ducted by Dawn Thomas, suggests that ers in equitable interactions had a positive We were also cciteerned that so many these explanations are inadequate. Pro- effect on the quality of all classroom in- students approximately one-fourth of fessors are presumably drawn from an teractions. In classrooms of teachers who our sample treated classroom discus- elite talent pool; they typically teach nine received the training, the frequency of ac- sion as a spectator sport and did not get hours a week and enjoy a more relaxed ceptance interactions decreased, while the involved in any interaction with teachers. schedule than do teachers in elementary frequency of praise, criticism, and remedi- Moreover, certain groups of students and secondary schools. ation increased. Indeed, training through seemed to fall into categories of "interac- The follow-up study analyzed interac-a structured microteaching format virtual- tion-rich" and "interaction-poor." For ex- tions in 34 postsecondary literature and ly eliminated bias, increased the number ample, in all four of the response cate- mathematics classrooms and found thatof intellectual interactions, and increased gories that we analyzed, female students university classrooms are less interactive t I.e precision of teacher reactions. received less teacher attention than male than elementary or secondary classrooms. students. Although girls received less than Furthermore, while slightly less sex bias The critics of the 1960s and 1970s may their share in all categories, acceptance existed in postsecondary classroom in-have overstated the case for harsh and the category that may have the least teractions, the university professors used punitive schools, but the bland md biased educationalvalue wasthemost even more acceptance reactions than classrooms of today do provide cause for equitably distributed category. teachers in the elementary or secondaryconcern. Most teachers remain not only Often, boys received additional atten- grades.' From hundreds of hours ofuntrained in the skills of interaction, but tion by asserting themselves and literally classroom observation, Thomas conclud- unaware r'1 the importance of precise re- calling out for attention; boys were almost ed that postsecondary classrooms areactions, equitably delivered. They need eight times as likely as girls to call out in bland places in which to learn. So it ap- appropriate inservice and preservice train- class. When girls did call out, they were pears that sex bias and overall blandness ing. When they are made aware of the far more likely to be squelched by teachers are not problems of K-12 education ex- problems and given the means to over- who remediated their conduct by saying clusively. Nor are they simply a function come them, they can hone their intrac- such things as, "You're supposed to raise of the teacher talent pool or of the naturetion skills so that our classrooms can go your hand before you talk in this class." of the teaching schedule. beyond "O.K." and become excellent Although we have researched issues re- From our experience in conducting places in which to learn. lated to sex equity for more than a decade, workshops and training sessions across we were still surprised by the high degree the U.S., we have become convinced that of sex segregation we found in today's teachers simply have very little insight into 1.Theodore R. Sizer. Hargett Compromue (Bos- classrooms.Fullyhalf of thetypical their own patterns of responding to stu- ton: Houghton-Mifflin. 19S4). pp. 133.36. 2. John I. Goodlad, A Place Called School (New fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade class- dents Most teachers are surprised to learn York: McGraw-Hill, 1984). pp. 105, 112. rooms were marked by significant sex seg- that male students receive more attention 3. David Sadker and Myra Sadker, Year 3: Final Re- regation in seating arrangements and in than female students. When alerted to this port, Promoting Effectiveness in Classroom Instruc- group work. Teachers would hardly toler- disparity, they want to change their tion (Washington, D.C.: NIE Contract No. 400- teaching so that it becomes more equita- 80-0033, March 1954). We wish to thank William ate such segregation if it were based on Schmidt and Richard Huang of Michigan State Uni- race; based on sex, they seem unable to ble. versity and Joyce Bauchner of The Network. Inc.. for recognize, it. When they are asked how they usually their assistance with the statistical analyses. Minority students, while not as inter- react to student answers, many teachers 4. David C. Berliner, "The Half-Fun Glass: A Re% iew action-poor as female students, were also say that they criticize too much and that of Research on Teaching." in Philip Hosford, ed., Us- ing What We Know About Teaching (Alexandria. involved in fewer interactions with teach- they should try to be more lenient with Va.: Association for Supenision and Curriculum De- ers than majority students. Minority fe- students. They are amazed to learn how velopment, 19134). P. 71. males were involved in the fewest inter- infrequently they praise or criticize. One S. Goodlad, p. III. actions with teadiers of any student teacher speculated in a discussion group 6. Dawn Thomas, "An Analysis of Sex Differences in group. In general, when teachers initiated of fellow teachers about why she didn't Teacher/Student Interaction in Ekmentary Secon- dary and Postsecondary Mathematictleknee and an interaction, they continued to interact praise students. "No one ever praises me," Composition/Literature/Language Arts Classrooms" with children of the same sex as them- she said. "Maybe that's why I don't !eel (Doctoral dissertation, Ameriean University. 1953). C
137 JANLARY 1985 361 . 47m*. Copyr angicswe I WOMEN INimah T0Itt y David i Myra Sadi EDUCATION ruonts were characterized bya more IMINIIIMMOMM110.111M16 general environmentof inequity; there were the laves*and the lavenote of teacherattention. Students same Classroom, in the with thesame teacher. elnlyin, thesame materialwere ex- Sexism in the penmen verydifferent educational environments. About a quarter of die elementaryand Classroom: From secondary studentstypically didnot in- teract with theteacher at all during class. Thesewere the silentones, spec- tators of clauruom interaction. Asec- Grade Schoolto ond groupwas involved ina nominal level of interaction typically one in- teraction per classsession. The maioritv Graduate School of students fell withinthis group. The final fategory consistedof interaction- rich students whoparticipated in more than three times theirfair share of inter- actions with the teacher.Only a few stu- by Myra Sadker and David Sadker dents (typically lessthan 10%) fell into this category; thesewere the stars. the salient students. Classrooms at all levelsare characterized The qualityas well as the quantity of classroom interaction isalso distribut- bya general environment of inequity, say the ed inequitably. Teacherinteractions in- volving precise feedbackwere more Sadkers, and bias in classroom interaction likely to W directedto male students. We identified threetypes of precise inhibits student achievement. The toolsto teacher reactions: praise(positive mac- solve these problems have been foiged. lions to a student'scomment Of MA), criticism (explicitstatements that an answer h incorrect), and remediation IROM GRADE school to gradu- Our first study of classroom interne- (helping students toCOffeCt or improve ate school to the world of work, tiOn was conducted from 1980 to 1984. their responses). A fourth,less-specific males and females are separatedWith funding from the National Institute teacher reaction consisted ofsimple ac- by a common language. Thisof Edutation (NIE), researchers trained ceptance of student conunents, includ- communications gender pp affects self-in the INTERSECT Observation Sys- ing such teachercomments as °okay° or ebteern, educational attainment, careertem collected data in more than 100 "uh-huh.* More than half of theteach- choice, and income. But its hidden les- fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade class- ers' comments fell into thiscategory. sons generally go unnoticed.. rooms in four states and the District of This high rate ofacceptance responses For the past six years we have con-Columbia. The sample included urban, created clauroom environmentsbest ducted research on classroom inter- suburban, and rural classes; classes that characterized as flat, bland,and unex- actions in elementary and secondarywere predominandy white, predomi- citing. s.:hools and in institutions of highernandy black, and predominantly inte- When teachers' reactionswere more education. In this article, we will dis-grated. The teachers observed in thi.. precise,remediation comments de- ,:uss four conclusions of our research. study were both male and female; they signed to correct or improvestudents' Mule sradents receive more men-represented both white and minority answers were the most common. These tion from teachers and are givenmore groups; they taught in the areas of lan- accounted for about one-third of ail time to talk in classrooms. guage ans, social studies, and mathe- teacher comments. Praise constituted Educators are generally unawere ofmatics. While the sample reflected the approximately 10% and criticism 5% of the presence or the impact of this bias. diversity of American students and teacher interactions. Male studentsre- Brief tut focused training canre- teachers, the observations revealed the ceived significantlymore remediation, JuLe or eliminate sex bias from class-pervasiveness of sex bias.' criticism, and praise than femalestu- room interaction. At all three grade levels and in all dents..There was more equity inthe dis- Imo:bins equity in classroom in-subjects, we found that male students tribution of acceptanceresponses the teraction increases the effectiveness ofwere involwd in more interactions than ones that pack the least educational wal- the teacher as well. Equity and effec-female students.It did not matter lop. tiveness are not competing concerns; whether the teacher was black or white, Although our research has made they am complementary. the female or male; the pattern remained inequities of classroom interactionmore Mitt SADICER and DAVID SADKERthe same. Male students received mare apparent, the reasons why malescap- (I/hrvard Untrersity Clever) are prufessers attention frum teachers. ture more and better teacher attention educ.;::t in at Ansericun University, Mutt. But the matter was not as simple as remain less clear. Sex segregationmay ingtun, D.C. 019S6. Myra Sadter and David boys winning and girls losing the battle be part of the problem. The majority of Sias r for the attention of the teacher. Class- classrooms in our study weresex-segre- gated. and teachers tended to gravitate to the boys sections. where theyspent more of their time and attention. Ant!' c%;.lanatit.- hat boys Fieldr.: 4archen, who had demand more attention. Our research been teachers pruticed shows that boys in elemental trained in a postsecondaryversion of the equitable teaching and NTERS Lills. :eceived secondary schools are eight timesas Observatior. Sstem, col- feedhJek on theirNr- lected data in 46 tormance, and likely as sirls to call out anddemand 3 classes in a widerange practiced again. They of academic and were surprisedto look at videotapes teacher's attention. Howtver, thisIs dOt professional disciplines the whole um: teachers at American Univenky.The dna indi- showing, irrefutably,their own biasin behave differ- classroom interaction. emly depending on whetherthe student cate that the patternsestablished in The teacherho elementary and seconder/ was also a NOW memberwas stunned. calling out is a boy ora girl. When boys school con- But all the teachers call out. teachers tend tinue in highereducation. Male saw the need for to accept their an- students change. swers. When girls callow, teachers receive significantlymore attention, and remediate their behavior sex bias persists. Changing instructionalpatterns in the and advise college classroomwas a more difficult them to raise theirhands. Boys are be- The need for teachertraining at the ing trainedto be usertive; girls college level is evident.The data from challenge because inservicetraining in ere p-Asecondary institutions being trainedto be passive spectators the oservations ofcollege classrooms rarely ad- relegated to the showed that the overallamount of inter- dresses specific teachingskills (nor does sidelines of classroom preservice training, discussion. action decreased and thatthe number of for that matter). When weproposed our microteaching These findingscannot be dismissed as silent students increased.In fourth-, a mechanistic and sixth-, and eighth-gradecluses, 15% of design, many K-12educators expressed irrelevant game of the students did serious reservations. counting who talksmore often. National not interact with ths 'Professors will teacher at all; in collese talk about teaching.*they said, wbut measures of academicproeress support clrsses this they'll never be the thesis number rose to half. The*okay" class- willing to havetheir that girls and boysare ex- teaching observed, periencing differenteducational en- room was prevalent at theuniversity videotaped, and cri- vironments. In level. Therewas more acceptance b,ltheless.their colleague. the early grades, girls' than Nueet scores on standardizedtests are general- praise, criticism, andremerhation com- we were able to recruit ly equal bined. American Universityprofessors froma to or Wet than boys'scores. wide range of However, by theend of high school. academic disciplines bo% s 2re scoring Research also shows thatcollege from anthropologyto computer science, higher on suchmeas- women experience a decline in self- from biology to ures as the NationalAssessment of mum as they progress through economics, from chem. col- joy to communitystudies. We didnot Educational Progress andthe Scholastic lege.' It is likely thata key factor in find aversion A pt i tude Test. this decline is the inequitable to clinical training, but Given Our findings commu- rather a thirst for it.For manyex- about classroom nication women experienceinside and perienced professors, interaction, commonsense suggests tlut this projectwas outside the college classroom.' the first opponunityin their profession- this 's what shouldhappen. Themost valuable al lives to systematiclly analyze and resource in a classroom isthe improve their teaching teacher's attention. Ifthe teacher is giv- MA MING THAT WORKS skills. Some ing more of that professors, who badlectured (and only valuable resourceto For bah our NIE andour FIPSE lectured) all their one group, it shouldcome as no surprise projects, we designed and lives, had to learn that that group shows evaluated in- questioning skills.Others, who had greater edueetion- tensive four-dayprograms of training received awards for al gains. The onlyreal surprise is thatit for teachers, At the their teaching has taken us elementary and skills, were surprisedto see videotapes so long to see the problem. secondary levels, more than 40 Nor is bias in teachers showing that half of theirstudents didn't classroom interaction from several states haveparticipated in confined to schoolsin the U.S. Recently the veining. receive a fair shareof teacher time. e returr.:d from Great Britain, These professors, where Initially, many of theseteachers were committed as they 1%e had been discussing sexismin class- skeptical. Some said, "Girls were to good teaching,also wantedto room instruction. Unlike get better change. American edu- grades on their reponcards..What's the cators. w ho are often takenaback by the problem? Others felt In both of thesestudies,trained subtle but significant that boys did re- teachers and professors bias in teacher/stu- ceive MOM attention but were matched dent interaction, British that this was' with controlgroups, and the perfor- educators were ow in some other teachers'classrooms, not surprised by evidenceof bias in the not in their own. One teacher who mance of the two groupswas evaluated. clasiroom. Indeed. was The trained instructors over the past few an active member of the NationalOr- at alllevels tars debate in Britainhas focusedon ganization for Women (NOW) achieved equity in verbaldistribution; strengthening girls' said. they included male and schools as away of I'm delighted that you'redoing this female students 2%o:ding this bias. Sucha separate-but- project. Of course, I in numbers that reflectedtheir distribu- equal approach would won't have to tion in the classroom. be far less palat- change anything I do in theclassroom. The differences able in the U.S.,where the between the trainedgroups and the con- memory of This is an issue I'vebeen concerned trol groups struggles to endracial segregation about for years." But, were statistically significant. still froh. is as these teachers Moreover, the trained became more involved in the instructors had Follow ing completion training, higher rates of interaction, of our three- their perceptions of :..nd more precise year ME study of attitudes toward reactions, more academic elementary and classroom interaction underwentsub- contacts, and wcondary schools,we received support stantial change. a greater number ofstudent-initiated from the Fund forthe Improvement conunents. In short, the trainingresult- of In the training session, theteachers ed in MOM intentional P.),:secondary Education(FIPSE) to viewed videotapes and and more direct in college facuky films that dem- teaching. Developing equity members in equity onstrated the researchfindings about in teaching and ewelknce inclassroom instruc- had promoted excellenceas well. 1:03.: Joon Long bias in student/teacher interaction.In a conducted a doctor- modified micro(eaching al dhsertationstudy of this setting,the project.' two-year BEST COPY AVAILABLE LAst,LACE Of Mr.k: rDtGS PIOCIPALS CAN MP, TOO But sett bias ifl communication does With support from the Women's I. David Sulky end Myta Sadker.rear f: not stop at the classroom door. Many 11.1 Repot Promag Effectiveness in Educational Act, we have creat- Classmorn studies have found key sex differences (46*Amosa. D.C.: ME Comm No ed the Effectiveness-Pupil 40904033. March 1964 in how men and women communicate in Achievement meetinp and other professional set- A) Project, through 2. Ups Sease ed David Sadies, Awl Room: which we are currently developinga horly Datispats fir Ijirammen Equity tings. Males exhibit mom powerful be- model program to improve the ix Cams Tacking (9/ashlars*. D.C.: F1PSE. haviors and are mom Likely to influence equity November INS). and effectiveness of classmom interac- 3. km L441, ilia Mei at Su Equity and Er. the group discussion. Women's com- tion and professional communication. ments are more likely to be ignored. ?utmost Tables a Chums Imemetioe The project does not focus directly the Usiveniay Lair (Donorel dummies. This gender pp in communication leads oft the classroom teacher, but ratheron Ansley& liefeerdir, to ineffective discussions and can put fe- principals in their role as instructional 4. Altuakt Asa, Pew Otdral bare: Erects male administrators and teachers at a leaders. of Coffer on DO*. Mirada. olut lOuridedge disadvantage in seeing that their, ideas (Sas resseisce JosseyEue. 