To reveal the interconnectedness between key categories of social difference
Aim
To reveal the interconnectedness between key categories of social difference.
Evidence and reflection
Select a colleague with whom you can collaborate on the following activity, taking turns to observe about 40mins of each other's teaching.
Observe your colleague in a session that involves a high degree of interaction with students. Each time your colleague responds, either verbally or non-verbally, to an individual in the class note down the name of the individual.
Afterwards, discuss the pattern of interaction with your colleague noting the characteristics of each individual according to the key social categories of gender, race, social class, ability, and age. Did any kind of pattern emerge with certain social groups receiving more attention than others? In your discussion you will probably start to find that these key social categories overlap, concluding perhaps that teacher attention was given to, for example, older middle class girls. Discuss these overlaps and how they seem to be working in the pattern of teacher-student interaction.
Follow-up
Whilst this activity has focused on the whole range of teacher attention you could specify the type of teacher attention adapting the activity to focus specifically on praise, for example, or verbal reprimands.
