Gender in JPE
When i originally did my internship I never really looked at it from a feminist point of view. After taking a few classes this semester and from what i learned from the facilitations made me look at my internship in a different way. I was in JPE which is a junior practicum experience where we observe the children for the first half of the semester, participate in classroom activites, and teach a unit plan. I could definately relate to projecting a certain role to my students and faculty. We had to dress a certain way. Teachers have to dress conservative, i was not allowed to keep my tongue ring in and if the students had tatoos they would have to wear clothing to cover them up. Since my position is kind of geared towards a feminine cartaking type of job, i did not experience being one of the only women in my occupation. I can also look at how teachers reinforce gender roles in the classroom. The cooperating teacher did reinforce separation of gender by lining up boys and girls seperately. I feel that as a student participating in this experience helped me to learn that their are expectations of behaving and exhibiting certain characteristics. The projection for a teacher is supposed to be a role model, someone that the children can look up to and learn from. That's why I feel that we are supposed to dress a certain way. School systems are very traditional and conservative in my opinion. I am sure if sexuality was an issue, that may possibly sway opinion as to hiring as far as parents being willing to allow the teacher to teach in their district. I did my practicum at Tollgate Grammar School which was a predominately white, upper middle class district where the parents were extremely involved in every day classes. they were allowed to show up whenever they wanted and they did come often to see hands on what their children were learning. I had first graders and one of the units i taught was on the family. The only multiculture issues that came up in my classroom was one of two students being adopted whom were of asian descent. We did teach how not all children have biological parents in a way that kids could recognize this difference. I learned that when i teach i would like to try and teach in a way that does not reinforce typical gender roles by seperating boys and girls.