Identifying a Gender‐inclusive Pedagogy from Maltese Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge

Abstract

Teachers bring with them into the science classrooms their own gendered identitities and their views and perceptions about how boys and girls learn and achieve in science. This paper tries to explore the way in which 14 Maltese science teachers use their own ‘personal practical knowledge’ to identify their views about gender and science and to create their own individual gender‐inclusive pedagogy. The study suggests that the science teachers focus more on the individuality of students and on the social and cultural background of the students in their classrooms rather than on gender. The teachers try to develop pedagogies and assessment practices that take into consideration the personal constructs of individual learners. The ideas for such a gender‐inclusive pedagogy emerge from their common‐sense experience in the classroom and their training as teachers, and are closely interrelated to current ideas of social constructivism.