Confronting Your Own Biases—Addressing Gender Equity in Teacher Education

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classrooms are more important now than ever before. Creating inclusive learning spaces while making classrooms equitable beyond the gender binary is a daunting task for educators. The fulcrum of which lies on the pivotal role played by the teacher educator as an agent of change. But a revelation by a newly inducted colleague, followed by a student, about their personal identities of being gay, queer, and transgender, set the wheel of introspection in motion—“Are we really prepared to address gender issues in teacher education?”. This acid test prompted the researcher to not only confront her own biases but also led to a fruitful reflection on ways in which inclusive practices in teaching–learning scenario could be incorporated into teacher education classes. The present study analyzes pre-service teachers’ sense of self-efficacy in working with and working for gender-creative youth, followed by a reflection on constructive ways of equipping teachers with tools to assess and improve gender inclusivity of their own practices.