So... What's the Story

After many changes in our central focus and project ideas, for our final project, Olivia and I will be making a training video for teachers explaining that gender stereotyping in early education does not advance a child’s education. It will explain that all that gender stereotyping in the early education process does is hinder expression and teach young students that they must fit into the specific “ideal” mold that is identified with their gender.

This video will be made as an instructional tool for teachers to refer to when educating young students. The main purpose will to raise awareness to teachers that this is a problem, so it does not continue going unsaid. Many educators gender-stereotype without even realizing, so this video will bring it to their consciousness what is and isn’t gender stereotyping. Gender stereotyping in early education gradually leads to set ideas between the genders, which can then lead to bigger problems such as sexism.

Talking through the idea, I found that there were many different routes that I wanted to take the training video. As time progressed and I did more individual thinking, I realized that I want to focus solely on the children rather than the adults, and give examples of what gender stereotyping in the classroom looks like. When I say that I want to focus on the children, I want their point of view to be the most important and influential to the story. The video being made is being made to benefit them and enable them to be more expressive despite their gender, so in the video, I want the children to be the main “characters.”

During interviews with the children, Olivia and I will ask them about specific roles in modern day society, and then ask them about their education experience. We hope to one day sit in on an elementary school class to listen to what the teacher says and observe the way that the classroom is presented. The biggest movements in the story will be involving the children and their feelings as people and students. I think we may introduce our topic with the children to get the audience more interested. As for a closing, we may get shots from adults and teachers during interviews about what they know regarding gender stereotyping.

The change that we are trying to make by making this video is that we want teachers to be aware of the issue of gender stereotyping. It is making kids feel as though they may not be able to do something because it doesn’t correlate with their gender. When children feel this way, it limits their creativity and forces them to fit a mold that may not be what they want to be. The goal of this video will to be to open the eyes of teachers and make them aware of what they say or do that could possibly be considered gender stereotyping. Olivia and I want the young students to feel as if they can be expressive with their personalities without having their gender hinder them, meaning that they can be who they want to be and do what they want to do without having the label “boy” or “girl” limit them.

Evolving Thoughts on Our Shared/Individual Topic

While Olivia and I have worked together, both of us have found that there are so many ways that gender stereotypes and gender oppression affect people around us constantly. Today at dinner we discussed the way that her employer divides the duties that are assigned to the employees by gender and the stereotypes that go with each gender. At her workplace, the boys must lift the heavy items and work in the butcher area while the girls must be cashiers and help organize the shelves. There are examples of gender stereotypes and gender oppression everywhere in our society, and looking to find it in young children and the way they are educated is interesting and individual, and based upon where we take the project, could make a lasting effect on the system of early education.

Going further with the project, Olivia and I have found that we would like to make a documentary about the issue of ignorance of children about gender stereotypes and relate it back to teachings from their schools rather than their home life. We have decided that, if possible, we would like to visit an elementary school class and see the way that the teachers and administrators speak to the young students and see if there is actually a promotion of gender stereotypes in the early education system. For the video, we would like to include multiple perspectives from multiple students using examples that they could relate to, rather than just asking them “Do you feel restricted by gender stereotypes in your school?” We have decided to ask questions like “Do moms stay home or do dads stay home?” and “What sports do you think that girls should play?” and reverse the question when addressing each gender. While this is a huge expectation and goal, Olivia and I feel that it can be made possible and will make our documentary much more effective, because people will be able to SEE the issue at hand.

What Does the Research Suggest?

While researching on the internet, I found many different articles based upon many point of views. When searching for the education facet of the problem of gender stereotypes, I came across many websites run by teachers giving advice to other educators about how to avoid promoting the stereotypes. One of the journals that I read from a professional regarding how gender stereotypes negatively affect teaching was titled, "Stereotypes stop you doing stuff," which gives a clear of the stance of the authors, the National Union of Teachers. The contents of this piece reflect my point of view on the topic, that gender stereotypes only cause problems and limit students' creativity and individuality. It states, "So many of the influences acting on children seem to imply that there are ‘typical’ ways of being a boy or girl, thereby seeking to minimize awareness of the wide variety of gender expression which exists within as well as between the-sexes.” Lack of gender expression is known to create negative effects as well as expanding widespread bigotry about gender roles.

As I said before, I looked to find different points of view from all sides of the spectrum that gender roles in society could possibly affect. I decided to look at how children perceive gender and the specific “identifications” that society gives to each gender. In a YouTube video by AdvertEnticement called “Gender Roles-Interviews With Kids,” the interviewer told each child to point to the doll in which the action applied. (male or female dolls) One of the questions asked, “Which doll likes to clean the house?” All of the children that were interviewed pointed to the female doll. Another question asked, “Which doll goes to work?” All of the children pointed to the male doll. This video was published in 2011. These ideas of gender roles and stereotypes have all been a result of the child’s environment and educational experience. If an important leader or close individual of a child enforces gender stereotypes such as these, our future generations will have warped ways of thinking towards specific genders.

