17
Children’s chronological age has become a
powerful social marker shaping children’s lives
in the modern world, linked as it is to ideas
about stages and developmental readiness.
But age-related constructs do not function in
isolation. Like adults, children are complex
social beings who, from the time they are born,
take on identities based on multiple markers
including gender, ethnicity, class or caste, etc.
as well as age (Brooker and Woodhead,
2008).
In some communities, gender constructs are
virtually inseparable from age constructs in
determining for example, what is viewed
appropriate for a
5-year-old girl versus a
5-year-old boy. In the past, as well as in some
contemporary societies, gender was a major
factor determining whether children attended
school, as well as the kinds of schooling,
curriculum and teaching considered appropriate.
In the same way, just as many childhood rites of
passage are gender-specific, children’s experiences
of institutional transitions may also be shaped
by their gender. This isn’t just a question of
cultural attitudes shaping adults’ expectations
and behaviour towards children. Children
themselves appropriate and negotiate gender
identity from an early age, especially through
their interactions with their peers, at pre-school
and elsewhere in their social worlds
(MacNaughton,
2000; Danby and Baker, 1998).
Especially as children mature and near puberty,
differences between boys and girls may become
heightened. Classrooms can be contexts where
stereotypical gender differences are reinforced
by teachers and peers, even where official
policies emphasise equal opportunities. These
problems may be amplified in low-resourced
schools in many developing country contexts,
where multi-grade, mixed-gender classrooms
are common. For example, in a study of the
abuse of girls in African schools, Leach et al.
(2003: viii) reported that schools in Ghana and
Malawi “are a breeding ground for potentially
damaging gendered practices, the influence
of which will stay with pupils into adult life”.
According to this report, “sexual aggression goes
largely unpunished, dominant male behaviour
by both pupils and teachers is not questioned,
and pupils are strongly encouraged to conform
to the gender roles and norms of interaction
which they observe around them”. The latter is
also evidenced in resource-poor contexts, where
teachers often require pupils to carry out menial
tasks that are assigned in ways that reinforce
gender differences. Girls, for example, may be
asked to clean floors and toilets and fetch water,
while boys are required to carry bricks and cut
grass. Such practices may be less prevalent in
classrooms of very young children, but intensify
with age.
As an example, Jha and Kelleher (
2006: 92)
describe research aimed to explain boys’
underachievement in Jamaica. The authors
point out that while gender parity indices have
improved for girls in recent years, boys are
underperforming, particularly at the secondary
level and in their progression to post-secondary
and tertiary education (p.
82). They describe
how local concepts of masculinity and
socialisation processes that foster greater
supervision of girls and less supervision of boys
have led to a lowering of boy’s self-esteem and
alienated them from the values of high academic
achievement.
The structure of transitions