How are women, particularly gifted women,
accommodated in the Costa Rican educational system?
Project by: Heather Rose
MED 588
Pre-test
 Question #1: (T/F) Women have very
defined roles in the Costa Rican
household.
 Question # 2: (T/F) Gifted education is
prevalent throughout Costa Rica.
 Question # 3: (T/F) More women are
currently enrolled AND graduate from
universities in Costa Rica than men.
Answers to Pretest:
 Question # 1: TRUE!
 While women have made a steady progression in
modernization, they are still expected to tend to the
family and do household chores on top of holding
down that steady job.
 Question # 2: FALSE!
 There are only seventeen schools, four of which are
bilingual, that are devoted to gifted programming.
These schools are all in or around the San Jose area
(Hernandez, 2013).
 Question # 3: TRUE!
 More women than men are enrolled AND
graduating from universities in Costa Rica. (Mitchell
& Pentzer, 2008)
History of Women’s Roles in
Costa Rica
 Household roles Mothers, caretakers, responsible for household chores.
 Late 19th century Inducted into the workforce as nurses, educators, and
secretaries
 1948- Women earned the right to vote
 1960’s- increase in women entering the workforce
 2004- women have higher enrollment and
graduation rate than men.
 2010- First female president to be elected to office
Perceptions of women in
education
 “Few cultures perceive intelligence as an
attractive characteristic in a woman; [. . .] men
tend to marry their equals or inferiors in ability”
(Kerr & Nicpon, 2003, p. 500).
 “Once in the workplace, bright women often find
that discrimination is subtle; barriers that are
manifested in such things as the dearth of
childcare, inflexible scheduling, and lack of
mentoring” (Kerr & Nicpon, 2003, p. 493).
Observations
 La Paz Community School
 Worked to maintain a balance of girls to boys in
primary grades
 Higher number of male students than female in
secondary grades
 Colegio Vocacionale monsenor Sanabria
 Girls are free to choose vocation; however, certain
vocations were female dominant including:
 Secretariado (All but one student was female)
 Fashion Design
 Male dominant vocations included:
 Mechanic
 Electrical Industrial
 Mechanic:
 Only three girls were studying to be
mechanics.
 In an interview, the female student did not feel
that she was treated differently than the boys
and sometimes almost felt favored for her
hard work and diligence.
 “I wanted to be different.” ~ Female Student
President Chinchilla
Laura Chinchilla is the first female president of
Costa
Rica. Chinchilla marked a historical event laying
the
foundation for many other women to follow in her
footsteps to higher positions in the workforce and society as a whole.
Voters were overwhelmingly supportive of Chinchilla’s ideals and she won
by a substantial margin of 20% more votes than her closest opponent.
Though the support was high initially, success did not come easily. Her
popularity wavered; however, her dedication and commitment to
providing funding in the wake of a natural disaster regained her support
of the community. This in addition to her tireless efforts to improve security
has given her the support needed to work on new programs. She is now
successfully advocating for education, new security constructs, and an
energy plan.
“Just like Laura Chinchilla Miranda is
our President and proud mother of
Jose Maria Rico Chinchilla (born in
1996), many other Ticas want to
reach empowering goals that in the
end benefit society as a whole.”
~Jamie Lopez of the Costa Rica Star
La Paz Community School
 La Paz school offers a unique bilingual program
for students interested in a private education in
Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
 Model of gifted programming:
 Concept based learning (themes)
 Higher level Bloom’s Taxonomy comprises the
curriculum’s essential questions
 Critical thinking techniques utilized included
problem-based learning and integration of subject
matter.
Gifted Programming Model:
Integrated Curricular Model (ICM)
Created by Joyce Van Tassel-Baska
 significance of learner  conceptual
outcomes
understanding
 developing habits of
mind
 inquiry
 constructing meaning
 higher order reasoning
 technology
 materials and resources
 metacognition
 authentic assessments
Differentiation Technique:
Paul’s Eight Elements of Reasoning Model
 Promotes multiple perspectives on a given issue
requiring students to think using critical thinking skills.
 Scenario is presented including issue/ problem to be
addressed.
 Questions are presented as a process for students to
reason through:
 What is the problem or issue?
 Why are we reasoning about it?
 What are the different points of view?
 What are the key concepts underlying the issue?
 What are some of the assumptions that affect the points of
view and inferences?
 What evidence might support each point of view?
 What inferences can be made from the evidence?
 What are the implications of your thinking?
References
 Crites, B. (2013, June 17). Interview by H Rose [].
La paz community school.
 General aspects of the costa rican educational
system. (2007). Unpublished manuscript, Elon
University, Elon University, Elon, NC, .
 Hernandez, C. (2013, June 20). Interview by H
Rose []. Ministry of education.
 Hughes, S. (2007). Costa rican women [Online
forum comment]. Retrieved from
http://costaricainfo.info/costa-rica-women.php
References continued…
 Kerr, B. A., & Nicpon, M. F. (2003). Gender and
giftedness. In Colangelo, N. and Davis, G. (Eds.)
Handbook of gifted education (3rd ed., pp. 493505). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
 Long, C. (2010, 12 24). Chinchilla's first term a
tireless effort. Tico Times, Retrieved from
http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/TopStory/News/Chinchilla-s-first-term-a-tirelesseffort_Friday-December-24-2010
 Mitchell, M. T. & Pentzer, S. (2008). Society and
Culture (pp. 227 – 243). Costa Rica: A global
studies handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
 Van Tassel-Baska, J., & Little, C. A. (2011).
Content-based curriculum for high-ability
learners. (2nd ed.). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press Inc.