Gender Bias in Education Essay Example for Free

ï » ¿Gender Bias in Education Essay Sitting in the same classroom, reading the same textbook, listening to the same teacher, boys and girls receive very different educations. (Sadker, 1994) In fact, upon entering school, girls perform equal to or better than boys on nearly every measure of achievement, but by the time they graduate high school or college, they have fallen behind. (Sadker, 1994) However, discrepancies between the performance of girls and the performance of boys in elementary education leads some critics to argue that boys are being neglected within the education system: Across the country, boys have never been in more trouble: They earn 70 percent of the Ds and Fs that teachers dole out. They make up two thirds of students labeled learning disabled. They are the culprits in a whopping 9 of 10 alcohol and drug violations and the suspected perpetrators in 4 out of 5 crimes that end up in juvenile court. They account for 80 percent of high school dropouts and attention deficit disorder diagnoses. (Mulrine, 2001) This performance discrepancy is notable throughout Canada. In Ontario, Education Minister Janet Ecker said that the results of the standardized grade 3 and grade 6 testing in math and reading showed, persistent and glaring discrepancies in achievements and attitudes between boys and girls. (ONeill, 2000) In British Columbia, standardized testing indicates that girls outperform boys at all levels of reading and writing and in Alberta testing shows that girls, significantly outperform boys on reading and writing tests, while almost matching them in math and science. (ONeill, 2000) However, the American Association of University Women published a report in 1992 indicating that females receive less attention from teachers and the attention that female students do receive is often more negative than attention received by boys. (Bailey, 1992) In fact, examination of the socialization of gender within schools and evidence of a gender biased hidden curriculum demonstrates that girls are shortchanged in the classroom. Furthermore, there is significant research indicating steps that can be taken to minimize or eliminate the gender bias currently present in our education system. The socialization of gender within our schools assures that girls are made aware that they are unequal to boys. Every time students are seated or lined up by gender, teachers are affirming that girls and boys should be treated differently. When an administrator ignores an act of sexual harassment, he or she is allowing the degradation of girls. When different behaviors are tolerated for boys than for girls because boys will be boys, schools are perpetuating the oppression of females. There is some evidence that girls are becoming more academically successful than boys, however examination of the classroom shows that girls and boys continue to be socialized in ways that work against gender equity. Teachers socialize girls towards a feminine ideal. Girls are praised for being neat, quiet, and calm, whereas boys are encouraged to think independently, be active and speak up. Girls are socialized in schools to recognize popularity as being important, and learn that educational performance and ability are not as important. Girls in grades six and seven rate being popular and well-liked as more important than being perceived as competent or independent. Boys, on the other hand, are more likely to rank independence and competence as more important. (Bailey, 1992) This socialization of femininity begins much earlier than the middle grades. At very early ages, girls begin defining their femininities in relation to boys. One study of a third grade classroom examined four self-sorted groups of girls within the classroom: the nice girls, the girlies, the spice girls and the tomboys. Through interviews researcher Diane Reay found that nice girls was considered a derogatory term indicating, an absence of toughness and attitude. (Reay, 2001) Furthermore, the girlies were a group of girls who focused their time on flirting with and writing love letters to boys, the tomboys were girls who played sports with the boys, and the spice girls espoused girl-power and played rate-the-boy on the playground. Reays research shows that each of the groups of girls defined their own femininities in relation to boys. (2001) The Reay study further demonstrates how socialization of girls occurs at the school level by tolerating different behaviors from boys than from girls. Assertive behavior from girls is often seen as disruptive and may be viewed more negatively by adults. In Reays study, the fact that the spice girls asserted themselves in ways contrary to traditional femininity caused them to be labeled by teachers as real bitches. (2001) This reinforces the notion that girls misbehavior to be looked upon as a character defect, whilst boys misbehavior is viewed as a desire