Gender Equality Attitudes in Education Professionals During their Initial Training at HE
Author(s):
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

22 SES 07 B, Inclusion and Diversity in Higher Education Settings

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
17:15-18:45
Room:
STD-302
Chair:
David Thompson

Contribution

Education professionals seemto be the main agentof social change. Through their teaching they should educate students about respect for fundamental rights and freedom equality between men and women, in the exercise of tolerance and freedom, including the prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, based on a increasingly diverse and intercultural society.

In our research we have focused onthe measure of university degree student attitudes, in relation to education in order to improve the quality of initial training of professionals in a larger study. According Spanish law (Law 1/2004 of 28 December), the educational authorities should take the necessary measures to make possible that initial training plans include specific training on equality, in order to ensure "the promotion of attitudes towards the pursuit of equal rights and obligations for women and men in both the private and public spheres”. Attitude “plays a central role in the social change process, such as being a mediating factor between the person and the social context to which it belongs" (Morales, 1999).

The sexist attitude and gender ideology would be composed by a set of beliefs about the roles, characteristics, behaviors, etc., considered as appropriate for men by one side and for women by the other side, as well as beliefs about what kind of relationships take place between members of both groups. This ideology is not neutral, but it seeks to maintain the status quo, ie, perpetuating the subordination and subjugation of woman as a group, which can be considered as negative as positive attitudes (Moya, 2004). This is the reason why we decided to focus on studying the ambivalent sexism (Glick and Fiske, 1996), which is based on the belief that sexist antipathy coexists with positive feelings toward women. Hence, our research question is: Does what take place a positive attitudinal change towards gender equality through education professionals’ initial training at Higher Education?. Therefore, our research aims are to describe, analyze and assess attitudes towards gender equality in education professionals during their initial training, in order to verify the effectiveness of university syllabuses on this topic.

Method

The research design is a descriptive methodology for cross-sectional survey. Data analysis is a quantitative analysis. The sample is composed by university students of Educational field in two Faculties of Education in Extremadura (Spain): Elementary Education, Early Childhood Education, Social Education and Bachelor of Psychology, offered by the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Teacher Training . Data was collected mainly in the classroomand also on an online survey, in the case of the Virtual Psychopedagogy Bachelor Degree. The instruments used for data collection were three questionnaires: the reduced version of Ambivalent Sexism Inventory scales (ASI: Glick and Fiske, 1996), the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (AMI: Glick and Fiske, 1999), adapted into Spanish by Rodríguez, Lameiras and Carrera (2009) and the scale of teachers' attitudes towards the culture of gender equality in education, created and used by Rebollo, García, Piedra and Vega (2011). There were two survey forms, and one online (for virtual degrees).

Expected Outcomes

Data obtained explain the presence or absence of sexist attitudes towards gender equality in education, and how these attitudes are characterized and developed during university training of Education training degrees’ students. Thus, participants generally show ambivalent sexist attitudes and unfavorable attitudes toward building a culture based on gender equality in schools. Therefore, the current initial university training they received would not be effective for this purpose, although students notice positive attitudes towards the social model of equality, but not regarding coeducational roles and practices: In fact, the participants sample has higher rates of traditional sexims than benevolent sexism. In addition, data gatheres indicates different results in relation to participants’ sociodemographic characteristics (age, sex, degree studied, academic status, etc.).

References

Álvarez Álvarez, P. (2001). Generando igualdad. Guía para la incorporación del enfoque de género en actuaciones y programa. Álava: Diputación Foral de Álava. Blanco, N. (Coord.) (2001). Educar en femenino y en masculino. Madrid: Akal. Bolaños, L. y Jiménez, R. (2007). La formación del profesorado en género. Revista de Investigación Educativa, 25 (1), 75-91. Bonal, X. (1997). Las actitudes del profesorado ante la coeducación. Barcelona: Graó. Colás, P. y Jiménez R. (2006). Tipos de conciencia de género del profesorado en los contextos escolares. Revista de Educación, 340, 415-444. Expósito, F., Moya, M. y Glick, P. (1998). Sexismo ambivalente: Medición y correlatos. Revista de Psicología Social, 13, 159-169. Freixas, A., Fuentes-Guerra, M. y Luque, B. (2006). Formación del profesorado y diferencia sexual. Revista Fuentes, 7, 52-64. Fuentes-Guerra, M. (2005). Diferencia sexual en educación. Propuestas de trabajo en formación del profesorado. Revista Perspectiva CEP, 9, 51-64. Glick, P. y Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512. Glick, P., Fiske, S. T., Mladinic, A., Saiz, J. L., Abrams, D., Masser, B., Adetoun, B., Osagie, J. E., Akande, A., Alao, A., Brunner, A., Willemsen, T. M., Chipeta, K., Dardenne, B., Dijksterhuis, A., Wigboldus, D., Eckes, T., Six-Materna, I., Expósito, F., Moya, M., Foddy, M., Kim, H. J., Lameiras, M., Sotelo, M. J., Mucchi-Faina, A., Romani, M., Sakalli, N., Udegbe, B., Yamamoto, M., Ui, M., Ferreira, M. C. y López, W. L. (2000). Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 763-775. Rebollo, Mª Á., García, R., Piedra, J. y Vega, L. (2011). Diagnóstico de la cultura de género en educación: actitudes del profesorado hacia la igualdad. Revista de Educación, 355, 521-546.

Author Information

Sara Cordón Gómez (submitting)
Universidad de Extremadura
Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación
Badajoz
Universidad de Extremadura, Spain
Sixto Cubo Delgado (presenting)
Universidad de Extremadura, Spain

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