Principal/teacher collaborative action research: The study of gender equity issues in three elementary mathematics classrooms

This dissertation reports the findings of a collaborative action research study conducted over a continuous six-month period from January to June 1995 in a suburban Northeastern elementary school, where the author served as the building principal. She worked collaboratively with three elementary mathematics teachers to examine the perceptions, practices, and knowledge constructions of these teachers, with particular attention to gender equity issues in the classroom. The author observed, taped and transcribed 15 mathematics lessons in each teacher\u27s classroom and held meetings with individual teachers to discuss their classroom practices. As co-researchers with the author, the teachers also reflected on their practice by responding in journals to the weekly videotapes. The teachers and the author met as a group on four occasions to share insights and to formulate an action plan for disseminating the information to the school\u27s professional staff and parents. Student journals provided additional data sources for this study. The resulting dissertation describes and analyzes the teachers\u27 increased awareness of pedagogical practices that impede or advance equity within a classroom. It also demonstrates how a strategy of participatory staff development, involving a principal and teachers as co-researchers, can advance school improvement efforts. This case study suggests that the current literature on gender bias in teacher/student interactions, notably the work of Myra and David Sadker, provides an overly simplistic interpretation of causality. The literature suggests that teachers have more frequent interactions with boys than with girls because insidious factors of gender socialization compel teachers to act, often on a subconscious level, to favor boys. This study indicates that while gender factors may explain, in part at least, the behavior of particular students in classrooms, the number and quality of teachers\u27 interactions with students may be influenced more by explicit pedagogical considerations than by gender factors per se. A general definition of equity-- quality education for all --was emergent in the study. That universal concept of equity had a higher claim on teachers\u27 priorities than gender equity in their daily practice and reflections on practice