2 years, 2 months ago-
It is not an exaggeration to say that classrooms shape the world. What a child learns at school will influence individual perception of the world and ultimately behaviour. Just as classrooms are credited with imparting civic responsibilities, health and hygiene awareness and rational thinking, these very portals of education propagate rigid ideas on gender binary. The prevalent social discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is largely due to the rigid gender binary and heteronormative system internalised at schools. Practising gender equality in schools is the need of the hour.
Gender equality paves way for an inclusive environment where children get an opportunity to understand themselves and each other. The first step towards equality is inclusivity. It is important to know that gender is not a binary but a spectrum. Creating a classroom that does not acknowledge this discriminates against children who fall outside the gender binary. They might feel embarrassed and might try to repress their true selves to fit in. Such an environment will only prove counterintuitive to the purpose of the education system.
There is a jaundiced attitude towards individuals who challenge heteronormativity. Such children are often subject to conversion therapy in a bid to ‘cure’ them. A logical first step towards equality would be to include LGBTQ+ awareness subjects in school curriculum. While much misunderstanding and misconception prevails around the community, it would be nearly impossible to achieve equality until a comprehensive awareness of various genders and sexuality is achieved in age appropriate manner.
Education must be accompanied by adopting gender inclusive practices. This includes
1.Avoiding the assumption a child’s gender identity.
2.Creating ‘safe zones’ where children are comfortable expressing their true self. The space should make the child feel at ease and not fear judgement.
3.Avoiding gender stereotypes and phrases like ‘Don’t cry like a girl’ or ‘Man-up’.
4.Not assuming that all children are heterosexual. This would avoid affirming heteronormativity.Gender equality and inclusivity go hand in hand. To uphold equality only within the gender binary is to adjust the existing gender hierarchy instead of dismantling it. What is achieved this way can never be true equality. While adopting inclusivity, classrooms can be made gender equal by trashing biases and offering equal opportunity to every individual. Children must be introduced to role models whose identities fall across the gender spectrum. Sexist practices followed in books, poems or other forms of media must be called out and discussed in class. This way, classrooms can lead the world towards a future where gender parity is no longer a dream but reality.
In classrooms mentors have a right opportunity to promote gender equality by simple but effective practices. To make children aware about the gender neutrality there is a need to teach these skills to children from their childhood and classrooms are the best option for this. We have to promote in classrooms that no matter what gender we are we all have wishes, ambitions and dreams and we all need to be treated equally with full respect and dignity. Every gender is equally powerful. By using gender-neutral language when referring to a student for example instead of saying boys and girls say friends. Similarly there shouldn’t be any dividation of line during prayers on the basis of gender. Teachers should stop stereotyping students like boys don’t cry, girls are made for crying. They should stop providing judgements on the basis of knowledge like boys are good in maths. They should encourage all students to share their feelings and emotions equally. There should be same uniform for all gender in the schools. Teachers should use gender-neutral terms like shim or hen. They should try to give tasks regardless of gender like boys are called to move benches. They should stop using the dialogue that “we don’t scold girls”. Schools should also give sessions to parents to have gender neutrality at home. They should stop judging or deciding whether the particular game is made for boys or girls.
Therefore teachers have a wonderful chance to promote gender equality in classrooms. There ia a need to prepare children for a changing world where old methods of thinking about gender roles will no longer exist. The language the children hear and our given in their classrooms and the chances they are presented with will affect their interests and eventually their careers too. There is a hope that ensures that we don’t need a classroom where gender equality is promoted simply because it no longer exists in the society.School is the base foundation for all the teachings that we learn in our life . A child will never forget the learnings that they have been taught in the school foe the rest of life. Children are more capable of learning things in the childhood rather than adulthood. We should promote gender equality which is the main cause of so many issues in our society. Teach them in early days so that the next generation will be having a society which does not discriminate men and women and treat them unequally and provide them equal opportunities and respect that they deserve. There are so many ways how we can promote gender equality in a classroom such as:
1.By having activities which encourages both girl and boy to participate in equal manner and there will be not a single activity which will restrict any of the gender. This will help them to develop a thinking that each work is done by both equally.
