More gender-sensitive educators needed states Dr Kris
Dr Kris Rampersad 
The education system can benefit from gender mainstreaming and gender-sensitivity training. Gender mainstreaming in the education system can be achieved along the model used in relation to training in gender-sensitive political and policy decision-making from which emerged the current and first female Prime Minister of T&T.
Education is a core agent of socialisation and such teacher training is as important for pre-school teachers as it is for tertiary-level educators and policy makers throughout the system. Teachers must also understand the place of informal education processes in socialising children and teaching methods and approaches should accommodate this and integrate them in delivery of learning. Thirdly, teaching materials should specifically be developed to address and reflect such gender-sensitivity and gender-mainstreaming approaches as educa- tion materials themselves incorporate inbuilt stereotyping of male and female roles as well as inherent discriminatory practices.
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Schools reinforce gender roles. There is need for a holistic revision to include how education is delivered, including content, education materials and teacher approaches. Stopgap and knee-jerk responses will not work. The Caribbean, particularly T&T, is in a particularly complex situation that in fact reflects how much gender roles are reinforced by the education system.
Teachers in the large in the region are females. Many of these females seem to transmit still latent gender stereotypes to their charges, often inadvertently. The result is perpetuation of archaic gender relations and particular stereotypical expectations by males, for instance, of females while traditional female roles are reinforced by female teachers replicating stereotypes.
Correlation with violenceThis can explain high levels of domestic violence, for instance, where women remain in the large the main victims despite high levels of social and economic accomplishments. A conscious approach to gender education, included in teacher retraining, alongside developing educational materials that are more sensitive to gender roles can help begin the process of reducing replication of traditional attitudes of males to females of all ages.
There is need for a holistic revision to include how education is delivered, including content, education materials and teacher approaches. Stopgap and knee-jerk responses will not work. The Caribbean, particularly T&T, is in a particularly complex situation that in fact reflects how much gender roles are reinforced by the education system.
Teachers in the large in the region are females. Many of these females seem to transmit still latent gender stereotypes to their charges, often inadvertently. The result is perpetuation of archaic gender relations and particular stereotypical expectations by males, for instance, of females while traditional female roles are reinforced by female teachers replicating stereotypes.
Correlation with violenceThis can explain high levels of domestic violence, for instance, where women remain in the large the main victims despite high levels of social and economic accomplishments. A conscious approach to gender education, included in teacher retraining, alongside developing educational materials that are more sensitive to gender roles can help begin the process of reducing replication of traditional attitudes of males to females of all ages.
Help Us Digitise
This article is from our archives. With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to pre and post colonial history and heritage.
To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts or to develop your own legacy initiatives, make contact.
Informal and formal education
