The Gender and Pedagogies project

The Gender and Pedagogies project explored the ways that gender and other social identities (e.g. class, ethnicity, nationality, etc) shape the teaching and learning experiences and practices of students and teachers in higher education aimed to help develop inclusive teaching practices that support diverse student bodies and challenge inequalities in higher education explored the implications of curriculum design for pedagogic practices and relations In UK males doing less well that females in HE and females the largest group – has HE become ‘feminized’?

Methods Two year qualitative study (Sept 2010 – July 2012) Funded by UK national teaching body Multi-method, participative case study approach In-depth data about pedagogical practices, experiences and relations and complex formations of identity 64 students across six subject areas individually interviewed (20 from EU) HE teachers across six subject areas participated in focus group discussions and observations of their pedagogical practices with reflective meetings as a follow-up (History/Classics, Business Studies/Computing, Creative Writing, Sports Science, Dance, Philosophy) National workshops with staff and students interrogating the data resources for professional development

Pedagogic Practices and Professional Identity Archer (2008) notes that ‘that the current “new times” are disrupting notions of professionalism, what constitutes academic work and what it means (or what it should mean) to be an academic, resulting in a shifting conception of academics’ sense of their professional identity.

Pedagogic Practices and Professional Identity Academics’ beliefs about student learning, motivation, intelligence, the makeup of the student body, the most effective form of curriculum and other such beliefs, play an important role in the way they conceptualise and approach their practice. (Fanghanel 2007)

Student identities and pedagogic practices For Mann (2001) pressure and the relationship of power between academics and students do not allow for formless experience, and thus creativity and the development of an autonomous sense of self. The alternative for the student, is the development of a false self, developed as a means of surviving the loss or lack of a good enough relationship and a good enough learning space. This idea of the false self can easily be recognised in the features identified as characteristic of a ‘surface’ or ‘achieving’ orientation to learning.

Findings Some peer pressure from male students to ‘man up’ and reject study Anxiety from lecturers and students around ‘silence’ in the classroom Students surprised to find little space for their own experiences / histories/ and dialogue about achievement Many female students more able to ‘play the game’ – take an instrumental approach (but some males too) Friendships and culture of the place very important Some lecturers’ practices disturbed by diverse student body but anxious to admit it The process worked as ‘deliberative space’ for dialogue about learning and teaching

Fragmented identities – pastoral role and the academic in the classroom Students as Collaborators and co-constructors of knowledge Members of my community Consumers Clients needing help Novices ‘Leaky’ empty vessels Tourists in the academic world Academic staff as: Co-learners and explorers Providers of packaged knowledge Reluctant mothers Public sector technicians under surveillance Experts (or second class experts relegated to a teaching role) Members of my community

Does this resonate with you? What might your students say? What might your colleagues say?

‘I have no intention of being their mother’ Part of me thinks it’s not my job to look after them. I have a husband and 2 children at home that I have to look after, I have to get these students through, I’m not their mother, I have no intention of being their mother … and sometimes I get really cross that there is an expectation from the university and from society, that I am going to mind these kind of students. These students have chosen to come here, they’ve paid a lot of money to come here… but if they don’t come to me [for support] I don’t waste my time chasing them. And I’m sorry, but that’s a position I have to hold given all the time demands that are placed on me.”

‘I am expected to be caring..’ External, performative pressures Sense of reluctant collusion Even though I’m a culprit of babying them in the first year, I don’t believe that’s the way it should be. I feel that because of retention rates and all these systems which are in place … I am expected to be caring, more caring than I actually want to be.

Identity shifts.. When I came into academia I thought I wanted to be a researcher and I thought I did want to be locked in my office doing that and ever since I’ve been here I would much rather grasp the management route and even the pastoral so I’ve totally changed my opinion of it. (Business, Female 20s)

Pastoral role Under pressure to adopt nurturing role ‘New types of student’ –a deficit discourse External pressures and systems Sense of reluctant collusion Some welcome this identity: others resent it Feminised language of emotional labour – mothering, caring, spoon-feeding

Pedagogic Practices We are giving them too much and so therefore they don’t feel they need to listen, and they don’t feel they need to engage, because they know they are getting it all anyway. (Science, Male 50) There’s not much debate It’s perhaps fear of taking initiative … is it fear? Have we created that perhaps a bit?” (Classics, Male 30s) Maybe we are quite instrumental in the way we deliver. (History, Female 30s)

Is it the discipline or students? There’s something about some courses that’s feeding into that passivity, this kind of ‘I’ll just stand at the front and talk and you’ll just listen”. (Classics, Female 40s) It’s one of these bugbears I have, that students don’t know what a university is, and what it’s for, and what their role as a student is, and what our role is. And they, the perception is it’s a bit like school, but not quite, so they come with a certain attitude. (Classics, Female 50s)

Is it the students? ‘…a rush for instrumental knowledge’ They have misunderstood the level of engagement that we’ve expected … And I think sometimes that they are not really interested enough … Not passionate enough. (Classics, Female 30s) I just think there is a rush for instrumental knowledge. (Business, Male 40s) They came here for a degree and that’s all they want. (History, Female 30s)

Is it the students or us? It’s (university learning) about thinking and thinking for themselves. And this is a painful process at times, it’s not transmitted, because as soon as it’s painful, they don’t like it and then we jump, because they complain. So I think there is quite an unhealthy relationship between the purpose of what they are doing and the expectations of students, their lack of understanding of it.

