Emergent Gender Roles Within Tween Popular Culture: Perspectives From Mexican American Students in a Fifth-Grade Classroom

This study examines fifth-grade Mexican American students’ beliefs about emergent gender roles. We used participant-observation methodology to conduct research on six focal-student participants selected from the general fifth-grade population at an elementary school located in the Southwestern United States. Collected data included focal-student interviews, classroom observations, and survey responses. We included an account of gender differences unique to students of Mexican descent. At school, students selected personal reading texts through their gender group norms. Although students claimed to have equitable views of various professions, they also revealed contradictory behavior about gender roles. Student influences included popular toys, media and literature targeted for young adolescent consumers. Further, teachers at the school remained unaware and mostly unconcerned about students’ emerging gender beliefs. Results indicate how students inscribed gender norms learned from home cultural practices. This study should be of interest to teachers concerned about critical literacy classroom applications which can raise awareness about the complexity of tween popular culture and emergent gender beliefs.