Teacher educators’ perspectives on gender responsive pedagogy in higher education

ABSTRACT

The enactment of gender responsive pedagogical approaches has the potential to support learning for all students and foster gender equality within and beyond education systems. This study investigated teacher educators’ perceptions of gender responsive pedagogy in higher education in Palestine. Mixed methods were used to explore the components of capability, opportunity and motivation that influence teacher educators’ behaviour when incorporating gender responsive pedagogy in their teaching practices. Thirty-six participants completed an online survey and subsequently 17 of these took part in a semi-structured interview that used the COM-B model as a framework to explore the educators’ perceptions. Our findings suggest that teacher educators do not have sufficient knowledge and skills to incorporate gender responsive pedagogy into their teaching practices due to misunderstandings regarding the approach and the misconception between gender equality and gender responsive pedagogy. This led to lower motivation to include gender responsive practices, but increased their desire to engage in future learning and professional development on gender responsive pedagogy. In addition, the results revealed that social and cultural backgrounds of the teacher educators in addition to the understanding of the surrounding social cues and cultural norms are crucial in embedding gender responsive pedagogy into teaching practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender responsive pedagogy
• teacher educators’ perspectives
• teacher education
• COM-B model
• Palestine

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank the Dean and staff at the faculties of Education at the four participating universities for supporting our research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the COALESCE Research Fund – Collaborative Alliances for Societal Challenges – co-funded by the Irish Research Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland [grant number COALESCE/2020/14].

Notes on contributors

Nibal Khalil

Nibal Khalil, Assistant professor of Anthropology, received her PhD from Charles University in Prague in Social and Cultural Anthropology in 2009, where she previously and subsequently worked at the faculty of Philosophy at Charles University. Nibal worked as a consultant for Gender issues, women empowerment, and youth in different institutions. Nibal joined Al-Quds University – Palestine in the year 2014 where she entitled as the Dean of Scientific Research at Al-Quds University and professor at the Department of Sociology at the same University. Nibal worked as an advisor for the Higher Council of youth and Sport in Palestine. Meantime, She is a post doctor at Birzeit University in Palestine.

Ahmad Aljanazrah

Ahmad Aljanazrah, is currently the Assistant VP Academic at Birzeit University. He has been the dean of faculty of education from 2017 until 2021 and a faculty member at since 2006. He got his Ph.D. degree at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in the field of Chemistry Education in 2005 and spent a one-year of Postdoc research at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany in 2013. During his work at Birzeit University, Ahmad Aljanazrah, worked as a director of Ibn Rushd Unit for Educational Development at Birzeit University and Program Officer in the UNESCO Office in Ramallah-Palestine. Aljanazrah research interests lie in the area of using Information and Communication Technologies in Science and Higher Education, more specifically digital habits of faculty members and students, flipped classroom, assessment and evaluation, and the applications of web 2.0 technologies in education as well as gender-responsive and play-based pedagogies.

Ghadeer Hamed

Ghadeer Hamed, a Research Assistant in Faculty of Education at Birzeit University, Palestine. She holds a Masters’ degree in Science Education and BA in Physics minor Computer Science from Birzeit University. A senior instructional designer for eLearning in Higher Education. Experienced with all stages of designing online courses, digital content, mLearning, and virtual reality. A trainer of eLearning and instructional design for instructors and students. A team leader for e-learning development projects. Her research focuses on exploring the new trends in educational technology and pedagogy. She is currently a Middle East Professional Learning Initiative fellow (MEPLI 2022) at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is currently working to develop her research education in digital learning and new trends in education.

Elaine M. Murtagh

Elaine M. Murtagh, a Senior Lecturer in Physical Education in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences. Elaine was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Physical Education) and a PhD from Ulster University. She also holds a Specialist Diploma in Teaching, Learning & Scholarship from the University of Limerick. Elaine joined UL in March 2020. Prior to this appointment she was a lecturer in Physical Education at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick from 2008. Elaine also held the post of Athena SWAN Project Director at MIC and led the College’s successful application for a Bronze Institutional award. Elaine is currently Co-Chair of the World Health Organisation’s HEPA Europe (European network for the promotion of Health-Enhancing Physical Activity) working group on children and young people. From 2014-2017 Elaine served as Co-Director of PEPAYS Ireland, a national research centre examining issues relating to Physical Education, Physical Activity and Youth Sport across the lifespan.