Determination of Social Studies Teachers’ Opinions on Socıal Gender

Abstract

Social gender is a concept built with life experiences. It distinguishes men and women through their biological differences. Social gender attributes behaviors and roles in accordance with the gender identity of the society to individuals. Social studies regard each student as a unique individual. Social studies students should be sensitive to these differences in their relationships and should respect each other. This is important for respect and equality between the genders. In this context, social studies teachers have an important role in conveying concepts such as gender, equality and human rights to their students accurately and effectively. The aim of this study is to examine social studies teachers’ perceptions of social gender equality in terms of various variables. In the research, qualitative and quantitative methods were used together and mixed structure was applied. The quantitative study group of the research consists of 112 female and 92 male social studies teachers in total. Participants were determined by using criterion sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods. In the research, the qualitative study group was selected from the quantitative research group through simple random sampling. A total of 20 social studies teachers, 10 female and 10 male, working in 6 different schools were interviewed. In the study, quantitative data were collected with the “Social Gender Perception Scale” developed by Altınova and Duyan (2013). The semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher was used to obtain qualitative data. The qualitative data of the research were analyzed by content analysis method. The quantitative data obtained in the study were analyzed in IBM SPSS 15.0 program. Social studies teachers’ views on social gender equality have also been evaluated in terms of curriculum literacy. At the end of the study, it was found that social studies teachers have high social gender perceptions. In the gender variable, it was determined that the social gender perception levels of female social studies teachers were higher than male teachers. In the qualitative findings of the study, it was found that teachers treated their students equally and fairly, regardless of gender, and avoided sexist discourse. It was determined that when sexist attitudes and groups were formed in the classroom, teachers directed their students to respect and empathize with each other. In addition, it was found that the teachers mostly explained gender equality in their lessons by linking with biographies. Recommendations are made taking the findings of the study into consideration.