Raising awareness about gender and language among teacher-training students: A cross-cultural approach

Abstract

In accordance with the Education 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals, the aim of this study is to contribute to gender-sensitive teacher training and learning environments using matched guise-inspired methods. The article offers an account of activities aimed at raising awareness of issues related to linguistic gender stereotyping among teacher trainees in Sweden and the Seychelles. The cross-cultural comparative approach also provided an opportunity to raise students’ awareness of how gender stereotyping is culture-related, and therefore may differ depending on cultural context. Results show that there seems to be significant differences in how Swedish and Seychellois teacher trainees stereotype men and women. While both groups seem to associate typically feminine linguistic behaviour with features accommodated under Cuddy et al.’s (2008, “Warmth and competence as universal dimensions of social perception: The stereotype content model and the BIAS map.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 40, 61–149) “warmth dimension” (signalling interest, for example), behaviours typically associated with agentic behaviour and the competence dimension, such as taking space in a conversation and forcefully arguing one’s case, seem to be regarded as relatively masculine in Sweden, but not in the Seychelles, arguably a result of a generally negative construction of masculinity in the Seychelles. Based on the responses from a post-survey, it is evident that a majority of those who participated in the exercise gained new insights into the mechanisms of gender stereotyping, knowledge that they also could relate to themselves and their own behaviour.