A Gendered Look at Educational Reform

This article looks at women teachers' involvement in educational reform from a gendered perspective. Using qualitative data collected in interviews with secondary level educators, the authors show how women teachers' beliefs and actions towards reform efforts were influenced by their gender identity. Socialization of women as nurturers and caretakers created in many women particular notions regarding the appropriate role they should play as teachers. When an educational reform effort 'fitted' with these conceptions, women teachers became advocates for and participated in the reforms. The support and commitment by women teachers in turn facilitated the success of the reforms. However, it was also found that the overrepresentation of women in a reform effort had the potential of creating negative political ramifications. When the character or profile of the reform took on a gendered identity, it ran the risk of facing resistance by men teachers in the school, ultimately thwarting implementation.     

Gender,school management and educational reforms: a case study of a primary school in Hong Kong

Across the globe, many countries have incorporated new managerialism and marketization to reform their education systems. Feminist studies have already pointed out that these changes are gendered and masculinized and have documented their impacts on women teachers in secondary, higher and further education. Yet interestingly, while primary teaching is a feminized occupation, the ways that these changes and the associated practices are gendered and affected women teachers are relatively under‐researched . This article, based on a case school in Hong Kong, attempts to fill this gap. By teasing out the gendered assumptions embedded in management strategies, it will show how an entrepreneurial school has attempted to succeed in a competitive educational market by exploiting young women, discriminating motherhood and forging competition among women of different educational qualifications. While making visible the patriarchal interests and masculine norms of the school, the article also aims to illuminate the contradictions and tensions inherent in, or generated, by those strategies.     

The Paradox of Inform@tion Technology in Primary Schools: E‐learning is new but gender patterns are old!

This paper seeks to explore the impact of IT on school and teacher cultures. It reports on Swedish teachers' use of IT in different school subjects by means of a case study comprising one school, four teachers (2 men and 2 women), and their pupils aged 9–12. The methods of data collection used were interviews and observations. The aim of the study was to investigate how the teachers experience IT as a “solution” and/or “frustration” in developing their professional knowledge and in providing new learning situations for pupils. The case study suggests that, at least in this school, IT is experienced as a creative and helpful tool, which enhances teaching and learning even if the transformation of IT pedagogies demands much effort and time from the teachers. However, the women have found it more difficult than the men to incorporate information technology into their practice. Thus, two themes have emerged from the case study: IT as a valuable tool for changing the form and content of teaching and learning, and IT as strongly gendered, that is, having male attributes.     

An analysis of burnout and job satisfaction among Turkish special school headteachers and teachers,and the factors effecting their burnout and job satisfaction

This study explores issues of burnout and job satisfaction among special school headteachers and teachers in Turkey. The purpose of the study is to determine whether there is a difference between headteachers' and teachers' burnout and job satisfaction in terms of work status, gender and work experiences, and to analyse the factors effecting their burnout and job satisfaction. In this paper, a quantitative approach has been used: 295 subjects (33 special school headteachers and 262 special school teachers) responded to the survey. As the research instruments, the Job Satisfaction Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory were used to measure job satisfaction and burnout levels in terms of the dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. The study results indicated that special school headteachers felt less personal accomplishment than special school teachers. However, there were no significant differences between headteachers and teachers on two burnout dimensions, namely emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and job satisfaction. In terms of gender, males have less emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment but higher depersonalization than their female counterparts. Females have higher job satisfaction than their male counterparts. In relation to their work experiences, more experienced subjects have higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization than their less experienced colleagues, and also less job satisfaction than less experienced counterparts. However, more experienced subjects who participated in the study felt higher personal accomplishment than the others.     

Teacher and learners’ belief in a just world and perspectives of discipline of Grade 4 - 8 learners in South African schools

In the present study, we examine the personal belief in a just world (PBJW) for teachers and learners in predominantly Afrikaans-speaking South African schools, and the relationship between teachers’ PBJW and their perception of problem behaviour in the classroom. The study is informed by national debates of school violence in South African schools, and international debates on zero-tolerance policies to address school violence. Our findings suggest that teachers’ PBJW predicts their perception of problem behaviour in classroom behaviour in four areas, namely challenging authority, disrespecting rules and authority and teacher negativity. Teachers with a strong PBJW were more likely to view classroom behaviours as problematic. Children generally reported that their teachers were fair and just and liked them. However, boys were more likely to have experienced trouble with their teachers and to view them as unfair and unjust. We discuss the significance of the findings in terms of school violence and also mention gendered interpretations to school violence.     