1977). .The initial group of principalsto be S. Rohm Man ad Bernice Sandkr. The Mu- are heard and implemented. trained in the .PEPA Program will be ms Maw A OM, Orte for WAWA Despite the stereotypical image of selected from the Mid-Adantic region. (Wathiagem, D.C.: Project as the Suss and women as 'embus, studies consistent- After this pilot testiag, the PEPA Pro- Mabee of Warm. Auscietice Americas ly show that men talk more than their Cdietes. 1912). fair share .of the dine.' In mixed gram and materials will be made avail- 6. larbam Mu ad Oale labs% ke Ayer- groups, sex is a status characterisdc, able to principals nationwide.Princi- enees In Nam Comovakaa (Dams: Hough- pals involved in PEPA will acquirethe as Mies, MI). and men talk more than women. They skills to analyze bodt dauroom 7. Mirka Luabeal ed Katherine Hall, 'Coo- emerge as group leaden,' and they are inter- action and professional communication. ospatelss Sas u a Sums Charecutimc: more successful at influencing groups to cedars to Lad lip VOW. Strategies; Mo- accept new ideas.' nrough the use of videotapes,a train- od.feelei Isms. vol. 32. 1976. pp. 111.24. er's manual, and micro-supervision. One of the ways that men dominate the S. Jams DiSeraed. Day Kamp, and Steve professional meetings is through inter- PEPA Program will give principalsthe Lava. *iaky Shift asd Deader of theAdvocate: skills they need to lead the improvement Istortutios Iluavy Ifenue Normative Theety.`. ruptions. When men and women talk Grog ad Orgatorion Snag, vol. 9. 1913, of instructional equity andeffectiveness pp. 119400. with one another, almost all intern's- in their schools. lions are by male speakers. Males inter- 9. Weald 7.1mmetmes ead Caidsce West. lea rupt females more frequently than they Risks, Isismutias. sod Silo= is Osamu- The experience of femalestudents in dos. is Danis Mono ad Nero Reeky, eds.. interrupt other males. Men also gain lamp ad Sa: Mermen ad Darras/4re verbal dominance by answering U.S. schools is unique. Whatother ques- group starts out ahead (Ramify. Musa **Wry Howe. 1975). tions that are not addressed to them. in reading, in 10. P. Shock* aul Canaan Staley. Moms Women, even female administrators writing, and even in math and 12 is Mamma* TnIsiss Programs: .What They years later finds itself behind? We have Mid About Key Imes` Motet. Personnel and managers, often collaborate with Memieshog, ei.0, 1910. pp. 214-24. men in this game of verbal domination compensatory education for those who of professional communication. When enter school at a disadvantage; it is time women are intermixed, they tYPically that we recognize the problemsof those who lose groundu a result of their do not assen themselves in an effort to years of schooling. hold the floor. Rather, following an in- Bias in classroom interaction terruption. women are ubually quiet for inhibits an extended period. They are more like- student achievement. Bias inworkitlice ly to ask questions and to do the interaction inhibits the nation'sproduc- house- tivity and efficiency. The tools keeping chores of keepingconversa- to solve tions going by making encouraging and these problems have been forged.It is up to educators to pick them up andput surportise remarks. In one study,over them to use. 961 of the topics men introducedwere developed in the discussion. Only 36% of those introduced by war:cr.-,tre similarly developed, Women are aware it.; ,Arritcs of group interaction can 4stitute a barrier to their influence and advance- ment. In a recent study of problems fac- ing professional women, 43% ofre- spondents identified their own failureto speak up in mixed groups as theirgreat- est problem. Another 22% said that their greatest problem in groupmeet- ings was interruptions by males.1* Minority women appear to face aneven greater challenge in seeing that their contributions are heard. The socializa-* tion of 12, 16. or more years of school- ing is not easily shed.
41') 1 WOMEN IN EDUCATION Even though there has been a 300% increase in the past 10 years, women still constitute less than 5% of the practicing engineers. Of the nation's 2.7 million scien- tists, only 5% are female and 1.5% are black.
IN THE PAST few yearsa great deal of discussion has focusedon What'saNice Girl the problems illustrated by the two SU statistics above. Such organizations as the National Science Foundation, the National Council of Teachers of Mathe- Like You Doing matics, and the National Science Teach- ers Association all decry the mathemati- cal and scientific illiteracy of the youth InaMath Class? of the U.S. and express concerns about the diminishing pool from which the scientists and technologically literate citizens of tomorrow will be drawn.' by Patricia B. Campbell That pool contains few women and girls and even fewer minority students of either sex. Girls take fewer math A great deal of evidence indicates courses than boys and are more apt to be found in introductory and lower- that differingtreatment of groups of level courses than in advancedcourses. A similar patternisfound in both students and differingexpectations have science and c.^,nputer courses. Young women often choose to avoid the "sci- an impact on achievement. Ms. Campbell ence track" in high school and so re- reviews the evidence Findsuggests some strict their science and mathematics courses to the minimum required for effectivemeans of counteracting problems. graduation. Black and Hispanic students take fewer math and science courses From the middle of elementary apt to find differences if the quantitative than do white or Asian students, and school on, the mathematics testscores portion oi he School and College Apti- they are clustered at the lower levels.2 of whites are higher than those of blacks tude Test wew used.' As might be expected, whenone stu- and Hispanics; Asian studentsscore the The socioeconomic background of the dent takes an advanced math course andhighest of all ethnic groups. students is also a factor. Although not another does not, thefirst student's Differences between females andall white students are rich andnot all knowledge of math will be greater males are smaller than differences be- minority students are poor, a higher even when the students had previous- tween whites and blacks or Hispanics. proportion of black and Hispanic ly achieved at the stu- same level. In part Although the amount of research in dents come from low-income families. because of patterns of course-taking, science achievement has been much Most studies of achievement in math/ differences in the math and science more limited, similar conclusions have science/technology do not take intoac- achievement of sex and ethnicgroups been reached. Minimal differences be- count possible socioeconomic differ- have been found.3 tween the sexes and ethnic groups in ences between their white and minority A number of studies have collected science achievement have been found in subjects. the standardized test scores of large the elementary years, but these differ- Controlling for courses taken, forstu- numbers of students and compared them ences increase in the middle and sec- dents' socioeconomic background, and by ethnic background and bysex. Over- ondary grades.4 for the test used in a given studyare all, these studies have concluded: Controlling for the number of' math areas over which school administrators In the elementary years, similarities courses taken does not eliminate ethnic have little or no control. However, it is between the sexes in math achievement and sexdifferencesin mathematics important to consider the effects of such are found more frequently than differ- achievement, but it does significantly factors when reading research studiesor ences. When sex differences are found, reduce them.' The specific courses that hearing researchers draw conclusions they tend to favor girls. students have taken affect the results ofabout the "superior male mathematical In the junior high school years,ap- studies of sex and ethnic differences,as ability ."7 proximately half of the few sex differ- does the test being used in the research. Sex differences found in such math ences found in mathematics favor girls. Different tests find different degrees ofareas as problem solving and spatial In high school and beyond, the sex differences. For example, a study of skills are relatively small of statistical many sex differences found in mathe- the mathematics achievement ofyoung significance but of questionable practi- matics achievement favor boys. adolescents would be more likely to find cal significance. Indeed, differences in sex-related differences if the mathemat- ability within groups of girlsor groups PA 771ICM B. CAMPBELL is director of ics section of the Scholastic Aptitudeof boys are much greater than differ- Campbell-Kidder Associates, Groton. Mass. Test (SAT) were used, but much less ences between the "average girl" and the
516 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 141 il.. .1,.9' OA:9i .; 9 .-.40_22/10 :4 ... I.C''Oolw .. I'f'..1,11' _I, e y i ,.
4 '1 , 't. ,.f1 % I I.I; p You don't need to study any more vitia01' 1 ifr mathematics. 1::1 I Engineering is a dirty/hard 'man's '-"-""--.:1%...; field. .. ,. AY .,,,,,,,, . pr .. You're too pretty to be a mathemati- ...... , !...... b.. cian. ., These statements have been used al- "E '-,. most as often and are about as accurate '' 1-0,,Y '.' as ..j..*. respect you in the morning." Even today, within the same classes, l'kl I 1N.. students may have different math/sci- ence experiences. One still finds such v, \ A i obvious examples as the math teacher ...-..:t ..:., who, in the summer of 1985, assigned a .., , /at boy who spoke very little English the task of correcting the girls' classwork, while she corrected the boys' work and gave them individual feedback. More subtle examples also exist. Consider the teacher who assumed that a female stu- dent's skill in reading meant that she was a "reading and writing" person rath- er than a "math and science" person. These anecdotes are not isolated inci- dents; they are supported by research. At both the elementary and secondary levels, when teaching math, teachers in- itiate more academic contact with boys even when girls and boys initiate the same amount of teacher contact. In ad- dition, high school math teachers give boys more attention and provide stu- dents with different feedback for wrong "average boy." Many girls have higher ties, of the nature of the child, the fe- answers. Male students are told to try math skills than most boys, and many male, and the senile white. harder, while femalestudents are boys have lower math skills than most Carl Vogt9 praised simply for trying.12 girls. Though math differences between The woman who uses her brain, There appear to be differences in how ethnic groups are larger than differences loses her mammary function first and white and minority students are treated, between the sexes, the within-group has little hope to be other than a moral as well. For example, an analysis of differences are stillgreater than the and medical freak. data from the National Assessment of differences between groups.' G. Stanley Halli0 Educational Progress found that the Above all, it is important to remem- Today, such assumptions do not leadmore math courses black students and ber that, regardless of what is conclud-to such obviously racist or misogynist hite students had taken, the greater ed, relationships between sex or ethnicconclusions.Yet researcher Camillau ere the achievement differences be- background and achievement are cor-Benbow has been led to conclude thattween them. Thus the course experi- relational, not causal. Based on a find-women would be "bciter off acceptingences of black students and w hite stu- ing of differences, one may not con-their differences (in mathematical abili-dents appeared to be quite different. clude that being black, Hispanic. or fe-tyr At this point there is no evidenceDifferent, too, were the math experi- male causes any differences. The dif-that the differences in math and scienceences of black students in segregated ferent backgrounds and experiences ofhave a genetic or biological basis. There schools. Even though black students in girls and minorities and of boys andis, however, a great deal of evidencesegregated schools took more math white students can and most likely dothat different treatment of groups of stu-courses than did black students in in- affect achievement. dents and different expectations abouttegrated schools, their achievement was It is a hoary but dangerous assump-math and science achievement can and lower.13 tion that sex and ethnic differences indo have an impact on achievement. Different treatment of students also math and science achievement are "nat- Rather than accept differences, edu-takes place in the home. Parents buy ural," that brain stmture, genes, orcators can (and should) learn moretheir sons more math- and science- some other biological factors cause theabout the negative influences that workrelated toys and more computers than differences in scores. In the 19th andon female and minority students andthey buy their daughters. Parents also early 20th centuries, such assumptionsabout ways to counteract those influ-have higher expectations for their sons' about women and minorities led to con-ences. achievement in math than for their clusions, by eminent researchers, that daughters' and are apt to see math as we now see as absurd: DIFFERENT TREATMENT both more difficult and less important The grown-up Negro (male) par- Consider the following three state-for their daughters. Sons are more takes as regards his intellectual facili- ments: stronglyencouraged to take math
Pttofty by Cobol*? hIcClibonw-Hormark MARCH 1986 517 1 4 2- WOMEN IN EDUCATION
