Curriculum and gender in teacher training colleges in Swaziland : challenges for a gender-sensitive pedagogy

Abstract

This study reports on the extent to which colleges of education in Swaziland prepare student teachers to be gender-sensitive in their practice as teachers. It focused on two colleges, the Manzini Nazarene Primary College as the first teacher training college in the country ( opened in 1936), and William Pitcher Secondary College as the main college training secondary school teachers. The sample population included seventy-eight student teachers, twenty-eight lecturers, two college principals and the Chief Inspector of Colleges. The problem areas of the study included, a) the extent to which gender issues were included in the first curriculum of colleges of education, b) the extent to which gender issues are included in the current curricula of colleges of education, c) the gender-related challenges facing those implementing the curriculum, and d) factors perceived to be associated with effective implementation of a gender-sensitive curriculum in colleges of education. The topic was studied both from the historical and the contemporary perspectives. The historical analysis focused on the first years of establishment of teacher education in Swaziland. The perspective in this analysis was structural. Gendering in contemporary teacher education, both primary and secondary was approached from the curricula and agency perspectives. This included analysis of student teachers' encounters with sex-related issues and an analysis of their choice of teaching subjects. It also included the implementers of the curriculum investigating challenges they face and their perceptions of factors associated with effective implementation of a gender-sensitive curriculum in colleges of education. Special tools used to analyse gendering in the two perspectives were the culturally produced differences and their symbolic meanings and asymmetrical valuation. The findings revealed that gender biases were highly visible in the first teacher education curriculum. These are still visible in the current colleges' curricula though the wording may have changed over time. Some of them include: female students orienting themselves to teaching young children in lower school levels, while male students orient to teaching older students in the higher levels of schooling; identifiable gender bias in

college textbooks; teaching approaches used by lecturers enhance gender biases and different career development objectives for students; factors such as the need for gender-related initiatives to address gender issues, and the need to address gender hierarchies in colleges. Envisaged constraints to implementing a gender-sensitive curriculum included: lack of resources; and uncoordinated efforts by lecturers to address gender issues through the curriculum. Recommendations then included that: teachers and teacher educators should examine their syllabuses with the view of incorporating a gender dimension and the Ministry of Education should consider continuity in funding workshops, or programmes designed to make students and teacher educators to be gender sensitive in the area of instructional materials, teaching approaches and classroom management.