Meta-Awareness Essay
EDUC/WS 2703: Gender in Education

Why- Meta-awareness means we are thinking about our own thinking. How did we develop our beliefs and
world views? What is our idea of self and how did we develop that identity? This short critical reflection is
meant to develop meta-awareness of your own experiences as an individual.

We don’t always think about how our own relationship with gender might be different than others who we
will work with in the future. Having an understanding of our “self” is especially important for those going
into the educational filed. This essay will encourage you to think about how you developed your sense of
“self” based on the social influences, the contexts, and the relationships. See the graphic below for a visual
representation of this essay’s purpose.

How- You will write a reflective essay that covers these three areas:
➢ Self as K-12 Student: How did your environment affect and/or influence the development of your

identity as a learner. Consider the moment when you started to develop a sense of self in relationship
to your gender or sexuality. As you reflect, consider all of the following communities and
environments that shape young people: cultural, social, economic, political, economic, linguistic,
religious, family, teachers, friends. Choose one of the areas that really influenced you as a young
student and how you viewed your sense of “self”.

➢ Self as College Student: What are your current personal beliefs/feelings on issues regarding gender,
sexuality, and/or educational equity. Choose one specific issue that is pressing on you right now.
Focus specifically on one area to give this section depth, rather than rambling on about a bunch of
issues.

➢ Future Self: What is your learning goal for this class and what might interfere with that goal? Consider
how your beliefs/world views might influence your interactions with others and impact your own
learning goal. You can also consider personal challenges that might infringe on your learning goal for
this class. Share possible strategies you might utilize to maintain your learning goal for this class.

Expectations:

➢ Your essay should have 3 distinct sections of reflection in addition to an intro and conclusion. (total
you should have 5 sections: intro, self as student, current self, future professional self, conclusion)

➢ There is no superficial length for this essay, rather I am looking for the quality of the content.

➢ Format of the paper should include APA for pages, name, subheadings, etc… However, this is NOT a research
paper. No outside sources should be used and it does not need an abstract.

Meta-Awareness Rubric

Criteria Beginning Developing Exceeding

Ideas &
Content

Little to no examples or
details to support ideas,
surface level and vague

some examples are offered
but lack detail-depth,
superficially covers required
reflection elements

thoroughly covers all areas of
reflection, specific examples &
support, examples are detailed
& focused

Critical
Reflection

does not move into
critical moments,
mostly guarded, generic
& superficial; lacking
connections; mostly
summary rather than
analysis

attempting to engage in
critical reflection but
sometimes demonstrates
guarded and hesitant to dig
deeper than the surface;
sometimes relies too much on
basic summary

engages in authentic
assessment of beliefs &
development of self;
willingness to confront &
problematize our past,
present, future; insightful and
makes personal connections

Organization
& Clarity

lacks organizational
skills, actually hinders
clarity and causing
confusion, lacks intro
and conclusion

somewhat structured, concise,
and clear, intro and
conclusion are present but
lack depth

concise, makes sense to reader
& has a clear sense of org
skills, has a strong intro that
hooks reader and conclusion
that offers a “so what”

Language &
Style

errors & language are
distracting to the reader
and the overall meaning
of the content

word choice adequate &
sentence fluency at times
effective; contains few errors
in spelling, grammar,
punctuation or mechanics

demonstrates mastery of
standard language through
purposful word choice and
varied sentences; free from all
errors in spelling, grammar,
punctuation, and mechanics