Gender Equality Issues in Teacher Education and in Schools: A Plea for a Change in Practice

Author(s):

Gudny S. Gudbjornsdottir(presenting / submitting)Thordis Thordardottir Steinunn H. Larusdottir

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 12 B, Schools and Identities Narratives

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-25

09:00-10:30

Room:

K3.05

Chair:

Meinert Arnd Meyer

Contribution

The Center for Research on Equality, Gender and Education, at the University of Iceland has been investigating practices and resistances towards gender equality in teacher education at the University of Iceland and in schools at three school levels in Reykjavik. Equality issues are since 2008 by law a new subject of study in primary schools, and since 2011 equality is one of six pillars of education in the national curriculum guide for all school levels.

Available Icelandic and international research suggest that focus on gender and equality issues is often missing in schools, met with resistance and a considerable gap is between scientific research on gender issues, and what is taught in teacher training and school practices. There seem to be many reasons for a lack of focus on gender issues in schools, according to international research: Curriculum overload; gender issues are sensitive and politicized, and it is not acknowledged that this is about scientific knowledge on gender issues. Theories of masculinity and femininity (post-structuralist) are considered complicated and contradict traditional essentialist views on gender and difference (Lahelma, 2011; Fuller, 2014; Weaver-Hightower, 2003). This seems to be the case as well in Icelandic research (Gudbjornsdottir and Larusdottir, 2012; Einarsdóttir and Jóhannesson, 2011).

The study is organized in three parts. In the first phase the focus was on teacher educators, and in the second phase we explored to what extent student teachers claim to have learned about gender issues in their studies. The first two phases of this research were suggested by the president of the School of Education, because of outside criticism. In the third phase the focus was shifted to schools. Firstly school administrators at three school levels (pre-, primary and secondary) responded to a survey on attitudes, knowledge and interest in gender equality. Secondly the focus is on teachers in schools, focus group interviews and classroom observations. The data collection for the last phase is ongoing.

In this paper the focus will be on the practices suggested by results of two surveys on knowledge, interest and attitudes to gender equality. The first one was from the second part of the study among student teachers and the second one from phase three among school leaders.

The main questions of this paper are:

How well do student teachers and school leaders claim to know certain gender related concepts.
Are student teachers and school leaders interested in more education in their schools on gender issues and gender stereotypes and in what form?
Which gender issues do they consider most important and how do their attitudes compare?

Method

In the second part of the research, here in focus, we explored to what extent student teachers claim to have learned about equality and gender issues in their studies. The data were collected by a questionnaire given to students that attended core classes in their first year at the School of Education (N=138) and to more advanced students (N=116). The focus was on students in teacher education (N=166). In the third part of our study focusing on school leaders (at three school levels) a survey of knowledge, interest and attitudes was administered to all school leaders in Reykjavik, Iceland. (N=79 preschools; 43 primary schools and 15 upper secondary schools) The online survey included in all 25 questions and took about 20 minutes to complete: There are questions about attitudes to equality issues, about knowledge of equality concepts and on interest/disinterest and present practices, as well as about their background (gender, education etc.). Finally the school leaders are asked if they agree to have a similar survey sent to the teachers of their schools, and if they are interested in that their teachers will be participate in interviews on the subject. The response rate was rather low, which is unusual for this group. Response rate is different both for school levels and for individual questions (49-84%). Those that answered the background questions are: 43 from pre-schools (55%); 19 from compulsory schools (44%) and 10 from upper-secondary schools (71%). 96% of the respondents are interested in a similar survey among their teachers, and 75% show interest in group interviews being taken to interested teachers in their schools. Considerable resistance to participation was observed during this research, which will be mentioned, but is actually a topic of a special paper(Lombardo and Mergaert, 2013; Mulvey and Killen, 2015). In the fourth and final phase, now just starting, the focus is on teachers in pre-, primary and upper secondary schools, focus group interviews, a survey and class observations. Those results will not be the focus of this paper, but may be mentioned. The quantitative analysis is done by our education research institute http://menntavisindastofnun.hi.is/the_educational_research_institute

Expected Outcomes

The results show the self-reported knowledge of concepts like equality, masculinity and gender stereotypes is strong, but only 50% claim to know the concept of gender well, and only 15 % of student teachers and 28% of school leaders, the concept gender system. Both groups are very interested in abolishing gender stereotypes, but seem to lack basic conceptual knowledge to do that and get rid of essentialist attitudes to gender. The students’ interest in gender issues is strong, however. 87% of the teacher education students think that instruction on gender issues should be increased, and over 70% are interested in taking a special course on the subject. The student teachers are most interested in learning more about sexual violence/harassment, gender stereotypes, gender and difference and social media and gender. For the school leaders, the results are very similar. A possible relationship is suggested between this high interest of student teachers and school leaders in gender issues and the recent discussions by young people, on social media and in the society, about gender related violence. We conclude that gender-inclusion is not part of the teacher education discourse, and that binary essentialist views on boys and girls prevail, unless something is done. Gender inclusion is being called for both by our national curriculum guidelines, the teacher union, student teachers and school leaders at all school levels. The possible reasons for the lack of focus on gender issues in teacher education in Iceland will be discussed and compared to international findings. Among those are the tendency to marginalize emphasis on gender equality in neoliberal times, and the increasing emphasis on a wider equality concept, in view of the situation of refugees. Policy implications of the studies are discussed and practical steps for improvement as the results are a clear demand for change.

References

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Author Information

Gudny S. Gudbjornsdottir (presenting / submitting)

University of Iceland

School of Education

Seltjarnarnes

Thordis Thordardottir

University of Iceland, Iceland

Steinunn H. Larusdottir