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Avoiding gender bias

Gender bias has been in the spotlight for the past few years following studies that pointed out male favoritism in our classrooms.

What was disturbing in the findings was that many classroom teachers were guilty of gender bias and were totally unaware of what they were doing!

KNEA offers professional workshops on identifying and dealing with gender bias as a way to improve teaching. For details on the Gender Bias workshop or any other KNEA professional development offering, e-mail resources@nea.org.

Here are some suggestions for avoiding gender bias in your classroom:

• Use inclusive language. "You guys" may be a popular way of addressing a group, but it's an example of gender bias.
  
  
• Make sure your expectations are the same for all of your students. Both genders can succeed in math and reading.
  
  
• Use examples that are gender balanced. If there are none in your textbooks, do some research.
  
  
• Avoid stereotyping jobs for students such as having girls clean up and boys carry things.
  
  
• Try to put girls and boys in non-traditional situations.
  
  
• Make the classroom atmosphere one where both girls and boys are encouraged, questioned and reinforced.
  
  
• Actively integrate groups by not allowing self-segregation.
  
  
• Never use gender to group students.

Contact the KNEA Instructional Advocacy office in Topeka for details on the Gender Bias and other professional enhancement workshops.