Is it the University? Surveillance, change and lack of autonomy In a way we are made to take into account what these evaluation forms say, instead of saying ‘OK, that is the perception of the student …I am a professional and I don’t agree,’ which is why I don’t do it. With this enormously changing culture and the university constantly changing its structure and always reviewing us, we are always under this pressure to do things differently.

Discussion Do your university processes contribute to similar student / faculty experiences? Might your faculty choose less risky teaching approaches and thus collude in passive learning ? Is this OK? How might you ensure that students are valued, given space for their own contributions for but also stretched academically?

But how do students experience learning? The Lecture There is a lot of just sitting for an hour and then a little bit of talking in that hour. Some of them are just a straight all the time lecture. It can be very, very, very boring. I would prefer it to be a bit more interactive cause then you remember. …by the time you are here you are sitting here you are thinking ‘this is so boring’. And you see this is number 5 of 48 slides! Some don’t even have pictures – just too much text. Why are they telling us some of this stuff if we aren’t learning it? We could just go and read something or watch a video? And then you sometimes switch off. I have lots of ideas and experience but the whole reason why you are there becomes a bit pointless.

He was so horrible… I mean, I think it’s obvious if a person … they are teaching at university, he must be smart … but he was so horrible. I actually tried to listen to what he was saying, but some of his sentences were 5 minutes long! So basically he would just go into this conversation with himself, although he was talking at the class for such a long time.

Student cohorts and opportunities The fact that you have a kind of range of age groups often, in the class, people from different social backgrounds , women and men and so on can be quite an advantage. And increasingly I’ve found that I absent myself from discussions in seminars, either not talking or actually just going off. In lecturer I ask them for examples and I am make sure my examples are richer and more inclusive..bring things alive

The inclusive lecture (even in large groups)

Students appreciate: Coming up with your own ideas A specific flow He has like a specific flow in his lectures. It doesn’t feel like a bouncing ball. It rolls all the way. If the lecture is actually structured properly you will receive it in the way he structured it. And the way he structures it is really easy to understand. It’s more like a class so we are always contributing when we want to and asking questions and that’s really nice and she has slides up so she is actually showing you something and you are engaging with that. And you are coming up with your own ideas and everything.

Look at the sheet of student quotes..What are the messages for those who teach?

‘It’s a challenge’ -working out what to do in the classroom Some are: ‘I’ve ticked it off, I’ve come along but I’m not going to participate. In fact I might be disruptive but I’ve done my bit.’ Others just are intensely listening but will never speak, don’t want to speak so I think you know we can change things in terms of what we are asking them to do. Equally some love talking but they talk a load of rubbish. It’s a challenge to work out in the first few weeks who should you try to bring forward and who should you let to do their own thing? When the technology breaks down, you just have to give an ad-libbed 50-minute lecture. It turns out the students really like that.

Identity and working on pedagogic practice Maybe it’s an identity thing. I don’t think many people would feel comfortable coming down and saying, ‘This happened today, what can I do about it? Everyone please give me advice.’ Maybe we are a bit protective of our classroom space because this always comes up with observations.

Constraints on space to develop pedagogic practice But it’s impossible to educate, you know, in the sense that we don’t have time to sit down and navel gaze about how we can engage these people better in order to do this, that and the other or do we look right back at our admissions criteria and say, ‘ok, we only choose the ones who are like us.’?

Post cards.. In 6 weeks time what might be a helpful reminder?

To conclude-in our sample Academics are struggling with shifting academic identities (Archer) Academics’ beliefs about students, their discipline and the university are shaping their approaches to pedagogic practice which on the whole are transmission based. (Fanghanel) There is reluctance to explore and develop pedagogic practice publically. Students are expressing a rather instrumental or ’surface’ approach to learning. They welcome transmission when it is well organised and well communicated and when some space for engagement is offered. The don’t seem to lament a lack of space for identity work. But they do know value it when it is there – especially female students There are no significant differences between learning styles of males and females but some anti learning pressure of males

Paulo Freire Pedagogy of Indignation 2004 To me no matter how often it is said today that education has nothing more to do with dreams, but rather with the technical training of learners, the need is still there for us to insist on dreams and utopia. Women and men we have become more than mere apparatuses to be trained or adapted. We have become beings of option, of decision, of intervention in the world. We have become beings of responsibility.

Bibliography Archer, L. (2008) Younger Academics' Constructions of 'Authenticity', 'Success' and Professional Identity. Studies in Higher Education 33, 4, 385-403. Fanghanel, J (2007) Investigating university lecturers’ pedagogical constructs in the working context. York: HEA Mann, S J (2001): Alternative Perspectives on the Student Experience: Alienation and engagement, Studies in Higher Education, 26:1, 7-19

The Gender and Pedagogies project