to assert themselves. (Reay, 2001) A permissive attitude towards sexual harassment is another way in  which schools reinforce the socialization of girls as inferior. When schools ignore sexist, racist, homophobic, and violent interactions between students, they are giving tacit approval to such behaviors. (Bailey, 1992) Yet boys are taunted for throwing like a girl, or crying like a girl, which implies that being a girl is worse than being a boy. According to the American Association of University Women Report, The clear message to both boys and girls is that girls are not worthy of respect and that appropriate behavior for boys includes exerting power over girls or over other, weaker boys. (Bailey, 1992) Clearly the socialization of gender is reinforced at school, Because classrooms are microcosms of society, mirroring its strengths and ills alike, it follows that the normal socialization patterns of young children that often lead to distorted perceptions of gender roles are reflected in the classrooms. (Marshall, 1997) Yet gender bias in education reaches beyond socialization patterns, bias is embedded in textbooks, lessons, and teacher interactions with students. This type of gender bias is part of the hidden curriculum of lessons taught implicitly to students through the every day functioning of their classroom. In Myra and David Sadkers research, they noted four types of teacher responses to students: teacher praises, providing positive feedback for a response; teacher remediates, encouraging a student to correct or expand their answer; teacher criticizes, explicitly stating that the answer is incorrect; teacher accepts, acknowledging that a student has responded. The Sadkers found that boys were far more likely to receive praise or remediation from a teacher than were girls. The girls were most likely to receive an acknowledgement response from their teacher. (Sadker, 1994) These findings are confirmed by a 1990 study by Good and Brophy that noted that teachers give boys greater opportunity to expand ideas and be animated than they do girls and that they reinforce boys more for general responses than they do for girls. (Marshall, 1997) Beyond teacher responses, special services in education appear to be applied more liberally to boys than to girls. Research shows that boys are referred for testing for gifted programs twice as often as girls, which may be because, giftedness is seen as aberrant, and girls strive to conform. (Orenstein, 1994) Boys represent more than two-thirds of all students in special education programs and there is a higher the proportion of male  students receiving diagnoses that are considered to be subjective. While medical reports indicate that learning disabilities occur in nearly equal numbers of in boys and girls, it may be the case that, Rather than identifying learning problems, school personnel may be mislabeling behavioral problems. Girls who sit quietly are ignored; boys who act out are placed in special programs that may not meet their needs. (Bailey, 1992) Gender bias is also taught implicitly through the resources chosen for classroom use. Using texts that omit contributions of women, that tokenize the experiences of women, or that stereotype gender roles, further compounds gender bias in schools curriculum. While research shows that the use of gender-equitable materials allows students to have more gender-balanced knowledge, to develop more flexible attitudes towards gender roles, and to imitate role behaviors contained in the materials (Klein, 1985) schools continue to use gender-biased texts: Researchers at a 1990 conference reported that even texts designed to fit within the current California guidelines on gender and race equity for textbook adoption showed subtle language bias, neglect of scholarship on women, omission of women as developers of history and initiators of events, and absence of women from accounts of technological developments. (Bailey, 1992) Clearly the socialization of gender roles and the use of a gender-biased hidden curriculum lead to an inequitable education for boys and girls. What changes can be made to create a more equitable learning environment for all children? First, teachers need to be made aware of their gender-biased tendencies. Next, they need to be provided with strategies for altering the behavior. Finally, efforts need to be made to combat gender bias in educational materials. A study by Kelly Jones, Cay Evans, Ronald Byrd, and Kathleen Campbell (2000) used analysis of videotaped lessons in order to introduce teachers to their own gender-biased behavior. Requiring in-service programs to address gender bias in the classroom will make teachers more aware of their own behaviors: As a teacher, I was struck by the Sadkers research on classroom exchanges and was forced to acknowledge the disproportionate amount of time and energy, as well as the different sorts of attention, I give to male