been written about ethnic backgroundprogram for elementary and secondary and sex and their influence on achieve-educators. In either 10 or 30 one-hour ment. But very little research has beenworkshops, educators learn to use ma- Effective programs done on how these two factors interact.terials and activities that increase the that increase the Studies of sex differences rarely pay at-participation and achievement in math tention to the race of the subjects (usual-of girls and minority boys. Evaluation math and science ly white), and studies of race usually ig-of the program has found that most par- nore the sex of the subjects. ticipants continue to use the materials achievement of girls for years after attending the inservice and of minority training and that "there is indication that EFFECTIVEPROGRAmS increased participation of girls has been boys are already Effective programs that increase theassociated with EQUALS activity by in place. math and science achievement of girlsteachers in some schools."20 and of minority boys are already in Expanding Your Horizons, Math/ place. Some of these programs focus onScience Network, Mills College, Oak- increasing the interest, motivation, andland, California. These one-day ses- achievement of individualstudents.sions introduce girls to careers in math Others work to improve teachers, toand science, as well as providing them courses and to enroll in after-school and strengthen specific science and mathwith hands-on experiences, access to outside-of-school science and technolo-classes, or to change whole schools.role models, and information about the gy programs." The foliong are summaries of somelink between math and careers. Evalua- different types of effective programs. tion of the program has found students Southeastern Consortium for Mi-increasing the number of math, science, DIFFERENT EXPECTATIONS noritiesinEngineering (SECME),and computer courses they plan to take. In learning mathematics, confidenceGeorgia Institute of Technology, Atlan-Follow-ups have shown that students ul- the belief that one can learn and per-ta. The SECME program has workedtimately enrolled in at least as many form well is a most important affec-with more than 10,000 black girls andmath courses as they had said they tive variable. Elizabeth Fennema hasboys in the Southeast. Through the pro-planned to take after being exposed to found that confidence is positively cor- gram, students with aptitude in maththe workshop.21 related with both math achievement and and science are identified as early as These are not expensive programs course selection. Even when there aregrade 6 and encouraged tu continue tothat cater to gifted students. They are no sex differences in their math per-study math and science. The programstructured to influence large numbers of formance, girls tend to feel less ade-also works with teachers to strengthenaverage and above-average students. quate in math, to have a greater tenden-courses and to expose students to ap-Neither are the programs costly. In- cy to underestimate their abilities, andpropriate courses. SECME uses con-deed, the overall per-student cost of to have less confidence in their abilitiestests, awards, and teacher training toSECME is about $30. Although it may than do boys." provide students and teachers withnot be possible to incorporate complete As both female and male studentsrecognition and support. programs such as theseinto every pass through junior high school, studies After participating in SECME pro-school, many of the components of indi- have shown that students' expectationsgrams, GC% of SECME students plan tovidual programs and certainly the at- for girls to do less well in math increaseattem colkge, whereas only 50% oftitudes that underlie them could be- and their feelings about female successblack high school students nationwidecome a part of all schools. in math become less positive. Girls'plan to attend college. Forty-one per- decreased confidenceintheir mathcent of SECME students plan to major skills and decreased expectations ofin math, science, or engineering. Over- WHAT CAN BE DONE? female success in math on the part ofall, SECME students outperform the na- The first thing readers can do to im- both sexes were found to precede, rath-tional average for blacks on the SAT byprove the situation for girls and minori- er than follow, the decline in math140 points." ty boys in their schools is to determine achievement by girls." Project SEED (Special Elementarywhether or not their schools have a The degree to which girls perceiveEducationfortheDisadvantaged),problem in this area. Look at enroll- mathematics as a masculine activity hasBerkeley,California.Under Projectments in math, scie ce, and computer been found to be related to their mathSEED, mathematicians and scientists gocourses, and look at the dropout figures achievement. Girls who see math as ainto elementary schools serving disad-as well. Are girls and minority boys en- male activity do less well in math thanvantaged children and teach each day.rolling in these courses in proportion to other girls, while girls in schools inThey provide students with knowledgetheir representation in the student body? which math is not seen as solely a maleand appreciation of mathematics asAre they more apt to drop out of math, province have been found to be betterthey demonstrate effective instructionalscience, or computer courses or not to problem solvers.0 The view that mathstrategies for teachers. SEED evalua-continue on to more advanced levels? If and science are "white" activities mighttions have found students achievingthe number of girls and minority boys is have a similar effect on members ofmore than two months' growth in arith-disproportionately low in these courses, minority groups, but very little researchmetic for every one month they spend inthen your school has a problem and has been done in this area. the program." should take some of the steps suggest- While on the subject of areas in which EQUALS, Lawrence Hall of Sci-ed below. If enrollments in advanced there has been little research, anotherence, University of California. Berke-courses are low for all groups, then should be mentioned. A great deal hasley. EQUALS is an inservice trainingyour school still has a problem and
518 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 1. 4 2 WOMEN IN EDUCATION
should try some of the following strate- ties and industries can help locate scien- and science classes withlittleex- gies as well.12 tists); perience either inside schoolor else- Definemath and science as being for asking students who they think canwhere in tinkering, using spatial skills, everyone.We must start with the mind- be scientists or mathematicians and dis-or having general hands-on experi- set that math and science are not whatcussing any stereotypes they may hold;ences. Beginning in preschool, teachers gifted students do, but what all students having students study the work ofneed to provide all students withmore do. From the beginning, all studentsfemale and minorityscientists andhands-on experiences, particularlyin should receive the message that they are mathematicians, such as astronaut Sallyactivities that develop and improvespa- Ride, nuclear scientist Chien-siung Wu, tial skills. Girls indeed, all students and time/motion researcher Lillian Gil-who lack confidence need to be en- breth; and couraged and praised. The praise, how- referring to scientists and mathema-ever, must be appropriate. Too much ticians in general as "she" and as "he."24praise or praise for minimal perform- Encourage equal treatment. Mostance has been found to discourage stu- Wmust start teachers really believe that they don'tdent problem solving and studentper- with the mindset treat girls and boys differently in mathformance in science.26 and science classes. However, whether Check to see whether the techniques that math and science they are aware of it or not, a great manyare working.Examine the data on en- are not what teachers do treat boys and girls differ-rollments in math, science, andcom- ently. Teachers should check their treat-puter courses annually to determine gifted students do, ment of students. They can do this in awhether thenumbers of girls and but what all number of ways, ranging from havingminority boys are increasing. If they classes videotaped, observed, or audio-are, keep up the good work. If they are students do. taped to having a student make a list ofnot, check how and how well the tech- the students called on during class. niques you are using to increase their Push the link between math andenrollment are being applied, andcon- careers.There is a very strong correla-sider working with some of theproven tion between the math courses a student programs that promote equity in math takes and the careers open to herorand science classrooms. expected to take as much math and sci-him. Although most teachers and ad- We know that a problem exists and ence as possible. By junior high school,ministrators are aware of this link,that effective techniques to minimize its students should feel that it is not a ques- many students are not. Careers in sucheffects exist as well. Witha little effort tion ofwhetherthey take geometry ordiverse fields as economics, psycholo-and planning on our part, such questions chemistry butwhen.One teacher found gy, computer science, and even navalas "What's a nice girl like you doing that using this technique increased en- ROTC require a minimum of threehere?" will never be asked again. rollment in high school calculus to in- years of high school math.25 Providing clude -every one of my junior girls and all students with informationon the I. Engineering Manpower Commission, Wash- boys who had a reasonable chance ofmath requirements of various careers ington, D.C., 1984: and Holly Knox, "Math and passing ."23 and college majors in an interesting, Science Improvements Must Involve Female and Encourage those who have not been easy-to-read format can open a lot of Minority Students.' Education Week,11 May encouraged in the past.This generally eyes. In addition, since many students 1983, p. 24. means getting downright pushy. Coun- 2. PEER Computer Equity Report, Sex Bias at ask math and science teachers questions the Computer Terminal How Schools Program selors and math and science teachersthat relate to careers in science and en- Girls (Washington. NOW Legal Defense should actively recruit students (particu- gineering, those teachers need to have and Education Fund. 1985); Marsha L. Matyas, larly girls and minority boys) anden- up-to-date career information. "Science Career Interests, Attitudes, Abilities, courage them to continue taking courses Review course content.In schools in and Anxiety Among Secondary School Students: in math and science. Educators should The Effects of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and which large numbers of studentsare not School Type/Location." paper presented at thean- not take no for an answer or at least succeeding in math and science, courses nual meeting of the National Association for Re- not a first answer. Students need to be should be reviewed for both content and search in Science Teaching, New Orleans, 1984; pushed a little, asked "Why not try?," method of instruction. The finding that and Elsie G. J. Moore and A. Wade Smith, and remindedthat you "Coursework, Hcesehold Language, and Ethnic think that they taking more math courses actually in- Differences in Mathematics Aptitude," Urban can do the work. Schools should alsocreases the achievement gap between Education, vol. 20. 1985, pp. 273-94. make some effortsnottopenalize black students and white students could 3. Moore and Smith, "Coursework...";and grade-conscious students for taking ad- mean that the same amount of content A.M. Pallas and K.L. Alexander. "Reply to Ben- vanced math and science courses. and skill bow and Stanley.' American Educational Re- development isnot being search Journal, Winter 1983, pp. 475-77. Give students a wider view of math providedin courses with the same and science. 4. Marlaine Lockheed, Margaret Thorpe, Jeanne There are many simple title. Courses must be examined tosee Brooks-Gunn, Patricia Casserly, and Ann Mc- things that teachers at all levels can dowhether they are offering all students Aloon, Understanding Sex/Eihnk Related Differ- to expand students view of science and the background in math and science that ences in Mathematics. Science, and Computer mathematics, including: Science for Students in Crudes Four to Eight they will need to continue to take work (Princeton, N.J.: Educational Testing Service, inviting female high school students in these fields. May 1985); and Elizabeth Stage, Nancy Krein- to present science demonstrations to Adopt teaching techniques found to berg, Jacquelynne Ezcles, and Joanne Roui Beck- younger students; improve the math and science achieve- er. "Increuing the Participation and Achievement of Girls and Women in Mathematics, Science, and invitingminority and/or female ment of girls and minority boys.Some scientists to visit classes (local universi- Engineering," in Susan Klein, ed., Handbook for students, typically girls, come to math Achieving Sex Equiq Through Education (Balti-
1 4 L.; MARCH 1986 519 WOMEN1;1 EDUCATION
more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985). 5. Moore and Smith, "Courmwork..."; and Pal- las and Alexander, "Reply to Benbow and Stan- ley." 6. Carol Dwyer, "Test Content and Sex Differ- ences in Reading,"Reading Teachervol. 29, 1976, pp. 753-57; Camille Benbow and Julian Stanley, "Sex Differences in Mathematical Abili- ty: Fact or Artifact,"Science, vol. 210, 1980, pp. The School 1262-64; and idem, "Differential Course-Taking Hypotheses Revisited,"AmericanEducational Re- search Journal,Winter 1983, p9. 469-73. 7. Lockheed et al.,Understanding...;and Ben- xeriences of bow and Stanley, "Sex Differences...." 8. Elizabeth Ferinema and Mori Koehler, "The Affective Variable: Confidence in Learning Math- ematics," paper presented at the annual meeting of lack Girls: the American Educational Research Association, New York City, 1982; Lynn Fox, "The Problem of Women and Mathematics,' paper prepared for The Inte ction of the Ford Foundation, 1980; Stage et al., "Increas- Gende ing. ."; and Westin& Matthews, influences on the Learning and Participation of Minorities in Mathematics,"Journal for Research in Mathemat- Race, and ocioeconomStatus ics Education,vol. IS, 1984, pp. 84-95. 9. J.S. Haller and R. M. Haller,The Physician and Sexuality in Victorian America(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1974),P. 51. 10. G. Stanley Hall,Adolescence, Vol. II(New York: Appleton, 1905), p. 633. 1 I. G.B. Kolata, 'Math and Sex: Are Girls Born with Les% Ability?,"Science,vol. 210, 1980, pp. 1234-35. by Diane Scott4ones and MaxiL. Clark 12. Jane Stallinp,Comparisons of Men's and Women Behaviors in High School Math Classes (Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Educa- Girls who belong tion, 1980); and Lucy Sells, 'High School Mathe- to "ca e-like minorities" matics as the Critical Filter in the Job Market' Graduate Education,May 1983, pp. 39-47. experience discriminatimat several levels, say 13. Josephine Davis, "Effect of Mathematics CourseEnrollmentonMinorityStudents' the authors, who outleethe researchon this Achievement in Secondary School," unpublished manuscript, Mathematics Department, Albany thorny issue. State College, Albany, Ga., 1985. 14. Patricia Campbell, 'The Computer Revolu- E INTEND to examfne inscience ari'd mathematics and in verbal tion: Guess Who's Left Out?,"Interracial Books for Children Bulletin, this article the aciiidemic,skills. We Will discuss the educational vol. 15, 1984, pp. 3.6. social, 15. Elizabeth Fennema and Julia Sherman, "Sex and motivationalexpectations, ,aspirations, and motiva- Related Differences in Mathematics Achievement experiences oflack fe-tions of black kmales and examine their and Related Factors: A Further Study,"Journal males in the schools. Clearl,girls whoeducational and occupationalattain- for Research in Mathematics Education, vol. 9, belong to caste-like mino,rities experi-ments. We will \describe the ways in 1978, pp. 189-203; and Eleanor Maccoby and ence discrimination at veral levels.which parental methods of socializa- CarolJacklin, 'The Psychology of Sex Differences Since black males also (Stanford,Calif.:StanfordUniversityPress, xperience dis-tion, teacher/studeOt interactions, and 1974). crimipation, the relatiohship of black fe-peer interactions correlate with aca- 16. Fennema and Koehler, "The Affective Varia- males to their male counterparts isnotdemic achievement. e will also sug- ble...." the same as the relationship of white fe-gest the directions in which research 17. Lockheed et al., p.I II. males to white males. Likewise, the pat- 18. Ibid. and practice ought to moving. tern of sex differences among blacks Space does not permit 19. Lockheed et al.,Understanding.... s to examine may differ from that among whites. the school experienceso females who 20. Stage et al., "Increasing...," P. 257. Few research studies have focused 21. Stage et al., "Increasing...," pp. 259-60. belong to other minority 8ups. More- 22.Mathematics Education of Girls and Young on both race and gender; moreover, re-over, less data are availablen many of Women(Reston,Va.:NationalCouncil of searchers have frequently confoundedthese groups than on blackWe do Teachers of Mathematics, 1980). socioeconomic status with minority-know that, with the exceptionf a few 23. Caroline Ricks, "Encouraging Girlsin group membership. Though hampered Mathematics,"TABS: Aids for Ending Sexism in Asian-American groups thatchieve Schools,vol. 3, 1983, pp. 3-4. by these.realities, we will review in thiswell in school, minorities shareome- 24. Joyce Baldwin, "Ten Steps Toward a Nonsex- article The findings that are availablewhat similar patterns of low sool ist Science Experience,"TABS: Aids forEnding on the achievement of black females inachievement. We know, as well, at Sexism in Schools, vol. 3, 1983, p. 2. minorities differ. It is importanttt 25. Cheate YOUrOptions(Los Angeles: Univer- sity of California at Los Angeles, n.d.). DIANE SCOTT-JONES is an assistantwe consider the school experiences o 26. Selma Greenberg, "Educational Equity in professor of psychology at North Carolinaall minority groups; therefore, future Early Education Environments," in Klein,Hand- State University, Raleigh, and MAXINE L. research especially major national book...:and Mary Budd Rowe, "Science Edu- CLARK is an associate professor of psychol-studies should focus on collecting cation: A Framework for Decision Makers,: ogy at Wake Forest University, Winston-adequate data from which to drawcon- Daedalus,vol. 112, 1983, pp, 123-42. 9114 Salem, N.C. clusions about such groups.