Women teachers in Hong Kong: stories of changing gendered identities

In a time of mass schooling in most parts of the world, the discourse of the “woman primary teacher” is often the subject of discourse. Yet most stories of these women teachers emerge from other (Western) contexts, with little known about how changing education processes affect the gendered identities of women in other cultural settings. This paper explores how women teachers negotiate their gendered identities in Hong Kong, where modernization has already mingled with the indigenous Chinese culture. It provides the stories of four Chinese women teachers as they engage in ongoing construction and negotiations of gendered identities over their life histories in Hong Kong. All are ethnically Chinese, of different ages and at different stages of their personal and professional lives, and all have grown up in Hong Kong. A framework of post-colonial concepts of hybridity and border crossing helps to suggest how identity resources develop in relation to a range of contemporary practices which are experienced as both pressures and opportunities. These Chinese women teachers' identities are seen to be complex, fluid and multi-faceted, continually under construction in their daily lives, with changes experienced in both work and family settings.     

Comparing preservice,elementary, and junior high teachers' perceptions of school psychologists: Two decades later

One hundred eighty-one experienced teachers (elementary and junior high), and 189 preservice teachers were surveyed regarding their perceptions of school psychologists. The survey instrument used essentially the same categories as Styles in 1965, including: (a) level of training, (b) effectiveness, (c) qualifications for tasks, and (d) usefulness in specific duties. Analysis of the survey data showed there were significant differences between preservice and experienced teachers' effectiveness ratings of school psychologists on eight tasks typically performed by school psychologists. Significant differences also were found between preservice and experienced teachers on their ratings of school psychologists' qualifications to undertake specific tasks, although almost half of the experienced teachers were unable to rate the effectiveness of school psychologists. There was a small, but significant, negative relationship between the amount of contact with the school psychologist and the perceived effectiveness. Limitations inherent in survey methodology and the need to foster greater teacher awareness of the school psychologist's role are discussed.     

“Tender Sympathy and Scrupulous Fidelity”: gender and professionalism in the history of deaf education in the United States

This article examines the gendered professionalism that developed in the education of deaf persons in the second half of the 19th Century in the United States. It shows how the rise of professionalism involved the social construction of gender. During the 19th Century many women entered the teaching profession and many taught deaf persons. Employing them was considered attractive, not only because of the low wages that the women were paid, but also because of the “tender sympathy and scrupulous fidelity” that these women teachers showed in their professional practice. The introduction of the oral method in the education of deaf individuals favoured women teachers who were valued for their capacities to relate to pupils and whose labour was cheap compared to men. In due course women teachers succeeded in developing specific expertise and thereby influenced the professional community. Eventually their gendered professionalism became crucial in settling the schism between manualism and oralism, a schism that marked the history of the education of deaf individuals at the turn of the 19th Century in the United States.     

Facilitating Primary Science Teaching: A narrative account of research as learning

This paper is, in part, a narrative account of a teacher educator's professional growth during a longitudinal case study of three primary science teachers, Katie, Jean and Ruth, as they made the transition from pre-service to inservice teaching. The study sought to explore ways in which the beginning teachers perceived and dealt with constraints to science teaching in the primary school, and how they changed and adapted the knowledge and skills developed at university in a practical situation. The findings of the study are organised by considering what we, the researchers, saw as three categories of challenge for these beginning primary science teachers, their initial alienation from the study of science, the differences between teaching science and teaching other subjects in the primary school, and the impact of novice status on science teaching. Working with participants to help them respond to these challenges became an occasion for our own development as science educators.     

Race,class, and emerging sexuality: teacher perceptions and sexual harassment in schools

Sexual harassment is a highly troubling gendered phenomenon that plagues young women on a daily basis. The way in which sexual harassment is perceived and treated is varied and is largely based on racial and class stereotypes. This paper highlights the findings from a study in which a group of middle and high school teachers were interviewed and their perceptions of sexual harassment on their campuses were discussed. What was revealed throughout this study was the way in which many teachers’ notions of sexuality are conceptualised through their notions of class and race. This paper addresses how such racial and class stereotypes veil the sexual victimisation of many young women.     

