Teachers were asked about the new curriculum “CAPS”, and what they thought of this curriculum in terms of gender in science education. They were asked if they thought the curriculum recognises that gender equity in science as important. The results showed that there is nothing specific in the CAPS curriculum in terms of gender. In other words, teachers indicated that it does not recognise gender equity as important in science education. Nhlanhla stated, “I don’t find anything specific in CAPS in terms of addressing gender equity, because the content of the CAPS curriculum is also dominated by masculine examples and scenarios. Therefore, I don’t think there is anything that really changes the equation there. So, I don’t think it has an effect on gender equity but I think it has an effect in terms of content on the advancement on the teaching process the approaches they use but not necessary on gender equity I don’t think it an effect there”.
Lattifa remarked, “the curriculum does not say anything about gender equity in science education.
The government say that there are gender policies in place that address gender equity in schools
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and in science education. However, I have never seen such policy. I don’t think that the curriculum recognises gender equity as important in science education. The curriculum is still unfriendly to females and favours males. The examples in textbooks are still gender bias. They display males as scientist. Even the laws that we teach about in science and maths were discovered by male scientists. E.g. Newton and others. They have not included female scientists yet in high school Physical Sciences. There is nothing in the curriculum, which is specific on gender. I feel bad about this because the government is saying as teachers we must encourage and bring more females in science, yet the department of education is doing nothing about teachers in terms of training them on gender issues”.
Smanga was of the same sentiment, “the curriculum is not friendly to females. The way it is designed, for example if you look at sciences there is nothing there that accommodates females. If you look at the topics, there are so difficult in a way that the curriculum was designed for males.
We do electricity, mechanics; all these topics are more male friendly.” Even Muzi agreed that “the way that the science curriculum is designed, is not friendly to girls. It talks about things that are beyond their reach. This makes it too difficult for them. The examples that are used in textbooks show males most of the time. I had mentioned earlier, no female scientists that are in their textbooks. This makes them think that science is not theirs. It is always about complicated things.
Even the practicals that are done are hazardous which scare girls because they are not brave enough to handle dangerous things.” David shared the same sentiment, “the curriculum is friendly to males. If you are teaching boys about motors and generators, you will find that they already have knowledge of these devices. This is because they are introduced to them at a very young age.
The girls find themselves being lost in the curriculum. Therefore, I would say the curriculum does not recognise gender equity as important. Further, the curriculum does not address any issues of gender equity in the sciences. I feel bad about this whole thing because the South African government is implementing gender equity policies, but there is nothing included in the curriculum that address gender issues”.
The participants indicated that the way the curriculum is presented in Physical Sciences even in Biological Sciences and Mathematics, in the examples and textbooks and see people carrying out an experiment or viewing something under the microscope, you always see males. Nhlanhla said,
“I always think it makes females think that they are lost in the discipline of sciences. So I think
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that the curriculum must show the equity in the way that is presented, the text, pictorial, examples even the people presenting at the higher level training, facilitator level, teachers, lecturers, they should try even using examples that can bring gender equity and equality so that there will be more number of females and female teachers or there should be equal numbers of female and male teachers so that when the learners come to class for training they will always think that if we are going to science we are going to see a he, almost in everywhere in all schools that will reduce their confidence level and think that they are lost. And remember also that usual the male voice is sometimes sound harsh if we always going to a science class biology physics chemistry and the girls will always meet a harsh voice a horsy voice it always brings some discouragement in females. I think we should work on bringing equality in facilitator level of teachers”. This finding agrees with Gaine and George (1999) that the curriculum can isolate learners if the content is not being relevant and related particularly to learners’ lives. These results are also in line with Moletsane and Reddy (2011) that the science curriculum tends to be girl unfriendly, for example the activities and drawings in textbooks are male orientated.
The teachers also indicated that the science curriculum is not presented in a manner that facilitates learning of science by girls. They said that the girls found it hard to relate the science curriculum with their real life contexts, which made it hard for them to understand science. The curriculum is predominantly taught by males, which tends to suggest that there is a small chance for females to succeed in science. These results are in keeping with Gaine and George (1999) that gender stereotyping through books and teaching materials utilised by teachers contribute to the images of which male and female learners have of themselves. It is clear from these findings that even the content and the material that is contained in school textbooks is sex stereotyped.
When teachers were also asked about whether gender was ever a focus in professional development activities organised by the DoE, teachers stated that it was not a focus. Most workshops focus only on the content and not on gender issues. Initiatives are interventions or programmes that aim at developing teachers and expanding their knowledge, values, and skills (Ndemuweda, 2011). These programmes are organised and planned by outside education specialists. The results of the study are in line with the assumption by Holsinger and Jacob (2009) that gender is not a priority in education policies. They stated that many policies are based on learner enrolment in schools.
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