Teachers’ gender responsiveness and inclusiveness in teaching in selected secondary schools in Morogoro municipality, Tanzania

This study investigated the patterns of gender interactions in the classroom context and how these affect boys’ and girls’ education. Specifically, the study investigated teachers’ understanding of the meaning of gender and related concepts and examined teachers’ gender responsiveness and inclusiveness with respect to: lesson planning and preparation, teaching and learning materials, language use in the classrooms and classroom interaction. The study is based on the observation of classroom interactions of randomly selected secondary school classes in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. The study employed qualitative approach. Documentary review, focused group discussion and observation methods were used to collect data involving 252 participants. Throughout the observation which lasted for two weeks, the modified form of Brophy-Good Dyadic Interaction System was adopted to record the classroom interactions among teachers and students of both genders. The results reveal several attributes to the representation of gender in the teaching and learning process. Firstly, teachers’ conception of gender is limited to biological aspects of being male or female, and only few teachers are able to take into account the social and cultural aspects characterizing gender. Secondly, teachers are generally neither responsive nor inclusive in their teaching approach, with a tendency to unconsciously promote the female gender at the expense of male gender. Thirdly, the male gender generally, features more prominently in the textbooks and other learning materials than does the female gender. Nevertheless, the use of masculinity and feminist language in the teaching process among teachers is less pronounced than would be expected. Further, all assessed lesson plans do not show gender equality in all lesson steps. On the basis of the results of this study, it has been concluded that, despite the many years of combined efforts to promote gender responsiveness, sensitiveness and inclusiveness, the journey to achieve gender equality is still long. There is, therefore, a need to continue with efforts to promote gender equality in the teaching and learning process through awareness campaigns.