Diversity in Career and Technical Education On-Line Classrooms: Considering Issues of Gender, Race and Age

Diversity in Career and Technical Education On-Line Classrooms: Considering Issues of Gender, Race and Age

Mary C. Ware, Mary F. Stuck
Copyright: © 2012 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0252-6.ch010
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Abstract

Designers and instructors of courses in career and technical education have realized the value of on-line delivery of instruction during the past several decades. Many students enrolled in career and technical education courses are what have been labeled “non-traditional” students. On-line learning is helpful to these students because it provides the flexibility to do coursework from home, or to do schoolwork at hours when brick-and-mortar colleges are not traditionally offering classes. However, it is increasingly being realized that all students may not equally embrace, or equally succeed in the on-line environment. In this paper, the authors examine recent research studies in an effort to see if there have been documented differences in preference for, or success in, on-line learning based on gender, race and/or age.
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Gender

The authors’ focus on gender is grounded in the social sciences. Gender is a social construction, consisting of one set of expectations, rights and privileges that societies have decided that females should follow, and another set of expectations, rights and privileges that males should follow or exhibit (Lorber & Farrell, 1991). As a child grows, those around her/him model behavior which is felt to be appropriate to the child’s biological sex. This constant barrage of “gender rules” from adults and peers socializes the child into behaving according to the societal expectations for her or his culturally defined gender. Social pressure by peers and adults exhorts individuals to follow these socially constructed guidelines (Stuck & Ware, 2010). Later in life, one’s gender identification contributes to one’s opportunities for education, work, family, sexuality, reproduction, authority, and the individual’s potential to make an impact on the production of culture and knowledge (Lorber & Farrell, 1991).

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