Gender Equity

Expectations based primarily on gender limit students' abilities to develop to their full potential. While some stereotypical views and practices have disappeared, others remain. Although many teachers endeavour to provide equal opportunity for male and female students, continuing efforts are required so that equality may be achieved and maintained.

Saskatchewan Education is committed to providing equal educational opportunities for all students K-12; therefore, it is the responsibility of Saskatchewan schools to create an educational environment free of gender bias. This responsibility can be facilitated by increased understanding, by the use of gender balanced material and teaching strategies and by continued efforts to analyze current practices. Both male and female students need encouragement to explore non-traditional as well as traditional options in creating and maintaining personal well-being.

In order to meet the goal of gender equity, Saskatchewan curricula reflect the variety of roles and the wide range of behaviours and attitudes available to all members of society. The new curricula strive for gender-balanced content, activities and teaching approaches. This foundation will assist teachers in creating an environment free of stereotyping, enabling both boys and girls to develop their full abilities.

In order to ensure gender equity in Elementary Physical Education, the teacher should:

• make it clear that all students are expected to be equally active participants
• provide opportunities for both female and male students to assume leadership roles
• encourage and respect the interests and abilities of both genders
• model equitable interaction with students
• make sure that all school communication is in gender-fair language
• instruct the students in the use of gender- fair language and insist that language used in Elementary Physical Education activities be gender-fair
• encourage cooperation between genders
• ensure that responsibilities are shared equally by male and female students (For example, require both genders to carry their own equipment, to put away all types of equipment and to assume roles of recorder and reporter in group tasks.)
• encourage sharing in small groups
• observe student discussions to ensure that neither gender interrupts nor takes ownership of a topic to the exclusion of the other gender
• ensure that students follow cooperative group norms so that both genders have equal opportunity for leadership and expression of ideas

These norms include:

• opportunity for uninterrupted input from all group members
• careful listening
• no put downs of self or others
• all ideas offered belong to the group
• use of consensus
• group members try to speak briefly and concisely
• once a solution is chosen, all group members provide support
• all group members participate (Remember, however, that all students are not extroverts who willingly contribute suggestions and ideas. Some students who merely maintain eye contact with individual speakers and nod their heads attentively are participating in their own way.)

In order to ensure gender-equitable practices, teachers might ask themselves:

• Do I ensure that expectations concerning behaviour are the same for females and males?
• Do I ensure that discipline practices are comparable for males and females?
• Do I avoid using feminine terminology when addressing male students in order to motivate them to be tougher?
• Do I ensure male and female students share responsibilities equally?
• Do I ensure that all students avoid developing an attitude of learned helplessness?
• Do I make it clear to all students that all physical activities are gender neutral?

(Adapted from Gender Equity Policy and Guidelines for Implementation, Saskatchewan Education, 1991.)

Physical activity has, from a historical perspective, played a significant role in Aboriginal culture. It has been used to display strength, courage and self-discipline. It also serves as a form of relaxation and leisure and is accepted in both its competitive and recreational forms. The Bibliography contains resources that offer background and suggested activities for Aboriginal inclusion in the physical domain.

Saskatchewan Education recognizes that the Aboriginal peoples of the province are historically unique and occupy a unique and rightful place in society. It also realizes that curricula must meet the needs of Aboriginal peoples while at the same time benefiting all students.

Physical education teachers must use a variety of teaching approaches that accommodate and build upon the knowledge, cultures, learning styles and strengths possessed by Aboriginal students. Instructional approaches such as group work, cooperative rather than competitive exercises and using the students' experiences as a learning base can be useful.

• Teachers play a very important role in the development and implementation of Aboriginal initiatives in Saskatchewan schools. Following are a number of fundamental and essential considerations for teachers as they develop and refine short and long term objectives for their classrooms:
• Become the initiator of staff inservice about Aboriginal education. Contact Saskatchewan Education regarding resource personnel available for inservice.
• Become informed about the community's various cultures and cultural differences.
• Talk to the children and parents in the school's community. Learn about the various traditions regarding good manners and approaches to discipline. Talk to someone with whom the school has a trusting relationship. Find out about the community's protocol for contacting elders and visiting homes.
• Know the homes from which the students come. This will give some idea of the daily environments in which students live. Invite parents into the classroom; organize several parents' nights. Show the parents what goes on in class and how the various activities relate to daily community life.
• If parents are unable to attend, search out individuals who can act as liaisons with these families. Family involvement will increase the chances of students being motivated by individuals within the home.
• Become visible and become involved in cultural activities. Then, use what has been learned in lessons at school.
• Use appropriate terms when discussing Aboriginal history and cultures.
• Practice listening skills. Teachers sometimes neglect to consider the fact that when students ask questions, this is a compliment! They are expressing trust and a need for input. Nodding, eye contact (even if this is absent on the speaker's part), leaning forward and paraphrasing are examples of very simple yet effective techniques used to communicate the fact that they are being heard.
• When developing listening skills among students, allow them to see each other's faces during small group/whole class discussions. Much is lost in the area of communication when all the students can see are the backs of each other's heads!
• Use a talking stick when discussions are being held in small groups. This technique allows all students to become involved in the discussion, to pass when the stick is offered to them, and to appropriately control those who dominate the conversation by monopolizing the stick.
• Be a bridge builder. Seek commonalities rather than differences. We are products of our past. People do things the way their families did them. Rather than emphasize differences, use the differences to concentrate on the human experiences we all share: birth, kinship, friendship, learning, celebrating, gift giving and a sense of humour. (Workshop Leader's Guide, 1989)

Multicultural education fosters understanding, acceptance, empathy and constructive and harmonious relations among people of diverse cultures. It encourages learners of all ages to view cultures different from their own as sources of learning and enrichment. "All students benefit from an opportunity to experience a wide variety of world views to help learn compassion, acceptance, and understanding. The classroom should be a place that celebrates and honors diversity to the benefit of ALL its members" (Tunney, 1996, p. 3).

