Codes and Contradictions: Race, Gender Identity, and Schooling

9. The Social Construction of Gender within the School

CHAPTER 9 The Social Construction of Gender within the School INTRODUCTION This chapter explores how the school informally contributes to the formation of gender identity, how its gender code communicates to students "appropriate'" ways of being feminine or masculine. These messages of gender appropriateness are often contradictory, as well as unintentional. They are usually conveyed through complex processes in dynamic settings-through, for example, the interactions between students and reachers in the classroom or the ways the school addresses students ' sexuality and responds to male dominance (Kessler et aL, 1985). In addition to gender and class as components of the social interaction between female students and teachers, I also examine how racelethnicity impact on teachers' assessments of and beliefs about their female students, thus revealing the multiple ways that adults make judgments about young women. Arnot's theory of gender code, based on Bernstein's conceptual framework of educational codes, is employed in this chapter as a tool to analyze how messages concerning appropriate models of femininity and masculinity get distributed (Arnot, 1982). Bernstein's theory, which considers how symbolic messages get communicated through formal and informal structures (see chapter 8), is at the heart of Arnot's concept of gender code. The premise of her theory on gender codes is, of course, the notion that gender categories are socially constructed. Gendet classification in industrial societies has been based on the strong sexual division of labor and the relationship of men and women to that division. Schooling not only reflects this division and helps constitute it, but, as Kessler and her colleagues (1985) point out, schooling can also enlighten young people about alternative gender relations. They suggest that, "the schools are an arena in which a complex often contradictory, emotionally, and sometimes physically violent politics of gender is worked out" (p. 35). In analyzing how gender identities and the relations between masculinity and femininity are constructed and acquired through schooling, 169 170 CODES AND CONTRADICTIONS the teachers and their classroom practices are central. Since the structure of gender relations is one of the major social forces shaping education, patterns of femininity and masculinity form an important part of the context of teaching. Teachers, as Kessler and her colleagues (1985) suggest , do the main work of maintaining conservative gender codes and remaking or refashioning gender codes. The next three sections-how gender shapes teachers' expectations of boys and girls, how racelethnicity affects teachers' assessments of girls, and how gender impacts on student-teacher relationships-provide some evidence to suggest that teachers' views and practices regarding gender differentiation are often complex, contradictory, sometimes reinforcing and somerimes undermining social divisions and larger patterns of inequality. TEACHERS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES Teachers' beliefs about gender help to structure the way in which they respond to male and female students. Data from interviews with teachers ' suggest that their views do confirm some generalized notions of stereotypical gendered behavior, but their views are not always consistent . Teachers tended to consider gender itself to be an explanation for different educational skills and behaviors. With regard to academic ability , several teachers perceived girls as more teachable, more mature, and better or harder workers: EMIL: Girls seem to work harder and they don't challenge you like the guys do, especially at this age when they're caught up in all this image stuff. The girls definitely, they work bener and they're berter students Ithan boys]. VINNIE: In terms of teaching, they're more mature. They pick things up quicker. ... I would rather work with the girls instead of the guys. PETER: Well, I've had experiences with coaching. As far as that goes, the girls, I'm talking about coaching now, are much more coachable than the guys are. They're more dedicated, they tend to practice harder and are easier to teach. SUSAN: The top five students in terms of grade averages are females. They have the highest averages and tend to excel at school. EUZARETH; Boys in general [arej more handicapped than girls. Their success rate is lower. When they ger into trouble, they tend to get into more serious trouble. The Social COIlstruction of Gender withi'l the School 171 Given this belief that girls fare better academically and are more motivated than boys, the teachers promote a kind of femininity in which academic achievement and mastery of knowledge is central to the school's construction (and restructuring) of gender. However, some teachers...