2. Giving the same amount of punishment to both of them will enhance a equality between children.
3. Designing their uniform with similar design and pattern.4. Making them participate in every sport whether cricket, badminton,kabaddi,etc . In future, they will fix mind-set of people who thinks that girls can’t take this particular sports.
5. Educating about menstrual education to both girl and a boy. To avoid the fuss which usually a boy makes when heard about periods.
6. Making seating arrangements in a manner, girl seating next to boy and vice versa.To normalize the awkwardness and to make them learn to respect each other.
7. Making sports houses including both of them and not girls vs boys.
8. Everything happening in class should be student vs student and not about girl vs boy . The competition should be among students and not between the genders.
We should really promote gender equality on ground level to avoid the future clashes between the genders. And to make boys realize that nobody is inferior, but everybody is superior in their own self.If children learn gender equality, it will be a cherry on the cake for future generations.HOW CAN ONE PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY IN CLASSROOM?
What students learn at school they adopt because schools are the base of education and learning apart from their parents and family. A classroom is a place where each child can learn, explore and grasp and adopt new things not only education-wise but in every aspect.
Gender equality is a phenomenon that has always been a topic of discussion be it at a young age, old age, studies, work, career, etc. and it is been observed that there still exists inequality between genders and as per that they are treated.
Teachers can promote gender equality in the classroom and that can also bring some positive change in the thoughts of students in terms of equality between everyone. It can be done by
-Teachers should start educating them about gender equality and basic rights.
– They should not give more attention to one gender or students like favoritism and partial behavior and treat every student at par so any student won’t feel less than others.
– Every teaching like cultural and theory or sports should be inclusive for all and make them participate in everything without thinking of boys and girls for specific sport or activity.
– Appreciate each individual as per their work, not on basis of gender or partiality.
– For kids at kindergarten there should be no specific toy for boy or girl and teach them, there’s no toy or article which are gender-specific.
– There should be no sentence used by teachers like ‘don’t cry because you are a boy’ or ‘girls are more sincere than boys’ because after listening to these comments students will feel discriminated against among themselves and there starts a base for inequality.
– They should also be thought that classroom is a group and all are a team and should be united and not make groups such as boys group or girls group for any activity or project.
There are many things which the classroom can promote in positive ways and students will surely understand in their coming ages that what they learned was helpful. The classroom is the root for educating and if the root is strong then the whole tree will be fruitful.Children are easily influenced. They learn a lot from their parents, teachers, elders, and the media. So, you must be careful with what you allow your child to view and you should be careful with what you say around your child. They look up to you, so they take what you say seriously. Gender bias happens at home and school and they shape the child into the person they will become in the future.
Teachers need to understand that all girls and boys are different. They’re unique and they all offer different perspectives. Not one person is the same. But, some people have a gender bias. They might ask the boys and girls different questions based on their gender rather than asking all of them to get different perspectives.
Some teachers might think that boys might be interested in maths and science and girls might be interested in arts and humanities. But, that’s not the case. The subjects are taken by people who are interested in them. Subjects should not be gendered.
They also conform to gender stereotypes by assigning roles to them without getting to know any of them. Girls do not like sports because it’s a ‘boy’ thing, that boys are physically stronger so they give the tasks like moving desks, carrying books to boys and give ‘lighter’ tasks to girls. If you want to promote gender equality, include all of them. Also, boys are usually given more leadership roles. By including both genders, you get great leaders.
