Exploring Gender Constructs: Colombian and Mexican Biology Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

AbstractThe traditional relationship that has been constructed between gender and biological sex has been characterised by a mimetic perception between the two concepts, in which gender seems to reflect sex, or at least to be limited by it. This issue has given rise to reflections, questions and criticisms that try to identify how it is expressed in different social contexts, such as schools. In this sense, this research explores the views of secondary school biology teachers on the concepts of sex and gender. To this end, an exploratory qualitative study was carried out. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Colombian and Mexican teachers and interpreted using discourse analysis. It is concluded that there is a weak differentiation between the concepts of sex and gender, a perception of neutrality of school biology with regard to identity construction, and a deterministic perspective of biology with regard to gender.