Demographic Factors

Demographic factors in this section were concerned with the background information of the study participants, their behaviour and values that affected subject choices. Woolnough (1995) suggests that family background is a critical factor in students' decisions of subject choice. Within the family/home background category, factors such as family socio-economic status and ethnic and cultural backgrounds were investigated in this section.

(i) Culture and ethnic background. The study found that participants came from mainly Shona and European English speaking backgrounds, each of which had influence on the formation of students' identities as will be shown in the next sections. Differences and similarities were found in the two cultures. For example, being a girl was

synonymous with submissiveness, domestic work and family caring duties while being a boy exemplified power, outdoor activities, family protection and provision of resources. Both Shona and European cultures had a low expectation of females and assigned them lighter and less difficult work compared to males who were assigned heavy and more difficult work. As one parent explained:

Culture sees man as the one with power and strength. As such, jobs requiring strength like lifting heavy metals, carrying bricks, pushing wheelbarrows, building and carpentry are ideally for men and, women cannot do them. Women have always been seen as physically weak, and that is why they do such jobs as cooking, nursing and sewing because people see these as light jobs (MP:MUSM). Such gender-segregated roles were perceived as part of the UnhulUbuntu

socialisation of girls and boys as theorised in chapter three. The behaviours and values children assimilated through the socialisation process became their identities through which girls and boys in the Shona culture learnt to position themselves as male or female. It was found that girls and boys had dissimilar ways of viewing the world to the extent that choices they made in life had more differences than similarities. As one design and technology education officer put it:

Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and achievement in D&T 141 Over the years as Zimbabweans, we have tended to have duties that are for men and others for women. And, we tend to think: that the heavier duties are for men and the lighter duties for women. This has gone on to influence the selection of subjects by pupils in our schools, where we have heavy industrial subjects that are taken mainly by boys (EO).

The response from one male European principal showed that English culture shared commonalities of domesticity for females and outdoor activities for males with Shona culture. Through a culture of difference and perceived physical strength, the principal saw males as naturally suited to do the heavier work while females perform the nurturing jobs. As he put it:

I certainly do see these two genders as having different functions in society. I think: particularly of young children that mothers should be there to shape these formative years of the children when they grow up. So, the first role that I see for a woman is as a mother and I was going to say housekeeper but you can't divorce a mother's duties from house keeping duties so they go hand in hand. If we are talking in terms of manual work, I have reservations about that. I wouldn't like my wife to be wielding a pick and shovel because I think: it would be demeaning for her. Well, to me manual labour for a woman is unladylike. And, you must remember that I come from a different generation where a man earned a living and the woman would be a woman of leisure, run the home and bring up the children. I was in Australia recently and it was quite surprising for me when I first went there to find women working manually in road camps, you know those pick and shovel jobs. And, I was surprised to see a woman doing that and doing it well alongside men. With my African background, I found that strange

(WMPr:RPSM)

While both Shona and European cultures in Zimbabwe were perceived as elevating men above women with men designating themselves as rulers and leaders and women as mere helpers, Shona culture in particular, was perceived as giving more prominence to males at the expense of females. A Shona parent illustrated this in

reference to Shona family courts where young boys were regarded as leaders even in the presence of their elder sisters:

Men do not take us as their equals. I am the eldest in my family but, when it comes to family matters, my younger brother takes the role of the eldest and no family case can be heard when he is not there (FP:TUSH).

Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form choice of and achievement in D&T 142 One student saw the thinking of society as implying that women were second-class

citizens meant to be led by men. According to her, "traditional Shona culture has always elevated men above women. Women are considered second rate in everything. A woman cannot lead men because society expects men to lead" (Sihle:SMRSM). Societal thinking in Zimbabwe was reflected in the comment of one man representing the middle section of society who said, "do you think at family courts a woman should preside over issues? The role of the woman is primarily to help the man" (MP:GGASM). The views of this man and those of the European male principal, one of whom was from a high and one from a medium SES community, showed that views of male superiority over women were not confined to low SES groups.

These comments suggest how cultural leanings and dispositions of gender differences within Shona and European English cultures affect fourth form girls' choice decisions of subjects in schools and of design and technology subjects. Both cultures perceived girls as likely 'natural' takers of food and nutrition and fashion and fabrics owing to the impact of their growing up experiences with mothers. On the other hand, boys were perceived as 'naturally' fitting into wood technology, metal technology, building technology and technical graphics and design because of their tinkering experiences with fathers at home. As one father put it:

Our culture does not allow sons to take food and nutrition at school because that is a subject for girls. They are the ones who do the cooking at home. We teach our sons to carve hoe handles, to mix mortar and help build and thatch huts. That is what men do and any boy who chooses to take cooking is somehow abnormal (MP:MRSH).

