"School is a place in which fantasy becomes fact."

     (Walkerdine as cited in Christie, 2004)

The profession of teaching also manifests gender domain identification and prototyping. While women dominate the teaching profession, a study by Bryson and Castell found a pattern of men dominating positions of power in technology when skill sets or qualifications between the genders were otherwise equal (as cited in Steele, 2006). School districts; thus, serve as a microcosm for the gender divide in IT and worse, since children are usually taught by females, the "doing gender" and inculturation is reinforced, albeit unwittingly, by teachers. Instead of guiding girls toward making choices based on individual traits, or pushing boundaries to help adolescent girls go beyond the confines of prototyping and stereotypical sex roles, many teachers perpetuate the gender divide.

Sanders (2005) cites numerous studies that discuss how teachers reinforce gender stereotypes in the classroom. I choose to focus on a study conducted by Christie (2004)  within the context of a technology workshop for economically and ethnically diverse students in grades 2-5 because the teacher subconsciously mirrored cultural norms within her class despite her conscious feminist beliefs and awareness of teaching influences on gender. Upon reviewing hours of videotaped teacher-student interactions and e-mail exchanges, Christie discovered that she overwhelmingly reinforced the idea of technology as a male domain and continually reinforced gender cultural norms. 

In both class interactions and e-mail, girls largely received praise for feminine traits of effort and attitude; especially their eagerness to help. Boys, on the other hand, received encouragement for their brains and cleverness. Christie noted that with the girls, she more likely completed the work for them when a problem arose, though with the boys, she spent much more time guiding and let them resolve the problem. We can see then how the girls receive reinforcement in their belief that they lack ability in technology when their teacher sets low expectations. In one instance, she had the opportunity to discuss careers with a female student and appallingly ended up complimenting the student on her graceful movements and encouraging her to become a ballerina!

Boys fared much better, especially the brash ones who challenged class rules, those boys ended up with much more attention and praised for their computer skills; although it was all based on teacher misperception. We can see the roots of domain identification again taking hold. Interestingly, the quiet girls who sought teacher approval for their ability, Christie notes, became more actively engaged in their own learning. Boys; despite all the attention received, remained rather blasé toward their learning. Did this occur because boys "expected" praise for their computer skills, so they felt little need to try? In other words, they already know that technology is masculinized and they will receive recognition no matter how little effort they expend. Girls, in this scenario seem to contradict the stereotypical need for approval; they seem perhaps more intrinsically motivated. This ironic outcome may have implications for research into closing the divide.

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