520 PHI DELTA KAPPAN 145 dEST COPY AVAILABLE .x
EDUCATION SEXISIVTOGGELERIEpOLS:
014.: 15 at IP finordy'"Krr"-r"*IP By Mary Conroy er says. "Sometimes I think that if the cue for can- Thefirst day of school cer ts in the mind of a girl, began with a simple re- there's a good chance we'll quest. The boys were never get it." asked to sit In the front of the room; the girls were How does It happen? assigned desk* out in the It's not that teachers de- halt Then the teacher liberately exclude girls, says closed the door on them Dr. Barbara Kerr of the Uni- and started class. Schools hays Mod to shako sexism: versity of Iowa, author of The case may be fictional, but the pat. Smart 'kris, Gifted Women. "Teachers tarn isnot.Forall the attention girls Os now compels in sports that are making a great effort to overcome receive in school, they might as well be ono woeclosed to them But new sexism," she says. Most teachers aren't confined to the hallway. studio show that girls got cheated aware that they treat boys and girls According to education professors from Idndwgartos to WIN& differently, according to Kerr. Myra and David Sadker of American Yet studios clearly show that they do. University,teachersinteract more Here's what research reveals: with boys at every grade leveL It Feedback. Teachers praise boys far doesn't matter whether the teacher is DUMBER BY DEGREES more than girls, the Sadken say. Boys male or female:classroom scalestilt Sexism doesn't stop at the also receive more criticism. The bene- firmly in favor of the boys. Over time, grade school door, according to fits Boys get more encouragement and that imbalance could put your daugh- recant studies. Here's what hap. more chances to improve. They also ter at real risk. pens as girls move through school. learn how to handle criticism. Gifts :test school with higher test Attention. The Sadkers found that What difference does scores than boys. But by the tirne boys call out for teacher attention eight it mak? they take the SAT, girls trail boys by times more than girls. And boys get it: The result of this sex bias isn't 'u- 57 points. when they speak out of turn in discus- prising, Myra Sadker says. "It's like in coed schools, women speak 21t sions, teachers accept the remarks as flowers in a garden. If you don't water times less often in class than their contributions. When girls do the same. them and nurture them, they don't male college classmate. teachers tell them to raise their hands. grow well." After Me first year of college, worn- Instruction. When students need help. Girlsstartschoolwithhigher teachers give the boys more detailed di- achievement. But by high school gradu- en show sharper drops in self-oonli- denim than men do. The longer rections, but actually do the work for ation, boysoutperformthem on mcet the girls. Thus, boys learn to be compe standardized tests, even in so-called woman stay in school, the lower their se-confidence. tent and girls learn to be helpless, say "female" areas like English. the Sadkers. Such testscoresmake a big differ- Women get less than 17 percent of doctorates in math and Origin. Literature Children's books still por. ence: girls are lees likely to be accepted tray a lopsided view of the world. Lr. by prestigious colleges. These who do e A mere 10 percent of all high those that have won the prestigious get in lose out on scholarships. In Niw school cendpele we worrierie Caldicott Medal. 10 boys are pictured York, for instance 67 percent of Ern- smeller percentege1hen in the 1960s. for every girl. pire State Scholarships go to boys and 0* 11 percent ot all MI profs. Other research complements the 27 percent go to girle amording to Fair- sore we &dims' findings: Test, the National Center ('r Fair ind Samna (Mel* cif Mink Cc* Course Maeda& Schools still discour Open Testing. (Names for the other 6 laps 8m4 Nations/ Ciinew Ice Eds. age girls ken taking math, science. percent could have been male or fe- colon Stillatz 1ittment Raman* computer, and vocational claw, ac. male so Meru* didn't include them) and Equily Insilas,Havird thkeral cording to tbs Project on Equal Educa- When bright girls get locked oat of ty, 0.61-01ifenilt Calor kr Sot Equity. tion Rights of the Legal Defense anc college, the whole nation eufftnk David ccntineed on page 4t SEXISM DI OUR SCHOOLS
continued front page 44 Chalk the bulletin boards. "Very ti-Urge the school board to hire fe Education AIM of the National Orga-tan a towbar with no intention diningmale administrator* When girls a; nisation for Women. unfair uses pictures of male athletesways see female teaches and mai, Remedial amistance Girl' don't getand male political figures,"says MyraPrincipal& they lam that caring i special help for learning or behaviorSadker. If all the posters show heroicottlY for wenn and leading is only fo disorders until they are older and fur-men, girls get the MINIM that onlymen, Kerr say& Ask your board to re ther behind in school than boys withmen can be winners. similar emit administntors from the lam disabil- poolof afraid: ities, according to Dr. Jane Mercer qualified women. of the University REALEMON ADDSZING TO HOLLANDAISE...TO Ask the schoo of California at MAYONNAISE...TO BAKED HAMGLAZE...CHICKEN TERI- principal to ot ferretrainin, Riverside. YAKL..OR RUMAKI...GIVES SIZZLE TOA SUKIYAKI...IN A workshop* Th TUNA BAKE...ON SIRLOINSTEAK...WHIPPED WITH Sadkers foun, What can RICOTTA...ZPS UP VEAL PICCATA...AND parents do? CHIPS WILL FUP that only a fev With so much WHEN IT'S ADDED T UMMER ICE...Exanc days of intensiv . stacked RICE...SNAPS UP trng can dry against GREENS...ADDS matically chang her,will TANG TO your ..SPARKS UP teachers'habitz daughter ever do TOMAT DAllLES Ask your princ well? Yes, educa- GRA tors saythat is, ND LEM- pal to use teethe if you work with ONAD 2ZNI. workshop days fc her school. Here's BAK training in nor =IVES A sexist teachin what you can do: UFT REAT Observe her techniques. BA ICE class.Spend a PO day ABLE HOPIng girls atschooL at home Keep a tall,of ME how many times GE Not all sexisn -10PS can be blamed oz boys and girls get ZJN TOR- teachers. Much c to answer qua* TE tions. If the clam , NS it begins at horn( is fairly evenly di- A S TO Here's how yo, vided MAKE:. can avoid sexism between t...ADDS Use a "can-do boys andgirls, ZEST TO; ...UNGUINI they should an- attitude. Daugh ...ZUCCHI ...MIXED IN A tars esceciall swer roughly the SPREAD...BAK same number. tend toimitat Meet withthe POPS...UNGUINI...OR 1 L.AND T their mothers. I teacher and tact, GIVES A LIFT TO SOUFFLE...APATE...0 you so, "This is z fully discuss the hard pralem, bu REAEMON PERKS UPAU. KINDS OF FISHES I bet I can solv results. EN DISHES ITS JUST Pay attention to DEUCIOUS...MAKES A it,"instead c the seating and PIZZAZZY ..A BARBECUEJAZZY...AND P "Math just isn' grouping. 'nen BROCCOU BECOMES SIMPLYSNAZZY my thing," you studentschoose Soto Ow MP daughter will nc their own seats, ticsandfolk% the girls cluster your example. Teach you tcerether and just TI-EPES NOT1-ING VU cAMT MAKEBETTER Wrn1 REALEhear don'tlearnto daughter to glib work with boys. herodfcredit Studies at Geor Many teachers aim pit boys spinaamain* the teremain Cbunt thegia State Us/vanity show that glris for competitive games. 'Wino I mos number °Ivy:men pictured ina historygirls don't credit themselves for thsi. taught seventh grade, I used to holdboolg compare with the numberof spelling bees with the giris against the own seam When they do well, the: am Petition the school board tosay they were leaky. That only mak boy.," Myra Sedber soya "But I wouldchange books if you're not Midst Iftbam itel mote helpless. Whin never go into a date and my, 'Ws going you_ no textbook is satishcaory, ask thedaughter doss wen, help hersay, "I go to be Haan against whit* or Jewsteacher to consider amigningbiors.that pade became rm mart." against Christians:" she add pby of a suomegul women. consinued on pp 4 NM MONO NO WNW WNW& HI .. ...dadIN. .
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Oar ConsurreePtoehros PEA ) mends such groupsas coed soca? teams, which tsach achievement.tin like girls' poups that teach nurturing However, your adolescent may be better off in a girls' school, accordingtc many educators. At that age, peer prea sure to conform combines with the need to be popular. Evenaseertive pri: fear that showing their intelligence will repel boys. But girls' schoolsremove these pre& sures. Free to take risks, young women develop leadership skills thatcar* RAT over to adult life, according to studio from the Women's College Coalition and George Washington University! Dr. Elisabeth PAWL In fact, new studies show that today!. graduates of women's collegesare to morrow's leaders:
le oddness* pue pews tekse . .. Its tel Ivo sow \ow/ the glris let de. mem skid tket their letelligeme MP.
Dow Bathroom Cleaneris so onxious to They are two to threetimes more clean your bathroom, it's foamingat thetrigger.That's likely to be highcareer achievers than because our new tnggerspray bottle is ready. women graduates of coed schools. Ready to deliver the same foamy, clinging, cleaning *They are represented inCongress bunch of Scrubbing Bubbles"' as our aerosol. and on the boards of Fortune500 com- Bubbles that tub, scrub, disinfect,deodorize and shine your bathroom till it spontles. panies at a rate six times higherthan could be predicted by chence. So whether you like tozap grime with an oerosol or blost it with a tngger spray Dottie, reach for Dow They are twiceas likely to earn doc- Bathroom Cleaner with ScrucoingBubbles, and let torate degrees as otherwomen gradu- us do your dirty work. ates of coed colleges. They appearon Business Week's 1987 list of top corporatewomen at a rate six times beyond their numbersin the population. "When girls go to single-sexschools, they stop being the audience SEXISM IN OUR SCHOOLS and be- come players," Myra Sadkersays. Will your daughter be a winner? It allde ponds on how she plays the continued 'ruinpar 46 dons. As a readt, they game. Reeogratae your girib math ability. underestimate their own ability in mathand science,Fere mere hasemation Dr. Jacquelyium Eccles ci theUniversi even when they get good grades. Ifyour To learn more about how ty of Michipn says that perentsunder-daughter doss well in sexism af- science risdfacts giria, reed SmartGirls, Gifted estimate their daughters' athtalentsmath, reoognias her talent and onwesdmate their for what itWomen by Barbara Kiwz(Ohio Psy- saw' Adamisand let her know she'sgifted. even when hods bring home thesone chology Prim 81435-) amiss. Whengirl earns gocd grades To learn how it affects boys,read Ms Wks! Moe that in math. meats credit the markstoailed sellissist Bind. Send 12 to PEER,1333 II St., hard work when a boy does the NW, llth Floor, Dept. BHG,Washing- son* The best time for girlsto Isom toton, DC 20001 4 meats all him gad work and play with boy,is in grade Eccles also found that intime, girls To reed more watch forthe Sedkers school. By playing with boys,girls learnHow t o Rale a Sueameliel pick up on their parents'misoonosp Daughter, to to explore Iowa's Dr. ICerrnom-be released later thisrear.at I ) Girls: Drawbacksof EarlySuccess? Jane enters the classroom and goes from overcontrol, but she isnot seen boys had caught up straight to the teacher to show hera or surpassed 25 having a problem. If anything, she them in math achievement.In par- picture she drew last night. She is rewarded for her behavior, even ticular, girls had lost ground insolv- remains at Ms. Gallo's side for as long though in the long run it may hamper as possible, engaging diligently in ing problems that requiredan her development of independence understanding of when to apply whatever activity is at hand, and and self-esteem. the whenever the opportunity presents skills at which theywere proficient. itselfhelping to pass out papers The very structure of the school To explain thispattern, the or pencils, collect milk money, or daywith its division into required researchers developed the and free play segmentshelps following even resolve a conflict between two to hypothesis: because themistakes classmates. determine whose deficitsare noticed made by the third-grade boys and addressed, points were out Selma highly visible, teachersmay have Greenburg of Hofstra University. given them additionalinstruction Whether he wants to or not, Dennis and informationexplainingnot A girl who suffers has to participate in such verbalpur- only the particular ruleor procedure from overcontrol may suits as show and tell, and in activi- to use in that type of problem but ties like cutting or painting thatwork also why and when that procedure not be seen as having on small muscle development. But might be used. The third-gradegirls, a problem. Jane can avoid activities that might meanwhile, got correctanswers help her develop new strengths. more often 2nd more quickly than For example,activitiesthat the boys. Thus their deficiencies Dennis enters the classroom develop gross motor, exploratory, (such as automatically applyinga engaged in a shoving matchwith and spatial skillslikc buildingwith rule to a problem withoutnecessar- blocks, or catching insects for Joey. They are racing tosee who can a ter- ily undertanding theconceptual get to the block corner first. Dennis rarium. or playing cops and robbers relations involved) went unnoticed and uncorrected. makes a face at Jane as shepasses out on the playgroundare often left to "choice time" or recess. Not the handwriting assignment,then sur- reluctantly picks up a pencil, and prisingly when participationis vol- within seconds has jumpedup to untary. many children fall back head toward the pencil sharpener on traditional sex-rolepatterns. The mistakes made brandishing his broken point. As Greenburg notes, thissituation by third-grade boys involves double jeopardy for girls. were highly visible. Stereotypes? To be sure. Most girls The school does not requirethat they are not the teacher's pet, andmost work on these skills, andthey are - boys are not Dennis the Menace.But blamed for not taking advantage it does seem true that, in the of early opportunities to do so. This study, like Greenburg'swor years of school, boys are more likely spotlights an often overlooked to end up in the principal's office and A similar logic may helpto explain popu- lation of studentsthe "Janes" who girls on the honor roll. Teachers and why girls who startout doing much begin school most ableto meet insti- ( hservers consistently note a sex- better than boys in math donot tutional expectations. It isimpor- typed pattern of adjustment,with maintain this advantage. Comparing the patterns of math achievement tant to ask whether theirapparent girls generally finding it easierto trengths mask areas where conform to the routines and and errors of boys and girlsover a they expecta- c suld use attention and help. tions of the classroom. three-).ear period, SandraMarshall and Julie Smith of San DiegoState But this does not mean that a class- University found thatas early as Fo Furtherinformation room environment is good for girls third grade many girlsdemonstrated S. (;reenhurg. "Educational Equityin Early Educa- and bad for boys. Ironically, themore tion Environments." In Handbook foreicbleving well-developed and automaticrules Sex Equity tbrougb Education, ed. S. closely girls resemble Jane, themore Klein. Balti- for arithmetic operations.Boys, in more:Johns Hopkins University Press.1985. disadvantaged they may be. For contrast, often made mistakes in S. Marshall and J. D. Smith. "Sex Differencesin example, it is evident to Ms. Gallo their application of rules Learning Mathematics. A Longitudinal Studywith that Dennis has a problem and also Item and Error Analyses "Journal of Educational control- tended to makeerrors from lack of Psycbology 79, no. 4 I NB"): 372-383. ling his impulses, and she reminds, attention to details. instructs, and scolds him accord- ingly. Meanwhile, Janemay suffer While sixth-grade girls continued to excel in many arithmetic skills, ed
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Research Matters...To The Science Teacher
ENCOURAGING GIRLS Use laboratories, discussions, and weekly quizzes as their primary modes of instruction and supple- IN SCIENCE COURSES ment those activities with field trips and guest speaker& AND CAREERS Stress creativity an4 basic skills and provide career information. By Jane Butler Kahle Factors which discourage girls in science: High school counselors who do not encourage In the United States women comprise approxi- further courses in science and mathematic& mately 50% of the work force, yet only 9% are employed Lack of information about science-related career as scientists and engineers. Factors contributing to opportunities and their prerequisites. this situation have been analyzed in research studies. Sex-stereotyped views of science and scientists Explanations have rsnged from differences in spatial which are projected by texts, media, arid many ability related to a sex-linked gene to differences in adults. early childhood toys and game& One study reported a Lack of development ofspatial ability skills (which dramatic decline in positive attitudes r3ward science could be fostered in shop and mechanical drawing as girls mature. The authors attribute this decline to classes). startling inequities in the number of science activities Fewer experiences with science activities and experienced by males and females in elementary and equipment which are stereotyped as masculine secondary classrooms. In addition, the analysis of (mechanics, electricity, astronomy). ths results from the 1981-82 National Assessment of The teachers, both male and female, who were Educational Progress science study indicate that girls successful in motivating girls to continue to study continue to score below the national mean on all science practiced *directed intervention:' That is, science achievement items and to express negative girls were asked to assist with demonstrations; were attitudes toward science. Although societal, educa- required to perform, not merely record, in the labora- tional, and personal factors are all involved, differ- tories; and were encouraged to participate in science- ences within the science classroom may be a contrlu- related field trips. In addition, teachers stressed the ting factor to low interest of women in science and utility of math and science for future careers. scientific careers. Both male and female students in the schools However some girls like science and continue to identified as "positive toward girls in science"were study science. In order to determine what motivates questioned about their attitudes toward science and these girls to pursue science courses and careers, a science careers. When compared witha national group of researchers conducted nationwide surveys sample, the students in these schools had a much to identify teachers who have motivated high school more positive outlook. This difference was especially girls to continue in science. In addition to assessing pronounced among girls. When asked how frequently instructional techniqUes, classroom climate, and they like to attend science class, 673'3 of the girls teacher-student interactions, a selected sample of responded "often," compared with 32% of the girls in students (former and current) responded to question- the national sample. And when asked if they would naires which assessed attitudes, intellectual and like to pursue a science-related job, 65% of the girls socio-cultural variables. said "yes," compared with 32% of the girls in the 'No types of research, observational and survey, national sample. were used to gather data for this project. The case This research suggests tnat teaching styles and studies, which were the observational part of this other school-related factors are important inencour- project, provi led information about the student- aging girls as well as boys to continue in science teache r and student-student interactions. Case studies courses and careers. The path to a scientific career are limited in the extent to which they may produce begins in high school and requires skilled and sensi- generalizations applicable to other situations. There- tive teachers. This research identified the following fore, they were supplemented with survey data, de- "Do's" and "Don't's" for teachers who want to foster scribing the abilities, activities, and aspirations of the equity in science classroorns. involved students and teachers. These research efforts led to the following conclusions. DO Teachers who successfully encourage girls in use laboratory and discussion activities science: provide career information Maintain well-equipped, organized, and percep- directly involve girls in science activities tually stimulating classrooms. provide informal academic counseling Are supported in their teaching activities by the demonstrate uitisex treatment in science class. parents of their students and are respected by rooms current and former students. LI, nr-c linellige and , -qmples and inr'1. PONT
.1 5 use sexstereotyped examples This research is descrtled in a monograph available distribute sexist classroom materials from the author and in a book, Women in Science: A allow boys to dominate discussions or activities Report From the Field, Miler Press, available sum- allow girls to passively resist mer 1985. For further information contact: Dr. J.B. Kahle, 221 CHEM, Purdue University, W Lafayette, Indiana 47907. Dr. Jane Butler Kahle is Professor of Biological Sciences and Education and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Purdue University, West Lalay. ette, Indiana. She is a member of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, an organization that seeks to improve science teaching through research.
