TEACHER GENDER-RELATED INTERACTION IN UNIVERSITY CONTEXT

Abstract

Gender equity has always been a broadly discussed issue. The number of studies and publications nowadays shows that this issue will prevail for a long period of time. There are controversies on gender equity in the Albanian society as well. The perception that males do better than females in many fields, persists even in our academic environments. Sometimes teachers unconsciously encourage male domination in the classroom by giving them more attention than females. This research explores teacher-student and student-student interaction, focusing on gender and teacher communication style regarding it. The analysis is based on data collected from the observation of the classroom interaction in two university classes, slightly dominated by males. They are monitored over a period of 15 weeks. The aim is to show how the language used in interactions contributes to gender inequity. It is also observed whether the teachers are aware of their interaction regarding gender bias. The results indicate conclusions fairly different from what theory suggests. Although teachers are educated to promote gender equity they rarely do it. Key words: biased language, classroom interaction, gender equity, teacher’s role.