Reading, Writing, and Talking Gender in Literacy Learning by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Discussion

Each of these studies illustrated one of four themes: (1) the importance of text and method in literature response; (2) gendered reading preferences and practices; (3) oppression or constraint of instructional and social context; and (4) opposition, accommodation, and resistance in reading. The first of these themes, the importance of text and method in reader response, addressed the conditions that make peer-led discussions successful. When reader response is interpreted as students putting themselves in the place of a character and relating their own experiences to those of the character, students’ tendencies are to bring their stereotypical understandings of gender to their readings. Children also have a tendency to think in terms of boys’ books and girls’ books and respond accordingly. These works of fiction can be an enculturating mechanism by which males and females learn or reinforce their traditional gender roles.

To counteract these tendencies, it is important that students be exposed to books that portray both females and males in nontraditional roles. Also, the typical lack of structure in literature-response groups allows students to speak to each other in ways informed by their gendered beliefs in both their language patterns and their interpretations. When teachers become active participants in these groups and present and discuss alternative models of gender representation, students can be helped to deconstruct their gendered understandings.

The second theme, gendered reading preferences and practices, illustrated how ingrained students’ understandings of gender constrain and are reinforced by their texts of choice. Researchers noted a multiplicity of ways in which gender, as a social construction, influenced students’ choices and responses to literature. Most students preferred to read books about characters of their own sex in which males were adventurers and females nurturers of relationships. Boys tended to prefer nonfiction (aside from male-oriented, superhero comic books) and did not relate well to in-school reading in which most literature consisted of the fiction preferred by females. Teenage girls preferred to read romance novels or teen magazines, which was a form of reading not presented or valued in schools.

These discrepancies between students’ in-school reading requirements and their out-of-school reading preferences may cause both males and females to enjoy and relate to their out-of-school reading more than their in-school reading. These unsanctioned texts can have powerful impacts on their readers. For example, girls’ reading of teen romance novels and magazines can teach them values of consumerism, guide their behavior in interacting with boys, and reinforce their social-class positions; young males reading comics may find models of moral behavior while absorbing society's notions of masculinity as powerful, tough, successful, and independent.

These studies show the importance of bridging the gap between students’ out-of-school reading and their in-school reading. Perhaps, if teachers were to allow students’ reading choices like these into the classroom as Osmont (1987) did and teach students how to deconstruct them, students’ selections and interpretations of texts might be less gendered. Making students aware that they can be positioned by the texts that they read will help them to develop as critical readers, will expand their notions of what counts as reading, and will help them to read strategically.

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