Social Representations of Teaching and the Sub-Feminization of the Teaching Function: The Case of Undergraduate Students from Félix Houphouët Boigny University in Abidjan

Abstract

This study focuses on the problem of the under-feminization of the teaching function in Ivorian higher education. It aims to analyze the social representations of the teaching profession among women, especially among female students at the Félix Houphouët Boigny University. Collected using an evocation questionnaire, the data analyzed show that among female students, the teaching profession appears to be a complex, exhausting and stressful profession. The categorical analysis associated with the prototypical analysis highlights another dimension: the fulfilling aspect of the profession. However, the latter remains a secondary dimension insofar as only the elements of the central core are privileged and show consensus within the population questioned. These results indicate on the one hand, the existence of a structure of the elements and, on the other hand, a dichotomous content of the social representations of the profession.