Context and history: Using a capabilities-based social justice perspective to explore three generations of western Turkish female teachers’ lives

The purpose of this paper is to understand historically and contextually the well-being and agency of selected female teachers in Turkey. The paper develops a justice model based on the capability approach to build on the relation between freedom and equality, and to take gender and cultural diversity as a key element. The research draws on results from in-depth biographical narratives of 15 participants from west Turkey, examining the real freedoms and opportunities of three different generations of female teachers through constructing a gendered look into women's lives. The study begins by developing a framework linking women's opportunities and freedoms drawing its normative compass from Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach. It explores how female teachers’ well-being can be understood in relation to key capabilities that individuals, communities and society have reason to value and how these capabilities and functionings can be expanded or constrained. The paper argues for the significance of thinking about capabilities in the professional lives of teachers who work for social change. Through a historical and generational sequence, it captures the egalitarian aspects of the capability approach, and strengthens its emphasis on freedoms of women. The findings of this enquiry indicate that there are persistent economic, cultural, ethnical, structural and gendered inequalities in women's lives, but that women also have agency to bring changes in their lives and through their teaching.     

Feminising and masculinising primary teaching: a critical examination of the interpretive frameworks of male primary school principals in Hong Kong

Over the past two decades, the feminisation of primary school teaching has been identified by the media and government officials in Western countries as an important contributing factor to boys' academic problems. This panic, which has been criticised by feminists as a backlash and a form of recuperative politics, has promoted the development of research into gender and education, particularly studies related to the gendered culture of primary schools and on the masculinities of male teachers. However, male primary principals remain relatively under-researched in the literature, despite the importance of their structural position and increasing concern over the masculinisation of school leadership. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion by critically analysing the interpretive frameworks of 12 male primary school principals. The findings reveal not only the complex, contradictory and at times culturally specific gendered discourses that some male principals employ, but also their feminising and masculinising effects on the school workplace and leadership.     

Gender in schools and culture: taking stock of education in Italy

When politicians discuss Italy's position in terms of achieving equality between men and women, the school environment is rarely called into question or mentioned. This is despite the fact that gender inequality remains a prominent feature of the Italian education system. The reason for this failure to perceive the problem, and the consequent lack of investment in policies for gender equality in education, derives from a massive misunderstanding: school is perceived by the public and the political class as one of the few environments within the highly sexist Italian social fabric in which equality has been achieved. On closer examination, however, it is clear that the Italian school is merely the image of a sexist society which in turn acts as the driving force for a traditional and stereotypical view of male and female roles. This article will discuss this perspective and investigate three areas of education that are problematic in gender terms: gendered educational choices; sexist stereotypes transmitted through textbooks; and the lack of adequate training for teachers.     

Knowledge acquisition in Biochemistry,Physiology and Anatomy within the context of problem-based learning

Abstract

The study sought to examine the current Zimbabwean school system; establish the extent to which it is conducive to students making decisions about the selection of subjects they learn at school; to examine the nature of children's rights and the extent to which these rights are practiced in schools and in the prevailing socio-economic and political milieu. A stratified random sample of 100 pupils, 24 teachers and five school heads was used in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire, an interview schedule and observing both pupils and teachers. The study found that teachers and pupils seemed to be aware of pupils’ rights to participate in deciding the subjects they studied; and most teachers and school heads felt it was more of their duty to decide for pupils because of their immaturity. Therefore, determining the school curriculum content should involve school heads, teachers and pupils instead of choices being made and the content dictated to pupils.     

Peripheral Voices: Parental involvement,social class,and educational disadvantage

This paper presents the views of working-class parents on home-school links. Group interviews with parents of pupils in a primary school in the disadvantaged areas scheme in the Republic of Ireland suggest that parental involvement in school is limited to the giving and receiving of information, restricted consultation, and engagement in some supplemental responsibilities. Although parents were interested, informed and concerned regarding their children's education, they felt excluded from participation in decision-making about school management and organisation, about matters that affected them personally and financially, and about their children's progress. We suggest that heterogeneity in working-class voice merits further research; that the gendered nature of parent-school links needs further refinement to take account of being a primary carer; and that hearing working-class parents' voices can increase understanding of how parent groupings occupy spaces that are relatively peripheral or proximal to the school site and to their children's experiences of schooling.     

