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I feel gender roles affect both QU culture and my internship. When thinking about our master's program, we are in; there are not a lot of men in our program. I feel that should change because I think a lot of people think teaching is just for women. I think having more men in the career of education can only benefit students. With my internship, I have two male teachers and one male math coach, but that's it. I have talked to one of them about how he is one of three male teachers. He talks about how being a male teacher can help his students because he can be the positive male role model for his students.  Some of the students in my district to not have those he says he tries to let be a positive role male for all is students. I think the problem with teaching is most people say its still a female role. I think it should not matter what gender we are but how effective a teacher we are. I was talking with our male third-grade teacher the other day, and they moved on of his students because the mom thought that her daughter was not learning because he was a male teacher. Which I believe is ridiculous because it does not matter what gender you are to help students learn. The reason I think this is ridiculous is that she had a female teacher in second grade and had the same difficulties she is having now with a male teacher.

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I share the same frustrations as others who have responded here. It is definitely true that teaching, particularly at the elementary level, is seen as "women's work". At my internship placement, there is only one male teacher in the building full-time, the gym teacher. This is consistent with the trend across the teaching profession. More gender diversity in teaching is definitely needed. Students should have positive male roles models in school, especially in younger grades, where this is rare. This past summer I had the opportunity to work with two experienced male elementary school teachers in a camp setting. Our campers were some of the youngest, aged 5-8. The men I worked with were both just as caring and nurturing as any female teachers I have worked with. It is frustrating to me that these are seen as "feminine" qualities, as they are definitely present in people of all genders. Someone's capacity for teaching, entertaining, and emotionally supporting young people depends much more on their personality then their gender.

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I agree with what I've read from others so far, especially on the idea of teaching as a woman's job, as it historically has been viewed. While that's obviously not true, anyone with the right heart and mindset can teach, the remnants of that idea are still present when discussing the profession with those not involved. At my internship school, the difference between teachers and their teaching style is astounding, but it never depends on their gender. Rerouting the conversation around gender in teaching to discuss the gender neutrality of traits like compassion, patience, and nurturing will only benefit prospective teachers. I think this program at Quinnipiac has done an exceptionally good job of not pigeon-holing any of us as a certain type of teacher based on our gender or other background. I think discussing it openly is the best way to acknowledge that the bias does exist-- but here's what to do when someone tries to pin it on you. I think it saves a lot of frustration when such a big topic is discussed within classes like this ahead of time.

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I've noticed a lot at my internship site that male students will react differently with male and female teachers. The male students will often push boundaries with female teachers that they wouldn't with the male teachers. I have also noticed that administrators and other teachers will respond differently to strictness with male teachers than with female teachers. Female teachers are expected to be even-tempered and never yell, always treat the students with a nurturing and kind disposition. For the male teachers, administrators and other teachers value strictness, and will often be respected if they yell or are harsh with students, where the female teachers will not be respected if they display that kind of behavior. When the male teachers yell or display more assertive behavior, I have also noticed that the male students will often "fall in line" and will respect their male teachers, while I have noticed that the male students will often mock and talk over female teachers when they are pushed to more assertive behaviors in the classroom. I think that maybe this behavior is learned throughout society, or that they may see this type of behavior exhibited at home.

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From what I have seen in my internship, I can see that my school is very gendered. The teachers at my school are majority female. There are only 3 male adults in my building; the librarian, gym teacher and custodian. I think that it is important for students to have these male role models in their lives, therefore, I think that it would be beneficial to have more males in the school system. On the other hand, I think there is also this stigma around male and female teachers, especially for the younger grades. I think that people typically think that when it comes to elementary school teachers, people tend to think that it is only normal for females to have the job. Females are very nurturing and people tend to think that at such a young age that is what the students need and they are right, but males are also beneficial. I think that people need to drop this stereotype because males can be a very good role model for younger children, especially those students who don’t have a male role model at home.

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Gender roles and identity affect QU culture when interacting on & off campus because every day we are presenting ourselves through our gender and identity. At QU, there is a split between females and males. The people in the education program are mostly female. Males are mainly in the law and business center. The health sciences field has a lot of females as well. At my internship site, there are a lot of female teachers. There is only one male. With primarily females at QU in the education program and at my internship site, it makes it easy to talk about things of common interest. There are a ton of commonalities and everyone at work seems to be operating on the same wavelength. Sometimes, at times of high stress, this can make things a little too much the same. I think that undergraduates and graduates have completely different identities. Graduates operate with a sense of maturity and concern for their schoolwork whereas undergraduates are still exploring and experimenting with their personal lives, so sometimes they are coming from a completely different culture of partying and friends. I have not had any interaction with Yale students or 5 semester MAT vs. undergrad MAT, but I think that the 5 semester people's identities are diverse in that they come from all different schools and career backgrounds, but again, most of us are female. The gender roles for male and female within my internship and at QU seem to be the same as the traditional roles. Gender expression as well.

