Vaiala Beach students address social justice

22 February 2017, 12:00AM

Gender Stereotyping was explored in the Year 8 class of Vaiala Beach School this week following the Monday February 20th observance of U.N World Day of Social Justice.

Using classroom ideas printed in the Newspapers in Education section of the Samoa Observer, the students proved that gender stereotyping is still very common.

The students had to draw a picture of different professions and then include a symbol that went with that profession, for example Hairdresser = Scissors, Pilot = Plane. 

They then had to quickly write a person’s name that they thought went with that occupation. This was the interesting part.  

When we shared the names, very clear patterns came out.  

For example 100% of the students associated a Surgeon with being a male nearly all thought a Nurse would be female. 

Again it was all of the students who thought pilots, scientist and plumbers would be jobs that men would do and jobs that were mostly associated with being female were the hairdresser and teacher.

The activity prompted an interesting discussion in the class about how these pre-conceived ideas we have can influence career opportunities in the future.  

The U.N World Day of Social Justice was a great opportunity to talk about Social Justice in Samoa and in the world and what we want for the future.

22 February 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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