Collaborative Approaches to Gender Equality Education of Junior High School Teachers in Congressional District IV, SDO Batangas Province

Abstract

This study assessed the gender equality education and how the teachers’ collaborative approaches promote it. It aimed to determine the extent of utilization of collaborative approaches—team teaching and peer mentoring, interdisciplinary collaboration, professional learning communities (PLCs), partnerships with parents and community stakeholders, and the use of gender responsive instructional materials, assessed the perceived usefulness of collaboration in classroom practices and teaching strategies, student participation and inclusivity, gender sensitive curriculum integration, and awareness and attitudes toward gender roles, and examines whether the extent of utilization is significantly related to perceived usefulness in promoting gender equality education, identify the challenges teachers encounter in applying collaborative approaches, and propose enhancement activity manual for teachers.

A descriptive-correlational design was employed, using a validated survey questionnaire complemented by qualitative narratives. The respondents were 185 Grade 9–10 public junior high school teachers from Congressional District IV, Batangas Province. Findings revealed that utilization was generally high for team teaching/peer mentoring and gender responsive instructional materials, while interdisciplinary collaboration, PLCs, and partnerships with parents and community stakeholders were only moderate.

Also, collaboration was rated highly useful for improving gender sensitive pedagogy and classroom management, and for reducing bias in instructional materials. It also supported balanced participation and inclusive leadership, strengthened gender-sensitive curriculum integration, and fostered positive awareness and attitudes toward gender roles—though the effects were comparatively lower for parent and community engagement. Across domains, utilization showed a very strong, positive, statistically significant association with perceived usefulness. Despite supportive professional cultures, structural constraints—limited time, insufficient budgets, and a lack of incentives—tempered sustained implementation.

The study concludes that well-supported, sustained collaboration is essential for embedding effective and scalable gender equality education across classrooms, curricula, and school culture. It is recommended that authorities review and adopt the various contextualized Enhancement Activity Manual and institutionalize protected collaboration time, resource support, and recognition mechanisms to support teachers’ promotion of gender equality education.