USING LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD TO TEACH GENDER IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

Abstract

In this essay I explore ideas about how to work with fairy tales and gender, but also discuss the potentials and problems with the approach. Gender roles can often be cemented and maintained in Upper Secondary School, which is the reason why I want to highlight and discuss the matter with students. The questions I seek to investigate in the essay are: Which teaching methods can be used when working with gender stereotypes in the fairy tale, in the English classroom? In what way is Little Red Riding Hood suitable to work with in class? The main goal with this classroom project, which can extend over a period of five weeks, is to give students in Upper Secondary School tools to problematize, analyze, and discuss the idea of gender stereotypes in one of the world’s most well-known fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood. Another aim is for the students to be critical and aware of what they read so that they can see hidden meanings in a text. Ideas of exercises, inspired by Collie & Slater and Josephson, to work with in a classroom context are presented. These are used as tools in order to problematize gender in fairy tales. The exercises cover comparing beginnings, dramatizing a part of a story, writing the inner dialogue of a character or tale, and finally the hot seat.