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Gender roles play a part in everyday life, but especially at Quinnipiac in the MAT program and my internship. I’ve noticed that there are very few men that are in the Education program specifically. I think the education field could definitely use more males because from what I’ve seen in my internship, many boys look up to and respect them. There are a ton of different stigmas and expectations of men in the education field, which puts a lot of pressure on them. It’s extremely unfair and at this point in life, you’d think things would be pretty equal at this point.

There are only 4 teachers who are males at my internship — two 5th grade teachers, the gym teacher and the principal, so I wouldn’t say it’s very gender centered. They are very well respected and show a good amount of professionalism. Unfortunately, this comes with the profession, since I think there’s a small stigma that teaching is a very “woman centered” career. I think Quinnipiac has done a really good job at focusing on equality for all genders and identities as well.

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After reflecting about gender norms at my internship school and at QU, I find that most of the individuals that I work with are woman.  Teaching, especially at the elementary school level, is typically viewed as being a “woman’s” job.  I can see why this persona has been created because there are only a handful of male teachers at my internship school.  One of the male teachers at my school is the gym teacher.   I find this to be extremely stereotypical because when many people think of male elementary teachers, they imagine them in this role.  A difference that I have noticed between students’ interactions between male and female teachers is that students generally will not question directions given to them by their male teachers.  What I have also noticed at QU is that there is a lack of male students in the school of education.  The male students are outnumbered by females, especially in our cohort.  What I have also observed is that we have also only had one male professor.  One day I hope that the teaching profession will become gender neutral and not a women centered role.

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At my internship, there are five men in the building: the principal, the social worker, one teacher, one para, and the janitor. So, the men’s roles pretty much run the gamut from top to bottom. Every other role in the school is filled by women- the secretary, the nurse, all the other teachers and paras, the special education department, the ELL department, etc. I think this is likely common in most schools as well because caring for and teaching children (in our case ages 4-8) is seen entirely as meant for women. The male teacher and para are oddities to some degree (though the para is working through grad school), the janitor fills a traditional role of manual labor, and the principal and social worker act in a role of authority (social work is frequently seen as a woman’s job as well, but in our school he really acts as a decision maker and a higher up). This split is mirrored at Quinnipiac. Nearly the entire education department, not even just our cohort is almost entirely women. I think I know of three men in elementary ed out of all the cohorts I’ve seen. I have noticed, though, that the administrator class that our internship seminar teacher is in has a better ratio- curious that that is the path more men in the field are taking compared to many women who remain as a classroom teacher until the day they retire.

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I have my two hats to wear, one as a healthcare practitioner, and one as an educator. Interestingly, both of these hats have very strong roots in gender. As many of you noted, teaching has long been viewed as a predominantly female career. In fact , when I first went to college, my intention was NOT to pursue education because I somehow felt that it was a safer career and one expected of me because of my gender. My career evolved over time and the innate educator in me came out on its own! Is it my femininity or what? The good news is , that like everything else, we are slowly making strides. More male nurses, more female physicians, more male teachers, more female engineers. Not enough for sure, but as we learn more and raise awareness to these issues, we can begin to do more the effect change. Here at QU, in the School of Health Sciences, we are still heavily female in our student population. Occupational therapy has almost no male students. Physical therapy and athletic training have quite a few males. Social work and radiologic sciences are almost exclusively female. I work in the Dean's office and there are now 5 of us in administrator roles as Dean and Associate Deans. We are all white females!  We know it and wish it was different but you pull from the ranks of your professions and our professions are mostly filled with women.

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While reflecting on gender roles both at QU and my internship I see a two sides of the spectrum. At my internship, I am surrounded by a good amount of male teachers. We do not make up the majority, but we certainly come close. When I come to school at QU, we are definitely the minority group. The education field is typically female dominated. Being a male I can feel pressures from society. I am suppose to be this hero in the classroom. I'm going to be this stern exceptional teacher with zero classroom behavior issues. Every student will pass my class with flying colors. The one I hate the most is that I am supposedly going to land any job I want too. These general thoughts brought on by society are not at all true. Every employment field is competitive, and when I get a job, I don't want it be because I'm a male in a female dominant profession. I want it to be because I was the best candidate for the job.

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Before I took this course, I noticed that most of the teachers are female. At that time, I didn’t think of it as a big deal. I thought it’s probably because the females tend to be more patient - and therefore they are more likely to pass the requirement to become a teacher. Now that I think about it, I noticed that my thoughts were actually influenced by the gender norms and gender stereotypes.
Even though I know that we are supposed to be gender neutral and treat males and females the same way without biases, I didn’t think it was weird to have jobs that are usually dominated by a single sex. This just shows how deeply the gender roles and gender stereotypes influence our thoughts - which indirectly influence our career choices, social expectations, and even how we treat others.

