Hiroe Ryosho (writer), Lotta Laurikainen, Petra Nurmi, Kyllikki Kosunen
Vincent, C. (Ed) (2003). Social justice, education and identity. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
chapter 6: Male working-class identities and social justice
It was a difficult article. Kyllikki has experience that some immigrants at the school where she has worked did not follow what female teachers told them to do. However, the principle just said “well, that’s their culture.” We discussed this experience. The boys were probably listening to their mothers at home, but not female teachers. We thought that they maybe feel uncomfortable with the fact which women have power/authority. However, they should not keep the philosophy here in Finland. But, how can female teachers change their negative attitude towards females?
Also, we discussed the fact that culture affects children more than mothers do. One of us questioned how children can underestimate women when only mothers engage in raising up children. I grew up in a society/family where fathers have higher status than mothers. I hardly saw my father at home because of his job. But, I already knew that he had higher status than my mother for some reason when I was at a kindergarten. This is maybe because there is always someone who keeps telling children that they cannot live without fathers (money). Another reason might be that children see that fathers do not do anything even when mothers are working so hard. They can be seen like kings and servants for children.
Chapter 7: Avoiding the issue
We were surprised at teacher actually believe that there are no issues if they do not see them. Bullying attitude against LGBT comes also from home, but teachers must be really careful how they speak and must not slip anything which sounds like sexists out of their mouths. Children can be really cruel without knowing. Also, it was interesting that some people think that talking about racism is taboo, but talking about sexism is acceptable. How we stop the phenomenon is a big issue.
Chapter 8: Masculinities, feminities and physical education
Two years ago, the government (or municipality or school?) decided that teachers cannot call pupils “boys” and “girls”. There are so many biological differences between boys and girls which we cannot avoid facing. Should we really mix genders in P.E. class? By separating P.E. class according to genders, students build the thought that boys are stronger and can better than girls. In many cases, girls are underestimated, also underestimating their own physical abilities. It is normal that boys are playing exciting sports which require competition while girls are dancing and jogging in P.E. classes. Our impression is that boys are doing P.E. to become stronger and girls are doing to be in a better shape.