Exploring the Gender Perspective in English Language Teaching (ELT): Voices from ELT Practitioners in Philippine Higher Education Institutions

In recent years, gender mainstreaming in education has been discussed and studied. In the Philippines, however, research has tended to focus on extreme ends of the implementation process such as the awareness of educators about the gender perspective or the success in incorporating gender in their pedagogical practices, rather than an in-depth analysis on the overall experience of educators in the government’s attempt to mainstream gender-and-development education in schools. Also, there is a gap in the literature concerning Filipino English language teaching (ELT) practitioners' views on integrating the gender perspective into English language education. Through semi-structured interviews, the present study explores how a group of 71 Filipino college teachers of English perceive the benefits, ways, and challenges of incorporating the gender dimension in ELT. The thematic analysis of interview responses revealed the following benefits: enhancement of learners’ critical thinking skills, promotion of an inclusive and supportive learning environment, and increased awareness on the critical role of language (i.e., English) in recognizing diversity. Further, it was found that the teacher-participants incorporate gender knowledge in ELT in two ways: instructional materials and teaching-learning activities, and teacher-student interaction. In terms of challenges, three major themes emerged: learner factor, teacher factor, and institutional constraints (which were further categorized as curriculum, resource, and belief).