Meanwhile, being a male teacher myself can feel the difference in treatment from the administration (particularly when I was working as a substitute teacher). It felt like that the male teachers are expected to be one of those outstanding teachers with absolutely no behavior issues in the class- regardless of the circumstances associated with it. This can be very frustrating from time to time since we are often blamed for things we aren’t really responsible for, which was constantly pushing me to be strict with the students in order to avoid being blamed again. Indirectly, it forced me to put on the mask of masculinity and reinforced the effects of gender role and gender stereotypes.

I think this needs to change. I will help my future students raise their diversity awareness about gender norms. Maybe one day, no one will have to suffer from the social injustices caused by the gender norms.

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There are two people who identify as men at my internship site. One is the PALS Special Educator and the other is a classroom para. My school is dominantly women, which is not uncommon in Elementary schools. I remember a conversation I had with the para early into the school year, who I've become good friends with. He was telling me about his future plans to apply for classroom teacher jobs and that he was talking to the principal from last year (a different one) about how to impress the hiring committees. The principal told him that he will automatically get an interview and be put in the "yes" pile because he is a male. This piece of information has stuck with me since that days and it truly upsets me. I think about ways in which I can stray from being viewed as "a dime a dozen." because there are so many women that enter this profession. What if I have better experience but because I am more common than a male in teaching, they will overlook me and take a chance on the male. I believe there is this unspoken belief that men are more assertive in whatever job they take and women, especially in education, are more nurturing and passive. This idea is unfair to both genders because of the pressure that comes with these assumptions. I feel like I have to work extra hard at my internship because I don't want to be viewed as "another young female who wants to be a teacher." I want to be seen as an amazing educator, despite my gender. I know that my particular school has never had a male intern and it makes me wonder if they did: how he would be treated by the staff and the children? Would it be different than if I walked into a classroom for the first time? These assumptions are hard to seperate from because the men in my district are beloved and I'm not sure if this is because they are truly great educators (which they are) or if it's because of their gender, or maybe a mixture of both?

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I think that gender identity and gender roles are both big topics at this point in society, but that the ones talking about it are often people of the younger generation. Surprisingly, there are quite a few male teachers at the middle school I am interning at, and I was indeed genuinely surprised when I noticed that the first few weeks! The fact that it was noticed shows that there is a significant inequality / bias in the environment. However, I do see a lot of gender role expectation coming from the teachers. My own mentor teacher often remarks (luckily usually only to me and not the kids) that "oh, they're just being boys" or other things like that varying from a tinge of gender role influence to full on "well that's how girls/boys should act." This is troublesome to me, and I believe that we should not be influencing kids with how they "should" act in that regard.

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I think we all know at this point that the education field is mostly composed of women and the few male teachers that I have had or seen are always amazing teachers. I think it is interesting being in a female dominated career because it is so uncommon, growing up I played hockey with all boys and the majority of jobs that I have had I have always been the minority, to come into classes like this with the majority being female is almost unsettling to me because I grew up used to being the only girl around. My brother is an elementary school teacher as well and we have been able to have a ton of conversations about how he feels being the minority in his school and what it is like for him. He has told me that he doesn't really feel like he doesn't belong because he is lucky enough to be in a school where if you are a good teacher nothing else really matters. I think and hope that this is the viewpoints of most schools when we are interviewing next year. I do not want to be perceived as "just another female who wants to be a teacher" I want to stand out because I will be a good teacher.

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Having male teachers in an elementary school is not "outside the norm for me" unlike other people on this feed. Out of my seven years of elementary school, I had three years of school where I had a male teacher and two years where I had a male student teacher in my classroom specifically. It is interesting to me to see this being an atypical experience for some. I think it is important that more male teachers are in the elementary school, not just for the male students but for all students to see that there is gender equality in the world. There are not "boy jobs" or "girl jobs" even though many students can feel that way because of what they see starting in elementary school. If being a male elementary teacher wasn't so "taboo" so to speak, I think we as teachers would have a much easier job getting this message across to children.

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Throughout my entire elementary school there was only 1 male teacher. With that 1 male teacher, I can remember praying that I got him as a teacher, because I wanted to be in a class with a teacher that was not like the rest. Seeing as though I never had the experience of a black teacher, yet either, I just for once remember wanting to have a guy for a teacher. As the years moved forward, I started to see a few more male teachers trickle in, but then my thoughts were, why aren't men coming into teaching. What is really going on that we have so many women in teaching positions and not nearly as many men. I am still having those thoughts, but I am sure to find out as I embark on this journey. As I look at my internship school, there are 3 male teachers there, 6th grade, 2nd grade, and 1st grade. And then our principal is a male. I can remember on the first day of school, one of the 3rd graders made a comment about wanting to be in my class and asking what grade I taught. When I explained who I was, he still wanted to know why he couldn't be in my class, so I asked him why he wanted to be in my class, and his response was "because I had Mr. Dex last year and I want another guy, I like having the guys as the teachers because they like the things I like..." and I thought to myself, these kids need to not only see more people of color at the front of the classrooms, but simply see that men can also be at the front of the classrooms too, regardless of the racial background.