students. (McCormick, 1995) Once teachers have recognized their gender-biased behaviors, they need to be provided with resources to help them change. In their study focusing on how the effects of  a gender resource model would affect gender-biased teaching behaviors, Jones, Evans, Burns, and Campbell (2000) provided teachers with a self-directed module aimed at reducing gender bias in the classroom. The module contained research on gender equity in the classroom, specific activities to reduce stereotypical thinking in students, and self-evaluation worksheets for teachers. The findings from this study support the hypothesis that female students would move from a position of relative deficiency toward more equity in total interactions. (Jones, 2000) This demonstrates that teachers who are made aware of their gender-biased teaching behaviors and then provided with strategies and resources to combat bias are better able to promote gender equity in their classrooms. However, beyond changing their own teaching behaviors, teachers need to be aware of the gender bias imbedded in many educational materials and texts and need to take steps to combat this bias. Curriculum researchers have established six attributes that need to be considered when trying to establish a gender-equitable curriculum. Gender-fair materials need to acknowledge and affirm variation. They need to be inclusive, accurate, affirmative, representative, and integrated, weaving together the experiences, needs, and interests of both males and females. (Bailey, 1992) We need to look at the stories we are telling our students and children. Far too many of our classroom examples, storybooks, and texts describe a world in which boys and men are bright, curious, brave, inventive, and powerful, but girls and women are silent, passive, and invisible. (McCormick, 1995) Furthermore, teachers can help students identify gender-bias in texts and facilitate critical discussions as to why that bias exists. Gender bias in education is an insidious problem that causes very few people to stand up and take notice. The victims of this bias have been trained through years of schooling to be silent and passive, and are therefore unwilling to stand up and make noise about the unfair treatment they are receiving. Over the course of years the uneven distribution of teacher time, energy, attention, and talent, with boys getting the lions share, takes its toll on girls. (Sadker, 1994) Teachers are generally unaware of their own biased teaching behaviors because they are simply teaching how they were taught and the subtle gender inequities found in teaching materials are often overlooked. Girls and boys today are receiving separate and unequal educations due to the gender  socialization that takes place in our schools and due to the sexist hidden curriculum students are faced with every day. Unless teachers are made aware of the gender-role socialization and the biased messages they are unintentionally imparting to students everyday, and until teachers are provided with the methods and resources necessary to eliminate gender-bias in their classrooms, girls will continue to receive an inequitable education. Departments of education should be providing mandatory gender-equity resource modules to in-service teachers, and gender bias needs to be addressed with all pre-service teachers. Educators need to be made aware of the bias they are reinforcing in their students through socialization messages, inequitable division of special education services, sexist texts and materials, and unbalanced time and types of attention spent on boys and girls in the classroom. Until educational sexism is eradicated, more than half our children will be shortchanged and their gifts lost to society. (Sadker, 1994) References  Bailey, S. (1992) How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report. New York, NY: Marlowe Company. Jones, K., Evans, C., Byrd, R., Campbell, K. (2000) Gender equity training and teaching behavior. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 27 (3), 173-178. Klein, S. (1985) Handbook for Achieving Sex Equity Through Education. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Marshall, C.S. Reihartz, J. (1997) Gender issues in the classroom. Clearinghouse, 70 (6), 333-338. McCormick, P. (1995) Are girls taught to fail? U.S. Catholic, 60, (2), 38-42. Mulrine, A. (2001) Are Boys the Weaker Sex? U.S. News World Report, 131 (4), 40-48. ONeill, T. (2000) Boys problems dont matter. Report/ Newsmagazine (National Edition), 27 (15), 54-56. Orenstein, P. (1994) Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap. New York, NY: Doubleday. Reay, D. (2001) Spice girls, Nice Girls, Girlies, and Tomboys; gender discourses. Girls cultures and femininities in the primary classroom. Gender and Education, 13 (2), 153-167. Sadker, D., Sadker, M. (1994) Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls. Toronto, ON: Simon Schuster Inc.

