Exploring modes of communication among pupils in Brazil: gender issues in academic performance

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify gender issues in the academic performance of boys and girls during physics classes in a laboratory. The methodology adopted was the observation and interactions of pupils during eight classroom events. The interactions were recorded and events were informally discussed with the teacher. The school visited is a Federal mixed school, located in the city of Belo Horizonte, a large urban and industrialised area of Brazil. Boys and girls differed significantly in their interaction at school. Boys seemed determined to impose their will and to defend their masculine identity at any cost, even at the cost of academic failure. Girls seemed to seek the approval of the teacher, needed more affirmation and usually requested the teacher’s attention from their desks. Boys’ and girls’ behaviour in the school expresses the different socialisation models given to them by society. It is suggested here that schools are social institutions in which values and attitudes that reinforce social division predominate. Schools validate ideas about ‘boys’ nature’ (masculine identity) and ‘girls’ nature’ (feminine identity), ‘positioning’ boys and girls in different social spaces. Schools and teachers must intervene in classrooms to guarantee a better academic involvement of boys and girls.

Keywords:

• gender and education
• academic performance of boys and girls
• anti‐sexist teaching

Notes

1. Pupils aged 15 to 17 years of age.

2. In this ‘conventional didactic laboratory of physics’ pupils work in small groups following pre‐established instructions, highly structured and organised (Tamir 1991). They have to produce a report of the experiment, carefully written down, controlled by building up graphics, making analyses of the results, as well as making comments about mistakes made (Alves 2000).

3. The concept of ‘shift of dialogue’ adopted here is similar to the concept used in most studies in the research area of the learning of science. However, we recognise that in some cases (e.g. the area of linguistics) this concept assumes a more precise meaning, with more rigorous criteria of control and definition of size for the established units. Studies which analyse ‘shift of conversations’, gestures, visual contact, hesitations can indicate a new ‘shift of conversation’ and demand further analysis.

4. Coltec stands for Colégio Técnico do Centro Pedagógico da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

5. In the case of physics, 25% of time devoted to the subject is spent in the laboratory. All the activities are prepared by a group of teachers.