Research on attitudes of primary second stage teachers towards students according to gender variant

The aim of this research is to determine the perceptions and anticipations of the teachers, teaching in the secondary part of elementary schools, and whether their attitudes and behaviours in a classroom environment change according to the gender of the students.A qualitative research method which is appropriate to the purpose of the research has been used to provide and analyze data. 10 teachers working in Yunus Emre Elementary School in Esenler district of İstanbul province, chosen as 5 female 5 male formed the study group of the research. The data of the research has been collected by employing qualitative research methods. Participant observation technique and structured interview evaluation form have been used in this research.The data collected from the interviews and observations have been evaluated with descriptive analysis. In the presentation of the data, the questions in the research process have been taken into consideration. A frame has been formed for descriptive analysis and the data has been organized under themes. The data has been read according to this frame and brought together in a reasonable and meaningful way. The described findings have been associated with each other, explained and interpreted.The result of this research showed that teachers have stereotypical judgements about gender and they exhibit different attitudes and behaviours towards male and female students in parallel with these judgements. On the other hand, it has been found out that teachers think that this difference stems from the `nature? of male and female students and usually perceive these different behaviours as ?normal? and thus, they cannot realize the stereotypical judgements about gender in teacher-student relationship.Key Words: Gender, Gender Discrimination in Education, Sex and Sexism