Wallerstein Articles :: Essays Papers

Reaction Paper: Wallerstein Articles The â€Å"After Arafat, Arafat II?† article discusses the dilemma that has occurred in the Palestinian Authority now that Yasir Arafat has died. Both Bush and Israel’s Ariel Sharon described Yasir Arafat as being an â€Å"insurmountable obstacle to peace.† Some wonder whether Mahmoud Abbas’s election as the president of the Palestine Authority will bring about positive changes to the Israeli-Palestine peace agreements. Although Sharon and Bush approve of Abbas, some still wonder whether or not this new appointment will provide new possibilities for the agreement between Palestine and Israel. Both sides have such strong fears. The Israelis are afraid that the Israel state as a Jewish state will be destroyed. The Palestinians fear that Palestine as a viable state will never be created. The lack of a solution is not due to the fact that there is an obstacle for one, but rather that there is an absence of one. Arafat failed to achieve a solution, so i t is up to Abbas to try and do what Arafat was unable to. I agree with the argument presented in Wallerstein’s article. Arafat did fail to find a peace agreement between Palestine and Israel, but condemning him as an â€Å"obstacle to peace† is extreme. Any Palestinian could just as easily argue that Israel and Sharon are impeding on their peace as a people. The fear that Abbas will become another Arafat is perfectly legitimate and understandable. At the same time I think it is a bit presumptuous to expect Abbas to establish the agreement between Palestine and Israel. In all the years that Arafat was president, he was unable to make these necessary changes. The only way that a peace agreement between the two can be reached is if both leaders agree with the terms. Currently, nobody wants to agree, and therefore there is no peace agreement. Neither Israel nor Palestine wants to compromise or sacrifice certain things in order for this agreement to happen. I think that bother leaders are in a lose-lose situation. If they are able to create an agreement between Israel and Palestine, somebody will be unhappy. It is nearly impossible to please both everybody without a compromise of some sort. More than likely, either leader will have to sacrifice something, which will then upset their people. Wallerstein Articles :: Essays Papers Reaction Paper: Wallerstein Articles The â€Å"After Arafat, Arafat II?† article discusses the dilemma that has occurred in the Palestinian Authority now that Yasir Arafat has died. Both Bush and Israel’s Ariel Sharon described Yasir Arafat as being an â€Å"insurmountable obstacle to peace.† Some wonder whether Mahmoud Abbas’s election as the president of the Palestine Authority will bring about positive changes to the Israeli-Palestine peace agreements. Although Sharon and Bush approve of Abbas, some still wonder whether or not this new appointment will provide new possibilities for the agreement between Palestine and Israel. Both sides have such strong fears. The Israelis are afraid that the Israel state as a Jewish state will be destroyed. The Palestinians fear that Palestine as a viable state will never be created. The lack of a solution is not due to the fact that there is an obstacle for one, but rather that there is an absence of one. Arafat failed to achieve a solution, so i t is up to Abbas to try and do what Arafat was unable to. I agree with the argument presented in Wallerstein’s article. Arafat did fail to find a peace agreement between Palestine and Israel, but condemning him as an â€Å"obstacle to peace† is extreme. Any Palestinian could just as easily argue that Israel and Sharon are impeding on their peace as a people. The fear that Abbas will become another Arafat is perfectly legitimate and understandable. At the same time I think it is a bit presumptuous to expect Abbas to establish the agreement between Palestine and Israel. In all the years that Arafat was president, he was unable to make these necessary changes. The only way that a peace agreement between the two can be reached is if both leaders agree with the terms. Currently, nobody wants to agree, and therefore there is no peace agreement. Neither Israel nor Palestine wants to compromise or sacrifice certain things in order for this agreement to happen. I think that bother leaders are in a lose-lose situation. If they are able to create an agreement between Israel and Palestine, somebody will be unhappy. It is nearly impossible to please both everybody without a compromise of some sort. More than likely, either leader will have to sacrifice something, which will then upset their people.

Liquid Crystal Display Essay

A thin, flat electronic visual display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals is known as a liquid crystal display. Direct light is not emitted by LCDs. Displaced cathode ray tube (CRT) displays of LCDs are used in most applications. Two sheets of polarizing material, are used in LCD displays, with a liquid crystal solution between them. The crystals align as a result of an electric current, so that light cannot pass through them. Each crystal, therefore, is like a shutter, either blocking the light or allowing light to pass through. Some of the technologies behind liquid crystal display are as follows Illumination-A cold cathode fluorescent lamp that is situated behind the LCD panel is used as an external lighting mechanism as LCD panels produce no light of their own. The conventional backlit LCDs are now being widely replaced by two types of LED backlit LCD displays. Active Matrix-This design depends on the usage of thin film transistors (TFT) — basically, tiny switching transistors and capacitors. One of the most important technologies behind liquid crystal display. These are arranged in a matrix on a glass substrate. They are required to switch the LCD’s pixels on and off rapidly. In LCDs, each colour pixel is created by three sub-pixels with red, green and blue colour filters. Twisted Neman tics-To allow light to pass through, twisted nematic displays containing liquid crystal elements are used, these twist and untwist at varying degrees to allow light to pass though . Any grey level or transmission can be achieved by properly adjusting the level of the voltage. Advanced fringe field switching (AFFS)-This technology provides superior performance and colour gamut with high luminosity. It helps in maintaining a wider viewing angle for a professional display and also minimizing colour distortion. Enhancement of the white/grey reproduction is achieved by optimizing the white gamut which also corrects the colour shift and deviation caused by light leakage. Vertical alignment (VA)-In this technology the need for extra transistors is removed because the liquid crystal material naturally exists in a vertical state. When no voltage is applied a black display is created and a white display is created when voltage is applied. This is one of the most widely used technologies behind liquid crystal display Bluephase Mode-It is used to obtain a better display of moving images; it also helps in improving the temporal response of liquid crystal displays. This technology removes the usage of expensive colour filters also short switching times can be achieved so realization of time sequential colour coding can be done Quality Control-There maybe occurrence of defective transistors in LCD panels which cause permanently lit or unlit pixels which are known as stuck pixels or dead pixels respectively. The presence of few defective transistors does not hamper the stability of the LCD panels. However the location of the defective pixels is important . it may be rendered useless if the defective pixels are clustered or are in the centre of the viewing area . also uneven patches may occur which is termed as clauding.

