GENDER IDENTITY IN

A MUSIC CLASSROOM

Findings Research Questions

- How are music educators contributing to
Abramo (2011a) gender differences in music learning and how
- a middle school study showed that boys and girls rehearsed and composed differently. should we adapt to those differences?
Boys used musical gestures and played instruments more often while the girls separated - What skills and knowledges would support
talk and musical production.  gender identity in children?
Abramo (2011a)
- in a high school study girls showed more verbal communication to collaborate and
compose whereas boys used more musical gestures. One male student int eh all boy
group asserted dominance and refused to write lyrics but when in the mixed gendered
group wrote lyircs with another female student. Another male student refused to sing in
 falsetto because it was "girly and queer." Different parts of his singing voice were linked
to gender and sexual identity. 
Abramo (2015)
- Abramo noticed that misogynistic, homophobic, and sexually violent language was
very prevalent in popular music today. When teaching. Abramo proposes using a
process where students encode/decode cultural texts. He references two different
interpretations of a Beyonce music video. It can be viewed as an empowering video for
women or it could be viewed as objectifying women. Abramo invites educators to help Implications for practice
students  identify the different  interpretations in class and while they are listening to - music education should include the
popular music. musical experience and the awareness of
Halim, Ruble, Tamis-Lemonda (2013) how the musical experience affects the
- a longitudinal study found that 3 out of 4 gender type behaviors (gender typed dress- learner
up, gender typed play, gender type appearance and sex segregation) increase from ages - Teachers should serve as mediators
3-5. children who were highly gender-typed in one way (wearing a lot of pink dresses)
were not necessarily gender-typed in another way (playing frequently with dolls). between students with varying processes
Balter, van Rhijin, Davies (2018) toward solving musical problems. When
-A survey was done with 64 early childhood education educators. 36.1% responded that problems arise, educators should step in to
there was no sexuality education in early learning settings, 8.2 % rated the quality of facilitate communication
addressing sexuality as poor, 18% rated very good and 27.9 % rated fair.  Sexuality -reflect on the biases 
education increases knowledges and skills in addressing curiosities around sexuality
-Educators can also think about Browne’s
and gender.
Browne (2004) question: when concerning gender
- Browne observes a preschool classroom where aggressive behavior from boys in class difference in a classroom are all differences
or at recess  was not addressed by any of the teachers, but any misbehavior from girls acceptable and if not which ones?
were immediately reprimanded.  - do not put students’ learning processes in
Blaise, Taylor (2012) a boys do this and girls do that category.
- discusses nature vs. nurture when it comes to gender noms and stereotypes. Queer
theory is the idea that gender stereotypes stem from heterosexual noms.The authors
conclude that gender is learned and performed by the way we talk about ourselves as
women and men and how we repeatedly express ourselves.
Solomon (2016)
- Children's behavior was examined to see if there was evidence of gendered thinking. Future Research
One activity was for the children to explore camping tools and fire. More girls were - further research can include how
drawn to this activity. Another day the students were given dolls to play with. The girls other identities such as culture and
played with the dolls in a nurturing way pretending to be mothers, while the boys used
race influence music learning
the dolls to toss around. The author concludes that societal gender roles influence play
in children. Students using “gendered” toys usually deviate from the toys expected - Further research to create a
purpose, while more open ended and less gendered props (sticks pine cones, shells) guideline document that specifically
allow for more creativity and interpretations. focuses on the development to gender
in early childhood would be helpful
because of the lack of
recommendations in this area