.151 it Guest Comment: Are there innatecognitive gender differences? Somecomments on the evidence in response to a letter from M.Levin .444.
_ In a recent letter, Professor Michael Levin' states that It should also be pointedout that Benbow and Stanley "It is not disputed that males outperformfemales on tests of attach considerable importance mathematical ability" [my emphasis] to a rather nonstandard and further attri- statistic, the male:female ratiofor high scorers (whocon- buia this phenomenon to innate (i.e.,biological) gender stitute much less than 1% of their differences. In fact, the only element in his sample). In discussing assertions that is the question of whether thegender gap is decreasing in not strongly disputed is that in North America the average time, Benbow' asserted thatthis ratio "has remained rela- of boys' scores exceeds that of girls'on the math SAT and tively constant over...15 similar standardized tests, such years [ 1972-86]" at about 12:1 as the ACT. However, as for scores >700. Something unusualmust have happened discussed below, this disparity does not necessarilypersist in 1988; Hopkins'own data"." give ratios" of about 4:1 when other types of math testsare used, nor is it uniform for 1988, and 8:1 for 1989. Finally, # across cultures. Moreover, no less prestigious it should be emphasized a scientific that, lower math SATscores notwithstanding, the girls body than the British Royal Society' (hardlya bastion of Benbow and Stanley tested in junior high radical feminist theory) concluded after subsequently out- thorough study performed boys by receiving highergrades in high-school that there was no convincing evidencefor innate gender math courses!' difference in mathematical ability. Although the SAT does notappear to have been system- Because of the widespread belief that boys do outper- atically studied across cultures inother countries, the In- form girls on most mathematicstests, it is worth emphasiz- IP ternational Association for the Evaluationof Educational ing that the actual picture is farmore complex. A number Achievement gave a different of studies' have shown that girls perform battery of tests to eighth- as well as boys grade children in 20 different countriesin 5 different sub- on some types of mathematical tests. Two studies,one us- ject areas of mathematics. These ing an advanced high-school mathematics class' JAM were subsequently and an- analyzed for gender differencesby Hanra" who found other. using entering freshmen at AmericanUniversity,' that in some countries and subjects showed no significant gender differences girh outperformed on achievement boys; in others, the reverse. In 111cases, the dizirences be- tests despite lower math SATscores for femeies in both tween countries were much larger thanthe differences be- groups. The results of over 100 studieswere analyzed by tween the sexes. In three subjects (algebra, Hyde et al." who found that the math arithmetic, and SAT produced a statistics) there wereno significant overall sex differences; substantially larger gender differencethan their "meta- however, there were small differences analysis". of other mathemaiics favoring boys in tests. Moreover, the size of mess,....nment and geometry. In view of the latter'spossible the gender gap varies with ethnic subgroup."One study' connexAion to alleged differences in spatial reported that the gap is largest for Hispanics ability, the re- and smallest sults in this area were analyzed fbrther.With a few excep- for Afro-Americans. Finally, it also worthemphasizing tions, the difference between the that, as Levin admits, gender differences sexes was not statistically in math scores do significant in those countries with highgeometry scores, not generally emerge until the early teens.' whereas it was significant in those Levin buttresses his assertions by reference countries (including the to the widely US) with low scores. In fact, theaverage scores for Ameri- publicized work of Benbow and Stanley '° basedupon stud- can boys and girls were 39.7 and 37.9, respectively; ies Of "mathematically precocious youth" the (SMPY) ema- "gender gap" of 1.8 pales in comparisonto the abyss be- nating from Johns Hopkins University.The journal Beha- tween American students and those of vioral and Brain Sciences published top-scoring Hun- a lengthy review' (by gary and Japan, in which all subgroups hadaverages in the Benbow) of this work, accompanied byover 40 critiques 55-60 range. While the and a rebuttal by Benbow. The assertion that nature of the study does not allow their work is any definitive rankings between countries, the sizeof the "... especially notable for controlling forthe socialization gaps clearly demonstrates that cultural factors variables...," which Levin makes in his and educa- letter, has been so tional systems are farmore important than gender. widely debatecf"." that it hardly meritsfurther discus- Levin's assertion of gender differences sion. Let me only suggest that in spatial ability anyone inclined to take this might appear to beon firmer ground. However, careful claim seriously read the critiques accompanying Benbow's examination of the evidence again givesa less convincing review..There are, however,some less publicized aspects of picture. In 1985, Caplan, et al." surveyed the BenbowStanley work worthy of the literature on comment. the subject and found serious inconsistencies,a lack of con- .A noteworthy omission from Benbow's report°is the clusive evidence, and difficulties with fact that, before the young (typically, the construct itself. seventh grade) chil- Their description ofone widely cited set of experiments is dren ;ake the exam, Stanley's misterat Hopkins sends them worth repeating. a brochure" containing the information that boysout- .i.." perform girls on the math SAT. In addition to the very real Portals (1965) has reported that in 99out of 105 studies possibility that it could bias their results, thistransgression ; males obtained higher test represents such a serious and fundamental scores than females on his test error in experi- in which examineesare asked to draw their way through mental design as to cast doubtupon the validity of their line mazes. These figures entire enterpsise. In a related vein, Eccles are impressive, but a closer and Jacobs" ob- examination...reveals serious flaws. served that widespread news reports of Benbow and Stan- .Porteus himself reported that in only 7 ley's assertions have lowered parents' 18 of the 105 perceptions of their studies were t tests done, and in only4 of those did they daughters' mathematics ability. Thus itappears likely that reach statistical significance. Accordingly, ik,,,'.. he then guts- Benbow and Stanley may now be contributingto the very tiond the pliability of the t test ":. effect they purport to as a tool to detect signifi- measure. cant differences. He reportedno other statistical tests ;I.:. !t: Am. .1. Phys. 59 (1), January 1991 15, @ 1990 American Association of Physics 4. Teachers 11 from any of the 105 studies. that of little importance. None of the testsmeasure large Caplan et al.'s further report that, althougha significant gender differences, and there is substantial evidence thatat Sex difference was thus demonstrated in only4 out of 105 least some of those differencescan be attributed to culture, studies, these results have been widely cited as attesting to education, and social factors. Therefore,any reasonable male superiority in spatial ability with some reviewers im- interpretation of the data gives evidence for,at most, a very plying that significant differences were actually found in 99 small average gender difference in ability, of the studies. yielding a sub- stantial cohort of women quite capable ofsuccessftil car- It is also worth noting that the size of thegap varies with eers in science and engineering. Unfortunately,even these the testing procedures used.'Indeed, the types of tests women may be discouraged by the publicity and distor- used to measure spatial and verbal ability raisesome ques- tions. Indeed, it is not uncommon for girlsat the very top of tions. For example, The New York nmesgave front-page the distribution (e.g., first in a math class)to be told that publicity to a study which asserted that women's verbal they cannot be scientists because girls (in general)aren't as and spatial abilities fluctuated with the level ofestrogen in good as boys. (My own experiencewas that such com- their bodies." Verbal ability was reportedly tested bytim- ments are most likely to come from nonscientists; however, ing how fast the women could say "A box of mixed biscuits other women scientists have reported differently.) Nor is in a biscuit mixer" five times in succession. there much evidence for Levin's assertion thatparents who Levin's suggestion that MIT's admissions policy reflects encourage sons in math more ...him daughters are reflecting --itr standards for women should not go unchallenged. I their children's performance. On the contrary,Eccles et discussed his assertions with representatives of theadmis- al." have found that parents oftendeny their daughters' sions office and one member of the physics faculty. Whileit math ability even when they perform well, Ls true that the average math SAT and that this scores of the women phenomenon has been exacerbated by the publicity givento admitted to MIT are slightly lower than those of themen, assertions of innate gender differences.' all those I contacted emphasized that this didnot result in a It is worth observing that thesame forces that discour- lowering of standards." On the contrary, their policyre- age capable women from scientific careers often simulta- sults in a student body in which women perform,as mea- neously encourage boys with mediocre talent. There is evi- sured by college grades, as well as men at MIT. Moreover, dence that female etudents generally receive higher grades on average, women do as well as men across departments in calculus than male stgdents. For example, Hughes"re- (including physics) so that their success cannot be attrib- ported the results of a Levey in which 31% ofwomen vs uted to any preference for "softer" coursesas alleged by 20% of men received A; 34% of Levin. women vs 27% of men received B; but only 15% ofwomen vs 25% of men re- -In addition, almost all of MIT's studentsscore above 700 ceived Dor F. Because fewer women choose to study calcu- on the math SAT; and the College Board's own guidelines lus, such differences say little about relative ability, but imply that one cannot draw conclusions about the relative they do say something sobering about the caliber ofstu- ability of students whose scores differ by as much as 70 dents pursuing various career paths. Myown experience, points.2' MIT's policy is also consistent with boththe Col- which I suspect is typical,suggests that the picture is even lege Board's strong recommendation that SATscores not more distorted than the data indicate. Women who receive be used as the sole basis for admissionn and with a number calculus grades of C, or even low B, rarelypursue careers in of studies showing that other factors, such as high-school science or engineering; however, I have frequentlyencoun- grades, may correlate better with college math perfor- tered men who intend to become engineers despite repeated mance than the SAT.2w As noted above, Benbow and calculus grades at the D or low C level. Thus itappears our Stanley themselves report' that, lower math SATscores society's propensity to encourage childrenon the basis of notwithstanding, the girls in their SMPY study subse- gender stereotypes rather than achievementmay actually quently outperformed the boys in mathematicscourses. serve to lower standards. '..evin distorts Professor Janice Button-Shafer'sargu- Furthermore, there are several examples of high-quality ment', when he suggests that she necessarily finds a 50/50 educational environments in which males and femalesper- ratio for male and female physicists intrinsically optimal. form equally well." This leadsme to speculate that some of Her thesis. (amply supported by data fromgovernment the gender gap observed in North Americamay be the re- agencies End professional societies)2" is that thecurrent sult of deficiencies in our educational system, andto hope percentage of women in physics is much lower than the that improved math and science education would diminish percentages in mathematics and other areas of science and the sex differential. Real reform will requirean enormous engineering which require the same type of skills and abili- investment in both personnel andresources, as well as ties as physics. Furthermore, a number of other countries, changes in attitude. I believe such effortsare worth the including Belgium, France, Israel, Spain, Poland, and Chi- price, and will reduce the gendergap; in any case, the worst na, have far more women physicists in high-level positions that could happen is that we would have better male scien- than the US.In the US, even girls in advanced math tists. classes are much less likely to study high-school physics As a physical Pr.:elitist, accustomedto quantitative rea- than boys at the same level of mathematical ability; accord- soning and objc..,..ve, reproducible experiments, Ifound ing to American Institute of Physics data,' 80% of such reading some oF km; );.eratureon this subject, particularly boys study physics, but only 60% of girls. The point isnot the reviews by Benbow9 and Caplanet al.,' to be almost that, in a perfect world, a 50/50 ratio would be either inevi- surreal at times. Most of the respondentsto Benbow's re- table or desirable, but that many capablewomen do not view9 were identifiedas affiliated with psychology depart- pursue careen in the physical sciences, often making criti- ments; a few w:th education or biosciences (e.g., neurophy- cal decisions at a rather young age. siology ); but not one froma department of mathematics, I do agree with Levin that a complete absence of innate statistics, or physical science. Althoughmany of these re- gender differences has also not been established, but find spondents gave very cogent critiques, Imissed the voice of
12 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 59, No. 1, January 1991 1 5 3 Guest Comment 12 a statistician and regret the consequent lack of a serious science," Edna Rm. 111, 17-27 (1919). critique about the reliability of inferences obtained from C. Norman, "Math Macedon: A mixedpicture," Science 241, 408-409 data in the tail of a curve.It isunderstandable that experi- (1911). ments in psychology and education do not meetthe same '1C- R. 0001101a sad M. W. Gray, "Gender biasin standardized math- standards of rigor and objectivityas those in a physics labo- ematics tests," preprint. ratory. However, that isno excuse for presenting specula- 'E. CU. Morro and A. Wade Smith,"Sea and ethnic group differences in tion based upon dubiousdata to the news media andgen- mathematics achievement," J. Res,Math. Edw. 11, 25-36 (1917), eral public as if itwere scientific fact. 'C. P. Benbow, "See difference' inmathematical rosaries ability in It may be useful for physiciststo compare the gender intellectually talented preadolescents: Theirnature, effects, and possible causes," Behav. Brain Sol 11, 169-232 difference controversy with therecent suggestion of a "fifth (1911). force" or other modification I°C. P. Benbow and J. C. Stanley, "Seedifferences in mathematical abi- to Neiton's law of gravity." lity: Pact Of artifact," Science 210, In both cases, individual experiments, 1262-1264 (1910). . some of them care- "A. Mead, "Mide superiority in mathenolticalaptitude An artifact," fully done, seem to providestrong support for a particular Hum. Organ. 