Gender Responsive Pedagogy in STEM

Female participation in STEM field employment is often underrepresented in most parts of the world. The low levels of women engaging in STEM labour market could be traced back to their school years, where societal and cultural biasness on gender stereotyping of girls influence their choice of school subjects, and subsequently determine their future roles in the society and the types of employment. This scenario can be seen in many under-developing countries. Specifically, in Lao PDR, at secondary education and higher education levels, male teachers outnumber their female counterparts in mathematics, science and technology subjects. Furthermore, the teaching and learning materials, including textbooks often permeate gender stereotypes, portraying scientists, engineers, doctors and technicians as often men, and nurses, cooks and secretaries as often women. Additionally, the science textbooks predominantly show that the famous characters are males. The absence or lack of famous female personalities means female students will have few examples of or no role models to encourage them towards studying STEM related subjects. Hence, there is an urgent need to introduce gender-responsive pedagogy in STEM education in Lao PDR. Hitherto, UNESCO Bangkok, under the framework of the “Capacity Development for Education 2030 (CapED) in Lao PDR: Capacity Development Support for Teacher Education in Lao PDR” programme, is supporting the Government of Lao PDR in promoting girls’ participation in STEM subjects through capacity development of STEM education teachers in applying gender-responsive pedagogy to ensure that their teaching and learning processes can cater the specific learning needs of both boys and girls.