Baseball, Presidents, and State Test Passages: Considering Gendered Knowledge in Literacy Research, Curricula, and Assessments

Abstract

The role of knowledge and reading comprehension has seen a recent explosion of attention from researchers, journalists, and policy advocates. Much of this discourse describes knowledge in neutral terms such as knowledge of “the world”. That knowledge of the world, however, is woven into the fabric of the gendered world we live in and its gendered education systems. In this article, we delve into three “exhibits” to highlight gendered aspects of knowledge and comprehension research and practice. In the first exhibit, we demonstrate the gendered nature of knowledge research by examining the male‐centric participant sampling and measurement design of baseball knowledge studies, which are widely cited in translational science and practitioner articles about knowledge and literacy curriculum. We then examine the gendered nature of knowledge curriculum by looking at a male‐centric unit from a popular knowledge‐focused curriculum, Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA). Then, we present data about the gender of authors whose passages are selected for state ELA assessments, finding that women authors are overrepresented in the elementary and underrepresented in the high school grades. As former K‐12 teachers and current researchers engaged with the everyday work of literacy teaching, we agree that knowledge‐rich curriculum supports students’ reading comprehension. Still, we call for researchers and educators to interrogate gendered discourse around knowledge and comprehension to avoid reproducing traditional gender inequities.