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I feel as though growing up I've had my fair share of male teachers. I do recall it being women dominated, though. My internship has several male teachers as well. I've clearly been exposed to the unusual in my experiences! I think having an equally divided amount of genders would be beneficial in schools. Especially for younger grades, I personally found it more difficult to talk to a teacher of the opposite sex depending on what was going on in my life. There was one teacher exception in high school for me. He was an older gentleman who built the most relationships with girls. He was a very blunt and honest individual, but he also understood what we were going through which resonated with a lot of the females who were young and already wanting to plan their future. He gave authentic feedback and genuinely cared about those struggling and wanting to excel. I did take notice on the expectations of female versus male teacher. Female teachers are often more even-tempered and are not expected to get angry and raise their voice versus men who are expected to get loud and stern to gain respect from the kids.I also noticed the kids tend to push female teachers a bit further than male teachers, most likely because of the expectations and knowledge of the different gender qualities. It's extremely interesting and sad to see these people are stepping into their stereotypical roles. They should be who they want to be, as long as they are teaching effectively and appropriately.

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I think that "typical" gender roles have played a big part of many of our lives. Growing up, a majority of your teachers were likely female, especially in elementary school. I know at my internship, there are only two male teachers (art teacher and gym teacher) and three male custodians. I think from such a young age, this influences students to think that you "have" to be a women to be a teacher. I believe it is so important for all to be represented in schools, including gender, race, ethnicity, etc. This would create a community of acceptance from a young age for students. Additionally, I think students having a male teacher is so important, especially if a father is not present in a students life. This male teacher could be a great role model for all students, and just not those without a father present.

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I agree that because teaching is a female-dominated profession and because it is in the sphere of child-rearing, there is a perception that it is a "woman's job." I do think that a lot of my work at internship has a maternal slant to it, particularly in the younger grades: not only do I work with the students on content and reading and math, but I also tie their shoes, zip their coats, get their bandaids, open their lunches, give them (air) high fives and hugs as reassurance. We have talked a lot in this class and in others for this program about the needs of students, and how those needs are not limited to simply academics. Students are children first, and they have practical and emotional needs that have to be addressed by the adult in the room. I wonder if this is subconsciously part of the reason why more men do not go into elementary-level teaching as a profession, because there is a perception that it is, at the end of the day, another form of 'childcare,' which for many is still relegated as a "woman's job." Personally, I don't have a problem with providing not only academics, but also emotional support, to my students. I actually really like this part of the job, because I think it allows me to connect to my students when they look to me for comfort, support, and confirmation. However, I have noticed that the culture of gender roles is very traditional in the teaching profession. I have had multiple (female) teachers at my internship ask if I want children of my own, despite barely knowing them. There is an assumption that because I am working with children, I want them myself - and that my reproductive choices for the future are open domain, just because "we're all women." I know that I would be uncomfortable with these inquiries from a male colleague, and I don't think there should be a different standard for female colleagues. I don't agree with this aspect of the gender roles in elementary education, because I feel that my choices should be my own and shouldn't really be up for discussion at my place of work.

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Gender and QU culture -- big question #2

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Gender and QU culture -- big question #2

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I think that QU specifically is situated in an interesting spot in terms of gender and culture because, unlike many places, there are many more women than men enrolled at QU since our education and nursing programs are so well-known. I'm not sure how that affects the culture since I really only interact with my cohort which is much more balanced in terms of gender, but I thought it was interesting. I was thinking though that some of the gendered norms from outside of QU still make their way into the ways that our cohort interacts (QU specific culture is in some ways determined by the larger American cultural norms around gender). As a woman, I have never had any of the men say something directly sexist or disparaging about women, but there certainly are moments where I feel like I am not heard because I am a woman. Whether they realize they are doing it or not, some of the men do explain things to me in a condescending tone, they make the point I just made to the class with slightly different wording, they interrupt when a woman is about to speak. While I think that there is an outward standard of mutual professional and personal respect, those roles that have been conditioned into us that men are dominant and women should be more submissive do make their way into our interactions.

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Meredith Miller - Gender Roles and Identity 

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Meredith Miller - Gender Roles and Identity 

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Women tend to enter the elementary education career because as women we are socialized to bear the responsibility of being the care-taker of others around us which leads us to taking jobs where we take care of others. We are the mothers, the friend, the source of comfort to many and the teachers to our own children. Even in my internship I have noticed taking the caring and almost mother-like approach to helping students has been very successful at building relationships, becoming a safe person to talk to, and someone that is here to help find solutions in a calm and empathetic way. The female domination of this career has not changed. In my own classes there is only one male and at my school only four male general education teachers. I have to note, despite women being denied the right to learn how to read, write, attend higher education, and even vote, we have come a long way from illiteracy to being the ones teaching kids how to read. I saw in Kelsey’s post, she mentions that QU has a bigger female population than male. This is becoming more common for colleges as women increasingly attend higher education to attain better paying jobs so they can be financially independent, another right that was not immediately given to them. I have not experienced QU’s culture enough to comment on the gender roles and identity impacts on students, but I can say that as a woman I feel respected and supported by the graduate community and my specific cohort.