For the next site I visited, I decided to look for a more unbiased and informational approach to the topic that would inform rather than give the opinion of certain people. The site I visited came from a Harvard journal by Bari Walsh, called “Confronting Gender Bias at School” It sounds like it would be advocating for ways that teachers shouldn’t incorporate gender stereotypes into their teaching process, and while it does that, it also gives factual information about the effects that the stereotypes have on students. An example of a fact that it uses to back the argument of the article is, “In a survey of nearly 20,000 students, the report found that 23 percent of girls and 40 percent of boys preferred male political leaders to female. Only 8 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys preferred female political leaders.” Like the last source, this shows the opinions of students, but unlike the last source, this article explains how we can eliminate ideas like these. It gives ways in which students can try to eliminate the imaginary gender barriers that society has put among people.

"STEREO TYPES STOP YOU DOING S TUFF - NUT." National Union of Teachers. The Strategy and Communications Department of The National Union of Teachers, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Walsh, Bari. "Confronting Gender Bias at School | Harvard Graduate ..." Usable Knowledge. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Interviewing Important People in My Life

I have found myself growing up ignorant to many of the problems in the society we live in. I have grown up in a family that believes that how everyone functions is based upon tradition and core values, and while interviewing them, they answered accordingly. The common question that I asked went along the lines of, "Do you believe that there are girls' and boys' toys? And what's the difference?" My questions were all different but there was one underlining similarity among everyone I asked. They did not truly know why there was a separation between the two types of toys. They just knew that they played with the toys that their gender was "known" for playing with.

So, how are gender-related toys relevant to the topic of how early childhood education affects gender stereotypes and later-on sexism? A study by NAEYC by Professor Judith Elaine Blackmore said, "If you want to develop children's physical, cognitive, academic, musical, and artistic skills, toys that are not strongly gender-typed are more likely to do this." Everyone that I interviewed said that gender-typed toys do exist and are used by so many today. Melissa Perello, a sophomore at duPont Manual High School, described gender stereotyped toys as just being the "norm." She then proceeded to say that she conformed to these stereotypes as a child, unknowingly.

After asking Melissa, I decided to get a different and older viewpoint. I called my grandparents to ask them the same question about their beliefs regarding "girls'" and "boys'" toys. My grandmother, Becky Redding, gave a long pause before giving her answer, almost taken aback by the question. She first gave specific examples of what she found to be an example of gender-typed toys. She said that when she was younger, girls played with dolls and doll-houses, while boys played with trains and toys with wheels. She didn't know why this was true and didn't know the reason behind it, like many others today. My grandfather, Steve Redding, said the same thing. He had specific reasoning for his answer because he said when he was a kid, women didn't have the jobs that they have today. He continued to say that women were expected to stay and work at the house so naturally they played with toys that reflected that.

We are a conforming society and often don't have reasoning to back up our actions just like how the people I interviewed didn't know why they played with the stereotyped toys. They "just did."

Source:

 "What the Research Says: Gender-Typed Toys | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC." What the Research Says: Gender-Typed Toys | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC. National Association for the Education of Young Children, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. 

What I Already Know and What I Want to Know

While thinking of potential topics to research, I decided that I wanted to write about early childhood education. Originally, I tried to write about segregation and income inequalities and how it affects the quality of the education that young students are receiving, but then decided that I was more interested in how early childhood education can gradually lead to the development of gender roles and sexism. When a respected adult like a teacher or administrator introduces an idea to a young student, the young student will most likely believe the idea and accept it. For example; if a teacher tells a young student that they should not participate in a specific kind of sport or activity because they are a girl or a boy, this discourages a child and makes them believe that things are gender specific.

During my future research, I want to talk to people around me at school and see if anyone has ever told them they couldn't do something at a young age because it didn't correlate with the roles that our society assigns genders. I also want to talk to older people in my family to see if they think that saying certain phrases like, "sit like a lady," is acceptable. I will also talk to older people and children alike and name off toys and see if they separate them by gender and then ask them what inspired them to think that way. I plan to look for specific information on the development of the brain at a young age to prove that if someone like a teacher or administrator says something sexist, that they will believe it until someone tells them something otherwise.

The goal of this project is to try to aid in demolishing the idea of children being exposed to gender roles and stereotypes at a young age to try to further solve the problem of sexism within our society. Childhood experiences are what shape our thoughts and opinions and if a child is exposed to someone telling them that they have to fit a certain mold because of their gender, then they will believe that until someone else teaches them otherwise. My project will cover the ways that we can help stop the introduction of gender roles at a young age through better childhood education.