STUDENTS' STEREOTYPES ABOUT INSTRUCTORS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ETHIOPIA

No recent study has yet examined gender stereotypes in service expectations using the SERVQUAL model in Ethiopia. Although the model has been used to measure perceived service quality and performance, customers' stereotypes in service expectations are usually overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether students hold stereotypes and their expectations vary across the genders of their instructors. This study was conducted on three conveniently selected universities between March and April 2019. Multistage cluster sampling was used to select the students taught by both female and male instructors in the previous semester. First, the students were asked to rate their expectations of their instructors over the dimensions of service quality, namely, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Consequently, no significant difference was observed across the two genders. However, when the students were asked to rate their general expectations of their instructors, they showed significantly lower expectations of female instructors than male instructors. This indicates that there is a contradiction in students' expectations which might be caused by preconception or stereotypes against female instructors. Governmental bodies, policymakers, and politicians have to be involved to take radical steps for accepting women instructors and support them in their professional works.