Gender Issues in English Language Teacher Education: Cinderella's Awakening through Comparative Literature

Abstract

The socio-dynamics of the 21st century classroom reveals the importance of gender sensitivity as a living mechanism which constructs both intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. This study explores how reading and discussing comparative children’s literature could impact pre-service English teachers’ understanding of gender issues at a university in the west of Turkey. Adopting a qualitative case study design, the present study involved 25 senior pre-service teachers who were taking the literature course in the 2018-2019 academic year, fall term. Data was collected through written reports and semi-structured interviews. We analyzed the data inductively with codes and themes developing out of a recursive process of data collection and analysis. The findings display that a comparative analysis of fairy tales is an effective means through which the pre-service teachers develop gender sensitivity and become critically literate as a teacher. Besides, the comparative analysis helps the female participants improve self-sufficiency as a woman. Implications are also included for language teacher education programs.