4$, 273-278 (1989). hypothesis. However, otherexperiments suggest theoppo- "E. Fennems, "Explaining sex-related site. While physicists differences in mathematics: Theo- may not have been entirely satisfied retical models," Edam Stud. Math. 16, 303-320(1985). with the coverage of the "fifthforce" controversy in the "P. Campbell, T. Kibler, and KathrynCampbell-Kibler, 'ThHe SAT at news media, they did at least report the existenceof contra- twelve A family's view of the Johns Hopkinstalent search," Coll Prep. dictory data. By contrast, thenews media frequently report (in press). Campbell reports that shewas unable to end a reference to speculative work alleginga gender diffe.ence as if it were this aspect of the program inany of Benbow and Stanley's numerous scientific fact, but givescant attention to those who find publications describing their research. otherwise. "Center for Advancement of AcademicallyTalented Youth, "Educa- tional Planning Guide," Johns HopkinsUniversity (1989). [This is the It is unfortunate that thecontinued need to rebutasser- tions of sex-based differences brochure sent to Mudents before they takethe SAT through the SMPY in mathematical ability di- program. My copy was received courtesy of P. Cantpbell.) verts attention away from relatedserious issuesnamely, "J. B. Jacobs and I. S. Eccles, the need to find "Gender differences in math ability: The ways to counter the cultural factors that impact of media reports on parents," Educ.Res. 16, 20-23 (1985); J. S. still deter women from studyingthe physical sciences, the Eccla and J. E. Jacob, "Social forces shapemath attitudes and perfor- need to substantially improvemathematics and science mance," Signs 11(2), 36740 (1986). education for children of bothsexes in the United States, 'Center for the Advancement ofAcademically Talented Youth, Me and the need to findways to encourage children of both 1989 Talent Search Repott," Johns HopkinsUniversity (1919). (This sexes and all races to aspire to excellence and brochure was eent to students after theytook the SAT through the choose car- SMPY program. My copy was received eers on the basis of interests and ability ratherthan sexual, courtesy of P. Campbell.) ethnic, and racial stereotypes. "I quote these numbers onlyto refine Benbow's assertion shit this ratio is constant, and to demonstrate that it is simply My own views.onsome of these matters have been not a reliable measure. It is ex- hardly credible that these ratios &al.:iratelydescribe a gender difference pressed elsewhere?' I hopethat other readers will accept which declined dramatically in 1981 Editor Romer's invitation end then doubled in 1919. inany to use this Journal as a forum for case, the ratio was substantially less than 12:1 in bothyears. (Benbow further discussion of howto meet this challenge. also reported that this ratio is only 4:1for Asian-American children.) "P. J. Caplan, G. M. MacPherson,and P. Tobin, "Do me-related differ- ences in spatial abilities exist? A multilevel critiquewith new data," Am. Psycho!. 40, 786-799 (1985). Blakeslee, "Female sex hormone is tiedto ability to perform tasks," I am grateful to many people, including Professor Ri- The New York Times (18 November1988), pp. Al and D20;see also, chard Dudley, ProfessorGila Hanna, Mlyn Jackson,and "Sex hormones linked to task performance,"Science 242, 1509 (1988). Dr. Barbara Peskin, forhelpffil information, discussions, As with many such reports in thenews media, the report wu based upon and comments onan early draft of this manuscript. Need- an oral presentation at a professional conferenceand no citation was given to a published paper in less to say, both the opinionsexpressed here and there- a refereed Journal; nor was sufficient other sponsibility information presented to permit seriousscientific scrutiny. for the accuracy of thecitations are entirelymy own. "Although MIT has not releasedany of their extensive data on these matters in a public report, the Mary Beth Ruskai accuracy of this information was verified, before publication, by two of therepresentatives with whom I spoke. Department of Mathematics "College Board, ATP Guide forHigh Schools and Colleges 1990-91 University of Lowell (CEEB, New York, 1990). Lowell, MA 01854 "Collette Board, Guidelines on the Uses ofCollege Board Test Scores and Related Dam (CEEB, New York, 1988). "The College Board TechnicalHandbook for the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Achievement Tests, editedby T. F. Dolan (CEEB, New York, 'M. Ltvin, "Womenwhy 1984). so few?" Am. J. Phys. 38, 905-906 (1990). 243 2D. Dickson, "Britain'sRoyal Society condemns . Button-Shafer, "Guest Comment: Why so tew women?" Am. J.Phys. sex bias in math tesch- SS, 13-14 (1990). ing," Science 233, 618-619(1986). "B. F. Porter, "Scientific '0. Hanna, "Mathematicsachievement of lids and boys in resources for the 1990's: Wbmen, the untapped grade eight: pool," invited paper presented in the Results from 20 countries," Edue.Stud. Math. 20, 225-232 (1989). panel Women in Phoict Whyso 40. Hanna, "Sex differences Pee organised by CSWPat the January 1989 joint APS/AAPT/ in geometry: Results from 20countries," AAAS meeting in San Francisco. paper presented at the Conferenceon Learm ng and Teaching Geometry; (Dr.Porter is manager of the Educa- reprinted in Assoc. Women Math. tion and Employment Statistics Divisionof the American Institute of Newslett 19(4), 10-17 (1989)and 19(5), 14-17 (1989). Physics.) 'J. S. Hyde, E. Fennema, "Statistics on women mathematicianscompiled by the AMS" NotAm. and S. J. Lemon, "Gender differencesin math- ematics performance: A Math. Soc. 37, 946-947 (1990). meta-analysis," Psycho!. Bull. 107, 139-155 "National Science Foundation, (1990); see also M. C. Linn andJ. S. elyde, "Gender, mathematics, "Achieving MI participation ofwomen and in science and engineering" (1989 NSF report); "Women andminori-
13 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 59, No. 1,January 1991 Guest Comment 13
15A ,t ties in science and engineering" (1988 NSF report). "L. Oilman, 'Teaching programs that work," Focus 10(1), 7-10 "National Research council, "Wcmen: Their under-representation and (1910); P. Rogers, "Thoughts on power and pedagogy," inGenderand aim differentials in science and engineering" (1987). Mathematics An International Perspective,edited by I.. Burton "B. Wilson, "Women in physics: An international perspective," CSWP (Maim 1990); reprinted in Amoc. Women in Math. Newel.% 19(4), Om 7(2), 1-3 (1987). 6-10 (1919). Eoc les-Parsont, T. F. Adler, and C. M. Kama* "Socialization of "B. Schwarzschild, "From mine shafts to cliffsthe 'fifth force' remains achievement attitudes and beliefs: Parental influence," Child Dev. 53, 'elusive," Phys. Today 41(7), 21-24 (1988). 310-321 (1982); D. Y. Yee and]. Eccles, "Parent perceptions and attri- M. B. Ruskai, "How stereotypes about science affect the participation of butions for children's math achievement," Sex Roles 19, 317-333 women," invited paper presented in the panelWomen in Physics: Why so (1988). Fed?organized by CSWP at the January 1989 joint APS/AAPT/ "R. J. Hughes, "Cakulus reform and women undergraduates,"in Coku- AAAS meeting in San Francisco. M. B. Ruskai, "Why women are dis- lus foraNew Century, editedby L A. Steen (MAA, Washington, DC, couraged from studying science," The Scientist (5 March 1990); re- 1987), pp. 125-129. printed in the June 1990 int/ ftheCSWPOaz.
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD: DOING ONE'S DAMNEDEST WITH ONE'S MIND, NO HOLDS BARRED
It seems to me that there is a good deal of ballyhoo about scientific method. I venture to think that the people who talk most about it are the people who do least about it. Scientific method is what working scientists do, not what other people or even they themselves may say about it....I think that the objectives of all scientists have this in commonthat they are all trying to get the correct answer to the particular problem in hand. This may be expressed in more pretentious language as the pursuit of truth....All these things .together give that !'objectivity" to science
I . which is often thought to be the essence of the scientific method. But to the working scientist himself all this appears obvious and trite. What appears to him as the essence of the situation is that he is not consciously following any prescribed course of action, but feels complete freedom to utilize any method or device which in the particular situation before him seems likely to yield the correct answer. In his attack on his specific problem he suffers no inhibitions of precedent or authority, but is completely free to adopt any course that his ingenuity is capable of suggesting to him. No one standing on the outside can predict what the individual scientist will do or what method he will follow. In short, science is what scientists do, and there are as many scientific methods ass there are individual scientists. Percy W. Bridgman, Reflections ofa Physicist (Philosophical Library, New York, 1955), 2nd ed., pp. 81-83.
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14 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 59, No. 1, January 1991 Guest Comment 14 144tgirliVioltt Ito'osto Sexism In the Classroom m0.1 Robin Huntington
An earlier version of this article appeared in our last issue, but, while printing thecorrect photograph, we listed the wrong person as the article's author. To rectify our error, we are printinga revised version, this time taking care to give credit where creditis due.
oday women comprisemore than ing and maintaining more eye-contact A total of forty classeswere ob- 1 half of the American undergradu- T with them. Recall that grades show served. Table One shows how these ate student population, a proportion that such differences inencourage- classrooms compared with respectto suggesting that women are finally at- ment are not based on differences in class size, instructor gender, and taining the equality they've so ear- course content mastery. course content. With few exceptions nestly sought. But according to Hall The study just cited focusedupon all students observedwere white, (1982), there are grounds for chal- opinions. And thoughmany research- middle-class males and females be- lenging the assumption thatwomen ers have observed teacher-pupil inter- tween 18 and 25 years old. For each and men attending thesame classes actions in elementary school, parallel gender, participationscores, mean are receiving the same education. studies of college classrooms could percentage length scores, and mean Furtherore, while more women not be located. This articlereports percentage feedback scores were cal- have gained access to higher educa- the author's effortsto collect such culated (see box). tion, they are not continuing through data to determine whether,as she hy- college, graduate school, and profes- pothesized, observational data would Results sional positions in the samepropor- support and explain Hall's conclu- tions as men. sions. amen participated more than Perhaps something about the col- women. The mean classroom lege experience encouragesmen far participation scoreswere 49 for men more than women to continue The greatest relative disadvan- and 31 for women. Male participa- through graduate school andon to tage for women occurred in tion scores exceeded those of females successful careers. Althoughmen and small classes taught bymen. in classes taught by bothmen and women receive essentially equivalent women. However, the advantage to grades, they differ with respectto Study Design male students wasgreater in classes what they learn about theirown taught by men tha: those taught value as classroom participants. In pecifically, she arranged for 11 by women; thus inc..ases taught by judging their own value andcareer SUniversity of Delaware studentsto men, the participation scores were 44 potential, students place great weight monitor one session of each of their for men and 21 for upon the way professors respond to womena 2-to-1 courses in a designated week. For ratiowhile in classes taught hy their participation and upon the atti- each class, each studentwas asked to women, these scores were SS for men tudes professors express toward them record the general disciplinarylrea of and 42 for womenonly and toward their a 1.3-to-1 same-sex peers. the course, the size of the class, the ration. In a survey of students in six dif- instructor's gender, the numba of The class size datasupport the ferent eastern colleges that bearson male and female students..tending common sense proposition that this point, Hall (1982) found that class that day, the number ofmales smaller classes elicitgreater amounts many students believed that more rec- and females who spoke during class, of student participation. Specifically, ognition and encouragementwere the length of each student's contribu- participation scores in smaller, given to men in the classroom thanto tion, the instructor's feedbackto the medium-sized, and large classes aver- women. They believed that men were speaker (positive, neutral,or nega- aged 76, 21, and 8, respectively. called on more often thanwomen, tive), and any other significantchar- The greatest relative disadvantage and that teachers gavemen more pos- acteristics of the classroom interac- for women occurred in small classes itive responses, for example by mak- tion. taught by men. In these classes, the
100 156 EQUITY 8c EXCELLENCE Vol. 22, Nos. 4-6 male participationscore was 105; vir- Table One: Sample Classrooms by Size, Instructor Gender, and Course Content tually all male students participated, Below 30 Between 30 and Over 100 and many spoke more than once. Students 100 Students Students However, in these same classes, the ! F M F M F , , M female participation score was only Natural Science 0 2 0 2 0 0 42. In contrast, small classes taught Social Science 2 1 4 6 2 4 by women showed a smaller disad- Humanities 4 3 2 1 0 0 Business 1 2 2 1 vantage for women students. Partici- 0 1 pation scores were 87 for men, com- Toral 15 18 7 pared to 69 for women. Another instructor gender differ- ence showed up in medium-sized classes. Men seemed to treat medium- sized classes like large classes; they How Scores Were Calculated elicited relatively little student partici- The women's participation score in a classwas calculated by dividing ob- pation (The gender participation the total number of fetkiale contributions to the class by the total number of ,ese scores averaged 12). In contrast, women in the class and multiplying the quotient by 100; the men's partici- .ct to women appeared to treat their pation score was calculated the same way. Thus ina class of ten men and medium-sized classes like small ten women, if eight men and six women each spoke once, the respective ions classes (The gender participation scores would be 80 for men and 60 for women. scores averaged 33). This was not due In some small classes, especially those meeting in a three-hour seminar, )e- to difference in actual class sizes, some students spoke more than once. Since the number of contributions .:ach which averaged 49 students for male was counted as opposed to the number of particular individuals who spoke, an instructors and 47 for women. some of the scores were greater than 100. For example, if during a class ean A second index of teachers' recog- containing ten men three spoke once, three others spoke twice, andtwo cal- nition and encouragement of students others spoke three times, the participationscore for men in that class would is the relative length of students' class be [(3 + 6 + 6)/101 x 100 = 150. The women'spercentage of long or short contributions. Thinking and idea contributions was determined by dividing the total number of longor short questions or comments take longer to contributions from women in a class by the total number of female contri- express and explain. Matters of fact butions in that class. Similarly, the women'spercentage of positive, neutral, or clarification can be stand more or negative feedback was determined by dividing the number of contribu- om Lriefly. The data show that virtually tions from women that received each type of feedback by the total number men all student contributions in all classes of female contributions. The percentageswere then averaged across classes, pa- were short; overall, only six percent yielding mean percentage scoresper classroom of teacher-student interac- TlaieS were long. To the extent that gender tion. Both mean percentageswere also calculated for men. Id differences appeared, however, they e to again favored men over women. Over ises all classes, nine percent of men's con- ghr tributions were long, compared to A final aspect involves the kind of ence (14 percent negative feedback to t by only three percent of women's. feedback given to students who do female students vs. 2 percent to 're 44 The male students' advantage ap- participate. Feedback in this study males) came in middle-sized classes peared in large and medium-sized both verbal and nonverbalwas clas- taught by women. classes taught by both men and sified as positive, neutral, or negative. Part of the difference in male and r men women, and also in small classes The data showed that virtually all female participation scores could to-1 taught by men. The single category in teacher feedback was either positive have been due to the fact that greater which women offered more lengthly or neutral. There were no systematic percentages of men than women he contributions than men (t.:n vs. five differences between men and women raised their hands to speak in class. percent) was in small classes taught in receiving positive or neutral feed- For example, in a small class, eight of bunts by women. This finding suggests that back in any size class from either ten men might raise their hands but the relative lack of part.zipation and male or female teachers. However, only six of ten women. However, the lower rates of lengthy contributions there was a systematic difference be- difference in hand-raising rates did aver. of women are not due to lack of in- tween men and women students in not account for the difference in par- terest. Given the favorable combina- the amounts of negative feedbackre- ticipation scores. In such situations, :wage tion of a small class and a woman ceived. Women's contributionswere the typical teacher might call upon MC% teacher, their interest becomes mani- more likely to receive negative feed- six of the eight men, but only three of the fest. back than men's. The largest differ- the six women. In addition, especially
