1. What are the stages in children’s development of gender awareness according to Phyllis Katz? Provide a paragraph summary of each stage.
According to child psychologist, Phyllis Katz, there are 3 stages that develop gender awareness. The first stage is the culture appropriate behavior that are provided by children’s environment through materials and/or activities like specific toys, ie. Dolls; or games, ie. Baseball. The other stage is based on role modeling from the adults in their daily lives, which may result in misconstrued assumptions like men can’t cook, women can’t drive well. In the last stage, children will take the information they have gained from their environment and begin to act out according to the adult gender roles they…show more content… According to the reading, to ensure that there is Gender Equity in the classroom, an educator should provide lessons/materials that promote a positive self image for both; support activities that would include both male and female students that would generally be excluding of one or the other gender; provide knowledge to all students about different male/female roles in various occupations; provide opportunities to add playtime that include both genders vs. separate gender games and activities; ensure that students are aware of gender roles in their own environment. Other details to the curriculum to ensure gender equity is that the educator should provide materials and activities that are set up to encourage participation by both genders. Teachers are also encouraged to add role modeling by participating in both gender activities such as building if the teacher is female and cooking and cleaning if the teacher is male in order to break down gender bias. Another thing a teacher may do is to organize seating assignments that integrates both genders and does not separate by gender. Classroom “jobs” can also be used to break down gender differences by allowing all students to participate in different classroom tasks. According to the reading, it would be beneficial to invite adults with non-typical gender occupations to visit he classroom to break down those
