Teachers' gender-related beliefs and pedagogical practices: Experiences in single-sex classrooms

Abstract

The present research shows the results of a qualitative interpretative study that inquired about the way teachers’ gender-related beliefs shaped their pedagogical practices in single-sex EFL classrooms in a private coeducational school in Bogotá, Colombia. As emergent categories, the study showed that teachers’ practices did not change because of the gender of their students; however, classroom management was mediated by gender and it was necessary to adopt a discipline system specific for boys demonstrating behaviors from the laddish culture. Furthermore, neither classroom environment nor students’ engagement was mediated by gender. Nevertheless, teachers' beliefs showed binary conceptions of their students from a gender perspective, as they conceived them as academically opposites and such conceptions were related to teachers’ historical legacies and culturally held beliefs.