The Effects of Gender on the Teachers’ Competences and Effectiveness

• Main Author: Edina Kovács
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) 2019-06-01
• Series: BCES Conference Books
• Subjects: teacher training; gender; competences; continuous professional development
• Online Access: http://bces-conference-books.org/onewebmedia/2019.210-215.Edina.Kovacs.pdf
• ISSN: 1314-4693; 2534-8426

This research examines how gender roles are affecting teachers’ professional development (TPD) in Hungary. Are there significant differences in the career path between male and female teachers? What kind of degrees do they have? How they have chosen their in-service training? Is the longer and – according to the literature – more effective training more popular? Many researchers examined what makes TPD effective. The TALIS 2013 (OECD, 2013) listed the features of high-quality TPD, which are: content focus; collective participation; active learning; duration (longer term TPD programs are more effective) and coherence. There are only a few Anglo-Saxon researchers, who examined the gender specificities of the teaching profession, even though the teacher's role is definitely related to gender roles. The probability that one chooses the teaching career and later leaves or stays are not independent from the teacher’s feminine image and the status of the teaching profession. The results show that the use of diverse teaching methods, following teaching novelties and participation in high-standard further education are more important for women. At the same time, for male teachers the transfer of knowledge and scientific career are more important. We see one of the traditional masculine-feminine dichotomies: knowledge or personality centeredness. This means that academic knowledge, the development of theoretical knowledge appear much more emphatically with men; and the intention of getting to know the personal problems of students or the pursuit of equal opportunities with women.