Read more  Dylan Racana is a doctoral student in educational sciences at the University of Lyon. He studies the construction of gender inequalities. He has just published the book "Inequalities between girls and boys in nursery school. Discourse, representations and interactions in the classroom of school teachers". A book that addresses this widely studied question from a new angle: what is the place of the teacher - and therefore of their primary socialization - in the construction of students' gender?

School, both kindergarten and elementary school, is supposed to socialize students, to support them regardless of their gender. Is this the case today?
Students are not socialized and supported in the same way depending on their gender. Many studies highlight this. For example, they do not occupy the same space in the playground: boys occupy the majority of the space and girls make do with the remaining space. In addition, teaching materials are not only a learning support but also a vector for transmitting norms and values. Once again, this is not neutral: women are often less represented than men in school textbooks and there are few counter-stereotypes in these textbooks. For example, in a series of sequential images on the family environment, women are systematically represented in domestic tasks – cooking, looking after sick children, etc. – while men are presented more in intellectual, sporting and professional activities. Is the primary socialization of students arriving at school so important that teachers cannot counter it?
It is certain that the primary socialization of students is important, and many studies also show this. Indeed, it is possible to cite several examples such as the fact that the same behavior is more often qualified as a tantrum when it comes to a girl than when it comes to a boy; the fact that anger is more tolerated by parents in boys than in girls - while the latter are more encouraged to express their other feelings than boys - or the fact that parents encourage boys more than girls to practice a sport or technological activity. Beyond these direct interactions with children, family members can also have different behaviors within the home that influence children's representations. Children are indeed aware of these differences and can perceive "masculine" or "feminine" tasks from a very young age. Do teachers, without necessarily being conscious of it, participate in this differentiated socialization?
Teachers, whether consciously or not, themselves participate in this differentiated socialization and can even interact with students in an unequal manner. Various scientific studies highlight this. With regard to differentiated socialization, teachers do not always use the same nicknames when addressing boys or girls, for example calling girls "my beauty" and boys "my big boy". With regard to inequalities in interactions, it is possible to cite numerous examples here, once again from scientific studies: primary school teachers mark boys more extremely than girls - giving them lower marks for a bad paper and better marks for a good paper. There is also the fact that teachers question boys more often and for longer than girls and respond more to their spontaneous interventions - without raising their hand - than to those of girls. I have also observed that when teachers ask for services from the children in their class, they tend to ask for "accompaniment" services - such as taking a student to the toilet - from girls and for services requiring physical effort - such as moving a chair - from boys. How does their own socialization ultimately contribute to this bias?
During one of my research projects, I was able to observe that some teachers behaved in a rather differentiating manner towards the boys and girls in their class and others behaved in a rather egalitarian manner. I first formulated the hypothesis that this difference could be explained by the training of teachers: that teachers with egalitarian interactions were trained in the issue of gender equality while those with differentiating interactions were not. The survey revealed that the majority of teachers in the sample were not trained in this topic. Furthermore, the teacher who had received training was surprisingly the one with the most unequal interactions in the sample. By conducting an interview with the teachers I observed, it turned out that the three teachers with the most egalitarian interactions in class were also the teachers who told me that they were aware of the issue of gender equality for personal reasons. They even added that they carried out research and documented themselves on the topic themselves during their free time. Conversely, the people with the most differentiating interactions according to the gender of their students were teachers who mentioned personal resistance to the topic of equality between girls and boys or men and women. This is therefore very similar to the fact that the socialization of teachers has a direct impact on their behavior - stereotypical or not - in the classroom. This research work resulted in the publication of a book where the teachers observed are grouped into "profile groups" according to the characteristics observed in their class and the answers given during the interview. It also led to the main hypothesis of my current thesis work: primary socialization, that is to say during childhood, of teachers could have an impact on interactions with the girls and boys in their class. What are the ways to counter this phenomenon?
To reduce inequalities between girls and boys, it seems to me relevant to tackle this issue from a very young age and therefore from nursery school, as the programs remind us: socialization is placed "as one of the fundamental skills to acquire". If we wait until elementary or even secondary school to look at the various issues relating to inequalities between girls and boys, in addition to having to "deconstruct" what happens outside of school, for example in the family, we will also have to deconstruct everything that has been ingrained until then in the student's schooling and therefore within the school. The essential point is, it seems to me, not to convey stereotypes: to be careful not to convey them ourselves - for example, not to reduce the parental role to that of the mother such as "Mom won't be happy if you try hard", "I'll call mom if you don't feel well", etc. – and to try to address both boys and girls in the same way, but also to use material that does not convey stereotypes and where counter-stereotypes are even present – ​​for example a girl who plays football, who does DIY; a boy who wears pink or plays with dolls. Education on gender equality, particularly in kindergarten, is therefore a daily task that can be carried out in a transversal manner by reflecting on one's own interactions but also by using suitable teaching material. Specific workshops to raise awareness among students about these issues can also be conducted, but it seems to me that the main issue is not played out here but in daily life and at all times in the classroom. Interview by Lilia Ben Hamouda
"Girl-boy inequalities in nursery school. Discourse, representations and classroom interactions of school teachers". Edition L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2140322167 

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