NDSU FORWARD Group: Climate Control in the College Classroom Elizabeth Birmingham (Betsy) Associate Professor English

Agenda:  Take a moment to introduce yourself to others at the table: name, department, a little about the last place you lived before Fargo  Climate: What is it? How do we as teachers help control it?  Teacher’s role in classroom climate  Strategies for noticing and combating gendered behaviors that unintentionally disadvantage students  Handout with some hints Teaching and Learning Conference 2 August 18, 2010

Climate?  When we talk about institutional climate, we’re using a metaphor, but one that is in many ways apt. Meteorological climates encompass the statistics of elements in a given place over long periods of time. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these same elements and their variations over short periods. August 18, 2010Teaching and Learning Conference3

4August 18, 2010Teaching and Learning Conference Climate? We can’t control the weather in our NDSU classrooms, but we can control the climate.

Classroom Climate?  The encompassing pattern of individual behaviors in a larger institutional scheme, where those behaviors (whether positive or negative) are rewarded, encouraged, tolerated, discouraged, or punished.  In places where negative personal behaviors are rewarded, encouraged, or tolerated by ignored, misapplied, or absent policy, the long term climate can become very chilly.  The most recent work on this subject of gender and chilly climate is more likely to “presuppose a distinction between explicit, formally institutionalized policies of discrimination and a range of informal practices and implicit policies which, despite their relative subtlety and the fact that they do not intend to be harmful, do systematically disadvantage women relative to men” (Wylie 37). August 18, 20105Teaching and Learning Conference

Teachers and Climate  What we know: Teacher behavior in the classroom is a key factor in increasing participation of students, and messages we send as teachers about student participation are often less about student performance as students but students’ performance of gender norms. August 18, 20106Teaching and Learning Conference

How we treat students differently by gender  Communicating lower expectations to women  Yielding to internalized stereotypes  Excluding women from class participation  Treating men and women differently when behavior/achievements are the same  Giving women less intellectual encouragement/attention  Discouraging women through politeness  Singling out women  Defining women by how they look or by their sexuality  Overt hostile behavior toward women August 18, 20107Teaching and Learning Conference

Discussing common behaviors:  At your table, appoint a recorder, a discussion leader, and a reporter. (The person whose first name begins with the letter closest to the beginning of the alphabet is the recorder; the person whose first name is closest to the last letter of the alphabet is the discussion leader; and the person directly to his or her right is the reporter.) August 18, 20108Teaching and Learning Conference

Classroom Climate  Based upon what we know about gender in the classroom, why may teachers wish to define roles randomly (as we just did)? What do we avoid with this kind of role assignment?  What tends to happen in student groups when we don’t assign roles and rotate them?  Discuss some of the most common gendered classroom behaviors you have noticed in classes you have taken, in classes you have observed, in student interactions, or in your own teaching. Make a list of at least five.  Be ready to share one with the larger group. August 18, 20109Teaching and Learning Conference

Behaviors that affect climate  Let’s have each table try to list three teacher choices/behaviors that you have encountered or that our discussion made you think about  How do these behaviors disadvantage all of our students? August 18, Teaching and Learning Conference

Strategies for responding to gendered classroom behaviors: August 18, Teaching and Learning Conference At your table: for each or the above gendered classroom behaviors you identified, do three things:  describe how you identified or noticed the situation you describe  describe a way for other teachers to become aware of similar situations  brainstorm some ways of responding to or addressing the issues, whether they are issues of classroom dynamics among students, or issues of your own teaching style or strategies.

Solutions to climate issues:  Remember, a solution can’t reverse discriminatory practices; it needs to improve the climate for all.  Each table share one good solution—something you will take away, whether an awareness, an idea, something you’ll change, or something you already do that will reinforce positive climate.  My idea: Use peer review of teaching with a trusted peer to talk about and look at climate and gender in your own classroom. It can and will change your teaching positively. August 18, Teaching and Learning Conference