Design and Initial Validation of the Scales Epistemology, Methodology and Gender in Taught History (EMG), and Women in History (WH) for the Evaluation of Gender Competence of Social Science Teachers in Training

Abstract

In recent decades, it has been frequent to apply instruments and built ad hoc in studies oriented to the diagnostic evaluation of the inclusion of the gender perspective in the teaching of history and the degree of acquisition of gender competence in the initial teaching training. However, less usual has been the work dedicated to the analysis and validation of the metric properties of these instruments, with the specific purpose of guaranteeing the validity of the conclusions reached from the data obtained. In order to respond to this absence, the present study describes the initial validation of the scales Epistemology, methodology and gender in taught history (EMG) and Women in history (WH) in a sample of primary and secondary school trainee teachers from four Spanish public universities. With this aim, the reliability of each scale, the validity of its content and the construct validity are studied by means of an exploratory factorial analysis of principal components and varimax rotation. The results obtained inform about the general viability of both scales to be applied for the evaluation of the gender competence of trainee teachers, and the analysis of their social representations on the place of women in the taught history. The study shows the functional interdependence between scales and robustness for its joint application in the general assessment of gender as a category of analysis in social science teaching.