“Nature Took Its Course”? Student Teachers & Gender Awareness

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the importance of helping student teachers to become consciously aware of the educational experiences of girls and boys and of any gender stereotypes they may hold as a result of their biographies. Such an awareness is essential if, when they become teachers, they are to be in a position to recognise and work to combat the differentiation, discrimination and bias which are characteristic of schools. Empirical data, drawn from a biographical approach, is used to demonstrate why gender and sexual politics must be explicitly addressed in initial teacher education and why, with reference to gender and the wider social context, intending teachers should be provided ‘with the requisite analytical skills and conceptual tools to critically reflect and inquire about their own and the broader experiences of home and society’ (Ginsberg, 1988, p. 211). The paper also considers the need to examine initial teacher education courses to ensure that they do not reinforce sex role stereotyping.

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