“Teachers are positioned by governing discourses but also work to shape these
shared truths” (Allard, 2004, p. 359). The more we understand a teacher’s ‘personal
practical knowledge’ (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, p. 25) the more we can understand
teaching and learning in a gender-inclusive manner. I wanted to explore the extent to
which teachers themselves understand their own personal constructs of gender identity
and whether their views about learning and achievement in science influenced the way
they taught science. As pointed out by Roger and Duffield (2000) “teachers who become
aware of their own sex-stereotyped behaviour and who are willing to change it can make
a difference” (p. 371). I focused on the teacher because following Cole and Knowles
(2000) I believe that “it is impossible to understand teaching without understanding the
teacher; that it is impossible to understand the practice apart from the practitioner; that it
is impossible to understand the knowledge apart from the knower” (p. 9). I wanted to
give voice to the teachers’ own views in order to engage the teachers in interrogating
aspects of their teaching and learning in order to bring to the consciousness, knowledge
that may or may not have been realised even though acted upon (Lyons, 1998).