This study aims to investigate the process by which gender is constituted in the English classroom in relation to the teaching of one comprehension lesson at Springfield Model Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal. The study looks at one lesson in depth and delves into the representations of gender in the lesson. The study shows how resource materials (such as the prescribed understanding, for example) used in the English class articulate young children's knowledge about gender and how they position themselves in the discourses of gender.
A teacher interview was conducted to examine how gender is constructed in the teaching of comprehension. This study aims to examine the process through which gender is constituted in the English classroom in relation to the teaching of one. The study shows how the source materials (such as prescribed meaning, for example) used in the English classroom articulate young learners' knowledge about gender and how they position themselves in gender discourses.
The GETT report draws attention to the lack of substantive qualitative research in the area of gender issues in South African education. The structuralist feminist perspective looks at the reproduction of structural inequalities of gender in the classroom. In this study, I am not looking for the stereotypical portrayal of sexist images in the passage, but I am considering the processes through which gender identity is.
With the above in mind, this study will concentrate on four ways in which texts can play a role in the articulation of gendered identities.
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Analysis and Findings of Data
- Introduction
- Description of the lesson Progression
Different views were put forward to arrive at a more or less coherent understanding/interpretation of the story. The students were asked questions about the meaning of words, understanding the plot, describing the setting and the roles of father and mother. Both girls and boys based their opinions of the story on their own stereotypical assumptions about the division of gender roles in society.
Because a family must have a father who works, a mother who takes care of the house and children and cooks food for them. The life experiences of children show several ways of experiencing the role of mother and father. The student (reader) comes to the classroom with countless lived experiences and thus will not "automatically" absorb the content of the text.
Their argument was based on their idea that they 'lived on a kind of farm' and therefore she had to be that way because of the hard work she had to do. At the same time, however, there is also the possibility of alternative interpretations to the understanding of the sexual division of labor within the family and such understandings are in conflict with those held by dominant patriarchal ideologies. With the exception of two boys and 2 girls, the rest of the respondents felt that Shining Moon would have been a 'sissy' if he had cried.
An interesting observation was that several students highlighted the emotional nature of the teacher towards Shining Moon because he did not cry. Some of the boys admitted that they felt "nice and proud" when the teacher used such words. In opposition, some of the girls said they were made to feel 'useless' and 'unimportant' by the teacher 'harping' on the qualities of Shining Moon.
What went unnoticed by the teacher was her failure to accept the girls' responses positively. I felt they would fit the story because let's face it - most of the stories we do in schools have men as the heroes. Strongly intertwined with notions of the concept of 'family' were students' expectations of how the characters (family members) physically appeared and the characteristics that matched them.
This study helped highlight how gender identity was constituted in the English classroom in relation to the teaching of a single comprehension passage. Therefore, one of the greatest challenges facing gender-sensitive teachers is helping boys and girls to think critically about their own lives and understanding of gender-related experiences.
APPENDIX 1
Then Shining Moon pulled the boat out of the water and returned back to where he had started. 34;I will let him go once more." So he continued to play with his toy canoe, letting it float by itself again and again. There was nothing he could do to save it, for the river was deep and he could. i don't swim.
He just watched the little canoe float bravely down the river, away and away and out of sight. He ran beside the river for a few minutes, but he knew it was no use, and he slowly turned back again. He was sad like the wind that cried around the wigwam in the cold winter.
He was as sad as the birds when they couldn't find anything to eat in the snow. He was so pleased with the new game that he could not see that he was going farther and farther away from his wigwam and the splashing river. On and on Shining Moon ran, farther and farther away from the wigwam and the splashing river:—deeper and deeper into the forest.
34;I lost my little canoe in the Splashing River, and I lost myself in the deep green forest." The sun went down a little more and the shadows of the trees grew long and thin. 34;If I can at the river comes, then I will know my way home." He runs through the forest, in and out among the trees, on and on over the long shadows and the last rays of the sun.
Here was the Splashing River, with tree roots reaching out to catch the weeds as they passed by. The root of a tree stuck out into the water, while a patch of green weeds floated next to it. Now he knew which way to go, for the little canoe had stopped above the tree root.
