a cluster of pegs and one peg alone
genderanded Issues, working class

From Silence to Voice: Reclaiming the Curriculum for the Working-Class Feminist  

By Michaela Hall  

The intersectionality of class and gender is at the forefront of my experience and research as a PhD student exploring curriculum justice. In this blog post, I reflect on my higher education journey as a white, working-class, British woman and I touch upon how structural inequalities are embedded in curriculum design and delivery. I explore how neoliberal ideologies commodify education, marginalise working-class women, and erase diverse ways of knowing. My experience and reflections have shaped my commitment to advocating for curriculum reform that promotes epistemological justice, which has the potential to lead to broader social transformation.  

A Moment To Reflect  

Very recently, I attended a conference where one of the presenters mentioned that personal social injustices they face motivate them to change things for others. This resonated deeply with me and prompted me to reflect on my own intellectual journey through higher education, particularly my undergraduate studies. I reflected on how my experiences as a working-class white British woman not only shaped my path but also my research into gender and curriculum justice.  

I vividly remember the look in my dad’s eyes when I told him I was intending to go to university after completing my A Levels. I caught a glimpse of the heart-stopping, stomach-dropping panic.  

‘Are you sure?’ 

‘Have you thought about getting a job?’  

‘You don’t have to because your friends are, you know?’  

I knew I didn’t have to. I wanted to. Even in those self-absorbed teenage years, I did feel for my dad. I was asking for the equivalent of 2 years’ worth of food shopping for our working-class family of four, to be paid over the course of the next 3 years. Yet, with the most pained smile I will probably ever witness, he agreed.  

I studied Music, and it wasn’t until my third year that I came across my first female lecturer, a guest lecturer from the Music Therapy Master’s course. It was then that I realised there were no female lecturers in the department. We did not learn about any female composers and anything aside from Western music was crammed into a one-semester elective module in the first year – ethnomusicology – taught by a very charming, but very white, middle-class male. 

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now I truly understand how teaching cannot be viewed as a matter outside of social class. Teaching is an overt genderised profession with evident historical roots within the capitalist system (Anyon, 1997; Arnot, 2002; hooks, 1994; Darder, 1991). I now question myself: Was it worth it? Is it worth it for working-class women now, after 20 years? What knowledge, or rather whose knowledge, are you paying for? These are just some of the questions I hope to answer through my research.  

Working-Class Realities and the Cost of Aspiration  

a white woman sits at a desk looking stressed

Class matters are deeply intertwined with gender and, needless to say, racial categories. (Davies, 2019; hooks, 1987; Darder, 1991) I have found that women are disproportionately affected by precarious work conditions, unpaid carer roles and responsibilities, as well as exclusion due to disability. Also, it is interesting to notice whose women one is referring to? In recent research, the UK Trades Union Congress (2025) revealed that women are 34% more likely to be on exploitative zero-hour contracts than men, BME women are 103% more likely than white men, and disabled women are 49% more likely.  

When I started my undergraduate studies in 2005, university tuition fees in England were set at £1,500 a year. At that time, the National Minimum Wage was £5.05 per hour for those aged 22 and over, and £4.25 per hour for those aged 18 to 21. Fees were the equivalent of 297 hours’ and 353 hours’ worth of work, respectively. Have things got better? Unfortunately, no. The National Living Wage, as it is now known, is set at £12.21, and a year’s fees can be charged at a maximum of £9,535 in England and Wales: an equivalent of 781 hours. So, what kind of curriculum are you paying all this money for? What will you learn? Who benefits from ‘such learning’?  Importantly, is it worth the mounting debt for the working class in particular? Alarmingly, if one pays attention to studies promoted by conservative psychologists, such as Jordan Peterson, equality policies, particularly in Scandinavian nations, have aggravated gender equality. 

