Teacher gender preferences of all-boys, all-girls, and mixed-sex school students in Addis Ababa

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the teacher gender preferences of students in all-boys and all-girls schools in Addis Ababa. It also assessed preferences along school types (single-sex and mixed-sex) and gender (boys and girls) lines. Quantitative data was collected from a total of 751 randomly selected students (312 all-girls school, 250 all-boys school, and 189 mixed-gender school students). Documents were reviewed and informal discussions were held. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequency counts and percentage distributions. Some quantitative analyses were also supported by qualitative descriptions. The findings revealed that all-boys and all-girls schools students did not have teacher gender preferences, except for mathematics and physical science subjects – fields that are stereotyped as masculine territories. Preferences were not school type or gender dependent. The ‘like is good for like’ teacher recruitment approach was rejected.

Keywords: single-sex, mixed-sex, gender, teaching, preference