Gender Stereotyping: Discourse Analysis of a Classroom Interaction

Abstract

Stereotypes have certain impact on the human behavior in the society. People usually accept them because it is not easy to resist it even on the base of some known realities in a society. In the Pakistani society there are some gender stereotypes which are prevalent in the attitude of male and female behavior. Present study was conducted to analyse gender stereotypes in a classroom discourse. Van Dijk Model (1993) of discourse analysis was applied on the classroom interaction in this regard. Stereotypical gendered behaviour was observed in the classroom interaction. The results of British and American classroom research by Michcelle (1983) and Bergvall (1996) were also replicated and verified through this study conducted in the Pakistani context.