“There is a need to bridge daunting gender gaps in the STEM related academic and professional courses as well in various related occupations. This can be done by demasculinising the content, improving classrooms’ social pedagogy, stopping sex-steotyping of occupations and adapting whole brain education processes by de-emphasizing linear logical thinking and lecture model of classroom pedagogy,” holds educator-researcher Dr Kishore (2008, 20018, 20019) at Disha Foundation in Jaipur, who is also an advocate of gender and social equity in education in India.
A review of some of Dr Lalit Kishore’s work published in Merinew and picked up by other sites indicates that there was a dire need to make serious efforts to make STEM courses female friendly and gender-inclusive by basing the classroom pedagogy on principles of accomodation, collaboration and coopertion rather that competition and male-dominance.
A new story of merinews portal , now closed, was picked by UK-based Bussiness Telegraph (20019, science section) online publication for dissemination of Kishore’ (2008) work with saying that the paper ‘Managing Science and Technology Occupations of Women in Nigeria’ by Helen Olubunmi Aderemi, Hassan, O. M., Siyanbola, W. O., Taiwo, K. published in Journal of Techonoly Management and Innovation (Vol 4, No 3, 2009), the article contributed by Dr Lalit Kishore in Merinews titled “Girls, women in science & technology education” has been cited.
The further reading on Bussiness Telegraph portal goes as follows, “The paper (by Aderemi , et.al) reports that the Kishore has revealed he dismally low representation of women in technology-related enterprises and institutes of higher education in technology in India while referring to Kishore, L. (2008), Merinews, http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp ?articleID=140417 h.”
“According to the paper, the study examined the occupational activities of female graduates in science and technology related fields with a view to assessing factors influencing their performance and make recommendations to enhance women work experiences in S&T occupations. Furthermore, the study reveal that most female S&T graduates (FSTGs) employed in tertiary institutions and research institutions were engaged in S&T based occupations. However, in corporate firms, most of the FSTGs work either in administration, finance or R&D departments. In addition, a large proportion takes less paying non S&T jobs for domestic reasons and lack of suitable vacancies along with making recommendations to enhance the recruitment, retention and performance of women in S&T employment in Nigeria.”
Other STEM and gender equity articles in Merinews by Dr Kishore (2018) “Need to bring gender equity in science and technology education in India” and “Stop negative gender stereotypes related to girls’ education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics” are also worth mentioning here, says news story.
References
Kishore, L. (2008). Do Men and Women Learn Differently? Merinews, August 28
Kishore, L. (2008). Girls, women in science & technology education, Merinews
Kishore, L. (2018). Need to bring gender equity in science and technology education in India. Merinews, March 08.
Kishore, L. (2019). Kishore’s article in Merinews cited in a Nigerian study on 'Managing Science and Technology Occupations of Women' businesstelegraph, August 07
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