Commentary on the article by Amanda Chapman entitled “Gender Bias in Education”
The author’s piece serves to inform her audience about the perpetuation of gender biasness in the education system by school teachers and the like. She begins with a short narration as proposed by Sadker (1994) which affords the reader a visualization of a classroom setting and also a well-placed statement which captivates the reader’s curiosity to continue reading the piece.
The writing lends itself to being argumentative and expository in nature as the writer uses a combination of the two devices. It focuses on informing and explaining gender biasness within schools but also appeals to the beliefs and attitude of the reader. The writer choses a discourse combination which strives to convince the reader to change a belief or seek action to change gender biasness. In the piece the reader is lead on a path which allows him or her to critically examine what he or she does within the classroom as a teacher, and if the reader is not a teacher, it allows for revisiting of what he or she had been exposed to within the classroom and the school as a student. In order to support this, the writer at first presents facts, evidence and statistical data which can be easily verified. This data was gathered in the United States and Canadian school system. The writer then goes on to use numerous studies conducted by experts (authoritative opinions) which seek to show the socialization of girls alongside boys and how it is reinforced at the school level. Those studies and their findings presented throughout the piece further substantiate her beliefs of gender biasness. She then makes reference to school materials, textbooks and resources and how their use within the classroom encourage biasness. The next component of biasness is the...