One female principal commented from her observations of how the Shona community worked that:

Home influence does play a part in the selection of subjects. For example, girls are more likely to take fashion and fabrics and food and nutrition that are similar to their growing up experiences. On the other hand boys are likely to choose woodwork and building at this school, subjects, which are closely related to what, they perform at home with their fathers (FPr:MRSM).

Those data suggest the compelling nature of the socialisation process in girls design and technology subject choice. Though girls could make up their own minds to take some subjects for study out of individual curiosity, by and large the advice of elderly people and close family members or significant others, usually carried the day. Shona parents' attitudes and expectations for girls and boys were found to be consistent with societal expectations. In respect of a girl who would take wood technology or building

Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and achievement in D&T 143 technology and design, one girl said parents would say, "Since when have you seen a girl doing wood technology or building technology?" (Tendai:SMRSM). According to Tendai, if it is a boy who would have chosen food and nutrition at school, the mother would say, "you greedy boy (makaro aro), couldn't you take male subjects like other boys do? Since when have you seen men cooking? Such men will be a problem to their wives". The compelling strength of such comments were that people in the Shona culture do not want to be labelled in the light of the opposite sex as this does not to reflect well on the individual. Many children would simply conform to cultural gender role

expectations in order to avoid such connotations. One student felt that females feared losing their feminine tag and being viewed negatively in societal eyes if they undertook jobs that were considered unfeminine. She pointed that:

Our society does not endorse seeing a girl taking a man's role like laying bricks and drawing building plans. You will be labeled as being possessed by a male demon. Even men would not want to marry a builder, a bricklayer, aah

(Chene:SGGASM).

Cultural leanings and dispositions were less evident in some sections of Shona and English European high SES group A schools, there was a general view that children's socialised mindsets were responsible for the gendered subject choices at secondary school. Views for both Masvingo and Harare provinces were that design and technology subjects were not the province of female students. One teacher commented that, "Girls see some of these skills as meant for males because of their cultural

upbringing which differentiates roles especially in Shona culture" (FBT:TRSH). One student said she saw only males employed in building, metal and wood technology and design and would find it hard to take the subjects. She said:

Just look outside, how many of builders are female? People who do metal and wood technology are male, so it is kind of hard for girls to end up saying I want to do wood technology and on top of that people may not accept you in society (Tessa:SMGBSM).

Channelling was a practice that was found to prevent girls from venturing into former male subject areas in six of the eight schools sampled. Teachers channelled students into subjects they perceived as appropriate for either girls or boys. Gemston and Riverdale in Masvingo province were the only schools allowing girls to choose subjects for study and also did not timetable them out of design and technology subjects. Denlow, Telford, Mari, Tembo, Mbizi and Mau all followed a system of channelling students into subjects. As pointed by one girl:

Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and in D&T 144 Here at this school we are not asked if you want to take wood technology or food and nutrition. You are just enrolled into a class and the pupils in that class are allocated the subjects they do. $0, you don't choose for yourself what to do

(Tariro:SDGASH).

Teachers perceived that they were in a better position to help select subjects for their students because of their assumed wide knowledge and exposure to the world of training and work. Two teachers interviewed said it was the culture of their schools to allocate subjects to students rather than let varied students' subject choices make the time-tabling job difficult. One of them said, "From many years experience in the teaching field, we

know which subjects are suitable for boys and for girls. There will also be fewer

problems with time-tabling subjects" (MWTT:MbRSH). The channelling of students into subjects however reflected an assimilated mindset on the part of teachers. While some girls in the eight schools perceived that the system was good in that teachers were in the best position to know what girls wanted, many believed that the system killed individual initiative. As one girl pointed out:

Our school did not allow girls to do design and technology subjects. When we came here as form ones, we were given a list of subjects to take and our teachers said boys, your subjects are metal technology and wood technology and, girls you do food and nutrition and fashion and fabrics as if we could not choose our own subjects (Dora:SMGBSM).