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Ever since I was younger I noticed that most of my teachers were women. I never had a male teacher in elementary school or middle school. Women's role in our society is a nurturer, you have to be very caring, and understand how to form strong relationships with children (mother-like). There are not that many men in the education field- especially in elementary education. At my internship, there is only one male fifth grade teacher and then we have an EL male teacher, art teacher, and computer teacher. It is great to see that college is very common for women now and that we go to school just as men would. Women are working to be independent, educated, and equal to men in a society where being a white male is most advantageous. As a female sub vs seeing male subs, I can also see how the treatment is different from the students. Students tend to see female teachers as sweet and soft, while they are more likely to listen to a sub if they are a male even if they do not know them. It is still hard for me to understand the QU culture on campus because I feel like I am not there that much and I also came from UConn.

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As we know, teachers are predominantly white and female and this is true for my internship school. There are very few male teachers in the building and only two male classroom teachers. I have noticed that the energy the male staff brings is much different than the energy of the female teachers. They tend to be more relaxed and joke around with the kids and the kids have a different regard for our male staff. In part, the rarity of a male presence might contribute to the kids’ positive attitudes towards them. Also, many of our students lack male role models in their lives and they may be using our male staff as a substitute father figure. Needless to say, the male teachers in our building are popular and respected.

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Specifically at QU, I haven't felt overshadowed by men during my time on campus but to be fair, I don't feel I'm on campus interacting with a variety of other students that much to begin with. I feel that some of the intersections of my identity (being a small Asian woman in the sciences and in an academically high achieving group) contribute to not feeling overshadowed by men because I have adopted a more defiant attitude to make myself be heard. In honors program classes as an undergrad, my classmates were sometimes "sharks" (both male and female) who would talk over others, so I learned over those four years that I had to speak up or be drowned out. I hate to have others think I'm weak in any way, physically or intellectually because I have always felt that people assume I'm a pushover or am not strong. I take great pride in my independence both mentally and physically: whenever somebody (most often a man) asks if I need help carrying something, it makes me want to do it myself to prove I am capable on my own and defy those "sweet little girl" expectations. Reflecting on my behavior and interactions between peers and colleagues of both sexes, I feel like I probably act more assertively (sometimes to the point of overcompensation or elitism) around male peers because I have come to expect them to try to overpower my own voice, especially in an academic setting and more so if it's a man I'm meeting for the first time.
Like many others have mentioned, I do notice a difference in how students perceive and behave around male teachers versus female teachers. Especially as a sub I too have noticed that certain students try to push the boundaries more with female teachers than males. Female teachers are more likely to be described as "nice" or "mean" but male teachers more so with "cool" or "chill". I've seen female teachers often need to repeat themselves to the students whereas the males do not or less so. Perhaps it's the teachers in my school specifically, but there also appears to be a common, though never verbalized, opinion that the female teachers are more strict than the male teachers (with the exception of our principal).

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I think the most interesting part of the secondary cohort for the 5 Year MAT program is that there is an equal number of girls and boys, with three females pursuing a science content area. Teaching is seen as a female dominated occupation while science is normally associated with males being higher achievers and the ones who pursue careers in this field. While I think these numbers are a great step forward in combatting stereotypical gender roles, I do think there are times where gender roles pop up. Sometimes during classes I feel as though I'm being talked down to or something is being man-splained to me because I'm a woman; there are also times where I try to make a comment or share my idea and the conversation is so male dominated that I never get the chance to do so. I do not think that these occurrences are on purpose, in fact I don't even think they realize it's happening, and while I often share these feelings with my female classmates, I do not find myself speaking up about it to the males, mostly because I do not want them to feel like I'm attacking them or have them say I simply misunderstood the situation (not because I believe these men specifically would respond in such a way but because of past experiences).
Another fact that continues to blow my mind to this day is that I went to an all girls' private Catholic high school so a big part of that was being empowered by faculty and staff to believe that we could do and achieve whatever our male counterparts could and we deserved to be seen as equals. Well, I worked at the summer camp hosted by the school and found out one of my teachers was planning on transferring to teach somewhere else next year. When I asked her about it she said it was because she was paid less than another teacher who had the same, if not less of a workload; it seemed as though she was getting paid less because of her gender and the fact that she chose to remain single instead of feeling the need to marry and have children. I never quite felt the same way about my high school as I did before.

