Second Paper: Learning to be Male/Female/Another Gender

Objectives

$to examine what students learn in school concerning gender;

$to test the readings and concepts presented in class against an actual case (your life experience); and

$to write an analytic paper which proves an argument.

In this paper, I am asking you to reflect retrospectively on your middle/junior high and/or high school experience to answer the question, “What did you learn about being male/female/other from your school experience and how did you learn this?” Learning is not just about learning facts and absorbing knowledge—but about learning to become someone, that is, assuming a particular identity and role in a social group, and thus about learning how to be in the world—how to talk, how to act, what to strive for and value.Learning how to be male, female, or another gender might have happened through the school curriculum, in bathrooms and the principal’s office, in locker rooms and sports fields, while waiting for the bus or riding on a school trip.

I know that this paper may elicit strong emotions, a combination of your feelings during this period of your life and your present feelings in which you may look back at your adolescent self with nostalgia or mortification. Note these feelings to yourself, and use them as data about the meaning of this time of your life in your learning to be the person you are today.

Remembering High School/Junior High School

For some of you, high school and junior high school may have happened less than a year ago; for others, more than twenty years have passed since that time. Particularly for the latter group, you may need to do some recollection of the past through chatting with people who knew you during that time, or looking through your yearbook or other artifacts from your school years. You might do some free-writing in which you just write without judgment or editing, recollecting what your days were like, what your fears and dreams were, who you hung out with, and what it felt like to be a student, to get yourself back into that time of your life, from the perspective of your older and wiser self.

Some questions that might help you recall your adolescence:

  • What did it mean to be an ideal and “normal”or non-conforming boy or girl? What roles were available for your gender, and how did you negotiate these?
  • How were boys or girls expected to talk, dress, walk, and act, etc?
  • What was the role of school rituals (proms, dances, assemblies, parades, fundraisers, pep rallies, etc.) and formal school groups (sports teams, drama club, debating club, etc) in your gender socialization?
  • How did peer culture affect your learning to perform a particular gender?
  • Did disciplinary procedures or academic visibility play a role in your gender socialization?
  • To what extent was taking on a certain gender identity also about taking on a particular sexual or sexualized identity?

Writing the Paper

Introduction and the Argument

Many of the authors in this section of the syllabus—whether Douglas Foley, Fida Adely, Ann Arnett Ferguson, or Peggy Orenstein—argue that one of the things young people learn in school is what it means to be male and female, although they may place different emphases on how they do so. For example, Douglas Foley focuses on football rituals as a site of learning; Fida Adely argues, instead, that school creates a space for deliberations about gender roles and behavior, and that other influences like the media and family also play a role. Ann Arnett Ferguson examines disciplinary practices. The argument of your paper, based on your life experience, should articulate the extent to which you agree with these authors that gender identity is learned in school, and if so, how. Furthermore, you should make an assessment about the significance of your learning a gender identity in school in comparison to other experiences. For example,

•To what extent did you learn to perform your gender identity by your school, as opposed to your childhood family or through your experiences as an adult?

•Are the gender roles learned in school similar to future adult gender roles or simply relevant in the adolescent society generated by school?

The introduction does several different tasks: it introduces the topic, it lays out what is at stake (why is this topic important), and it makes a claim about reality (the argument), which it then proves through the evidence marshalled in the analysis section of the paper.

It may be helpful to you to imagine a particular audience for your paper: a fellow student who has never taken Sociology of Education and is unfamiliar with the readings, to whom you need to explain the concepts and the issues.

Analysis

You should use details from your middle or high school experience to support the points you are making. These details should be organized analytically, rather than chronologically.

As with your first paper, you should make your analysis with as little evaluation and judgment as you can muster, and certainly refrain from personal attacks on people or an idealization of your friendship network. Instead, use these emotional responses to reflect analytically on the larger, systemic issues and dynamics that result in such strong emotions.

In reflecting on these questions, you should use the studies and concepts presented in class to analyze and generalize from your specific situation, make comparisons, and/or articulate the significance of what you learned and how you learned it. The most likely readings will be: Douglas Foley’s chapter on gender, race and school rituals; Fida Adely’s Gendered Paradoxes; PeggyOrenstein’s chapter on sexual harassment; the selection from “People Like Us: Social Class in America”; Ann Arnett Ferguson’s chapter from Bad Boys; and possibly Barbara Rogoff’s The Cultural Nature of Human Developmentand my lectures.

Conclusion

In your conclusion, you should restate your argument and why your argument matters (what is at stake) using different words. You can be more specific here than you were in the introduction now that you have developed your analysis. You could, if you wish, also lay out recommendations for what you think should happen in schools, but make sure that you show how your recommendations are connected to your analysis and the points you have developed in the paper

Bibliography

Here, you should cite the resources you used to develop your argument. I do not expect you to draw on outside readings; but you should cite the books and articles you used. You may use whatever citation format you are familiar with (Chicago, APA, or MLA), but be sure you are consistent in your citation format and that you cite different kinds of resources (e.g., books and films) correctly.

Self-Reflection as a Writer

Finally, you should write a short paragraph addressed directly to me as your teacher, describing how you have used my comments on your reading response papers and first paper to improve your writing on this paper.

How I Will Evaluate Your Paper

Your grade will be dependent on (in this order of importance):

  • your understanding of the concepts from the readings in this section of the course;
  • the depth of your analysis;
  • the evidence you provide to support your points, including illustrative examples and specific details;
  • an organized and clearly written paper; and
  • your lack of evaluative and judgmental language.

As with your other papers, I will reduce your grade if you have more than five typos, grammatical errors, or problems with citation format.

Due: Monday, March 30th(20%)

1