Gender as determinant of teacher trainees’ perception towards the teaching profession at the Federal University Oye Ekiti, Nigeria

Abstract

Evidence suggests that teacher trainees' gender influences their perception, interest, and attitude towards the teaching profession. Regrettably, there is limited and contrasting empirical literature in this regard. Hence , this study examined the influence of gender on teacher trainees' perception, interest and attitude towards the teaching profession in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted the quantitative research design of the survey research type. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting the required number of respondents for the study, which comprised of both 300L and 400L teacher trainees' of the faculty of education, Federal University of Oye -Ekiti. The Teachers' Questionnaire (TQ) which had four sections was the research instrument used for data collection for the study, whose validity was ascertained by showing to experts in the field of instrument design and reliability with the Cronbach alpha: Teacher Trainees' Perception of the Teaching Profession (r = 0.52); Teacher Trainees’ Interest in the Teaching Profession (r = 0.86) and Teacher Trainee’ Attitude to the Profession (0.82). The data collected were analysed using descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics. The results showed that teacher trainees possess a high interest, positive perception, and positive attitude towards the teaching profession. It was noted that teacher trainees' gender negatively correlates and does not influence teacher trainees' perception, interest, and attitude towards the teaching profession. It was therefore recommended that education stakeholders prioritise programmes that will foster positive perception, interest, and attitude of teacher trainees’ towards the teaching profession amongst others.