The role of teachers’ language usage in the relationship between their awareness toward the concept of gender equality and gender pedagogy practice in upper primary schools

Background: Adjustments teachers undertake to support gender equality in and through education will likewise raise the standard of instruction as a whole. Thus, to properly understand the teachers’ gender-responsive pedagogy through a feminist pedagogy lens, it is critical to grasp the mediating factors via a holistic approach. Objective: This study seeks to investigate the mediating effect of teachers’ language usage in the relationship between awareness of the concept of gender-responsive instruction and gender-responsive pedagogy practice. Methods: The study employed a correlational research design to develop a generalized framework which links the associations between study variables. It was conducted in Ethiopia’s South Gonder province with 305 teachers. Data were gathered between April 2023 and January 2024. A simple random sampling method was employed, ensuring that each member of the target population had an equal chance of being selected. A questionnaire was employed to gather data. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, MANOVA, Pearson correlation and Path analysis using Lisrel. Findings: As a result, teachers practiced language usage and gender-responsive pedagogy in the classroom was at low levels. Moreover, the relationship among school teachers’ awareness of the concept of gender equality classroom instruction, teachers’ language usage, and teachers’ gender-responsible classroom instruction were statistically significant, low to moderate, and positive. Finally, the finding showed that teachers’ language usage has a mediating effect on the relationship between their awareness of the concept of gender equality and gender-responsible classroom instruction. Conclusions and implications: Teachers’ language usage serves as a mediating factor in the sense that their awareness of gender equality affects the way they communicate in the classroom, and this gender-sensitive communication, in turn, shapes their ability to deliver gender-responsible classroom instruction. Hence this study has a theoretical contribution to the existing literature and make teachers to become more accessible and responsive to a wider range of students across schools and so contribute to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education (SDG 4).