Defining Our Classroom Selves: Our Gender, Our Shoes

• In Event: The Intersections of Gender Diversity

Abstract

The paper is based on a semester long research project of gendered performance in the classrooms of two Latina faculty members at two universities in the Southwest. Using a number of qualitative approaches, including participant observation in and out of the classroom, an analysis of course evaluations, crowdsourcing on Facebook, and our own journals, the authors found that: 1) students and others in the academic setting greatly responded to our appearance in and out of the classroom, and 2) discussions about the development of oneself within the classroom was mediated by the gendered performance that we adopted and 3) we grew as teachers and scholars from examining the intersection of these practices.

Authors

• Kristan Venegas, University of Southern California

• Araceli Espinoza-Wade, University of Southern California