ABSTRACT
The roles of gender bias have tended to be overlooked in research into what students perceive as excellence in teaching. This chapter describes an investigation of student-submitted nominations for an excellence award at a mid-sized university in England to explore any gendered patterns in the nominations’ thematic content. It was found that, whereas female students described their excellent male and female teachers in similar ways, male student descriptions of their excellent female teachers tended to emphasise stereotypically feminine competencies relative to their descriptions of excellent male teachers. As feminine competencies tend to be perceived as relatively less important in UK higher education, the association of female teachers with feminine competencies can disadvantage women in formal recognition processes. On an individual level, it is important to recognise that sociocultural biases and expectations can influence evaluations of teaching quality. With regard to educational development, moving towards a model of teaching expertise as opposed to teaching excellence would help shift evaluative foci on to practices that are within an individual’s control.
