This research is an examination of how gender is constructed through the pedagogical practices of the teacher in one secondary English/literacy classroom. It is evident from the classroom data that the teacher talks to the male students and the female students very differently and in this way constructs gender in different and inequitable ways. This construction takes place within a classroom informed by critical literacy pedagogies that aim to achieve social justice and equity for all students. Despite the teacher's explicit intention to treat all students equally, her language operates to privilege the male over that of the female.