4.5. Views and beliefs about gender equity and science education
4.5.2. Males dominate in science education: sciences are a ‘male thing’
When asked whether there was male domination and gender imbalance in science education, participant’s responses revealed that males dominated in science education. Five teachers indicated that there was male domination and gender imbalances in science education. However, Nomusa said she was not sure about the current situation, but acknowledged that in the past there were gender imbalances and male domination in science education. Nomusa responded, “I’m not sure about the current situation and statistics but I can say previously there were many male teachers.”
Nhlanhla stated, “I think there is male domination in terms of equality numbers, numbers of proportions. There are more males in our country doing sciences in schools, tertiary level, and teacher level. We have more scientists, more mathematicians who are males than females that is my observation. As professionals, the people who facilitate and actual responsible to move sciences like teachers and lectures again we see the sciences being dominating by males as lecturers. In terms of performance again I find that males are performing better”. Smanga agreed,
“there is gender imbalance because more males are offering sciences over females even at tertiary level, in classes you find that there are more males and mostly males are excelling in maths and science other than females. Females from my own experience and belief they are excelling in languages. That is why most females are journalists.” Lattifa and Muzi shared the same view, Muzi said “there is gender imbalance in science education. I think that there are few female
118
science teachers as compared to male teachers. In high schools, I think that there are few male learners as compared to female learners. Whenever we have science meetings or workshops we find that there few females. Even in marking centres, there are more male teachers as compared to female teachers”. Lattifa indicated, “in classes, there are more girls now. This is because in primary schools there are more girls in schools. But after matric most girls don’t get good marks which allow them getting places in tertiary institutions so we end up having lesser females in science education in higher education institutions.”
From the findings, the participants highlighted that there are more female leaners in high schools.
However, there are fewer female science teachers. This finding is supported by statistics on education. The South African Department of Basic Education (2013) reported that in 2013, of 241 509 learners, 132 784 girls and 108 725 boys wrote Mathematics. Furthermore, 184 383 learners, 97 995 girls and 86 388 boys wrote Physical Sciences. From the interviews, the participants indicated that most female learners after matric do not pursue science related careers. As a result, there are very few teachers who enrol for science teaching. Another reason they cited is that tertiary institutions set high standards that hinder females from being admitted to study sciences.
Universities require high marks for Mathematics and Physical Science. Participants indicated from the findings that females get poor results because of poor learning experiences in schools and that they are also stereotyped. These findings highlight that there is gender inequity in science education. These findings resonate what Julia Gillard (Chair of the Global Partnership for Education) reported in the fourth global Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen. She said that
“the under-education of girls is one of the most pressing social issues of our time. When we educate our girls, we reduced child deaths, healthier children and mothers, fewer child marriages and faster economic growth. Yet, 63 million girls are not in school” (cited by Adichie, The Witness, 18 May 2016, p.7).
David concluded, “gender imbalance is about the demographics/numbers, and I think as far as this is concerned, there is still a low number representation of the women in the teaching of sciences. You have more teachers teaching languages and other humanities and more men teaching Mathematics and other science subjects. This I think is due to the long held believe that sciences are a “male thing.” This phenomenon is also reflected among the students, where most girls seem to shy away from sciences because of the negative bias towards sciences and also lack
119
of motivation”. Moreover, these findings indicate that females are underrepresented in science education. This finding is in line with Chikunda (2010, p. 111) that “in teaching-learning milieu, men comprise the majority of those who study, teach and practice science”. Muzi added,
“universities have led the way in supporting and so there is reasonable sympathy for women at this level of institutions. There is still male dominance, but the greatest amount of support for women is led by universities. A few have had female vice-chancellors and deans of faculties. Of course, more so in humanities and other non-maths, science and Engineering faculties”.
Lattifa elaborated, “my personal view of gender equity issues in post school science is that female is underrepresented in male dominated careers like Engineering. Females are not treated fairly as their male counterparts. You still find more male lecturers in sciences even if females are in senior positions males still do not have trust in them. Even the nature of the curriculum delivered is still not friendly to females”. David acknowledged, “there are some programmes that are geared toward encouraging young girls to enter science. But more needs to be done”.
The majority of teachers believed that gender imbalance is about the numbers. They thought that there were still fewer female science teachers compared to male science teachers. When asked about whether there was male domination in science education, all the participants mentioned that there was male domination in science education. Nhlanhla, Nomusa, and Smanga agreed with each other “yes there is male domination even in cluster level during teaching and learning males are dominating”.
Lattifa and Muzi were of the same view, “yes there is male domination in science education. They control in science related careers like Engineering, etc. they outnumber and outperform females in these careers. Women still do not occupy higher positions in sciences. Even the females who succeeded and done well in sciences their stories remain untold. It is only about males”. David concluded, “male domination is a reality and will remain so forever until we address the male chauvinism from our own cultural and religious settings so that we can face patriarchy. The language of science is male dominated (biology uses the word man i.e. in food chain/food web), the theories and paradigms that students use are male”. All the participants believed that there is male domination in science education. These result corresponds with what American Association of University Women [AAUW] (as cited in Baird, 1997) called boys ‘domination’. Males tend to dominate the apparatus, teacher’s attention, and educational resources. Teachers indicated that this
120
male domination results in scaring females away from sciences and making sciences classrooms an alien place for females. These findings resonate with radical feminism as discussed in the conceptual framework by Sikes and Measor (1992) that boys dominate in classrooms. The boys’
interests dominate the curriculum while the interests of the girls are not considered. The findings highlight that teachers concentrate on boys and this lowers the self-esteem and confidence of girls.
The reviewed literature shows that although the democratic South African government has made great strides in attaining gender equality in most spheres of life, there is still gender inequality in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) with respect to successful participation in education and training and professional careers. The literature shows that at school levels in South Africa, there has been a continuous increase in the enrolment of girls in Mathematics and Physical Science to the extent that there have been more girls studying high school Mathematics and Physical Science. However, more boys have passed these subjects than girls, which raises questions about gender equality. At South African institutions, the STEM fields have been and are still dominated by males with regard to both enrolment and success.
4.5.3. Everyone has the right to equal opportunities: the artificial/social/traditional