Improving Pedagogical Practices through Gender Inclusion: Examples from University Programmes for Teachers in Preschools and Extended Education

Overview & Synopsis

Working with gender equality in teacher education embraces a wide range of policies and practices. Against the backdrop of relevant research on gender in preschools, universities and teacher education, the study provides an outlook of the praxis on selected Swedish university programmes for preschool teacher education and teachers in extended education. The study is inspired by educational ethnography and applies quantitative and qualitative text analyses of programme and course documents. The article describes how gender perspectives can be systematically incorporated into university teaching through curriculum design and constructive aligned teaching. The author discusses whether the described pedagogical practices and gender inclusion in higher education have the potential to promote (preschool) teacher students' systematic acquisition of values, knowledge and skills as a precondition for improving sustainable pedagogical practices. The article also touches on the relevance of the results for the field of extended education and academic training for pedagogues and teachers who work in non-formal educational settings.