Learners' Perspectives on Gender Inclusive Practices in Teacher Education: A case study from a Nepali University

Even though universities advocate for gender inclusiveness, when it comes to giving equal value to female teachers, the university lags. Female teachers have been in the academia for decades; however, female teachers are not given equal space and reward in academia in most countries, Nepal being one of them. This study explores gender-inclusive practices of a university from the learners' perspectives, which is a neglected topic in the universities. It aims to identify the status of the inclusion of gender in curriculum content, pedagogical practices, assessment and research activities, and organizational provisions from students' perspectives in the curriculum. The data were collected from the 2016 to 2019 batch of students from three 203 different graduate programs through surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions. The data was analyzed to describe the current situation of gender inclusion in content, pedagogy, assessment and research and organizational provisions. Usually, there are discussions regarding gender in universities, it is likely that the discussions are not in-depth for the learners to question their status quo. In line with this thought, the students mentioned that faculty members should bring gender discussion in the classroom and should take it seriously so that the discourse not only contribute towards the gender responsiveness but also based on the discourse, the institution or the university equally value and give space to the voice of the female, may it be the faculty or the student. The study concluded that research, especially the ones that keeps female teachers in the centre are necessary so as to shed light on gender related topics and action to be taken based on gender inclusiveness.