Gender Responsive Pedagogy Practices: Secondary School Science Teachers in Ethiopia

This paper examines the current status of secondary school science teachers' gender-responsive pedagogy (GRP) practices. Women's participation in secondary school teaching is a major concern in many regions of the world. The use of instructional strategies that promote gender inclusion and sensitivity in initial teacher training is very important in the development of teachers. In this paper, the use of gender-responsive pedagogy in Ethiopia's secondary school program is highlighted. Using data from baseline, midterm, and end-line surveys, the paper addresses how tutors and mentors use gender-responsive pedagogy and the changes that have occurred as a result. The study adopted a qualitative approach using lesson observations and interviews to capture data from ten novice teachers and twenty mentors sampled from six secondary schools. The findings presented in this paper reveal that there has been significant improvement in the use of gender-responsive pedagogy by tutors within the core subjects (English, Mathematics, and Science). Both male and female tutors demonstrated increasing use of gender-responsive pedagogy in their teaching. A similar increase has been found in the use of gender-responsive mentoring strategies by mentors. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of the findings for policy in the use of gender-sensitive pedagogy in Ethiopia's secondary school program. It also assesses the GRP practicing status of the teachers according to their gender and level of teaching experience. The required data were gathered from teachers, department heads, school principals, and students via interview and focus group discussion (FGD). The qualitative data were organized thematically by taking into account the issues raised in the research questions. By so doing, the findings revealed that science teachers were competent in their classroom organization and interaction and in tackling sexual harassment. On the contrary, they were ineffective in creating gender-sensitive lesson plans and teaching materials, and they also were weak in treating the subject of sexual maturation. The study also found that the teacher's gender and their level of teaching experience did not affect their GRP practices. Keywords: Gender, Science Teaching, Gender-Responsive Pedagogy, Qualitative research, Ethiopian Education
Introduction According to E.D. Ananga (2021), there is a significant body of evidence demonstrating that addressing inequalities in girls' education is an effective strategy for breaking the cycle of intergenerational [...]