Sterotyping![]() How can we deal with stereotypes unless we are aware of our own?
We all have stereotypes and it’s important we are aware of what they are in order to begin challenging them in others and ourselves.Stereotypes are learned attitudes that have significant impact on our behaviors. We learn them from a variety of sources including television, books, music, our peers, families, etc. Stereotypes are generalizations made about a group of people that are usually based on inaccurate or incomplete information. They can be positive or negative, but both can have negative consequences for the person or people being stereotyped. Whenever we stereotype someone, we are ignoring them as an individual and lumping the whole group together as “they are all like that.” Stereotypes can be very difficult to change. Stereotypes happen when we judge people from our own frame of reference or our own cultural expectations about how people should look, behave, talk, etc. This can cause misunderstandings (on both sides) and misjudgments. link: http://archive.itvs.org/footrace/PDFs/Stereotypes.pdf Lopes, M. (1994). Realities of Stereotypes. University of Massachusetts. Cape Cod Extension. http://www.nncc.org/Diversity/drivers.rea.stereotypes.html Gender in Sterotyping![]() The persistent imbalance of gender representation in children's literature highlights the importance of children's literature in greatly shaping many children's minds and consistently influencing different cultures in the world. For example, numerous children in many countries grow up exposed to American culture, which, to many children, is mostly composed of various fairy tales, such as Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Sleeping Beauty, none of which is American in ultimate origin (Christensen, 2001). These fairy tales are also the main source of the animated movies that have been present in our lives for so many decades. Therefore, if we accept that fairy tales are one of the major categories in children's literature, we will agree that children's literature is probably the most influential genre read among students of different levels. Children's literature has become part of our culture that frames, or even dictates, the consciousness of our children and young people because they hear the stories and watch the movies again and again. In sum, children and young people receive a “secret education” (Dorfman, 1983, Prefact ix), in which children's literature and popular culture share power in society and work to undermine the possibilities for greater democracy and equality in the classroom.
The stereotypes and worldview embedded in children's books have become accepted knowledge, and such deep-seated socialized thinking has created barriers that prevent authors or teachers from implementing their democratic and egalitarian beliefs, whether it be writing or teaching. According to Louie (2001), coping with relentless gender stereotyping requires increasing awareness of gender issues on the part of authors and teachers. Authors should devote their attention to the representation of female and male roles in their writing process, while teachers should attempt to empower their students with critical thinking and alternative reading. What follows in the next section are some instructional principles or strategies that teachers can incorporate into their classroom teaching. link: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kuo-GenderBias.htm |