The cultural aspect was also mentioned as affecting female employment in traditional male areas. Girls at Mau, Mbizi, Tembo and Mari pointed that they were caught between the desire to want to venture out of female confines of culture and the need to identify with a well-cultured Shona girl preserving traditions. For example, the desire to take building as a subject at school was seen as conflicting with putting on overalls and trousers which were considered taboo for any woman to put on in the Shona culture. As one girl put it, "like when you are doing building, you can't climb up the roof in a skirt. If you decide to put on trousers, culture is against that. So, what will I do?" (J ane:MbRSH). One parent supported this by saying that women did not feel comfortable in overalls and trousers.

As women we cannot imagine ourselves in building construction, engineering or being a mechanic. We shy away from putting on overalls and trousers because that is not there in our culture. On the other hand, a woman feels that she will expose herself by putting on a dress especially when working in high places like in building . . . and will not be able to take and perform tasks which conflict with tradition especially where she will expose herself (FP:TGBSH).

Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and achievement in D&T 145 Culture was also found to affect fourth form girls' achievement in various

subjects they took at school. Girls at both rural and urban low SES schools of Mau, Mbizi, Tembo and Mari felt alienated by both the English language learning medium and the male nature of design and technology subjects. One male principal pointed that, "Conversing in the English language is a problem that affects most of our students. Examinations are all set in English and this affects many students whose English is not very good (MP:MGBSM). The major worries for some girls at Mau school were both the language and the masculine nature of knowledge in design and technology subjects. According to them, it was difficult to relate to the subject culture easily as girls. To one girl, if the subjects were taught in their Shona mother tongue, and were more inclined to familiar knowledge of their growing up experiences, they would perform better in the subjects. She said:

Most of the time we do not fully understand what is asked in the English

language and this affects the way we answer questions. The other thing is we do not understand most of the terms in design and technology subjects

(Rudo:SMRSM).

The situation was made worse because the Zimbabwean curriculum developers had not incorporated any local content familiar with Zimbabweans in the curriculum, making it difficult for girls to identify with the British designed design and technology curricula first and the male specific knowledge.

(ii) Assimilated gender role mindset. An assimilated gender role mindset entails

girls' choosing subjects for study according to their "mental constructs of how they fit into the activities" (Lee, 2002, p. 350). This is perceived to be consistent with societal and girls' own constructions of gender identity governed by "social scripts regarding proper behaviour in a variety of situations" (Eccles, 1994, p. 597).

This study found that the perpetuation of gender difference involving separate engagements in both Shona and European English cultures is fed by a rigid socialisation process of children that differentiates their roles from infancy as theorised in chapter three. One parent perceived that gender roles were passed down to the present generation. As she put it, "It is something that has been passed down through generations and parents enforce these cultural norms and values. So, we expect our children to follow these norms and values and for them to pass them on to their own children' (FP:RPSM). Consistent with Eccles et al. (1983) parents were the biggest socialisers of children. Results showed that both Shona and European English parents in both Harare and Masvingo used gendered language to play and communicate with their children and

Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th fonn choice of and achievement in D&T 146 dressed girls and boys differently. Presents bought for special occasions were different with parents favouring toy cars for boys and dolls for girls. As one parent put it:

Parents are the ones who begin this differentiation process that affects roles. They are the ones who teach children that you are a boy and you are a girl. At the time when the child begins to understand that I am a boy and, I am a girl, there are words spoken by parents that tell the child which gender group he or she belongs to. When playing with a boy they say 'baba" (dad) and 'mai' (mother) for a girl. So 'baba' will be associated with fathers and 'mai' with mothers. The child sees differences in dressing and that those labelled 'baba' put on shorts or trousers and those labelled 'mai' put on dresses. A girl comes to realise that her role is in the kitchen with mothers and the boy outdoors with fathers (MP:TGBSH).

The study found that from a young age, learning took place through observation,

touching and hearing. As the child grew up, she or he participated in activities that were considered appropriate for their gender. Shona girls in particular, were socialised by mothers for their ultimate roles in marriage and according to societal expectations of femininity. With strict enforcing from parents and other adults in the society, boys grew up knowing that they were leaders in the home and society while girls took up the supportive role of mother and carer of the family according to UnhulUbuntu ideology. Confirming how an assimilated mindset was acquired, one mother pointed out that:

A girl will perfonn female roles like cooking, sweeping and cleaning the family home and washing clothes for all members of the family including brothers. Young boys grow up in the company of bigger boys and fathers. A father will call his son to help him, grooming him for his future role as father. He will help repair things, being mechanically minded, be it replacing bulbs, repair leaking taps, the things that fathers do. This is done so that he grows up knowing that he belongs