Deconstructing Gender Inequality in Teacher Education Enrolment and Career Trajectories in Northern Nigeria

This study deconstructs the structural, institutional, and ideological mechanisms sustaining gender inequality in teacher education enrolment and career progression in northern Nigeria, with fieldwork sites in Kano, Sokoto, and Adamawa states. Despite policy commitments to gender parity in education, women remain substantially under-represented in teacher education leadership and face systematic barriers to entry and advancement in the teaching profession in northern states. The study employs a critical feminist research design, combining analysis of six years of enrolment and career progression data from teacher education institutions with participatory focus groups involving 96 female and male teacher educators, student teachers, and Ministry of Education officials, and in-depth narrative interviews with 30 women at various career stages. Critical Feminist Theory, Bourdieu's Social Reproduction Theory, and Kabeer's Social Relations Framework inform the analytical architecture. Data were analysed using intersectional thematic analysis and institutional ethnographic methods. Findings are expected to identify curriculum gatekeeping, examination design biases, socio-cultural constraints on female mobility, and informal institutional cultures as interlocking barriers to gender equality. The study generates original theoretical propositions on the intersectionality of gender, religion, and class in northern Nigerian teacher education. Recommendations address the NCCE, Federal Ministry of Education, and state governments on gender-transformative policy design in teacher education. Keywords: gender inequality, teacher education, northern Nigeria, feminist theory, career trajectories