Making Room for Gender Sensitivity in Pre-Service Teacher Education

Abstract

Education is an effective tool for effecting change both on an individual and social level and it is a key institution that can minimize the differences among social groups and genders. While teachers are key actors responsible for implementing this basic function of education, they themselves are raised in societies that are stratified by gender. Teachers act as carriers of the values and cultural codes of their societies and have a tendency to support students' opinions and behaviours and educational and professional choices shaped by sexist stereotypes, thereby contributing to inequality. Therefore, one strategy to adopt in combating inequality between genders is to raise awareness and sensitivity of teachers concerning gender inequality. With this strategy in mind, this study seeks to identify the key features of Gender Equality course for preservice teachers in Turkey.

A Learning Experience of the Gender Perspective in English Teaching Contexts

“…There are various works that point to the teachers as actors that may reproduce gender inequality in educational scenarios (Calvo et al, 2006;Esen, 2013;Verma, 1993). This happens because teachers grow up in a society and transmit implicit and explicit values, expectations, and norms by means of which students are socialized to learn gender roles, gender relations, and gender behaviors and attitudes in society.…”

“…Teachers are key agents of change within this process and, therefore, need to receive training in these matters during their teaching professional development (Connell, 2011;Esen, 2013). In order to contribute to filling in this gap in tpd in tefl education and have it aligned with this educational commitment, we offered an optional course for in-service English teachers in a Master program in Applied Linguistics to tefl in Bogotá, Colombia, with a gender orientation.…”

“…This happens because teachers grow up in a society and transmit implicit and explicit values, expectations, and norms by means of which students are socialized to learn gender roles, gender relations, and gender behaviors and attitudes in society. Likewise, it has been claimed that teachers are fundamental agents to address and struggle gender inequalities in their teaching contexts (Calvo et al, 2006;Esen, 2013; unesco, 2015); for this aim, teachers should receive training in their professional development trajectory to help them gain gender awareness, reflect on it within the context of their practice, and find strategies to attempt to eliminate gender inequalities.In Colombia there have been some experiences of tpd and gender equity that show important findings and understandings but they have not been permanent experiences within the field of tpd (Calvo et al, 2006). Some of these experiences, reported in this state of the art by teachers of different areas of knowledge, were designed and carried out by The Gender School of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Asociación Distrital de Educadores (ade), and the World Bank.…”

“…In this sense, critical theory becomes an important asset to analyze tpd in tefl education; it calls for the acknowledgement that English teachers' role is not merely as instructional teachers, learning how to teach English, and whose main concern revolves around developing students' linguistic competence. English teachers also have social responsibilities as educators, that is, they need to understand the ways in which they are carriers of gender codes that reproduce inequalities and the ways in which hidden and formal curricula transmit and legitimate sexist behaviors, segregation, and discrimination (Calvo et al, 2006;Esen, 2013).Hence, in accordance with the importance of including a critical approach to tpd for English teachers, as it prevents teachers from falling into these instrumentalist views of their practice and broadens the horizon of their practice and roles as political and social teachers, we can see that "educators need to approach learning not merely as the acquisition of knowledge but as the production of cultural practices that offer students a sense of identity, place, and hope" (Giroux, 1992, p. 170). We situate this learning experience within the field of the critical approach since it furthers the view of English teaching aimed to understand and critique assumptions connected to power relations and cultural politics that cause inequalities and discrimination in tesol settings (Pennycook, 1999).…”

“…Unless teachers' professional development (tpd) programs in teaching English as a foreign language (tefl) education integrate gender awareness courses or seminars, English teachers will not be prepared to recognize ways in which gender meanings are transmitted and legitimated, and how gender inequities are (re)produced in their teaching contexts. Teachers are key agents of change within this process and, therefore, need to receive training in these matters during their teaching professional development (Connell, 2011;Esen, 2013). In order to contribute to filling in this gap in tpd in tefl education and have it aligned with this educational commitment, we offered an optional course for in-service English teachers in a Master program in Applied Linguistics to tefl in Bogotá, Colombia, with a gender orientation.…”