Artikel 3 : Gender Studies in Teacher Education : An Empirical Research.

Abstract
Gender studies is a study that focuses on the phenomenon of gender. The importance of
gender studies is to broaden understanding of gender identity and culture, the intersection of
gender with race and ethnicity, class and sexuality. From this approach, University Pendidikan
Sultan Idris (UPSI) has developed a moduled namely Gender Studies. This course has
important impact on teacher education. The writers has listed the objectives of this course
such as to provide knowledge and skills related to the concept of gender and gender relation.
It is also discusses how gender relations give effect on intenational relations, international
development and educations. This course also impotant in the process of developing human
behaviour among UPSI students. So, this article are discussing about the problems and
prospect of Gender Studies in the process of learning based on author`s own experience and
investigation.
1. Introduction
Gender studies has an important impact on the process of learning. The objectives are to
educate students with gender issues and teach them to use the issues in their diciplines.
Gender studies focuses on both men and women behaviour and its relation to each other. It is
related to studies of class, inequality, race, ethnicity and sexuality. This article stated some of
the key concept of gender issues which are important in developing human behaviours.
Gender refers to the biological and social differences between men and women. Gender is a
socio-economic and cultural construct for differentiating between roles, responsibilities,
opportunities and so on. The basic differences will creates unequal power relations in the
social life. Power can be defined as the access, distribution and use of resources which are
unequally distributed between men and women. This article also describes the definitions of
masculanity and femininity that may affect individual`s behaviour. Mesculanity and
femininity are the biological fact of being either male or female. It is said that traditional
gender roles influence negatively to masculinity and femininity.
Gender equality is important as a part of development when both men and women have equal
access to resources, equal rights and opportunity without any bias. However, the author stae
that inequality is occuring in many societies where equal rights are not given to women as
men. Promoting gender equality seen as an encouragement to greater economic and social
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prosperity. So, it is obvious for students to know the real concept of equality and its impact in
development activities. In developing contries, gender inequality is the possible cause of
many social problem. This article also attempts to discuss on how socio-cultural norms may
effect on gender based inequality in family because gender has an important impact on family
system. This article focuses some of the important contents which are related to the process of
learning and well-being. Thus, the article attempts to identify some problems and some
possible solutions based on author`s own experience.
2. Objectives and Methods
This article focusses on the important of Gender Studies as the main process of learning ang
developing appropriate traits for students. This article was divided into three section that
consists of the important content of Gender Studies and its impact on the process of learning,
student`s perception and understanding on Gender Studies and the last section covered the
problems behind its full implementations. The researcher used a multi-method approach in
order to carry out this research. The data was collected from both primary and secondary
information. Primary data was collected from students and the secondary data was collected
from journals and reading materials that are related with tihs article.
3. Analyzing the Importance Content of Gender Studies
The main objective of Gender Studies is to provide students knowledge related to gender and
its implication. The main objective of this course are :
3.1 Understanding of Gender, Gender Role, Gender Relation and Its Appropriate Practice
Gender can be defined as both men and women. It is also can be defined in two ways
which maleness and femaleness are perceived and stratified in a society, biological and
social. In biology, male and women are different by the presence of Y-chromosome in
male and its absence in female cells. From social perspective, gender refers to social
differences between men and women.Gender is a belief system that influencing how
people perceive men and women. Gender roles are the individual`s roles which
influence how men and women interact each other. Gender roles is important in order
to perform the suitable role towards family and society. Gender relations are
characterised by unequal power. It is also can be defined as gender norms where the
power is related to gender relation with regard to the distribution of responsibility and
resources.
3.2 Understanding of Masculanity and Femininity and Its Appropriate Practice
The article explain about masculanity and femininity which contribute to the
development of studen`s behaviours. Differences between man and women are natural
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and genetically determined. Masculinaty and femininity can be detected through their
characteristics result from a combination of biological, cultural and environment
influences. Masculanity and femininity can be viewed by traditional and conservative.
`Traditional` and `conservative` describe the belief that men and women are different
and the terms `modern` and `liberal` describe the belief that roles are not compared by
the sex. Traditional gender roles influence negatively to masculanity and femininity
and its behaviors affect family and society. The article also explain about patriarchy as
a system of social structures where men dominate and exploit women. It can be said
that patriarchal ideology and cultural practice in masculanity is an important reasons
dir men`s violence against women. It is important to develop the appropriate
characteristics of masculanity and femininity in order to overcome problems that
happen in society.
3.3 Gender from Socio-Cultural Perspective
There is a positive relation between socio-cultural and gender role. Gender roles are
socially and culturally defined as perceptions and beliefs about the behavior of men
and women. In society, social and cultural norms play an important role for the
development of the behavior and attitude of the people. Socio-cultural can be
understood as people`s way of life or tradition. However, in developing countries,
socio-cultural norms are negatively affect gender relations. This is because gender
based inequality can be seen at the household level. For exampl, gender gap in
educations that are usually happen in various countries.
3.4 Gender from Religious Perspective
Gender from Islamic perspective has an important impact because there is some cases
religiuos beliefs are dominated by the socio-cultural norms. In Islam, there is no
discrimination between men and women. Any discrimination based on gender are
viewed as complementary to each other. So, one of the objective of this course is to
provide student knowledge on how men and women are treated in Islam.
4. Students Perception on Gender Studies
In this section, the researcher had examined student`s general undersatnding and
perception about Gender Studies. 200 students from Gender Studies class were
interviwed. Besides that,principal researcher`s experiences had been added for deeper
understanding. Researcher noticed that most students understand and did well in both
coursework and final examination. However, there is also found that students that are not
perform well maybe because of lack of interest and not attentive in class. The results from
the interviewed found that the understanding of students also encouraging. This is
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because students know about gender analysis and the importance of gender analysis.
Students also can identify socio-cultural influence om gender gap especially in education.
So that, it can be said that this course is effective in the process of learning and researcher
noticed that it has achieved ots entire objectives. Othe than that, the results show that
majority students agreed that gender based equality is imprtant for family and society.
Students are not only understood about gender based equality but also its implication to
the family and society. this course has helped students to undrstand the social and cultural
values that shape gender relation. This course also has increased student`s
communucation skills as it taught in English.
5. Some Problems of Gender Studies` Full Implementation : UPSI Experiences
Although Gender Studies bring important impact for the teacher`s learning, there are also
some problems behind its full implementation. Based on researcher`s experience,
students are not attentive in class due the lack of English. However the problems are
solved when there is no major communication problem between the lecturer and students.
Besides that, students also needed to conduct a research in order to increase their
kenowledge on gender issue. This can help students to show their innovative work and
skills when they are asked to do a mini research on gender issue. Another problems is,
most students do not have basic knowledge of gender and it is a little bit difficult for the
learning process. As the way to overcome this problem, the lecturer planning that seminar
or discussions can be held relating to gender issue. Besides that, male students are less
attentive in class than female students.
6. Conclusions
The researcher concluded that Gender Studies is important for the process of learning and
developing appropriate traits among UPSI students. Gender Studies would contribute to
making a person to be a better teacher and leader. It is not only important for process of
learnign but also aimportant for the overall development of the society.