Article
Promoting Gender Equity in and through Education
Gendered expectations have a strong impact on girls’ and boys’ educational outcomes and trajectories. Students' motivation, self-concept, and performance in various subjects are influenced by social stereotypes and gender-based expectations. As a result, curriculum and lesson design should incorporate measures to diminish, offset, and prevent their adverse effects.
Teachers' personal perceptions of their students' cognitive abilities carry significant implications for classroom dynamics, children's access to learning opportunities, and broader educational equity. When teachers hold gender-biased expectations, it results in disparate stimuli, teaching approaches, and interactions directed towards boys and girls.
This contribution to the Educational Practices Series consolidates global evidence on gender disparities in educational processes and outcomes. The discussion delves into key implications for educators, highlighting educational practices with the potential to foster gender equity. The booklet explores how teachers can combat gender bias in the classroom, summarizes evidence on gender gaps in educational achievement, and identifies practices to reduce these gaps. It also examines gender segregation and social mechanisms, emphasizing educators' role in addressing stereotypes and promoting inclusion across all fields of study. The conclusion connects these principles, highlighting their relevance in fostering gender equity in education and beyond.
The Educational Practices booklets are the result of a collaboration with the International Academy of Education and the International Bureau of Education, to inform education policymakers and practitioners on the latest research, so they can better make decisions and interventions related to curriculum development, teaching, learning, and assessment.
The series is also a result of the IBE’s efforts to establish a global partnership that recognizes the role of knowledge brokerage as a key mechanism for improving the substantive access of policymakers and diverse practitioners to cutting-edge knowledge. Increased access to relevant knowledge can also inform education practitioners, policymakers, and governments on how this knowledge can help address urgent international concerns, including but not limited to curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment, migration, conflict, employment, and equitable development.
This and other titles in the series can be found here.