While the first and most lasting influence on a child is that of the home environment, educators and educational institutions have a responsibility for preparing children to function in our culturally diverse society. The educational system must address a variety of issues such as second language programming, teaching and learning styles, curriculum and resource material, teacher attitudes and expectations, student grouping and assessment and evaluation. Sound teaching practices such as being aware of a child’s social and psychological background, encouraging the development of self-esteem and security in identity and responding to individual needs are consistent with the philosophy underlying multicultural education.

Multicultural Education and Heritage Language Education Policies (Saskatchewan Education, 1994) identifies goals that provide a foundation for multicultural education in the classroom. These

goals include self-concept development, understanding and relating to others, spiritual development and membership in society.

Some ways that teachers can demonstrate and promote cultural respect and understanding include:

• Affirm each student’s language use as unique and important.
• Accept and respect the language that each student brings to the classroom.
• Become educated about the cultural backgrounds of the students.
• Determine if unexpected behaviours and actions reflect a student’s culture.
• Respect students’ knowledge about their own cultures.
• Build a classroom environment that discourages racial put-downs of others’ language usage and abilities, and their cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
• Deal with racist incidents in a positive manner, if they occur.
• View students of all cultures as having equal potential.
• Become informed about a variety of cultures and inform students about those cultures.
• Help students to understand that individual identities are shaped by many factors, one of which is cultural background.
• Give students opportunities to select and respond to the resources that they listen to, read and view.
• Encourage students to read, view and listen to a variety of resources and media representative of cultural groups with which they do and do not identify.
• Encourage students to take risks when expressing themselves in spoken and written forms.
• Use interpreters for second language speakers (e.g., parents, community members).
• Use a variety of instructional and assessment strategies to accommodate students’ cultural learning preferences and backgrounds.
• Develop students’ collaborative and cooperative skills and attitudes through group work, problem-solving discussions and consensus activities.
• Encourage students to talk and write about their experiences and places they have lived or traveled.
• Provide opportunities for students to tell their stories orally and in writing.
• Choose resources and media selections that represent a diversity of cultures and cultural perspectives.
• Discuss stereotypical beliefs and cultural biases in resources and media.

The inclusion of multicultural content, perspectives and resources in Physical Education helps students to develop multicultural perspectives that prepare them to live more enriched and compassionate lives while contributing harmoniously to a pluralistic society.

(See the Cultural Awareness section in this curriculum guide for more information on this topic.)

Resource-based teaching and learning is a means by which teachers can greatly assist the development of attitudes and abilities both physically and cognitively for independent, lifelong learning. In physical education this has implications for teachers using a variety of resources, from balls to books and from the gymnasium to community rinks.

The following guidelines will help the teacher in using resource-based teaching and learning:

• Plan adequately to ensure that there is enough equipment for each student.
• Plan in good time to bring people from the community to present or to help team teach.
• If integrating physical education into a language arts theme or other subject areas, collaborate in advance with the teacher-librarian, if one is available, so that there are adequate resources as well as a clear understanding of shared teacher responsibilities.
• Access resource lists and bibliographies of materials when needed. Ask the teacher-librarian to offer personal guidance to students during the course of each activity or assignment.
• Support the essential role of the library resource centre and the teacher-librarian in assisting to deliver a quality physical education program.
• Create a year plan then book outside/ community facilities and available support materials early.

• Small group or partner activities would allow several students to perform one activity together, while sharing a ball.
• Various types of activities on the same concept could be going on at one time at various stations, utilizing a variety of resources of which you may have only a few.

It should be emphasized at this point that resource-based learning must go hand in hand with planning instructional strategies and evaluation techniques for each lesson.

• Everyone must realize that change usually takes time. To change our teaching styles will take time. Even though a person may not be able to change totally to resource-based learning in a short time, gradual steps can be taken toward the desired goal.

Various strategies for acquiring resources could be employed:

• Make or have a parent make equipment. Examples: scoops from plastic milk jugs, sashes from old ties, lummi sticks from wooden doweling.
• Solicit local stores to make donations. For examples, sporting goods store to contribute a soccer ball, local swimming pool to contribute free pool time, fabric store to contribute fabric to make pinnies or blindfolds.
• In the index section of most bibliographies there is a section listing free or inexpensive items.
• Some of the bibliographies also provide an "other uses" section so that schools can buy resources that will meet the needs of more than one specific grade or subject area.
Media Group provides videos at a nominal cost of one dollar per program and a blank tape. (You can provide the tape or purchase it from Media Group .)
• People are also resources we should be using for resource-based learning. Often there is someone knowledgeable on a certain subject right in your own community who may be willing to speak to the students. Guest speakers can also be located by using the blue pages of the telephone directory. Often government offices have personnel who will come to speak to schools free of charge. Other service groups will provide a speaker if the school supplies the gas money. Students can raise this money through various activities.
• Free or inexpensive items can often be obtained from departments listed in the "blue pages" of the telephone book.
• Current relevant resources may be accessed through the Saskatchewan Education internet site at http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca
• Some schools are shipping resources to other schools where teachers want to do the same topic. Reciprocal agreements are made involving these resources. Print and A/V items could also be circulated in the same way.
• Joint planning puts teachers in contact with others to share ideas. Teachers could use some time at their staff meetings to explain what they are planning. Some educators do their cooperative planning while supervising students at recess or at noon. Teachers using innovative ideas in one school could also be invited to share their ideas in other schools.