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When thinking about gender roles in society, I can’t help but think about my experience in Japan and seeing how gender roles work there. In my opinion, mainstream Japanese society has a more old-fashioned way of looking at gender role. For example, all of the administrators at the school I was working at were male even though there were many female teachers. In addition, if a guest came to the school the female teachers were expected to make and serve tea to the guest, never the men. I’ve read stories of male Japanese politicians shaming female politicians for working when they have kids. My experience there makes me grateful to be in the US where there seems to be at least an effort to make things more equitable. That being said, I think we’re not that far ahead of Japanese society. Although people seem to be challenging gender roles it is deeply ingrained in our society. As a future history teacher, one way I want to challenge gender roles is to teach my students women’s history, an area traditionally neglected in the study of history. There are so many examples of brave women fighting against their gender roles to create positive change in the world. Their stories need to be heard just as much as the men who have done similar things.

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I find it hard to respond about gender roles and identity’s affect on QU culture because I do not interact with anyone outside of my cohort. My cohort is pretty evenly split into boys and girls, and I have not noticed any major gender discrepancies between us; we treat each other pretty equally for the most part. However, I noticed some gender differences among my professors. While in the program I have had two male professors compared to six female professors. This reinforces the gender stereotypes I see in my internship. There are significantly more teachers who are women than men. Each grade has at least two male teachers, including specials, which means at least roughly 20% of the staff consists of men. In the beginning of the year, I substituted for a male math teacher for three weeks, and the kids did not want me to leave. When they would see me in the halls they would keep asking me when I was going to come back. Now I did not teach this class any different than he would, I followed his plans, we did his assignments, due by his due dates. We are also only 5 years apart, so both relatively young. This means the main difference between us is that I am a girl and he is a boy; I brought a higher level of care, support, and comfort to the classroom than he did. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing and while it does enforce gender stereotypes, it is true. I do think boys need male role models too though, and my internship school has a para who mentors a lot of our students who need extra support. My big issue here is with the pay. We all know teachers are severely underpaid, and it’s a majority woman dominated field…This is clearly a reflection that women get paid significantly less than men. It’s such a shame that this occurs in a career that is molding and educating the future.

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In my internship site, there are four male classroom teachers and a male PE teacher. The rest of our teachers are female. In this field, we often have conversations about how schools need to hire a more diverse staff--which includes more male teachers. However, this requires men to want to pursue teaching as a career. I think it's so important for men to become teachers, especially elementary school teachers. It provides young boys with a strong male role model they might not have at home. Just like women bring their own experience into the classroom which influences their teaching, men do the same and I think it's so important that young kids have men and women to guide them through school. I hope that during my career, I see more men pursue teaching and working in elementary school classrooms.

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Thinking back to my schooling in Cheshire, and also at the elementary school [I went to] and am interning at, there are not many male teachers. When I graduated from elementary school, there were 5 male teachers (2 in fourth, 2 in fifth grade, and the music teacher). In middle and high school, there were a lot more, however. A few weeks ago at my internship, the Principal was talking to the office staff and me about the interviews she's been having with people and she brought up a diversity workshop she attended. She was told in that workshop about how we need to be less "color and gender blind" when hiring people. She even brought up that in our school, we don't really have a diverse group of people--all of the teachers (male and female) are white. She justified herself by saying that she didn't hire most of them (she just started about 4 years ago), but she hires the best teachers--which is what every principal wants! She would love to have a more diversity in terms of having more men teach and more ethnicities.
At Quinnipiac, there are not many male students in the Elementary MAT program versus the Secondary program. Of course, this a preference of what people want to teach and who they want to teach it to. In terms of interaction with people, we are all very social people (in the elementary program). We all like to go on outing and spend time together no matter our genders (Jimmy is the only man in our program).

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I find it difficult to answer this question about gender roles on Quinnipiac’s campus. During my time at QU, I have only been on campus a handful of times and only interact with the members of my cohort. From what I have seen so far at both Quinnipiac and my internship school, the education field is made up mostly of women. So far, I have not had any male professors. At my internship school, there are only five male teachers. I think that a common conception about the teaching profession in general is that it is made up of women. I do not know why this is but I do think there should be more men in this field. A couple of weeks ago I was subbing in a third grade class. One of the building substitutes, a male, came in as well to help out. The boys in the class were telling me that they were excited to have “boy teacher.” The next day they asked when this teacher would come back. Many of them, especially the boys, commented that they never had a male teacher and hoped that they soon would. After hearing these students and their comments in made me more aware of the fact that boys do not have these make figures to look up to and learn from at school. I hope that going forward we see more men in this field because it would be beneficial for not only education as a whole but for the students as well.

