Middle School Students as Social Theorists: Using a Short-Term Unit to Engage Students in Thinking Critically about Gender

Abstract

Because middle school is a time of identity development, it may also be an appropriate time to focus on students’ conceptions of social roles. This article examines a unit focused on gender roles taught to a group of seventh grade language arts students at a private, urban school. The students deconstructed and reconstructed their gender schemas, gained awareness of gender as a lens, and began to question the adequacy of the male/female binary model. The findings suggest that ideas typically found in college-level courses may have appropriate applications in classrooms of much younger students.