Social Representations of Gender: A Contextual Construction in Schools

Abstract

Social representations of gender (SR), namely, beliefs, values, attitudes, and symbolic content about gender affect people’s behavior and relations to others in social life. Gender representations help explain gender violence among the adolescent population. A qualitative study was conducted to explore the gender SR of teachers and students from two cities in Colombia: Bogotá and Ibagué. Multimethod data collection was performed using a word-association task with 37 teachers and a collaborative cartoon construction task with 284 students from both cities. Thematic analysis and triangulation were performed on this data. Knowledge and informational sources were explored in-depth among students and teachers. The analysis of gender representations revealed rather traditional views: binary representations of gender roles, gender relations, physical characteristics, and behavioral expectations for men and women. The study also found differences between the two educational contexts, scarce references to sexual diversity, and a nuance of tragedy in female gender roles and relations.