Gender Responsiveness of the pre-service primary school teachers' training program: the case of four teacher-training colleges in Malawi

Abstract

Malawi is a country plagued by high levels of gender inequality in its education system (National Planning Commission (NPC), 2020). This affects the attainment of education outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the gender responsiveness of the Pre-service Primary School Teacher-Training Programme in four Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) in Malawi. To achieve that, the study sought to establish an understanding of the concept of gender among students, teacher educators (including principals, heads of departments and lecturers), and library assistants, and the nature of gender responsiveness in the pre-service primary school teachertraining programme. It further explored implementation challenges and ways of improving gender responsiveness in the training of the pre-service teachers. This research used a qualitative case study design. The case was the initial primary teacher education (IPTE) program implemented in TTCs. The study purposefully selected 4 TTCs and 35 participants and collected data through interviews, focus group discussions, lesson observation and document analysis. The generated data was analysed using thematic analysis. Using the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Gender Responsiveness Model as a lens, the results showed that the initial primary teacher education (IPTE) program in the sampled TTCs in Malawi was partially genderresponsive. The study found that physical infrastructure and management systems were genderresponsive while classroom pedagogies were not. Indeed, the sampled teacher educators’ failure to use gender-responsive pedagogies in their lessons is systematically reproducing gender inequality in teacher education. Therefore, the study recommends that teacher educators need to adopt and incorporate gender responsive pedagogies in the teaching and learning process to create a gender responsive primary teacher-training program