Little et al. (2014) described how symbolic interactional theorists view education as a way of individually labeling students, while feminist theorists focus mainly on “the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality in education” (p. 502). Individual labels can stay with a student throughout their life. Studies show that there is more chance of a high school student stopping their further education (such as, university) if they are told, and therefore also labeled, by their teachers that they will not achieve the necessary scores to succeed. I can even recall classmates whom this happened to when I was in high school in the late 1990s, and sure enough, they chose to get an unskilled job, rather than continue their education.
I would imagine …show more content…
Teachers can still find it difficult to bring up gender discussions in the classroom, not just because of drilled-in views, but also because parents may or may not agree with certain things being taught. I hope this is changing in today’s schools! It is a serious subject, and I do not just mean with regards to general sexist attitudes and prejudices experienced during and after school life, or with the global gender inequality of wages. I mean important issues such as, gender equality’s link to domestic violence, how gender is represented in the media, sexual objectification and the lack of females in sports (race car driving, football/soccer, baseball, …show more content…
Although bright students can excel in certain subjects, and tracking can help to keep less bright students from being taught something they are not able to understand, it does tend to cement speed differences in learning. Furthermore, this speed has been linked to differences in race, ethnicity and social class (but interestingly, not gender, for a change!) so I would say that one’s social class, ethnicity and race is an important element to how tracking perpetuates social inequality.
The second is that standardized tests in school are usually culturally biased, which also helps to perpetuate inequalities socially. Little et al (2014) described how IQ and aptitude tests do not fairly test natural intelligence, but rather a student’s cultural knowledge, which means affluent children who may be exposed to more cultural experiences than less affluent ones, have an unfair advantage in the
I would imagine …show more content…
Teachers can still find it difficult to bring up gender discussions in the classroom, not just because of drilled-in views, but also because parents may or may not agree with certain things being taught. I hope this is changing in today’s schools! It is a serious subject, and I do not just mean with regards to general sexist attitudes and prejudices experienced during and after school life, or with the global gender inequality of wages. I mean important issues such as, gender equality’s link to domestic violence, how gender is represented in the media, sexual objectification and the lack of females in sports (race car driving, football/soccer, baseball, …show more content…
Although bright students can excel in certain subjects, and tracking can help to keep less bright students from being taught something they are not able to understand, it does tend to cement speed differences in learning. Furthermore, this speed has been linked to differences in race, ethnicity and social class (but interestingly, not gender, for a change!) so I would say that one’s social class, ethnicity and race is an important element to how tracking perpetuates social inequality.
The second is that standardized tests in school are usually culturally biased, which also helps to perpetuate inequalities socially. Little et al (2014) described how IQ and aptitude tests do not fairly test natural intelligence, but rather a student’s cultural knowledge, which means affluent children who may be exposed to more cultural experiences than less affluent ones, have an unfair advantage in the