The Most Famous Wildfire Photograph Ever Taken

Some consider the image shown, taken by an observant wildland firefighter, to be one of the most beautiful photographs of both wildfire  and wildlife taking refuge. The photo  was taken on August 6,  2000, by John McColgan who was a fire behavior expert working under a  cooperative agreement with the  Bureau of Land Management (BLM)  and attached to an Alaskan Type I Incident Management Team on a Montana wildfire.​ McColgan says he was at the perfect spot with his Kodak DC280 digital camera when fire conditions and wildlife activity combined to create his image. The pic was saved as just another image file in the new type of digital camera.   McColgan finished his work for the BLM and returned to his home in Fairbanks, Alaska. He could not be found for days after one of those pictures turned viral and spread quickly over the Internet.   One of his elk and fire snapshots has fast become one of the most downloaded environmental photos of wildlife and wildfire on the Internet. Rob Chaney, a  reporter for the  Montana Missoulian  suggested that there were multiple reasons this photo was so great. Here are some of the comments reported:   Best darned elk photo Ive ever seen.Best darned fire photo Ive ever seen.Best darned photo, period, Ive ever seen. From the Official Record The famous photo was taken on a Sunday, in the late evening where several fires burned together near Sula, Montana (population 37) and turned into one large 100,000-acre wildfire. McColgan just happened to be standing on a bridge crossing the East Fork of the  Bitterroot River  in the  Sula  Complex of the  Bitterroot National Forest  in the state of  Montana where he took what is now called his elk bath digital Image. McColgan was employed by the Alaska Fire service and was on loan to Montana and acting as an expert on wildfire behavior. McColgan just happened to be a contract fire analyst with a new camera and took digital pictures of two elk who escaped the fire by wading in the Bitterroot River. No big deal. As a natural resource professional, McColgan understood both wildfire and wildlife.  When asked about the elk, he assured that they know where to go, where their safe zones are...a lot of wildlife did get driven down there to the river. There were some bighorn sheep there. A small deer was standing right underneath me, under the bridge. McColgan completed his assignment and left for home. The Search for McColgan The digital image he took was sent from one person to another person and according to the Montana Missoulian within about 24 hours the elk photo had world-wide-webbed its way across the West. For about a week now, theres been a medium-size manhunt underway across the West. The man everyones been hunting for is John McColgan of Fairbanks. The Nation and the World were sending emails and making phone calls for weeks to find out just who took the images of the wildfire and wildlife. It was the newspaper  Missoulian in Montana who finally solved the mystery and tracked McColgan down. He had indeed been in Montana and was now in Fairbanks attending the birth of his son, where the paper finally found him and where he told reporter Rob Chaney that he had taken the picture. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  McColgan confirmed that he had been in fire protection for  years  and that this particular fire ranked in the top three  extreme fire behavior  events he had ever seen.   Rob Chaney in response to the photo wrote that many people have never even seen an elk. Most of those who have, even those whove seen thousands of them, never get to see an image like this. Most people dont get to see a fire like this, either. Thanks to McColgan and Rob Chaney, millions of people have seen this stunning image. McColgans image went viral and eventually was picked as a Time Magazine favorite.