4o Processes EQUITY 8C EXCELLENCE 101 157 in smAll classes, many men, but oniy these were observed in threeof the a few women, simply spoke may tell jokts whose "humor"relies up with- classes taught bywomen. They were on traditional femalestereotypes. out raising their hands or being observed in only one class taught by a This pattern is found called on. man. not only in In speaking out, the trend instructors, but also instudents. Male was for In one of the mathclasses, which women to express their contributions students who are patronizingto fe- happened to be taught bya man, the male instructors in question form, endingwith an up- are revealing a basic self-chosen seatingarrangement re- ideology about the inferiority ward inflection of thevoice, even if sulted in 80 percent of the of the contribution women sit- women; furthermore, themore the was actually a COM- ting in the back three-fifthsof the ment rather than a question. For in- behavior is explicitlysexist, the lower room, and 69 percent of themen sit- stance, they frequently began, "Don't the likelihood that thebeliefs are sub- ting in the front two-fifthsof the conscious. you think," while men would begin, r00111. "I've found that." The differences observedin this studythe rates ofparticipation, the Fifty percent of the maleinstruc- Discussion tors engaged in unambiguously sexist length of class contributions,and the tone of classroom feedbackhave behaviors, such as using sexistlan- he fact thatwomen comprise their source and guage, favoring male contributions, T56.5 percent of the Universityof Origiffiri Cultural or making jokes aboutwomen. For Delaware's undergraduate stereotypes about men andwomen. population By the time students example when explaining whyLady but only 23.1percent of its faculty get to college, they have a long history Mac Beth didn't kill Duncanherself, warrants comment. Geis, Carterand of academic experience, as well one male instructor said, "She just Butler (1982) stated thatlater career as of the rewards and punishments it didn't have the ballsliterally."Eight achievements ofwomen are directly can bring them. Tavris and Offir (1977) percent of the men were activelynon- related to thepercentage of women report that in studies of sexist, using nonsexist languageand faculty membersat their colleges. teacher-pupil inter- action in elementary school, examples throughout theirlectures. Identity theory posits thatthe higher boys and girls are treated differently. For the remaining 42percent, there the number of successfulwomen with Teachers praise boys for academic was no basis for judgement,as they whom a woman interacts,the greater successes and criticize them for either spoke in specifics,or did not the likelihood that she willbecome a non-academic matters (e.g., sloppy work interact much with the class. successful woman herself.This hy- or disrup- tive behavior). In Of the female instructors,36 per- pothesis is supported bythe finding contrast, while little girls receive praise for cent showed signs of sexism by favor- that the smallest differencebetween non-academic mattersneatness, being thoughtful ing male contributions,engaging in male and female students'behaviors "flirtatious" behavior wheninteract- were found in classes taught by of others, and "lookingpretty" ing with males,or by using sexist lan- women. their academicsuccesses go unnoted guage. Nine percent of the femalein- (perhaps they are taken forgranted), structors were actively nonsexist, and their academic failuresbring ex- using nonsexist language andex- Women offeredmore lengthy plicit criticism andreprimand. amples, and the remaining55 percent contributions thanmen in small This pattern is likelyto teach gave the observers no basis for judge- classes taught bywomen. males that academicsuccess brings ment. rewards but that failurebrings little A trend found in or no punishment. Incontrast, it is a few classes It is importantto note that most taught by women likely to teach femalesthat academic was for ma'e stu- instructors do not consciously treat successes bring no rewards, but fail- Rms to interrupt them by callingout men and women differently (although while they were speaking.In one so- ures bring punishment. Sucha differ- there have been examplessuch as the science course, two ence in expectations could explain men were ob- biology teacher tellinghis studcits ser ved repeatedly interrupting the f.t- why malesare more willing than fe- that he didn't like havingnursing stu- males to take the risks male instructor. Oneman corrected dents in his class), and of class partic- most would ipation. Then, since ner pronunciation of a scientist's claim that they aren't practice not only sexist. Bern and improves skills, but also Ime, after which she said that it Bern (1970) describe builds self- ,uld be pronounced either a pattern in confidence, the differencein male and way. which individuals overtly Later in the class the reject female participation same man gender-based rates would in- spelled out a word for stereotypes and tradi- crease over time. Thus, college teach- her as she tional definitions of masculinity and ers, who see only the results of this wrote on the board. She hadn't hesi- femininity but inadvertantly allow process, come to believe that male tated or asked for help, andshe them to influence their didn't thank him. Behaviors everyday be- students are more "interestedand ca- such as haviors. For example,an instructor pable" than females. Ofcourse, such 15s 102 EQUITY 8C EXCELLENCE Vol. 22, Nos. 4-6 les conclusions simply perpetuate the tors. They reflect these values in class seat,q arangement also places stereotypes. through such behaviors as using de- wonom A a relative disadvantage In Campbell's theory of stereotyping ferent tones of voice and putting with inpet to note-taking, asking (Geis, Carter & Butler, 1982) de- comments into question form (Frieze, and answering questions, and getting scribes different ways in which 1976). to know the instructor. .1S1L stereotypes lead to error. For one, la- Stereotyping and psychological Colette Dowing (1981) calls the bels tend to distort actual percep- oppression are both relevant to the conflict between being successful ina !e tions, so that they fit the stereotype. effect of class size on the difference traditionally masculine area while Thus when an instructor hears )Wer a between men's and women's class trying to retain one's femininitymay sub. male's comment, his or herstereotype participation rates. Although there entail too much stress for many of the competent, intellectual male was more class discussion in small women to deal with. Dowing calls is may cause him to perceive the contri- classes, it was in such classes that the this conflict "gender panic," and bution as more valuable or insightful rhe ratio of the percent of women speak- Feather and Simon (1975)appear to than it really is. Likewise, a female's the iI ing to that ofmen was the lowest. . have found a basis for it. In particu- comment, due to a stereotype of the Apparently, the greater the opportu-\ lar, they found that when peoplesuc- incompetent, emotional female,may nity for class participation, the ceeded, they were viewed asmore 11. be perceived as less valuable or in- greater the relative disadvantage for powerful and less feminine than when sightful than it actually is. Hagen and women. This difference in opportu- they failed. Some writers (e.g., Tavris mic Kahn (1975) found that men liked nity was most striking in small classes and Offir, 1977) claim that it isnot rds competent women best when they did taught by men. If women believe that "success" itself that women fear, but not have to interact with them. Per- their contributions are less valuable rather the very real punishments (e.g., haps they were trying to avoid seeing than those of men, they are more hostility and social rejection) that ter- something that didn't agree with their likely to refrain from talking. The were often heaped on women who and label. presence of a male authority figure stepped "out of place" by presuming ers Also, according to Campbell, may reinforce the belief in male supe- to demand the privileges such as high .5 stereotypes cause us to assume bio- riority, thereby increasi, the influ- status or high salaries that are tradi- logical causality, and to ignore envi- nic ence of this self-censori.dynamic. tionally associated with "male"occu- .up- ronmental factors. The argument Another concept that might explain pations. little might then be, "Why bother tryingto the behavior of women is Fear of Suc- Until both men and women ac- mic teach women math when they will cess (Horner, 1972). For some, "suc- knowledge and work on eliminating I ful never be as good as men anyway?" cess" and "femininity" appear to be their biases and stereotypes, discrimi- Finally, Campbell asserts thatstereo- desirable but mutually exclusive nation will be perpetuated. And until ted typing leads us into developing justifi- traits. The woman who is ina posi- women develop their own definitions ed). cations for discriminatory actions. tion to attain success may experience of what it means to be "feminine," e. Thus instructors who call onmen a great deal of anxiety because she they will have a hard time dealing rather than women may hold the fears that she will be jeopardizing her with success. However, as long as in- stereotype that men are more intellec- femimnity. structors encourage only half of their %ZS tual, and may justify calling on the students, few women will havea de male by rationalizing that the male chance to try. is probably has more to contribute. Women's contributionswere mic Psychological oppression isa pro- more likely to receive negative ail cess by which a minority group inter- feedback than men's. References fier- nalizes the norms and definitions of Bem, S.L. & Bem, DJ., "Case Study of a the dominant group. It is aprocess Shapiro (1979) argued that itwas Nonconscious Ideology: Training the fe- that can explain why somewomen not success in general that women Woman to Know Her Place." In D.J. Bern, rtic- discriminate against other women. Belief, attitudes and human affairs. Bel- feared, but success in traditionally mont, Calif.; Brooks/Cole, 1970. only Probably subconciously, they have in- masculine areas that is perceivedto Dowling, Colette. The Cinderella Complex. ternalized male-defined values and be incompatible with theconcept of New York: Pocket Books, 1981. and norms, which results in their behav- Feather, N.T. & Simon, J.G., "Reactions to "femininity." Perhaps an anxiety Male and Female Success and Failure in ipT- ing in a way that is detrimentalto about being successful in a tradition- Sex-Linked Occupations: Impressions of ach- their own gender. Psychological ally masculine field may explain why Personality Causal Attributions, and Per- is oppression may also explain whyno ceived Likelihood of Different Conse- women sat in the back of the math quences.* Journal of Personality and Social female student ever objected to the class, a location that presumably Psychology, 1975, 31, 20-31. Ca- use of sexist language or jokes. They would decrease instructor demands Frieze, I. et al. Women and Sex Roles. New .uch hold the same values as theperpetra- York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. for involvement. Unfortunately, this Geis, F., Carter, M., & Butler, D.Research on
. 4o Processes EQU & EXCELLENCE 103 seeing end evaluating people. University of climate: .4 chilly one for women? Delaware. 1982. Associa- Shapiro, Jeremy R, "Fear of tion of American Colleges, Washington, Success Imagery Hagen, Ran,11,6c Kahn, Arnold."Discrimina- D.C., 1981 as a Reaction to Sex-Role Inappropriate tion Against Competent Women." Journal Behavior." Journal of Personality Horner, Manna, S. "Toward an Understand- Assess. of Applied Social Psychology, ment, 1979,43,33-38. 1975,5, ing of Achievement-related Conflicts 362-376. in Tavris, C., and Offir, C. Women."./ournal of Social Issues, 1972, The Longest War: Sex Hall, RA.. & Sandler, B.R, Theclassroom 28,157-15. Differences in Perspective.New York, Hat- court Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977.
104 161 EQUITY 8c EXCELLENCE VoL 22, Nos. 4-6 INTEGRATING
by Sue Berryman
American women and certain minoritiesare more likely quantitatively-based degrees? By what than men, whites and Asian Americans process do the subgroup to leave schooldifferences that we observe emerge?What factors produce these without the mathematicalor scientific training re-differences, and how do they differ quired to obtain the increasing numbtr by subgroup? of technical, higher wage As of 1978-79, relativeto their shares of the age-relevant jobs in the economy. Since differentialrepresentation in higherpopulation, blacks, Hispanics, and paying jobs accounts for American Indians wereun- a substantial share of the incomederrepresented at the associate, B.A.,M.A., and Ph.D. degree differences among subgroups, theunderrepresentation oflevels in three ways: women and minorities in the scientific and engineeringlabor force has appropriately becomea public issue. among the total degrees awarded at each levelbothquantita- tive and non-quantitative; Parties to the public debate generally appreciatethe connec- among the quantitative degrees, awarded tion between educational investments inquantitatively-based at each level, control- fields' and job opportunitiesin these fields. On the basis of this ling for the subgroup's share of total degrees;and understanding they oftenpresume that it is the university itself among the quantitative degrees awardedat each level, without controlling for the subgroup's share of that can achieve fuller subgroup representation inthe quantita- total degrees. tive disciplines, either through enhancedrecruitment efforts,For example, relative to a randomly affirmative action programs, selected white from the or other academic policy initiativesappropriate age group, a randomly selectedblack in 1978-79 aimed at attracting larger numbers ofwomen and minorities.was only 50 percent as likely to receive However, increasing evidence a B.A. degree in any field; suggests that this strategy willonly 60 percent as likely to receive theB.A. degree in a quantita- affect subgroup imbalances only minimally. This evidence per-tive field; and only 30 percentas likely to receive a quantitatively- tains to the processes by which subgroupdifferences in mathe-based B.A. degree. On the other hand, matical educational investments whites and Asian Ameri- occur, the reasons that theycans were overrepresented on all three groundsat all degree occur, and the subgroup variations in thesereasons. It highlightslevels. the complexity of the subgroup imbalanceproblem, and we When we look at professional degrees, cannot effectively address the underrepresentation of blacks, Hispanics, and womenAmerican Indians were underrepresentedamong the total pro- and minorities in the scientific andengineering labor forcefessional degrees awarded. However, without taking it into account. their shares of the biologically- or physically-basedprofessional degrees' were Toward that objective, this article focuseson three questions.about equal to their shares of these degrees What is the representation of different in total. subgroups among Blacks, Hispanics and American Indiansare more underrepre- sented relative to Asian Americansthan to whites. For example,
Sue E. Berryman, a behavioral scientist, isa resident consultantI. The quantitative disciplinesare defined to include the biological sciences,physical sciences, computer sciences, mathematicsand at The Rand Corporation. This article is basedon a study, Whoengineenng. Will Do Science, conducted for and publishedby The Rockefel- 2. 'The biologically- and physically-based professionaldegrees are de- ler Foundation. fined to indude medicine, dentistry,optometry, osteopathy, podiatry, veterinary medicine and pharmacy.
