The relationship between prospective teachers’ love for children and “Gender roles and some demographic qualities”

Abstract

The present research primly aims to analyze the concept of “love for children” within the context of education. It also aims to investigate the personal and academic conditions in favor of or against love for children among prospective teachers and propose solutions within the context of teacher training. The research has been designed as a descriptive study based on associational model. The sample comprised 248 prospective teachers selected with purposive sampling, studying at the Faculty of Education during 2010-2011 academic years. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between prospective teachers’ femininity gender roles and love for children scores. Besides, it was found that masculine participants’ love for children scores were significantly lower than those of participants classified as feminine and androgen. No significant relationship was observed between love for children and the participants’ gender, the department they study, their grade levels, the number of siblings, the place they live and educational level of their parents. © Kamla-Raj 2014.