Promoting critical thinking on gender issues In tenth grade

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to promote critical thinking on gender issues that may emerge when discussing this topic in the English classes. The study was conducted in a 10th grade at a school in Bogota D.C. The main variables identified by the author were the students’ perceptions on the topic, their experience and learning outcomes. In this qualitative descriptive research study, data collection instruments included observations, questionnaires, and artifacts in order to identify the students’ perceptions and understandings of the gender issues such as identity, roles, stereotypes, and perspectives in general. The author acknowledges the contributions of Van Dijk, T (2014) on Discourse Analysis, Clark, R and R. Ivanic (1999) on Critical Language Awareness. The findings indicate that gender is an important issue to understand, respect, tolerate and know about. Besides, the learners became aware of the problems they evidenced in the environment they are related to. Moreover, pupils stated that the promotion of the language awareness should be considered as a social compromise. Likewise, students highlighted the role of both men and women in order to ensure their personal development. As for language proficiency development, the population acquired a lot of vocabulary for and listening for specific information. The data indicates that participants gained learning outcomes such as making debates, translating, etc.