Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge to Promote Equity with a Gender Perspective

This study examines how pre-service teachers construct pedagogical knowledge to promote equity in school settings through reflection and research from an intersectional gender perspective. Situated within current debates on gender, interculturality, and social justice in teacher education, the study explores how pre-service teachers develop critical awareness of inequality and envision transformative practices. Using a qualitative design, three reflective workshops were conducted with students from Early Childhood and Elementary Education programs in Chilean universities. Thematic analysis identified nine principal codes, which were later organized into four analytical domains: knowledge construction, interculturality and inclusion, gender practices, and intersectional meanings. Results show that participants conceive teaching as a political and ethical practice linked to community engagement, democratic coexistence, and affective responsibility. They also challenge traditional gender roles by proposing co-care and collective well-being as foundations for equitable education. Furthermore, intercultural and situated pedagogies emerge as key strategies for connecting theory with practice and validating diversity within the classroom. Participants demonstrate emerging forms of intersectional and gender awareness, questioning the feminization of teaching and proposing notions of co-care and collective well-being that transcend binary gender norms. They also value intercultural and contextual pedagogies, emphasizing empathy, recognition of diversity, and the validation of students’ origins and trajectories.