Examining Teachers' Perceptions of Gender with Meta-thematic and Sentiment Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the gender perception of teachers with the help of meta-thematic and sentiment analysis. For this purpose, qualitative studies on teachers' views on gender were analyzed using the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education and Google Scholar databases. In addition, studies included in the research within the scope of document review were analyzed using content analysis. As a result of the research, teachers' perceptions of gender were examined within the framework of three main themes named "feelings"," "reflections" and "expectations", and sub-themes created to explain the main themes. The sub-themes of "feelings" theme includes exclusion, powerlessness, disrespect, striving for existence and positioning, and the sub-themes of "reflections" theme encompasses reproduction, marginalization, acceptances, positioning, awareness and professional development barriers, and the sub-theme of "expectations" has the sub-theme of inclusion. As a result of the research, it was seen that teachers felt gender inequality at the micro-level in their organizations at the macro level in social life. However, they reproduced it consciously or unconsciously in social areas within the framework of stereotypes about a patriarchal society. In addition, it was concluded that they developed awareness of this reproduction and acted with this awareness. It can be said that teachers' expectations are the elimination of masculine domination, which is an obstacle to their inclusion in social life. According to sentiment analysis, it was found that the dominant tone of the texts is neutral, implying that no emotions are implied in the text, implying that participants might be objective in terms of expressions.