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I'll start with the fact that I spend so little time interacting with students on campus that are not in my program and specifically of my cohort that I have no sense of the social atmosphere at QU.  My experience is that here is a greater female population than male and this is strongly present in our teaching MAT class.  One of my first observations in our welcome padlet in the first semester was how few men and how few POC were in the class.  This was more pronounced for elementary than secondary for some of the reasons discussed in these posts.  My recollection is that there were a few people who expressed non-dominant orientation, and I wonder if/how that has affected their internship experience.  Adding to the representation bias column , beyond the teaching faculty at my school would be the administrative and support staff.  There is 1 administrator, 1 guidance counselor and zero kitchen staff or resource personnel that are male while the facilities team is all male.   So these roles are well reinforced even within the staff that are trying to teach our students to be more "open-minded" about their career choices.  My concerns stem from how these roles may be exacerbated by the pandemic and the  impact on the school workforce that may result from the population of teachers retiring early and those who will take their place.  Will this simply reinforce the stereotype as more women cared for their children who were forced to home school will make a change in career or can it result in more men like myself choosing this as a way to increase representation.

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Gender Roles and Identity at QU (particularly within the Medical School)

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Gender Roles and Identity at QU (particularly within the Medical School)

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In terms of student enrollment, many medical schools are striving to gain 50/50 splits in male and female students to help address the gap in practicing male and female physicians. Quinnipiac's Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine has historically gone beyond this point and had many medical cohorts that are majority female (here's the class profiles for the current 2nd/3rd/4th years https://www.qu.edu/schools/medicine/admissions/class-profile/). My class (the Class of 2024) is the only current class with a majority male to female ratio (50:45). I think this has helped create an atmosphere of advancement for women in medicine, particularly when many of the administrators are women and the professors appear to be fairly even male and female. However, I have noted on a few occasions, male members of my class speaking over female classmates in groups and sometimes refusing to accept answers from female professors unless they were enforced by a male professor and I do not know how the professors or teachers can address these moments. Speaking with some of my female classmates, they are often asked if they are a nurse or assistant at our clinical sites, something that I as a male medical student have never (and likely will never experience). It shows the need for continuing education on gender and identity issues as we continue in our education.
I would also like to address sexual identity in schooling and teachers, particularly from my experience as a gay man. When discussing representation in schools, we should aim to have a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students in regards to sexuality as well as gender and race. This is particularly important for students in need to have someone they feel can guide/advise them appropriately because they come from a similar background. While there are many allies among the medical school faculty, there are no publicly-out members of the LGBT+ community among them. We have only received one guest lecture discussing Gender and Health from a member of the LGBT community who practices in infectious disease and LGBT+ healthcare which is disappointing. In my undergraduate career, I worked in a research lab with an openly gay Principal Investigator who was able to advise me on being queer in science and academics, while he also recruited diverse students/researchers from various cultures, gender identities, and sexualities. His research had nothing to do with being LGBT, however him being LGBT and open created an environment that was open to all, which is something I think we need in schools.

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Like many of my classmates, I cannot comment too much on gender roles and identity at QU because I have really only spent time with my cohort in the MAT program. In my internship, I do see more issues present with regard to these concepts. For example, I work in the science department, and there seems to be a general subconscious sentiment among the teachers (male and female) that the male students that have good grades are "gifted but lazy" while the female students with good grades are not as intrinsically "gifted" but are much more willing to work harder. Again, this is more just the sense I have gotten hearing the teachers talk about their past and present students and how they do in the class. I find this really intriguing because of just how pervasive this is, and while I don't see them treating students overtly differently, it seems like this does bleed in to their overall regard from the teachers. I think this goes to show how much further we as a society have to go, because its very clear that teachers are viewing their students in different lenses depending on their gender, which I would say is not acceptable. As we move forward in our careers, we should strive to work with our students based on their individual needs and strengths and weaknesses, not based on a box we sort them in on the first day of class.

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As a commuter, unfortunately I do not experience to much of the QU culture outside of my fellow graduate students in the program, which leaves me with an imperfect picture of how gender identity is a part of QU culture. Despite that, I understand how important the issues surrounding gender and identity are. As my content area (social studies) is predominantly male (2 out of the 12 in my content class are female) I have noticed that within that class, there can sometimes be an unconscious bias towards discussing history from a male perspective, though I do not know whether that is a part of the breakup of the class, or if this is suggestive of a larger school wide issue. However, I get the feeling when I am on campus, and from the classes that I have taken, that gender identity is not something that is focused on. I do not remember in other classes being asked for pronouns or anything to that nature, which leaves me with the impression that these issues do exist, and I may simply be unaware of them as many of them do not directly affecting me, causing my unconscious bias to not see any problem that very well may exist. In my internship though, the main way that i have seen the impact of gender roles, is that in some settings there is the expectations that the boys will be rowdy and the girls studious. I have been left notes by teachers that said as much, to watch out for the boys who are loud, and the girls will do the work. It can sometimes be problematic for me then, because this I worry will subconsciously affect the preconceived notion that I have of my students as I go in, leaving some at a disadvantage to how I see and interact with them. Altogether though, the topic of gender roles and identity is one that is difficult for me to see, especially during this hectic time. With covid and virtual instruction, everything is so difficult and different, that I just havent been around enough to get an impression.