How African American Parents Understand Their and Teachers' Roles in Children's Schooling and What this Means for Preparing Preservice Teachers

Preservice teachers are socialized by their own raced, classed, and gendered experiences to expect “caring parents” to behave and contribute in certain ways to their children's schooling. Preservice teachers who come from widely divergent backgrounds from the communities in which they serve can sometimes be skeptical of parents who are not involved in children's schooling in ways that are familiar from their own upbringing. Moreover, much of the existing scholarship on parent involvement and the transition to school takes a top-down approach that discounts the important knowledge parents bring to the table. This is a study of African American parents of young children who were preparing to transition to kindergarten or first grade that proposes an alternate conversation about what we can learn from parents when we examine their ways of framing and enacting “involvement” in their children's school lives. African American parents and caregivers (N?=?25) participated in qualitative interviews. Thematic analyses of the interviews revealed that participants constructed preparation for the transition to school broadly, as preparation for the “real world.” I will discuss the implications of the study for teaching, teacher education, and future research, so that preservice teachers and teacher educators can begin to build a greater imagination for parent involvement.     

‘The world must stop when I’m talking’: gender and power relations in primary teachers’ classroom talk

The present paper examines male and female teachers’ language practices in relation to ‘censuring’ talk in the primary classroom, in the context of the debate around boys’ ‘underachievement’ and the ‘feminisation’ of primary school culture. Through an analysis of classroom observations with 51 men and women teachers, it looks to see whether gender differences could be found in the ways individual men and women teachers communicated in terms of their ‘censuring’ comments of pupils’ work or behaviour. Secondly, the paper takes issue with the notion that teachers operate within a ‘feminised’ educational culture, by looking at the ways in which teachers’ classroom talk can be seen to be constrained by two contrasting discourses relating to the power relation between teacher and pupil: a ‘traditional’ disciplinarian discourse, and a more ‘progressive’ liberal discourse. Both discourses have complex gendered and class dimensions, challenging the conception of a ‘feminised’ primary school culture.     

The Gendered Subject: Students' subject preferences and discussions of gender and subject ability

Girls have recently caught up with boys in the sciences in terms of achievements at GCSE, and continue to out-perform boys at languages at this level. However, there remains a sharp divergence in subject choice according to gender at A level and beyond. This paper seeks to discover whether or not there has been a shift in secondary school students' constructions of gender, school subjects, and subject ability. It examines the responses of secondary school students concerning their favourite, and least favourite, subjects according to gender. It also explores their statements concerning gender and ability at school subjects, analysing the various gender narratives reflected in these. It is argued that there has sometimes been a blurring of the gender dichotomy in terms of students' favourite subjects, although their least favourite subjects were more traditionally gendered. Moreover, the majority of students claimed that the sexes have the same ability at all subjects; and of those who argued there are gender differences in ability, the majority argued that girls have greater ability at various subjects.     

‘Walking yourself around as a teacher’: gender and embodiment in student teachers’ working lives

This paper considers the psychic and social dynamics reported by student teachers when learning to embody their teacher persona in the secondary school environment. Focusing on gender dimensions of embodiment and drawing on qualitative interview data from a UK study of postgraduate teacher‐training students, teaching is examined as a physical experience. The paper conceptualises findings under two related headings: the appropriately gendered body, signified by heteronormative readings of gender and sexuality; and the gendered authoritative body, conceptualised as male. The ‘teacher body’ emerges as an important element of student teachers’ stories of trying to fit with the new professional environment and the paper concludes by arguing for a consideration of gender and body politics in the practice and training of teachers, thus challenging the assumption that professional occupations are essentially ‘disembodied’ and gender neutral.     

What makes a successful transition to school? Views of Australian parents and teachers

This paper reports a survey of 355 parents and 166 teachers of young children starting school in New South Wales, Australia. Parents and teachers were asked to rate a list of 20 items in answer to the question 'How important are the following for deciding whether a child has had a successful first two terms of school?' The results are presented in relation to individual items as well as broad categories, with comparisons between the perceptions of teachers and parents. Overall, teachers placed most emphasis on the areas of children's adjustment to the school context and their dispositions or feelings about being at school. Less emphasis was attributed to areas such as knowledge. Parents were more likely than teachers to focus on knowledge, as well as children's dispositions. Implications are drawn for collaborative interaction between parents and teachers as children start school.