Good gender policies at school
Collins in her article 'What would a school with good gender policies look
like?' notes the importance for teachers and administrators of coming to grips
with gender so that we can open up the 'rules of the game' for students.
As educators, we need to:
shift our own thinking from tit-for-tat logic about gender justice in schools
[because this leaves boys and girls] bound together as victims of a cultural
logic they usually feel unable to control. They thus spend their time trying
to understand the rules and trying to find a way to position themselves
and survive inside the rules. Our own incapacity to get beyond that game
reinforces it for them (Collins
1998:1).
To work effectively with boys (and girls), to give them the understandings
to challenge narrow gender roles, we need to develop confidence in those understandings
ourselves.
So what would a school that had moved beyond the gender divide look like?
- The school would have comfortable toileting arrangements for both sexes
in which privacy and safety from harassment were ensured.
- It would teach students to recognise and name sex-based harassment in
relation to both sexes of perpetrator and both sexes of victim.
- It would follow school-wide policies and procedures to deal with harassment.
Students would know the policies and the steps to take in the event of harassment
and be confident of staff support and policy enforcement.
- The school would address gender directly within the curriculum, demonstrating
the gender game's narrowing effects on student development and future options.
The classroom would be a safe space for students to talk about their diverse
and shared experiences of being human.
- The school would counsel and support boys to spread more broadly across
the curriculum, acknowledging the narrowness of many boys' learning experiences.
If boys avoid learning about the aesthetic, the ethical and the social aspects
of life, or choose to reject learning itself, such choices need to be challenged.
(Adapted from Collins
1998:1-2)
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