Article: Experts say gender roles are taught in our classrooms.

This is how gender expert and author Allyson Jule sees the difference between how educators treat boys and girls in the classroom:

“If a teacher asked the question, ‘What’s the capital city of Canada?’ and … a girl replied, ‘Ottawa,’ the teacher would say, ‘Yes,’ ” she said.

“And if the same thing happened but it was a boy who responded … and says, ‘Ottawa,’ the teacher would say something more like, ‘Yes. People think it’s Toronto or even Montreal, but it’s not, it’s Ottawa, you’re right,’ and in that affirmation … the amount of language used in response to the boys was ten times more.”

Jule is professor of education and co-director of the Gender Studies Institute at Trinity Western University and author of Gender, Participation and Silence in the Language Classroom: Sh-shushing the Girls. Her story speaks to the not-so-subtle differences in attitude that educators may take with girls and boys.

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