Evaluating the demand for entering the pre-school teaching profession in the context of the perception of gender roles

Abstract

This paper presents a descriptive study of the demand of student teachers to enter the profession of pre-school teaching in the context of perceptions of gender roles. A convenience sample was used, and the data was analyzed using a qualitative research design. The sample consisted of 30 students in the first and fourth year of their university program. 13 were females and 17 were male. All were studying in the Division of Pre- School Teaching of the Primary Education Department in the Education Faculty of Kastamonu University. The research data were obtained using semi-structured interviews. It was found that individual and institutional factors were effective in motivating female students to become pre-school teachers, but environmental and economic factors motivated male students. The views of the families of the students were important, as most students reported that their families saw pre-school teaching as a profession suited to females, which matched the domestic role of women as viewed in a patriarchal society. These views had a negative effect on male students, but not on female students. Almost all the students in the study intend to practice their profession after graduation. Nearly all the female students and most of the male students want to work in the public sector. While the females who wish to work in the public sector want to work as teachers, the males aspire to leave the classroom after gaining some experience to become a school administrator or supervisor. The males who do not choose to work in state schools want to work in the private sector, either on graduation or after gaining some experience, and then to establish their own private school. © EuroJournals, Inc. 2012.