A Course on Gender Equity in Education: Does It Affect Gender Role Attitudes of Preservice Teachers?

Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 25, Issue 3, April 2009, Pages 409-414

The purpose of this study is to explore if a semester-long course on gender equity in education has an impact on the attitudes of preservice teachers toward gender roles. To this end, a pretest–posttest analysis is carried out in a state university in Ankara, Turkey. 133 preservice teachers participated in the study; 33 of whom had taken the course and 100 of whom had not. The results reveal that the course has a substantial impact on the attitudes of the preservice teachers. Indeed, the attitudes of the teacher candidates taking the course change considerably at the end of the semester. They develop more favorable attitudes toward gender issues.