Abstract
Despite formally equal educational opportunities for women and men, educational and occupational careers are still characterized by gender disparities rather than gender equality. Men are overrepresented in STEM fields and higher positions, while women are frequently working in low-status jobs in the health and social sector. These differences already emerge during school time, when girls report lower academic self-concepts in STEM subjects than boys even after achievement is controlled for while the same ist true for boys’ self-concepts in reading and languages. Gender stereotypes that are conveyed by socializing agents are assumed to play an important role in maintaining gender differences in education. Teachers are important starting points for promoting gender equality in education as their attitudes and instructional practices are known to influence students’ motivation and performance substantially. To promote girls and boys equally in coeducational settings, teachers have to reflect on their own gender stereotypes. Moreover, they require knowledge about gender differences in education and about teaching methods to foster the motivation of all students regardless of their gender. However, gender stereotypes are rarely dealt with in general teacher education and training programs that build teachers’ competences for reflective coeducation are sparse. Against this backdrop, we present the teacher training program REFLECT that was developed to foster secondary school teachers’ competences for supporting students in developing their individual potentials without being restricted by gender stereotypes. REFLECT is theoretically based on the systemic actiotope model and aims to expand teachers’ objective action repertoire (knowledge, teaching methods) as well as their subjective action space (self-efficacy beliefs, implicit theories). The results of a pilot study show the effectiveness of REFLECT. Teachers’ objective action repertoire and subjective action space for promoting boys and girls equally increased, as did students’ knowledge of gender differences and perception of diversity fairness in the classroom. Implementing the contents of REFLECT in general teacher education could contribute to sustainably achieving gender equality in education.
Highlights
Despite formally equal educational opportunities for women and men, there are still massive gender differences in students’ academic motivation and achievement that flow into gendertyped educational and occupational aspirations (Kollmayer et al, 2018a)
In a pilot study with 38 teachers who participated in REFLECT and their 564 students, the effectivity of the training program was systematically evaluated
As indicators for teachers’ current action repertoire, we assessed their knowledge of gender differences in education using multiple choice questions as well as their use of teaching methods promoting autonomy (Jerusalem et al, 2009)
Summary
Despite formally equal educational opportunities for women and men, there are still massive gender differences in students’ academic motivation and achievement that flow into gendertyped educational and occupational aspirations (Kollmayer et al, 2018a). Teachers learn to identify aspects of their teaching that can lead to the development of gender-typed academic motivation, achievement and aspirations in their students, and about ways of promoting gender equity in the classroom, for example by selecting adequate teaching materials or assigning tasks differently. The intensive phase of REFLECT is followed by a supervision phase to ensure that the teachers integrate the training contents into their daily work routines In this phase, the teachers are supervised in developing and conducting individual class projects dealing with the topic of “Gender and Occupation,” as gender differences in secondary school students often flow into gendertyped career choices (OECD, 2012). The teachers are supported in designing the class projects in line with the teaching methods they get to know in the intensive phase
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