Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 11 Summer 2019 | Page 18

beliefs about oneself and others’ (286). Gendered
behaviour stems from early childhood socialization
into expected gender roles, which occurs both at
home and in school. Morrissette, Jesme, and Hunter
(2018) have published a recent study demonstrating
that gendered biases and stereotypes are still
prevalent in today’s pre-kindergarten (nursery)
to grade 12 (A-Level) classrooms. This study
demonstrates that ‘teachers and administrators
held gender-biased beliefs, often unaware that their
comments aligned with gendered stereotypes’ (302).
The researchers equally pointed to the belief that
girls ‘want to please’ and need ‘constant reassurance’
(304) as a stereotype that can ‘reinforce to girls that
they need attention or permission to finish a task;
educators may be implicitly reinforcing a message
that girls cannot do this work on their own’ (305).
This can lead to girls who are less willing to engage
in active learning in which they construct knowledge
for themselves, preferring to wait for a teacher or
tutor to give them the answer.
There are a number of possible ways in which these
stereotypical gender roles internalized in early life
may manifest in the university classroom. James
and Drakich found that men were taught to use
speech as a way to assert status and gain attention,
while women had been socialized to use talking to
‘establish and maintain harmonious relationships’
(285). This means that women are far less likely
to assert their opinion over others’. This raises
what Angela Provitera McGlynn call the ‘ethics of
participation’ (16). Russell and Cahill-O’Callaghan
suggest that women ‘hold back from contributing’
because they ‘consider oneself in the context of
others’ (63). Politeness as much as fear can hold
women back. Women are also far more likely to
wait to be acknowledged by the tutor, rather than
speaking without being called upon (71). Powell
and Caseau, too, point to the fact that boys are
socialized to be verbally responsive and ‘command
attention’, while girls ‘learn to use nonverbal
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behavior’ (78). Thus, women may be less likely to
immediately answer a question without permission
from an instructor, and may struggle to gain an
instructor’s attention as readily as male students do.
So what is the solution? Gender biases must be
addressed particularly in early education, but
there are ways to increase class participation
among women in higher education as well.
Provitera McGlynn argues that educators must
tailor classroom dynamics with gender in mind
(16). One way to accomplish this is to change
the goal of classroom discussion. A move away
from ‘knowledge-checking’ (Russell and Cahill-
O’Callaghan, 70) and ‘task-oriented activities’ (such
as decision making or problem solving) (James and
Drakich, 287) to collaborative learning can help
to address women’s anxieties. One of the most
common reasons given by women for not speaking
in higher education classes is fear of getting the
answer wrong (Russell and Cahill-O’Callaghan, 67;
Yaylaci and Beauvais, 562; Carter, 11). Even in the
Humanities, in which there is rarely a ‘right answer’,
educators should avoid leading questions that seek
a specific answer or line of inquiry.
Deborah Tannen (1992) has found that women
speak more in situations coded as ‘private’ rather
than ‘public’. Thus, a number of researchers point
to small group work as a means of redressing the
gendered speech imbalance (Provitera McGlynn,
24; Carter, 19; Powell and Caseau, 80). Women are
also more likely to speak in front of acquaintances
rather than strangers (Yaylaci and Beauvais, 562),
and thus educators can allow students to choose
their own small groups. As women are less likely
to answer questions immediately, ‘think-write-
pair-share’ activities can ensure that men’s voices
don’t dominate. A recent study of question asking
behaviours has further found that the gender of the
first person to ask a question in seminar ‘sets the
tone’ for the rest of the session: ‘our data [shows]