Second Paper: Learning to be Male/Female/Another Gender
Objectives
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to examine what students learn in school concerning gender;
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to test the readings and concepts presented in class against an actual case (your
life experience); and
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to write an analytic paper which proves an argument.
In this paper, I am asking you to reflect retrospectively on your middle/junior high and/or
high school experience to answer the question, “What did you learn about being
male/female/other from your school experience and how did you learn this?” Learning is
not just about learning facts and absorbing knowledge—but about learning to become
someone, that is, assuming a particular identity and role in a social group, and thus about
learning how to be in the world—how to talk, how to act, what to strive for and value.
Learning how to be male, female, or another gender might have happened through the
school curriculum, in bathrooms and the principal’s office, in locker rooms and sports
fields, while waiting for the bus or riding on a school trip.
I know that this paper may elicit strong emotions, a combination of your feelings during
this period of your life and your present feelings in which you may look back at your
adolescent self with nostalgia or mortification. Note these feelings to yourself, and use
them as data about the meaning of this time of your life in your learning to be the person
you are today.
Remembering High School/Junior High School
For some of you, high school and junior high school may have happened less than a year
ago; for others, more than twenty years have passed since that time. Particularly for the
latter group, you may need to do some recollection of the past through chatting with
people who knew you during that time, or looking through your yearbook or other
artifacts from your school years. You might do some free-writing in which you just write
without judgment or editing, recollecting what your days were like, what your fears and
dreams were, who you hung out with, and what it felt like to be a student, to get yourself
back into that time of your life, from the perspective of your older and wiser self.
Some questions that might help you recall your adolescence:
 What did it mean to be an ideal and “normal”or non-conforming boy or girl?
What roles were available for your gender, and how did you negotiate these?
 How were boys or girls expected to talk, dress, walk, and act, etc?
 What was the role of school rituals (proms, dances, assemblies, parades,
fundraisers, pep rallies, etc.) and formal school groups (sports teams, drama club,
debating club, etc) in your gender socialization?
 How did peer culture affect your learning to perform a particular gender?
 Did disciplinary procedures or academic visibility play a role in your gender
socialization?
 To what extent was taking on a certain gender identity also about taking on a
particular sexual or sexualized identity?
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Writing the Paper
Introduction and the Argument
Many of the authors in this section of the syllabus—whether Douglas Foley, Fida Adely,
Ann Arnett Ferguson, or Peggy Orenstein—argue that one of the things young people
learn in school is what it means to be male and female, although they may place different
emphases on how they do so. For example, Douglas Foley focuses on football rituals as a
site of learning; Fida Adely argues, instead, that school creates a space for deliberations
about gender roles and behavior, and that other influences like the media and family also
play a role. Ann Arnett Ferguson examines disciplinary practices. The argument of your
paper, based on your life experience, should articulate the extent to which you agree with
these authors that gender identity is learned in school, and if so, how. Furthermore, you
should make an assessment about the significance of your learning a gender identity in
school in comparison to other experiences. For example,
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To what extent did you learn to perform your gender identity by your school, as
opposed to your childhood family or through your experiences as an adult?
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Are the gender roles learned in school similar to future adult gender roles or
simply relevant in the adolescent society generated by school?
The introduction does several different tasks: it introduces the topic, it lays out what is at
stake (why is this topic important), and it makes a claim about reality (the argument),
which it then proves through the evidence marshalled in the analysis section of the paper.
It may be helpful to you to imagine a particular audience for your paper: a fellow student
who has never taken Sociology of Education and is unfamiliar with the readings, to
whom you need to explain the concepts and the issues.
Analysis
You should use details from your middle or high school experience to support the points
you are making. These details should be organized analytically, rather than
chronologically.
As with your first paper, you should make your analysis with as little evaluation and
judgment as you can muster, and certainly refrain from personal attacks on people or an
idealization of your friendship network. Instead, use these emotional responses to reflect
analytically on the larger, systemic issues and dynamics that result in such strong
emotions.
In reflecting on these questions, you should use the studies and concepts presented in
class to analyze and generalize from your specific situation, make comparisons, and/or
articulate the significance of what you learned and how you learned it. The most likely
readings will be: Douglas Foley’s chapter on gender, race and school rituals; Fida
Adely’s Gendered Paradoxes; Peggy Orenstein’s chapter on sexual harassment; the
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selection from “People Like Us: Social Class in America”; Ann Arnett Ferguson’s
chapter from Bad Boys; and possibly Barbara Rogoff’s The Cultural Nature of Human
Development and my lectures.
Conclusion
In your conclusion, you should restate your argument and why your argument matters
(what is at stake) using different words. You can be more specific here than you were in
the introduction now that you have developed your analysis. You could, if you wish, also
lay out recommendations for what you think should happen in schools, but make sure that
you show how your recommendations are connected to your analysis and the points you
have developed in the paper
Bibliography
Here, you should cite the resources you used to develop your argument. I do not expect
you to draw on outside readings; but you should cite the books and articles you used. You
may use whatever citation format you are familiar with (Chicago, APA, or MLA), but be
sure you are consistent in your citation format and that you cite different kinds of
resources (e.g., books and films) correctly.
Self-Reflection as a Writer
Finally, you should write a short paragraph addressed directly to me as your teacher,
describing how you have used my comments on your reading response papers and first
paper to improve your writing on this paper.
How I Will Evaluate Your Paper
Your grade will be dependent on (in this order of importance):
 your understanding of the concepts from the readings in this section of the course;
 the depth of your analysis;
 the evidence you provide to support your points, including illustrative examples
and specific details;
 an organized and clearly written paper; and
 your lack of evaluative and judgmental language.
As with your other papers, I will reduce your grade if you have more than five typos,
grammatical errors, or problems with citation format.
Due: Monday, March 30th (20%)
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