Exploring the effect of students' gender on Algerian EFL secondary school teachers' perceptions and classroom practices : the case of secondary school teachers at Oum el-Bouaghi

Abstract EN

Gender is the product of biology, society and culture.

Therefore, it is not a mere statistical variable.

The gender of students is said to cause teachers to hold biased perceptions which would lead them to behave in accordance to their beliefs.

Thus, it is crucial that teachers should be more aware of gender biases and work to break them.

By the same token, there is little to no literature on this subject regarding the Algerian context.

This paper aims to unravel the way teachers perceive gender and whether or not their perceptions are reflected in their classrooms practices.

In pursuance of this aim, a mixed methodology was used.

First, a questionnaire was administered to 25 educators teaching at different secondary schools in Oum El Bouaghi.

Second, a classroom observation took place.

Findings revealed that most teachers perceive gender as an important social variable.

In addition to that, most teachers were unaware that they held any gender biased perceptions although the results have shown that they do.

Further, the classroom observation revealed that perceptions were reflected on classroom practices.

This calls for the importance and the need for further research on this subject.