This study explores the existence of gender discriminatory policies and practices facing staff and students in a Nigerian College of Education. The underlying concern is that teachers trained in a gender-discriminatory context could acquire and transmit such values to their pupils, perpetuating gender inequality in society. While keeping the federal context in mind, the study focuses on one teacher training college, with its own particular geographical and cultural locus, to gauge the extent to which it produces and reproduces gender discrimination through its policies and practices. Against the backdrop of feminist theories of gender inequity, the study seeks to enhance our understandings of the institutionalised formal and informal teacher education context, which in particular undermines females' effective participation in the education process and perpetuates discrimination. Radical feminism underpins this study, although liberal and poststructural feminist perspectives are also taken into consideration. The case study's principal data source was semi-structured interviews with the College's students, staff and Management. Other data were gathered through focus group discussions, students' essays, analysis of documents, researcher observations and field notes. The study finds that the gendered culture of the College explicitly and implicitly favours males. While male applicants are favoured in student recruitment and course allocation processes, male teaching and non-teaching staff find favour in employment, promotion, professional growth and Management opportunities. Further, gender-based violence is 'normalised' in the College, with complaints often dismissed as rumours. Given the underlying patriarchal context of their formulation and implementation, current federal and College policies are inadequate to address the gender inequities affecting students and staff. Policies are often ignored or manipulated to serve idiosyncratic and egocentric ends. The study recommends the development of a comprehensive national policy specifically addressing gender discrimination in teacher education alongside the immediate abrogation of existing discriminatory policies. There is also the need for immediate measures to be put in place to address the prevalence of gender violence, some of it of a criminal nature in the College studied. Furthermore, gender and human rights issues should be integrated into the formal teacher education curricula and institutional structures established to monitor the implementation of these changes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:605162 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Bakari, Salihu Girei |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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