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Diversity starts in schools – children need to see a wider range of careers
Athene Donald
Step into the classroom to help the next generation discover exciting and diverse career opportunities
Fri 26 Jan 2018 11.36 GMT
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Ask a seven-year-old 「what do you want to do when you grow up?」 and you』ll get an answer built on very limited experience. But unless children are exposed to a wide range of options how can they know what opportunities exist that might interest them?
The lack of awareness of primary school children of the full spectrum of careers is highlighted in a new study, Drawing the Future. Carried out for the organisation Education and Employers, the conclusion is that more of us need to go into primary schools to share our experiences of the world of work.
When I was a child, the boys would typically answer that they wanted to be train drivers, and the girls would say nursing. Those were the expected answers and I』m sure I (briefly) complied. Such answers also highlight another problem: even by the age of seven gender stereotyping has kicked in. Few girls, even now, would probably admit to wanting to be astronauts, or boys to be nurses.
Judging by this survey, it seems to be a global phenomenon. Children don』t know enough about the world of work to have realistic ideas of what jobs exist, but they have absorbed enough to believe there is 「men’s work」 and 「women’s work」. The study asked children aged seven to 11 years old to draw and describe what they wanted to be when they grew up. Their free text descriptions were coded into one of 69 possible occupations.
The results are illuminating if slightly depressing. By the age of seven it was clear that the jobs chosen reflected standard gendered ideas. In the UK, in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), four times as many boys wanted to become engineers as did girls. Twice as many boys as girls saw science as their chosen future, while girls were four times more likely than boys to want to be vets, and more than twice as likely to want to be doctors.
Perhaps those of us in the sector should be encouraged by the finding that STEM careers in general were viewed favourably, with vet being the third most popular choice, and scientist seventh. Nevertheless, nothing in STEM was as well regarded as sport, with boys and girls most likely aspiring to be a sportsman or woman – the most popular option by more than ten percentage points.
Regardless of the likelihood of nearly a quarter of our primary school children going on to be sports personalities, these results suggest that genuine diversity across the STEM sector is not likely to be fixed anytime soon. The current situatuion in engineering, for instance, is neatly summed up in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s phrase 「9% is not enough」 – the percentage of women in the engineering workforce. If this is to be changed, active steps must be taken.
As last summer’s BBC programme No more Boys and Girls: can our Kids go Gender Free? demonstrated, thinking hard about the teacher–pupil interaction can quite rapidly make a difference. Let the girls get their hands on puzzles to encourage their spatial awareness and, unsurprisingly, their ability mentally to rotate shapes increases.
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But if the teacher chooses to give them dolls or water-play instead, they will remain less competent at such puzzles than boys who get to do the practice. And, if the girls consequently end up less able to visualise things in three dimensions, by the time they make genuine career choices they may well feel engineering is beyond them – a view encouraged by a teacher who spots their weakness in this direction.
The main thrust of this most recent report, though, isn』t to have a go at teachers – or parents, nor even the media – for imposing stereotypes. The report’s constructive solution is to enable children to meet people from very different careers. So if, for instance, a female engineer – or a male vet – walks into the classroom and talks about their own work, it can have a very positive effect, changing awareness and expectations.
Education and Employers operates both the Inspiring the Future and Inspiring Women initiatives that bring people from all walks of life and at every level of seniority into the classroom, to share their experiences and concrete facts. Such activities can only have a beneficial impact on children’s knowledge and awareness. As a bonus, it may help familiarise teachers with a broader range of career opportunities. If we are to ensure all children get better informed about careers and opportunities from an early age, more such initiatives are needed.
You can help by signing up to get involved. Whatever your level of educational attainment, Education and Employers would love to hear from you. The only commitment is a single school visit a year: not a big ask for most of us, but it could make a the world of difference to a future engineer … or astronaut.
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本文來源：https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2018/jan/26/children-can-only-aspire-to-the-roles-visible-to-them-time-to-get-into-the-classroom
