ARE OUR CLASSROOM MATERIALS GENDER BIASED?
By: Christopher Colson

Because it is frequently assumed that classroom materials and texts are ‘gender neutral" today, it is important that students of both sexes understand that they are not neutral; to be able to recognize the types of bias present, and realize it is important to take action to change this.

STANDARD: All students will be able to recognize gender bias, stereotyping, and discrimination in school materials, activities, and classroom instruction.

GRADE LEVEL: 3-6, Language Arts

1. The student will examine school materials for bias.
2. The student will identify different biases as the occur in the materials.
3. The student will make a plan of action for dealing with the problem of bias.

TIME: 1-4 hours.

MATERIALS: Every day classroom materials.

PROCEDURES:

Introduction: The teacher will review the words gender bias and stereotypes by making a web with the class, prompting if needed. Once the students have demonstrated an understanding, the class can discuss ways that bias can occur in the classroom. After listening to the students’ discussion, the teacher will then begin to talk about the way some classroom and school materials can contain gender bias. This may need a great deal of explanation to the students, depending on their grasp of the topic. Criteria for how bias can be recognized should be developed by the class.

Activity: Children are given the materials to examine. This can be done in groups or individually. The students should examine a number of materials, including text books, trade books, Weekly Readers, and what ever else is available. They should be looking for unfair stereotypes, repetitive roles for females, males, or minorities and other forms of bias based on the criteria established.

Students should be given two 20-minute segments to look at the materials and identify the bias. They should be expected to find at least 5 instances of bias. These instances should be recorded in some form for easy reference later on.

Conclusion: When the group meets as a whole again, each person or group can share some examples with the class. After the share session ends, the class will discuss why the problem occurs. The class then will develop a course of action to take. It is important to brainstorm many solutions, so the children can see there are various ways to solve a problem.

Extension: Have the students draft a letter to the textbook company to inform the company of the bias. If possible, send out some letters to see what response the class may get.