"It's Harder to Get Through": The Influence of Gender on Teacher Thinking and Interactions

• In Event: 66.060 - Issues of Race, Gender, and Identity Development

Abstract

This case study examines the influence of gender on the thinking and interactions of teachers, focusing on the ways in which teachers position the identities of themselves and students based on gender, with connections to their teaching philosophies. I present a sociolinguistic analysis of the discourse of the participants, illustrating through the evidence that teachers do not discuss gender in isolation, but rather categorically group students by gender and race when discussing behavioral expectations. This paper extends the literature on the influence of gender on teachers by providing insight into the ways that teachers talk about students, and the beliefs that are reflected in that talk.

Author

• Elizabeth Anne Mainz, University of California - Santa Barbara