The latest e-Bulletin from AMSSA‘s (Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Services Agencies of BC) ANCIE (AMSSA’s Newcomer Child Information Exchange) explores gender roles.
The bulletin discusses sex vs. gender, introduces the concept of gender analysis, and how gender and migration intersect for children and youth and results in inequalities – and offers research on gender inequities in the school system, including these findings from recent research:
Gender construction in schools can create very distinct notions of what it means to be a man and a woman, with polarized attributes for femininity and masculinity;
Across most countries, boys continue to dominate classroom time and space, a practice that seems to create subdued girls and creates perceived differences between men and women;
In many countries academic performance of boys and girls is converging, but when it comes to fields of study and work there is still clustering by gender;
The curriculum, especially sex education, continues to center on biological features and refuses to acknowledge social dimensions of adolescent sexuality;
The peer culture of a classroom contributes powerfully to classroom dynamics and the focus of either gender towards academics;
Most public education policies fail to recognize the socialization role of schools. (Stromquist, 2007).
As in all e-Bulletins, there is a useful list of additional related resources.
