Student Perspectives on Equality and Gender Awareness in the Faculty of Education

Author(s):

Annukka Jauhiainen(submitting)Anne Laiho(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 05 C, Parallel Paper Session

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

11:00-12:30

Room:

FCEE - Aula 2.4

Chair:

Vivienne Griffiths

Contribution

In the Nordic Countries gender equality is seen as a significant value. It is also a task obligated by the law to schools and universities. For teachers promoting gender equality is not aquestion of opinion, but an obligatory responsibility. The “Act on Equality between Women and Men of 1987 has stated the purpose to “prevent discrimination on the basis of sex and to promote equality between women and men, and, for this purpose, to improve the status of women particularly in working life”. The university is a community to which students also belong. The gender matters in the university community and the equality of gender is the central objective of the higher education. The future teachers and the professionals in the field of education will be in the key position when an attempt is made to promote the gender equality in the society, therefore it is important to study their views. The students' views are needed as well to look after gender equality in the practices of education and to develop curricula in higher education. (Lahelma 2006.)

In spite of a global aim to integrate feminist studies in teacher training research tell about the fact that teacher students are poorly prepared for the gendered environment of the classroom. (Cushman 2010; Malmgren & Weiner 2001; Poole & Isaacs 1993; Titus 2000; Younger & Warrington 2008; Vavrus 2009.) Finland has a history of hundreds of equality projects in education over the last decades. Our research is conducted as a part of a Finnish national project “Gender Awareness in Teacher Education” (2008–2010) funded by Ministry of Education. The aim of the project was to examine the curricula and develop pedagogies in perspective of gender awareness and equality in the units, departments and the faculties involved in teacher training and education. Gender awareness refers to awareness of the inequalities that are taking form in the practices and processes of schools and education.

The purpose of our study is to explore perceptions of students’ concerning the positions of issues around gender equality and awareness within the contents of their studies.

Method

Our presentation is based on the empirical survey data gathered from the faculty of education, in one case university, Turku, in the spring of 2010. The study group was comprised of students in degree programmes in Education, Adult Education, Special Education, Teacher Education, Kindergarten Teacher Education and Crafts Teacher Education. In addition students caring out their pedagogical studies were included in the target group. The on-line survey method was applied. The questionnaire was sent to 1756 students, of which 583 responded. Thus, the response rate was 33 %. The questionnaire consisted of several likert-scale items as well as open-ended questions. We analyse how different student groups in the faculty experience the significance of gender and gender awareness in their studies. We utilise both the items and the open-ended questions. The answers to the open-ended questions were examined by applying content analysis.

Expected Outcomes

The results of the survey strengthen the outcomes of earlier studies how the gender equality is experienced in the university studying. Women more than men estimated that they have experienced unequal treatment whereas men did not regard gender equality as a problem. Gender and equality as a concept woke many kinds of consideration and strong reactions in the open-ended answers. We can conclude that a majority of our respondents especially women found the issues of gender awareness meaningful and relevant and hoped for that their studies should involve more contents which are related to gender and sexuality. There was also resistance against making gender issues a part of teacher education. Especially the feminist perspective to gender issues was like a red rag to bull for some male teacher respondents. They found that attempting to the gender equality meant that the differences between the genders are not allowed but one wants to make women and men similar. Our respondents also emphasized that gender equality already is a fact which has come true.

References

Act on Equality between Women and Men (1987). Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland, Serie F: Brochures 1/1990. Cushman, P. (2010). Male primary school teachers: Helping or hindering a move to gender equity? Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (5), 1211–1218. Lahelma, E. (2006). Gender Perspective: A Challenge for Schools and Teacher Education. In Jakku-Sohvonen, R. & Niemi, H. (eds) Research-based Teacher Education in Finland – Reflections by Finnish Teacher Educators. Research in Educational Sciences 25. Finnish Educational Research Association. Painosalama: Turku, 153–162. Malmgren, G. & Weiner, G. (2001). Distrubing boundaries in teacher education: gender and the ‘F’ word-feminism. International Journal of Inclusive Education 5 (2/3), 237–255. Poole Marilyn & Isaacs Dallas. (1993). The Gender Agenda in Teacher Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 275–284. Titus, J. J. (2000). Engaging Student Resistance to Feminism: ‘how is this stuff going to make us better teachers?’ Gender and Education 12 (1), 21–37. Younger, M. & Warrington, M. (2008). The gender agenda in primary teacher education in England: fifteen lost years? Journal of Education Policy 23 (4), 429–445. Vavrus, M. (2009). Sexuality, schooling, and teacher identity formation: A critical pedagogy for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education 25 (3), 383–390.

Author Information

Annukka Jauhiainen (submitting)

University of Turku

Department of Education

University of Turku

Anne Laiho (presenting)

University of Turku, Finland

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