Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming is of great importance for future teachers’ training because of its capacity to address diversity and achieve substantial gender equality. Researchers have shown that the first gender abuses and inequalities happen at school places but teachers lack the right knowledge to detect and treat gender issues. In spite of the country’s regulatory framework and adaptation to international agreements and conventions, there is still the hypothesis that training programs for future teachers in Greece do not prepare them correctly and sufficiently to tackle with gender issues. Consequently there is the impression that gender issues are not considered a priority in teacher education. The purpose of this study is to compare the teacher education curricula of the nine Pedagogical Departments in Greece in order to explore the mainstreaming of gender into these programs and evaluate the future teachers’ capacity to address gender issues. The methodology documents an analysis of the curricula of the education teacher degrees of the nine Pedagogical Departments. We explore a discrepancy in the curricula in each department and a low level of student competence to deal with gender issues. We conclude that gender courses should be a compulsory part of academic plans and curricula as the society calls for it.