Social studies teachers' gender perceptions

Human beings are always open to social and cultural interaction. As a result of these interactions, society has its signature in many aspects such as the person's ideas, actions, way of thinking, and clothing. One of these points is gender, and a social construction shows its presence here as in every field. Gender, which refers to the biological and physiological structure, has become a social feature with the expressions imposed by the society and has been referring to the cultural structure. The society produces stereotypes about certain duties, roles and attitudes imposed on women and men under the influence of cultural norms. These stereotypes are called gender discourse. According to these discourses, positive stereotypes made to "one" (male or female) make the "other" (male or female) a negative and disadvantaged group. A social self-awareness should be provided in order to prevent any gender-based inequality and the distinction of being more advantageous or disadvantageous than the other. In achieving this, the gender perceptions of educational institutions, which are the most appropriate place and time where the individual is open to development and change, and the educators working there are of great importance. For this reason, in this study, social studies teachers, who are the transmitters of equality acquisition within the educational institution, which is one of the important institutions that affect the gender perception of individuals, are discussed. The aim of the study is how social studies teachers' perceptions of gender are. The universe of the research was composed of social studies teachers who worked in all secondary schools, including public and private, within the province of Balıkesir between February and June 2019. The sample of the study, on the other hand, consists of 144 social studies teachers who were determined with the appropriate sampling method. 160 teachers selected from the universe were included in the sample, but the study was completed with 144 social studies teachers. The data of the study were collected using the "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher and the "Gender Perception Scale" developed by Altınova and Duyan (2013). The data analysis of the research was made using the statistics program. Statistical techniques such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, t-test, crosstab, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the analysis of the data. According to the Gender Perception Scale applied in the study, it was determined that social studies teachers' gender perceptions were high. In other words, social studies teachers' gender perceptions were found to be at a positive level in general. The TCA mean score of the teachers was found to be 101.06 ± 16.07. Cronbach's Alpha value of the scale is 0.918. As a result of the study, a statistically significant relationship was found between teachers' gender, income level (monthly income), parental structure and family management style factors and their TCA scores. No significant difference was found between the variables of number of siblings, gender distribution of siblings, education level of parents, parental profession, place of upbringing, reading habits, and family size. Keywords: Gender, social studies, gender perception, social studies teachers, sex