A Micro Survey of Gender Awareness Among Some Nigerian Primary School Teachers

Abstract

The reading materials used in Nigerian primary schools often contain gender issues which could be of immense value to teachers in the development of thinking skills among their pupils. But the effective use of such texts to promote gender awareness issues among their pupils will depend on the teacher’s own awareness of the opportunities which texts of this nature could provide, and on the teacher’s knowledge/experience of critical literacy concepts and practice. Using selected materials from prescribed primary school texts to elicit responses, we conducted a micro survey involving twenty-six teachers from randomly selected government primary schools in Calabar. The survey was aimed at determining the teachers’ level of awareness of gender issues in the texts, and the ways in which that awareness could be translated by them into relevant literacy learning activities for the development of critical literacy skills among pupils. The teachers’ responses betrayed an unquestioning, uncritical acceptance of the status quo: gender stereotyping in all the texts.