Transcript The Relationship Between Gender and Content Selection in Art Making: Donna Tuman

The Relationship Between Gender and
Content Selection in Art Making:
A re-examination of the gender research conducted by
Donna Tuman
Joy Leinenbach
ARE 6905
March 25, 2009
Why should we investigate gender and
content preference?
• The results are important to me as a teacher
because I will gain data specific to my
student population
– Knowledge of preferences based on gender will
allow me to better ensure that assignments are
designed to engage and challenge both genders
equally
– Results will also be beneficial for other teachers’
use in guiding their planning
Why should we investigate gender and
content preference? -continued
• “…research in art education has grossly neglected to
examine if the dynamic of reinforced gender stereotyping
impacts on the artistic development of children’s
drawings” (Tuman, 1998, p. 170).
• Tuman’s research confirmed that there are significant
gender differences in preferred artistic content, so we
are obligated to become better informed about these
trends and determine if there are other factors involved
that have not been identified
– It is important to see if the difference in grade levels of students
will yield different results from those of Tuman
So how will we investigate?
• Methodology
– I selected six of my art classes with students in grades 6,7 & 8 to
gather data from
– I informed students that they would be participating in an
important research study but I did not reveal the purpose of the
study. They were extremely curious though!
– During a 48 minute period students were read the same 4 page
narrative as used in the Tuman study (Alyssa’s Story)
– Students were instructed to complete a pencil drawing on 81/2 x
11 white paper illustrating one of the events that took place
during the story
– At the end of the drawing period, students were instructed to put
their name, class period, gender, and grade level on the back of
the drawing and work was collected
Methodology continued
• After all drawings were collected I sorted each
individual class period to determine the total
numbers of gender and grade level for each class
• I then divided the drawings for each class period
into categories based on their content
– Categories were defined based on the content
domains defined by Tuman, but categories that
were similar in nature were combined to serve
as a single category
Demographics
•
•
•
•
•
•
78
6 classes
146 completed samples
77 male / 69 female
6th grade (84)
7th grade (35)
8th grade (27)
76
74
72
boys
girls
70
68
66
64
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
grade 6
grade 7
grade 8
4
2
0
class 1
class 2
class 3
class 4
class 5
class 6
Content Domains
•
Tuman’s content domains consisted of:
– Male based categories
•
•
Sports, danger, aggression, violence, power, heroism,
travel, humor, adventure, and mechanical objects (Tuman,
p. 107).
I condensed the various categories into:
1. Bicycle/skateboard (travel/adventure), fighting
(violence/aggression), soccer (sports/power/heroism),
throwing strawberries (humor/aggression)
– Female based categories
•
•
Realism, domestic life, care & concern, animals, physical
appearance, nature, and social experience (Tuman, p. 107).
I condensed these categories into:
– Dressing up (physical appearance/social experience),
cat/kittens (animals/care & concern/nature), waking up early
(domestic life)
TWMS Results
girls
boys
other
bicycle/skateboard
throwing strawberries
waking up early
cat/kittens
fighting
soccer
dressing up
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Comparison of results from Tuman
with current results from TWMS
Tuman’s results for female categories
Tuman’s results for male categories
aggression/violence
(fighting)
appearance/social
experience
girls
boys
girls
animals/care &
concern
boys
0
50
100
sports (soccer)
0
150
50
100
150
Results from TWMS students
throwing strawberries
cat/kittens
fighting
boys
girls
soccer
dressing up
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Discussion and comparison
• Tuman’s findings revealed that “three times as many girls than boys
incorporated evidence of domestic life in their drawings” (Tuman, p.
110)
• “the content domain of care and concern was scored in more than
eight times as many girls’ drawings than boys’…animals were
evident in nearly four times as many girls’ drawings…(Tuman, p.
111).
• Girls were “explicitly motivated to draw the dress-up scene” (Tuman,
p 114) and similar results were scene in the results from TWMS,
however, there were boys who also portrayed the dress-up scene in
their drawings despite its categorization as a feminine content
domain.
• The content areas of “sports, danger, aggression, violence, and
power was significantly greater in boys than girls” (Tuman, p. 121).
• The depiction of action and movement was found to be expressed
more often in male than female drawings (Tuman, 1998).
Conclusion/reflection
• The subject of waking up early seemed to be a subject of
importance to my particular grade level of students,
where it was an issue that the elementary students in
Tuman’s study were not concerned with
• I observed that my students were as strongly influenced
in their choice of content by their gender as they were by
the people they sat next to. There were a significant
number of groups that had 2 or more students who
chose similar content and similar ways of expressing that
content
Implications
• An unexpected finding was that there were a
significant number of students whose work was
similar in content choices and/or design elements,
which seemed to correspond to what table they
were sitting at
– Further study of how the work of neighboring peers’
artwork influences the subject choices of others might
provide an important insight into how students form ideas
and concepts in art creation
• Further study into strategies for enhancing student
performance in content areas outside of their
gender-preferred content could yield important and
useful information for teachers
Male 8th grade student (fighting drawing)
Female 8th grade student (cat/kittens drawing)
Male 6th grade
student (soccer
drawing)
Female 8th grade student (dress-up drawing)
Female 6th grade student (dress-up drawing)
Female 7th
grade
student
(cat/kittens
drawing)
Female 6th grade student (dress-up drawing)
Female 8th grade student (dress-up drawing)
Female 7th grade student (dress-up drawing)
Male 6th grade
student (dressup drawing)
F
Female 8th grade student (other drawing)
Male 6th grade student (cat/kittens drawing)
Female 8th grade student (other drawing)
Male 6th grade student (waking up early / dress-up drawing)
Male 6th grade student (skateboard/bicycle drawing)
Female 8th grade student (dress-up drawing)
Female 6th grade student (throwing strawberries drawing)
References
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