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ROLE OF SCHOOL IN GENDER IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

Gender disparity is becoming a global issue. Similarly in Pakistan this issue is witnessed in every sphere of life such as social, political, legal, and at education level. Each one of these fields of life has its own significant role in terms of gender identity construction therefore each area needs prompt and vigilant attention to be dealt with. From past 12 years I am engaged with education field, and explored that boys and girls within the school do not share the same world. Though, both genders live in the same building of the school, learning same text from the same teachers but getting different meanings regarding their gender identity. Therefore, my focus of argument is school’s role in gender identity construction and its implications on individual and societal level. Prior to moving towards gender identity construction it is essential to first understand what practical attempts have been undertaken at global level and later the term gender itself?

During past two decades worldwide community has undertaken international commitment to eliminate gender disparities within the education field and empower women through education as reflected in the Education for All initiatives (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). During the past twenty years, Pakistan also being a signatory of all these declarations on Education for All, has took some significant measures in terms of gender in education sector such as providing accessible primary education for all children including girls. However, UNESCO’s latest monitoring report (2007) declared some countries including Pakistan are still at risk of not attaining gender parity by 2015. Despite all the undertaken measures gender gap still exists in education field, which is a debatable issue for global countries. According to Leach (2000); Zafar & Malik (2004) merely focusing only to access to education and neglecting instructional practices within the school is the simplistic and narrow approach about gender. Now, there is a great need to explore the underlying processes which result in different patterns of educational discourses and practices to achieve gender equality.

The term gender itself is one of the reasons for not achieving gender parity at education level. Gender has always been subject of debate in literature due to its complex and controversial nature. Therefore, often in contemporary perspectives gender is defined to the dichotomy between essentialist and social constructionist ways of looking. In essentialist perspective gender is about biological differences whereas in social constructionist perspective gender is about socially constructed roles and responsibilities (Kehily, 2001). What is gender identity construction? It is a process where an individual explores and develops certain feelings and attributes related to her/his own personal identity. These attributes or feelings of being a man or a woman are usually learned from the family and surrounding by the age of 2 or 3. However, construction of identity as man or woman is a social process and education contributes a lot to perpetuate or transform gender stereotypes (Qureshi, 2007).

School is one of those contexts where children spend great deal of time and construct their identity through various sources such as playground space, opportunities to access resources, classroom discourses and teachers pedagogy . Classroom context represents the school culture, therefore could be an important space for such change and teachers have a key role to play in this whole process. But unfortunately, teachers consciously or unconsciously often play a key role to perpetuate and reproduce gendered discrimination in school, particularly in classrooms. To understand the prevailing gender issues in school practices, I got an opportunity in the course of gender in education; to conduct a mini research in one of the private primary co-education school in Karachi. The insight got from this study reveals that boys dominate space and time in overall school activities. Teachers have different expectations from boys and girls in terms of achievements and behaviors. The reasons behind teachers’ differential treatment or expectations might be their own gender experiences as becoming a man or woman in the society. Therefore, boys were provided with more opportunities and time to participate in classroom activities whereas girls got very less chance for participation, encouragement or feedback. Boys were exposed to the leadership tasks such as collecting note books and registers from the class but at the same time girls were excluded from such tasks. Similarly, rewards and consequences were defined on gender basis for example scolding was used for the girls and boys were told to stand up or pulled by ears. During the games period large fixed space of about 95% was covered by boys for playing football and cricket but girls were predominantly sitting on the sand, chatting with each other or playing home making. All these practices express certain ideology about gender and represent girls as less capable than the boys and favor deep rooted stereotypical roles of society. Where girls are considered to be in passive roles such as less interactive, weak and homemaker but boys are considered to be in strong leadership roles. Though the selection of instructional material such as textbooks, storybooks, displays and other teaching resources were gender fair however, teachers’ pedagogy was favorable only for boys. For instance in one of the math classes’ teacher gave a multiplication sum and said “yes I know you boys can do it you are number smart”. The teacher might have not said it intentionally but these types of messages can have great repercussion in terms of developing gender wise abilities and identities. For instance both girls and boys might develop the thinking that girls are not capable of doing math and it is only a masculine subject. It would also develop low steam among girls which might create hatred towards the subject and affect their learning outcomes.

All the above mentioned practices to a certain extent indicate that gender disparity exists in one way or the other in school’s day to day activities. Prevailing gender relations or practices may harm opportunities for girls and certain gender images do lead to discrimination against boys. Gender discrimination in any level of education may cause low self- esteem among students. Due to the low self- esteem children may suffer in their learning and achievements. It may also affect the enrolment in terms of students’ dropout rate. Furthermore, these gendered experiences of school life prevent boys and girls to interact and learn from each other. Thus these barriers reinforce gender stereotypical thinking and practices rather than opening opportunities for the children to benefit from each others potential. Moreover, gendered school cultures and classroom environment may have implications for students evolving identities and future position in the society. According to Streitmatter (1994) students from gendered segregated environment tend to develop gendered value system, which result in perpetuating gender bias throughout their lives. These gendered experiences of school life may perpetuate gender division in their later lives in the form of career choices and domestic chores. Schools reflect the dominant gender ideology of the society, thus it is responsible either to compliances the beliefs and perceptions of societal gender stereotypes or be a potential site for developing non traditional gender identities (Mayhill & Jones, 2006).

Schools ought to serve as change agents in terms of quality education and gender equality. To develop gender equitable environment in the school certain things should be kept in mind. First of all, teachers must be conscious of the detrimental effects of gendered practices and committed to change. Secondly, teacher training and in-service trainings should emphasize on reflective practices on classroom gender related issues and develop strategies to educate teachers about the consequences of gender bias treatment. Thirdly, schools must provide exposures to their teachers about gender related seminars, conferences so they can realize the importance of gender equality in education. Finally, school must have their self developed policies regarding gender to ensure gender equity and equality.

In conclusion, though gender disparity is a global issue at all levels of life and from past several years some practical efforts have been made to eliminate gender disparity from the education level. Despite all these efforts gender disparity still exists in education system because prevailing gender issues were not explored and dealt at school level. Hence, exploring gender issues at school level is very important because it is the place where children construct their gender identities.

BY
Salima Baig
Student of Masters of Education (M.Ed)
The Aga Khan University Institute For Educational Development Karachi