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Over my years of teaching, I have found it frustrating and problematic that teacher culture is highly gendered. Statistically, we live in a reality of a 80-90% white teaching force and the majority of the teaching force is also statistically "female". There are deep historical reasons for this based on gendered politics and gender norms in our society. For example, teaching was one of the few jobs that women were allowed to occupy once the development of the Common Schools expanded in the 1890s. This history still sticks because women have been stereotyped as caretakers more so than men, and more fit to do the labor of rearing children. The political aspect of this is complicated by the wage disparity for teachers. Researchers believe that one reason teachers are paid less in terms of social strata is because teaching is generally considered a "woman's field". This is one reason why it is often a novelty to have a male teacher (in public education). I also found this hard to deal with in schooling spaces where it is mostly women and there is a feminine culture of teaching. I would describe this feminine culture by a few characteristics such as taking a very mom-like role as a teacher, having lots of extras like snacks and decorations in the classroom, being competitive w/other teachers about appearance, weight loss, or participation in the social culture they decide upon. Elementary school may be a spot to locate this culture more specifically wherein Secondary may be more pocketed. This is because Secondary also comes with gendered norms. There are typically more men in Secondary because there is an emphasis on curricular content. Here, the intellectual work is assumed to be more of men's work. Knowing these cultural trends and patterns made it hard for me to find my fit in certain schooling spaces. I had to block out some of the extra expectations and competitions from colleagues and focus on what I felt were my strengths as a teacher with my students. I am wondering if anyone else here has noticed or wondered about some of the things I have mentioned above? What are you seeing? How are you feeling about it?

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How do gender roles & identity affect QU culture?

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How do gender roles & identity affect QU culture?

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At QU I think that haves and the have nots is slowly shifting. In general the overall gender of attendance at colleges is shifting towards a female dominant demographic. Many males are opting out of going to higher education for a variety of reasons. Likewise, when speaking about education the voice that is most dominant for prevalent is that of white women, where men and POC are under represented. I think QU does a good job of having a mix of all groups in this regard but a push for more backgrounds might be incentivized with different types of programs. This is communicated when one looks at the demographics of both groups as a whole. Likewise, this is communicated when advice for male teachers is to always ensure that they aren't alone with a student, and to make sure that they are in view of cameras if it is necessary.

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Growing up, I only ever had female teachers until I got to middle/ high school. However, at my internship, there are about 6-7 male teachers, which is honestly very high in comparison to my experience in my school growing up. I have seen the positive energy that male teachers bring to the daily lives of the students. They are surely assumed to be more "relaxed" types of teachers, but I do not agree with that. There can be relaxed female teachers as well and we should not generate someone's personality based on their gender. I have seen male teachers be such encouraging role models to students at my internship site and I can see why it is so important to have both males and females in this profession. In regards to QU, there are many more male students than female (70 to 30 ratio I believe) however, I never really felt that way at my time at QU.

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I checked the Quinnipiac website and it says that "the gender ratio is 62% women and 38% men." I find this fascinating because I think of the experiences and opportunities I have had at Quinnipiac as a female athlete. I also think about it in terms of my courses I have attended. For example right now in the MAT program, majority of those in Elementary are female.
At the school I work at for my internship, there are 6 male teachers teachers who work here. I see a pattern with elementary education and the majority of teachers female.
Growing up, the only male teachers I ever had were for PE and one ceramics class I took in high school.

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As a graduate student and commuter, I don't have a full picture of the demographics at QU. I do know that there are more women on campus than men and I've noticed in the Education field that there are more women (especially White women) than men. It makes me wonder why more men and BIPOC/POC aren't in the field more. It makes me question the perspectives that I don't hear often and what is our community trying to do to fix that make it more equitable for men and BIPOC/POC. In the idea of the Haves and the Have Nots, the Haves are White women and the Have Nots are men and BIPOC/POC. I think it is because of the history of how teaching is viewed and the sphere of roles in our society. I think unconsciously we still hold those views and have a hard time deviating from them. There is still a wealth disparity that occurs that isn't fully discussed with some teachers being paid more than others. There's also a Race and Ethnic disparity of BIPOC/POC teachers and there aren't a lot of teachers of color in our school districts even though the student population is predominately BIPOC/multicultural.

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Gender norm expectations from the students/families and the forms of gender expression from educators provides an arena for a lot of gaping misassumptions. Several of my classmates have mentioned how the teaching profession is perceived as feminine, but would that make a male teacher with a neat and colorful classroom and a more warm and caring personality an anomaly or distraction? Would a stoic female STEM teacher be perceived as a bad teacher because she's not bubbly? I feel like gender norms can sometimes be a huge burden for the teachers, pushing them to be outside their normal selves which may lower the quality of their own teaching styles. Alternatively, these expressions of gender norms from teachers could make students feel like their own gender expressions are limited. I think having a step-wise curriculum introduced early on in K-12 education and having recurrent lessons to gradual normalize these topics of gender fluidity and expression would do a lot of good in changing the status quo.