Read To Learn

UNIT 8: Gender

How to Build a Gender-Responsive Classroom

In many cases, teachers themselves are not aware that their actions and behaviour can have a negative impact on the girl learners. For example, the teacher may regularly ask more boys to answer questions or give feedback on a task than girls, or ask boys to carry heavy furniture in the classroom whilst asking girls to sweep the floor. Without reflecting on and noticing this, the teacher may not change their own behaviour and so the teacher will not be able to build a gender-responsive classroom.

When girls have less chance to speak up in class and show their learning, they are likely to feel excluded. It can also make them think that the teacher does not value them, or their voices, as much as the boy learners. As girls continue to struggle to achieve gender equality at school, this will impact negatively on their lives as women.

In a gender balanced classroom, the teacher should:

• Value boys and girls equally and evenly
• Assign roles regardless of gender e.g., cleaning the classroom, being class monitor: have one male and one female monitor with equal responsibilities
• Take questions and answers from an equal number of boys and girls
• Choose an equal number of boys and girls to be volunteers in class
• Be aware of biological needs e.g. girls who are menstruating, and provide support for this so it doesn’t interfere with their education, such as provision of a girls’ room
• Be aware of students’ attendance and progress, taking into account gender in order to address any gender differences that may exist
• Encourage girls and boys to interact in a gender-balanced way
• Support girls and boys to develop ideas that are free from gender stereotyping
• Support learners with challenging home lives e.g. where a student is taking care of younger siblings or doing paid work
• Provide positive role models for boys and girls e.g. people in society who are successful and defy gender stereotypes such as a successful female engineer, a successful male nurse.
• Encourage and enable girls and boys to excel in all areas of the curriculum, with no gender-bias

Sometimes, teachers are not aware that their actions and behaviour can have a negative impact on their female students. For example, a teacher may regularly ask more boys to answer questions or give feedback to boys more often than to girls. Another example is that a teacher may ask boys to carry or move heavy furniture in the classroom, whilst asking girls to sweep the floor or clean the tables. 

As a teacher you must intentionally reflect on and notice when you behave in any of these ways, in order to change your behaviour to be gender-responsive. 

If girls have fewer chances to speak up in class to show their skills and learning, this is a form of exclusion or segregation. This can make the girls think that their teacher does not value them, or that their ideas or their voices are not as important as the male students’. As girls continue to face challenges to achieve gender equality at school, this might impact negatively on their future lives as they grow up and become women.