16 Illustraiom by Salvador Bra 11 in 1978-79, relative to a randomly selected black from the tative degrees at each degree level, but growthin these shares is appropriate age group: much smaller than that for total degrees. a randomly selected whitl was 3.5 times as likely to have At any given degree level, a group's share of quantita- received a quantitatively-based B.A.. over five times as likely to tive degrees reflects persistence in the educational have received a quantitatively-based M.A.,and seven times as pipeline and field choice. Theterm "pipeline" refers likely to have received a quantitatively-basedPh.D.; to the sequence of educational levels and degrees, beginningwith a randomly selected Asian American was six timesas likely to grade I and concluding witha professional or doctoral degree. have received a quantitatively-based B.A., 13times as likely to Individuals can leave the pipelineat any point, although losses have received a quantitatively-basedM.A., and 17 times as concentrate at degree completion points. "Field choice" refers likely to have received a quantitatn ely-basedPh.D. to the substantive focus of the individual's education,such as an In 1979-80, women got about half of English or a physics major in college. the total degrees Understanding how imbalances quantitative and non-quantitative---awarded emerge requires determining at each degree levelthe relative contribution of pipeline losses except at the Ph.D. and professional degree levels. A randomly and field choices to each subgroup's representationaloutcome. All subgroups lose selected male was over twice as likelyto have received a Ph.D. or members as they progress through the educationalpipeline; the a professional degree as a randomly selected female of theage- relevant group. issue is whether, at particular pointsin the process, a subgroup loses more or fewer members than all othergroups. Given that a woman received a B.A., M.A.,or Ph.D. in any Underrepresentation of blacks, Hispanics, AmericanIndians field, she was no more than halfas likely to obtain that degree inand women at the end of the pipelineamong a quantitative field as a man who received a degree quantitative Ph.D. at the same degreesis partly attributableto their underrepresentation at level. Thus, women's underrepresentationamong quantitativethe Ph.D. level itself. Interventions that aid B.A. and M.A. degrees reflects their field choice retention in the only; theireducational process should therefore increasethe representa- underrepresentation among quantitative Ph.D.degrees, the jointtion of these groups among quantitative effects of their underrepresentation Ph.D.'s. However, the at the Ph.D. level itself.andgroups have different dropout patterns, indicating dissimilar their field choice at the Ph.D. level. The end resultfor 1979-80 needs. was that a male randomly selected from the age-relevant popula- For blacks, the lossesare dispersed across the pipeline. For tion was twice as likely as a randomly selected female to have Hispanics, they are concentratedat high school graduation and receivedaquantitatively-basedB.A.or biologically-or college entry. For American Indians,disproportionately high physically-based professional degree. andthree times as likely to losses occur at high school graduation, have received a quantitatively-based M.A. college entry, and the or Ph.D. B.A. degree level. However, this subgroup The policy implications of does not show dispro- current representational imbal-portionately high losses after the B.A.degree. For women, the ances depend partly on representational trends. Minorities and losses are concentratedat the end of the pipeline: at the Ph.D. women may be changing their representationamong quantita- level. tive degrees at rates which, projected forward, would gain them Field choices also contributeto blacks' underrepresentation proportionate representation in this decade. among quantitative B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. Blackslose Current enrollment data for the underrepresented minority"field" ground, justas they lose degree attainment ground, at subgroups do not suggest an increase in their future shares ofseveral points in theprocess. At the B.A. level, the percent B.A. or graduate degrees greater than increases in their shares ofchoosing quantitative fields is 60percent of the national average; the age-relevant population. The trends for women, however, at the M.A. level, 40 percent; and at the Ph.D. level, 33 are strong and positive. In the last decade, percent. women earned an For American Indians, higher pipelinelos-,es. not field increasing percent of the degrees conferredat every levelchoices, cause their underrepresentation associate, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and professional. among quantitative They are still B.A. and M.A. degrees. At the Ph.D. level,both factors account underrepresented among Ph.D. and professionaldegrees, but iffor their underrepresentation. their rates of increase continue, by 1990 thepercentage of Ph.D. Although higher persistence during theeducational process degrees and professional degrees earned bywomen should partly explains the overrepresentation approximately equal their representation in of Asian Americans the age-relevant among quantitative B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, population. Women also show increases in their field their shares of quanti- choices are the driving force. Relativeto whites, they choose
18 NEW PERSPECTIVES 1g2 -.11111 .411111
quantitative fields at the rate of 2-to-1at the B.A. level, 3-to-1 at the M.A. level, and 2-to-1 at the Ph.D. level. For example,in 1980, 60 percent of the Asian American Ph.D, graduatesearned The probability thatan individual not their degrees in quantitative fields, relativeto 30 percent of white Ph.D. graduates. in the mathentatical/selent(fictalent The field choice factor forwomen is startling. The increasedpool at the end of high school will percentage of women in quantitative fields at each degree levelis enter it during college is closeto zero. entirely attributable to their greater representationat the degree level itself; not to changes in their fieldchoices. Unless women As we have just seen, complet:on of thehigh school advanced begin to change their field preferences, furtherincreases in theirmathematics siTiattira-nrressaryttEotient shares of' quantitative degrees will depend entirelyon an in-con mon forost-secon ary stu y uan la v i s and creased percent ofwomen at each degree level. It is not clear that emp oyment in quan t . Thus, understanding we can expect major percentage increasesat the lower degreethe underrepresentation of differentsubgroups requires an un- levels. derstanding of the factors which predictcompletion of this Quantitativegraduates areultimatelyderived from asequence. scientific/mathematical talent pool that firstappears in elemen- Available research tellsus more about women and blacks than tary school. In the early grades, membership in this talentpool isabout the other subgroups andmore about choices made in defined by mathematicalor scientific career interests. As cohortsgrade 12 and college than before grade10 or after college. move through school, it is defined increasingly by higher mathe-However, even our sometimes fragmentaryknowledge clearly matical achievements. indicates that different factors underlie theunderrepresentation To increase a subgroup's representationamong quantitativeof different subgroups. degrees, poiicymakerscan either try to increase the group's For women the pattern is relatively clear.Gender differences share of the initial mathematical/scientifictalent pool or try toin grade 12 mathematics achievementare primarily attributable reduce attrition along the educational pipeline.In either case,to differences in boys' and girls' participation in electivemathe- ...knowing when to take action is critical. matics. Since grade 9 boys and girls donot differ significantly in The scientific/mathematical talent pool emerges strongly be-average mathematical achievement, previous achiever; . -ioes fore grade 9, appearsto reach its maximum size prior to grade 9,not explain subsequent gender differences in thedecmon to and subsequently declines in size throughgraduate school. pursue elective mathematics courses and in resultingmathemati- Although the talent pool seems to reach its maximumsize before cal achievements. high school, migration into the poolcontinues to occur during The individual's confidence in hisor her mathematics ability grades 9 through 12. However, after highschool migration ispredicts participation in the highschool mathematics sequence. almost entirely ow of; not into, the pool. Inother words, th A recent study finds gender differencesin mathematics confi- probability that an individual not in the poolat the end of hig dence for children witt e same objectiv e mathematics a ility, school will enter it during collegeor graduation is close to zero 6oysem. an gar s.arentse teve tat This irreversibility coincides with theconclusion of the hig daughten have to work barer than sons to perform we 1Fat school mathematicalsequence required for heavily quantitativ mallierain tr3717315iTn-heliinilarity ofsons' and clauggeTs-past college majors. Those who obtain quantitativedoctorates ac hievementstrrtnathem a tics. ha-ie quantitatively-orientedcareers a decade after high scho Career and educational goals also stronglyaffect participation come overwhelmingly from the group that had scientifican in high school elective mathematicscourses. The more useful th mathematical career interests and high mathematicalachieve individual expects mathematicsto be, especially in achieving merit scores in grade 12. educational and career goals, themore high school mathematics rrThese results ha:two major policy implications. First, strate-he or she takes. gies to increase the size of the initialscientific/mathematical pool Since career goals seem to determine educationalinvest- of minorities and women should be targetedbefore and duringments, gender differences in occupational expectations become high school. Second, strategies to decrease attrition from theke y. to understanding genderdifferences in high school mathe- pool can be targeted at any point in the process, since attritionmatics participation. An accumulatingliterature indicates that from the pipeline and from quantitativefields occurs at allgirls' occupational expectations depend points. on how they expect to allocate their time between the laborforce and the home during WINTER 1985 19 163 adulthood. Girls who expect more labor force participationhave national white average on verbaltests and at the national average occupational goals that approximate those of their male counter- on nonverbal measures; Asian American childrenscore at the parts. They are more apt to chose traditionally male occupations national average on verbalmeasures and above the national and ones that require systematic educational investments,such average on nonverbal measures. as the elective high school mathematics sequence. Two momentous factors contributeto the relationship be- tween ethnicity and mathematical performanceat each educa- tional stage:cultureandsocial class.Both affect family behavior As long as girls expect toassume the patterns which in turn powerfully affect children's schoolper- formances. Culture and social class interactto produce unique =dor child-rearing responsibilitiesof patterns that cannot be predicted by knowing either culturalor their children, they will be lesslikely social class effects alone. than boys to choose quantitative A study of verbal, reasoning, numeric andspatial achieve- occupations. ments among Puerto Rican, Jewish, Chinese and blackchildren at grade1 shows clear racial and ethnicdifferences in the patterns of these abilities, and subsequent studiessuggest that The gender differences in career preferences and mathemati-ethnic differences in abilitypatterns at grade 1 persist through cal achievements at the conclusion of high school unfold inelementary and secondary school. Moreimportant, although predictable ways to produce post-high schoolgender difference?social class has important effectscn thelevel in educational and occupational of abilities of each attainments. Mathematics abilitygroup, it does not alter thebasic pauernof abilities associated and career interests strongly predict men'sand women's choiceswith each group. of a science major in college and persistencein a science major. High mathematical achievementat grade 12 predicts realization At the same time, the study also shows that socialchss of gri.cle 12 quantitativecareer plans by age 29, and even those matters. The scores of middle-class children fromthe who do not plan a quantitativecareer at grade 12 but subse- various ethnic groups resembleeach other to a greater quently switch into a quantitativecareer have high mathematical extent than the scores of the lower-class childrenfrom the achievement at grade 12. different groups. In other words,middle-class Chinese, Jewish, In sum, the key for womenseems to be their career chokes,black and Puerto Rican childrenare more like each other in their investment in the junior and senior h;:1-st ; ool mathemat-ability scores than lower-class childrenin each. of these groups. ics and sciencesequence being depende.it on these choices. The Social class has a particularlyprofound effect on the perfor- career choices themselves seem to reflect howwomen resolve the mance level of black children, lower-classstatus depressing conflict between achievement in the laborforce and familyperformance more for these childrenthan for children from the responsibilities. Studies show that male singleparents make lower classes of other ethnicgroups. occupational and labor force adaptationsto parenting that look Recent research indicates that%ery young babies develop like the occupational and labor force plans of girls whoexpect cognitively far more than had been realizedand that the socio- dual family and work responsibilities. As long as girls expecttoeconomic status of the babies' familieshas profound effects on assume the major child-rearing responsibilities of theirchildren,this early development. As LewisLipsitt, director of Brown they will be less likely than boysto choose quantitative occupa- University's Chiki Study Centernotes, "[T]he socioeconomic tionsthatrequire majoreducationalandlaborforceindex is as powerful a predictor oflater intellectual prowess as commitments. any variable we've got, but it doesn't While boys and girls enter high school operate in a vacuum. It is with approximatelynot simply a matter of economic hardshipor nutritional defi- equal average mathematical achievements, racial and ethnicciency. It is a representation of theway people live and relate groups differ in their average mathematical achievement at gradetoward each other,and theway they behave toward babies." 9. These differences strongly influence subsequent participation Studies of families support this view. in the elective atigh school mathematics Social class seems to bea sequence required for proxy forfamily characteristicsthat affect school achievement. post-secondary training in the quantitativedisciplines. The racial For example, an American study and ethnic differences in mathematical showed that characteristics such achievements thatwe as parents' achizvement pressures observe at grade 9, in fact, appear at grade 1. Blacks, on the child, language models Mexican .n the home, indoor and outdoor activity levels ofthe family, Americans and Puerto Ricans start school withmean scores on intellectuality in the homeas represented verbal and nonverbal tests of achievement by the nature and below the national quality of toys, games and hobbies availableto the childand white average. At grade 1, NativeAmericans score below the work habits in the family togethercorrelated at 0.80 with chil- 20 NEW PERSPECTIVES dren's achievement scores. The importance of theseor similarclear that minority and femaie underrepresentationamong variables has been confirmed for samples of English, Australianquantitative degrees is tightly fused tosome of the most deep- and Canadian children. These same studies also show that, like seated questions that a society canpose. For example, what starts social class, culture also seems to bea proxy for family character-as a fairly simple question about women's representationamong istics that affect school achievement. They find that dillrentquantitative degrees ends as a series of profoundquestions ethnic groups at similar socio-ethnic levels differ in theirpatternsabout family responsibilities, childcare and the economic inde- of those family characteristics that predict children's schoolpendence of women. performance,especially children'sverbalandnumber Society and biology dictate the conflicts thatwomen face, performan ces. requiring that major educational,career and child-rearing in- vestments cccur in approximately the sametwo decades of the life cycle. However, as women'saverage life expectancy increases Minority underrepresentation would to 78 y ears and the average retirement age for male andfemale workers edges toward the seventh decade oflife, even women be a simpler problem (f itarose who devote several years primarilyto child rearing have several primarily out of discriminatory productive decades after their children leavehome. Social ar- practices in universities and the work rangements, if not biological clocks, are not inflexible. Itis not place. It does not. clear :hat we have to cram the most impc..tantcommitments that individuals makepost-secondary eeucation,careerinvest- ments and child rearinginto the same two decades oflife. Overall, the literature seems to indicate that, independent of Minority underrepresentation would bea simpler problem if it cultural differences among groups, social class predisposesa arose primarily out of discriminatory practices in universities and family to certain patterns that affect the child's school perfor-the work place. It does nct, and it is difficultto devise strategies mance. At the same time, some variation in these patterns occursappropriate to the different stages of theprocess by which among families of similar social class but different ethnicities.minority representational outcomesoccur, especially when that This variation is greater among lower-class families of differentprocess starts in earliest childhood and is tangled with much ethnic origins than among their middle-classcounterparts. So-larger questions of class and culture. cial class tends to be negatively relatedto recency of immigra- Each of us confronts a social reality. It derivesfrom our place tion; and recency of immigration, to mainstream acculturation.in the life cycleour native talents, and the resources and Thus, middle social class probably marksnot only a socio-horizons that institutionssuch as family, school,church, ethnic economic position, but also reduced cultural variations in familycommunity, or political partiesallocateto us. We tend to behaviors. experience this realifv as a definition ofour choices. Political and In fact, analyses of 1980 American data show that beingreligious groups, .'or example,are currently fighting for the second-generation college not only increases, but also equalizes,hearts and minds of erican women. If traditional values gain choice of quantitative majors across white, black, Americaninfluence, women will perceivea more traditional set of choices. Indian, Chicano and Puerto Rican college freshman. An analysisTheir educational attainments and representationin quantitative of 1972 data shows that higher family socio-economicstatusfields and jobs should subsequently decline relativeto what they increases blacks' choices of and persistence ina science major,would have been in the absence of this valuechange. the effect operating by increasing high school mathematical At the same time, in a free society realitiesare in fact broadly achievement and the mother's educational aspirations for thedefined, and permit a widerange of choices. The individual and student. When this analysis equated whites and blackson thegroups such as families are the ultimate source of action. As such, intervening variables, blacks had a higher probability ofchoosingpeople have a choice--theycan accept externally defined reali- a science major than whites. ties or harness theirtalents and opportunitiestocreate In sum, this set of findings implies that changed in familyalternatives. g behaviors, frequently associated with changes in socio-economic status, will change the representation of non-Asian American minority groups in quantitative fields. However, the AsianAmer- ican case argues that different ethnicgroups produce different achievement predispositions among their children,independent ofsocial class. While our knowledge is far from complete, it is increasingly
22 NEW PERSPECTIVES