Scottish teachers are being told to deal with sexist language in the same way they would racist or homophobic speech, in a bid to address gender bias in schools.
Educators are also being urged to confront their own sexist stereotyping, as part of an effort to wipe out beliefs - held even among very young children - that “girls are inherently quiet, compliant and nurturing, while boys are boisterous, confident and should avoid anything traditionally considered feminine”, according to new guidance for schools.
Meanwhile, a Tes Scotland analysis of Scottish Qualifications Authority data has shown that the gender divide in uptake has barely shifted in many subjects - and that in some cases it has widened.
Schools inspectorate and curriculum body Education Scotland is asking teachers to stop and think before making comments in class assuming that a child’s mother is the one who helps them with their homework, or asking loaded questions such as: “Is anyone’s father an engineer?” Such bias reinforces the idea that women “cannot be engineers” and “do the bulk of childcare”, narrowing opportunities for girls in later life, according to a new “action guide” for schools, produced by Education Scotland, Skills Development Scotland and the Institute of Physics.
Schools are also being warned against relying on one-off events to tackle gender bias, such as an annual “girls into science” intervention. These efforts did not have “a lasting impact” and need to be “part of a wider strategy”, the guidance said.
‘Gender champions’
Instead, the document - published after a three-year pilot in which primaries, secondaries and nurseries in six school clusters were supported to tackle gender stereotyping - recommended schools adopt five-year plans and identify staff to be “gender champions”.
However, a review of the pilot Improving Gender Balance Scotland - which the government now plans to roll out across the country - said some teachers were in denial that gender imbalance was even an issue at all, and that this presented a major barrier.
“The main challenge is the scale of change required to shift entrenched culture and perceptions,” the report stated. “There was and remains a resistance and denial that there is a gender imbalance or stereotyping issue by some individuals within organisations/schools.”
Heather Earnshaw, a former physics teacher, left the classroom three years ago to become the lead project officer for IGBS at the Institute of Physics.
Ms Earnshaw acknowledged that gender stereotypes were all-pervading. But she argued that schools could chip away at the problem. Small tweaks applied consistently have the potential to make a big difference over time, she said.
Talat Yaqoob, director of Equate Scotland, which campaigns for a diverse Stem sector, said that tackling gender stereotypes in the classroom was “crucial to creating gender equality across the education pipeline”. Girls’ interest in Stem at a young age was on a par with that of boys, Ms Yaqoob said, and teachers should be “well informed on “institutionalised inequality and occupational segregation”.
This is an edited version of an article in the 22 June edition of Tes Scotland. Subscribers can read the full article here. To subscribe, click here. This week’s Tes magazine is available at all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here.
