TITLE OF COURSE AND COURSE NUMBER: Sex Equity in Education
WS 307 3 Credits

Description of Course:
Develops an awareness of sex biases in our culture with particular emphasis on the role of the school. Explores methods of eliminating such biases in classroom instruction. An examination of materials currently being used in public shools.

Course Prerequisites: None

Course Objectives:
The course will:

• teach about the history of girls and women and their education experiences;
• identify and examine sex bias in education;
• identify and examine other forms of bias in education: race, class, and sexual orientation;
• introduce literature and other resources to reduce stereotypes and discrimination in education;
• analyze sexual harassment as it impacts girls;
• show how to conduct an interview with an educator;
• act as a resource for books containing information about equity in education issues;
• encourage oral presentations;
• guide critical thinking about education equity issues; and
• probe resistance to equitable education.

Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will:

• become knowledgeable about the history of girls and women in education;
• recognize sex bias in education;
• recognize other forms of bias in education: race, class and sexual orientation;
• know about materials which facilitate the reduction of stereotypes and discrimination in education;
• recognize sexual harassment as a major roadblock as girls move through educational systems;
• know how to prepare for and conduct an interview with an educator;
• read an outside source and write a paper about an aspect of educational equity issues;
• be able to orally present research in a public forum;
• use critical thinking skills in order to analyze education equity issues; and
• be able to uncover resistance to equitable education.

Topical Outline For Course Content:
Week One: Course overview, introductions, sexism quiz, personal experiences of gender bias in education
Week Two: History of girls and women's education
Week Three: Girls and the self-esteem slide
Week Four: The miseducation of boys
Week Five: Testing and other issues
Week Six: Racism and classism in education
Week Seven: Book report presentations
Week Eight: Interview/field project preparation
Week Nine: High school girls
Week Ten: Sexual harassment
Week Eleven: Discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students
Week Twelve: Violence in schools: a gender issue
Week Thirteen: Multicultural awareness
Week Fourteen: Sex equity initiatives
Week Fifteen: Ending sex/gender and other biases in education
Week Sixteen: Project presentations

Suggested Teaching Methods and Student Learning Activities:

• Lectures
• Small group discussions
• Plenary discussions
• Films
• Guest speakers
• Reading logs
• Book reports
• Essays
• Field project
• Oral presentations

Guidelines/Suggestions for Methods of Student Assessment:
Grades will be determined by evaluations of the course requirements: weekly reader-response logs (one-third of grade); book report, written and oral (one-third of grade); field project and oral presentation (one-third of grade). Students who miss more than two 155 minute class sessions or four 75-minute class sessions will receive a grade penalty.

Suggested Readings, Texts, Films:
Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children, American Association of University Women, Marlowe and Company, 1999
Beyond Dolls and Guns, Susan Hoy Crawford, Heinemann, 1996
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, Bell hooks, Routledge, 1994
Sexual Harassment: High School Girls Speak Out, June Larkin, Second Story Press, 1994
Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls, Myra and David Sadker. Simon & Schuster, 1994
Films:
Why Schools Fail Girls Men and Masculinty
A Class Divided
Out!: Making Schools Safe For Gay Students
Gay Teens
Gay Youth
You are The Game: Sexual Harassment on Campus
Equality: A History of the Women's Movement
Bibliography of Supportive Texts and Others Materials:
Bailey, B. (1994). The remarkable lives of 100 women healers and scientists. Holbrook, MA: Bob Adams, Inc.
Brown, L.M. and C. Gilligan. (1992). Meeting at the crossroads: Women's psychology and girls' development. New York: Random House.
Canada, G. (1995). Fist stick knife gun: A personal history of violence in America. Boston: Beacon Press. Addresses violence in urban America and includes educational implications and issues surrounding race.
Carlip, H. (1995). Girl power. New York: Warner Books. The thought, fears, and dreams of girls 13 - 19 - teen mothers, beauty queens, teen rappers, farm girls, and sorority sisters.
Covey, A. Ed. (1994). A century of women. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc.
Evans, S.M. (1997). Born for liberty: A history of women in America. New York: Macmillan.
Fine, M. (1992). Disruptive voices: The possibilities of feminist research. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. This excellent collection of essays addresses issues pertaining to girls and women across lines of race, class, sexualities and disabilities. Desire, rape, schooling and adolescence are among the issues presented.
Frazier, N. and M. Sadker. (1973). Sexism in school and society. New York: Harper & Row.
Friedman, E.G. et al. Eds. (1996). Creating an inclusive college curriculum: A teaching sourcebook from the New Jersey Project. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gilligan, C. et al. Eds. (1988). Mapping the moral domain: A contribution of women's thinking to psychology theory and education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Harris, M.B. Ed. (1997). School experiences of gay and lesbian youth: The invisible minority. Binhamton, NY: Harrington Park Press. A collection of essays by gay and lesbian youth that documents the damaging consequences of homophobia in schools and families.
Kidder, T. (1989). Among schoolchildren. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Levy, B. Ed. (1991). Dating violence: Young women in danger. Seattle: Seal Press. Sadly, sexual violence oftentimes frames the lives of females. This book presents cross-cultural views of dating violence and includes first-person accounts. Sexism, racism, class bias and the general invisibility and powerlessness of adolescents are addressed.
Maher, F.A. and M. K. T. Tetreault. (1994). The feminist classroom: An inside look at how professors and students are transforming higher education for a diverse society. New York: Basic Books. Using the words of students and teachers, the authors take the reader inside the classrooms of 17 feminist college professors.
Miedzian, M. (1991). Boys will be boys: Breaking the link between masculinity and violence. New York: Doubleday. An analysis of the connection between masculinity and violence. Includes recommendations for implementing programs and child-rearing practices that dissuade boys from violent behavior.
Orenstein, P. (1994). School girls: Young women, self-esteem, and the confidence gap. New York: Doubleday. What happens to junior high girls: the social and intellectual consequence of simply letting "girls be girls" and "boys be boys."
Pollack, W. (1998). Real boys: Rescuing our sons from the myths of boyhood. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Explores why so many boys are sad, lonely, and confused although they may appear tough, cheerful, and confident.
Ruiz, V.L. and E.C. Dubois, Eds. (1990). Unequal sisters: a multicultural reader in U.S. women's history. New York: Routledge.

Sadker, M. and D. (1994). Failing at fairness: How our schools cheat girls. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Scala, A. (1996). Racism and sexism in the United States: Introduction to Women's Studies. In Creating an inclusive college curriculum: A teaching sourcebook from the New Jersey Project. Edited by E.G. Friedman, W. K. Kolmar, C. B. Flint, and P. Rothenberg. New York: Teachers College Press.
Scholinski, D. (1997). The last time I wore a dress. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc. The autobiography of an adolescent girl's fight against gender oppression by family, psychology, and psychiatry.
Schandler, S. (1999). Ophelia speaks: Adolescent girls write about their search for self. New York: Harper Collins.
Silin, J. G. (1995). Sex, death, and the education of children: Our passiion for ignorance in the age of AIDS. New York: Teachers College Press.
Transformations: The New Jersey Project Journal. A Journal of Curriculum Transformation Scholarship and Resources. Available from: The New Jersey Project, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ 07470.
Vare, E. A. and G. Ptacek. (1988). Mothers of invention: A history of forgotten women and their unforgettable ideas. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.

Preparer's name and date: Dr. Arlene Holpp Scala, March 2000

Original departmental approval date: circa 1990.

Reviser's name and date: Dr. Arlene Holpp Scala, March 2000

Departmental revision approval date: March 2000