I feel that if there were classes one could take to learn more about gender equality or inequality, it would be good. It would help them out a lot in life. If you did not base your assumptions on the genders based on stereotypes. I think gender bias would cease to exist.Teachers might generate a sexual bias via accidental, nonverbal acts. The first step is to arrange your classroom so that every kid feels equal. This problem is corrected. A teacher must set a set of norms that promote equality right from the start. A good approach to achieve this is for students to establish class rules. Ask students to come up with suggestions about how to maintain a level playing field. This allows the teacher to point forth the rules as approved by the whole class. The norms governing students, instructor respect, and course participants must be included. Teachers tend to interact most closely with students. It is necessary for these reasons to adjust the seating order to allow all pupils to sit close to the teacher (if possible). Provide teachers with more easy questions in their classes or try to solve things for the students to make things easier for men or women. This can give the impression that certain kids are not as intelligent as others. Teachers should meet all pupils’ identical expectations. Often certain pupils, both male, and female will be unable to talk comfortably before huge classes. But in small gatherings, they may feel more convenient to speak. Try conducting certain exercises in small groups of three to four students to allow all kids to participate in class. One of the most important possibilities for school pupils to attend is to answer questions asked by teachers. Teachers must make balanced calls or conversations with both men and women. Research demonstrates that teachers both men and women commonly call on masculine pupils to talk more frequently in class than women. Some pupils, men or women, might need time to reflect on a teacher’s answer to the question. Make sure to give students four to five seconds or more when calling pupils who appear to wait longer to answer a question. Research demonstrates that providing extra time for students to respond will increase the number of students involved. Teachers may not understand that their body language may differ from what it is for male students with female students. Use courteous, listening body language, whenever male or female pupils speak. Don’t walk and don’t interrupt kids in front of the listener.
Schools can be referred to as ‘Second home’ for a child because a kid spent’s most of his or her time in the classroom with his classmates, friends and teachers.
Teachers play a vital role in a student’s life, after parents and family members, they are the only ones who can teach them moral values, etiquette and guide them about struggles of life.
So teachers can perform this task or I should say
responsibility very effectively. They can promote gender equality in the classroom with diligence. Students can be made to comprehend that gender equality is not an option or something to ponder upon, it should be included in our way of thinking.
Every gender should be respected whether one is a Male, Female or Transgender. Teachers can make them perform skits, tell them stories that could promote rational understanding and not unreasonable biased thinking. Educators have to understand that they should not take any action which leads to inequality. For instance, if a girl arrives late to school she is scolded and left, on the other hand, if a boy does so he is punished and scolded too. This is not fair! There should be the same punishment for both of them. Teachers should never discourage girls by saying this sport is not for girls etc as it makes them think that they are not strong enough and a sense of inferiority develops which is not right. There are many more ways to promote gender equality among children and as a mentor, they should try their best not to be biased and stop everyone who is being so.
Positive Change is necessary and it can be stimulated only through our young generation. They are our future so we need to nourish them with more goodness. We know that what a child learns in school time remains forever in their minds.Gender equality is a human right. When we teach children about gender equality from the start then the society will prosper. The base of any belief and thoughts are built from childhood and when the child who has learned the valid things grows up, he/she becomes an ideal human. Why are these concepts of misogyny, misandry, inequality, superiority, and many other stereotypes present in our society? It is because children from the start aren’t taught about these valid concepts. The question is: How will we promote gender equality in classrooms?
Firstly, all schools should be co-ed. That will be the first step towards gender equality. Secondly, teachers play an important role in shaping children’s thoughts. The equality of all children starts from the classroom with teachers. When teachers teach their students about equality then the concept is known to them. There are a few things that teachers should do in order to promote gender equality in the classroom. When referring to children, teachers should never say boys/girls, they should always refer to them as students/children. It’s often seen that when girls cry, teachers are very comforting to them but when boys cry, they don’t give them the equal attention and thus neglect their emotions as “girlish”. So, teachers should always encourage all children to share their feelings and emotions equally. No activity/sport should be based on gender and everything should be open to both the genders. Never say things like boys/girls are strong/weak. Let the children be free to express their thoughts. Make the students sit together and do not segregate them by genders.
By taking these and more such steps, we can promote gender equality in the classroom which is very important to build a better future for our upcoming generations.
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