It is essential to recognise that prevailing societal ideologies influence the dominant forms of curriculum theory, design, and development. At present, as research documents, neoliberalism has been capable of imposing itself as a public pedagogy aiming for educational outcomes that are directed by primary market drivers. Students are treated as a commodity, like any other commodity, a captive mass of customers, and knowledge is viewed as a commodity as well (Apple, 2000; Giroux, 2011). There is an emphasis on ‘marketable skills,’ which reinforces capitalist values, namely, individualism, competition, and instrumental views of reason and existence. Since the market dictates education, pedagogy is compartmentalized and individualized to be in tune with those markets. In the course of my research so far, I have observed that the majority of online prospectuses foreground workplace skills that can be acquired during the course, before describing the degree content.  For some, this isn’t very meaningful. The curriculum is designed to serve the labour market, not the students. It promotes skills for employability, assuming everyone is a potential worker, and adds little value for women who cannot work or are in insecure jobs, creating a sense of economic disempowerment. Notably, education is closely tied to a new emerging gendered class: the precariat. Distinct from the traditional working-class, the ‘precariat’ (a term originally coined in 2011 by British economist, Guy Standing (2014)) are characterised by their precarious employment, unstable living conditions and lack of rights both within and outside of the workplace.  

From a progressive feminist perspective, this assumption overlooks structural inequalities (such as access to employment, leadership roles, and equal pay, to name but a few) that disproportionately affect women—particularly those in caregiving roles, precarious employment, or excluded from formal work altogether. It adds little value for the women who cannot work or are in insecure jobs, creating a sense of economic disempowerment. By prioritising individualised success and employability, neoliberal curriculum design erases collective struggles and reinforces gendered marginalisation within education. 

Intersecting Inequalities: Who Is Left Behind?  

series of figures of similar colours grouped together while another of a different colour sits apart

Neoliberal framing also builds the curriculum as a site of power. Bernstein (1971) claims, “how a society selects, classifies, distributes, transmits and evaluates the educational knowledge it considers to be public reflects both the distribution of power and the principles of social control”.  The curriculum, therefore, is a selective tradition (Williams, 1983): when you select, you make choices of what is ‘in’ and ‘out.’…and in so doing, you murder countless knowledge platforms. ‘Educated knowledge’ is often defined by dominant Western, patriarchal, and capitalist ideologies, and higher education is no exception. The curriculum has an epistemicidal nerve (Paraskeva, 2011). The general curriculum engages in epistemological looting (Paraskeva, 2016), privileging Western Eurocentric narratives while silencing indigenous, feminist, and non-Western epistemologies. ‘Objective’ knowledge is masculinised, whilst socially constructed ways of knowing and emotional experiences are feminised and devalued. Actually, in many aspects, they have been produced as non-existent (Santos, 2014). Epistemological violence (Paraskeva 2016) against working-class women and other disenfranchised individuals and communities has historically been rampant -not just in the West – and this rode upon the wave of colonisation to the South. Hence, women from indigenous communities face double the marginalisation and oppression from both patriarchal and colonial powers.  

How do the politics of the curriculum impact working-class women? They are systematically neglected: the curriculum rarely reflects the lived experiences of the working-class, as their knowledge is often rooted in survival, care, and community, and is not considered ‘academic’ or ‘valuable’. This invisibility also means that others, outside of their community, do not understand their realities. Women’s invisibility in the curriculum matters has been consolidated through men’s visibility. 

Additionally, the current curriculum perpetuates social hierarchies. As a result of the white, patriarchal Western Eurocentric norms embedded in the curriculum, working-class women are assumed to be uneducated and unskilled despite their different ways of knowing, reinforcing classism, ableism, racism, and sexism in both education and society. Constant exclusion from educational narratives and opportunities can lead to disempowerment and alienation, also limiting their ability to advocate for themselves or their communities. 

Towards Epistemological Justice  

I was fortunate enough to secure a full-time job, albeit at minimum wage, while attending school. Working full-time hours and studying on a full-time course was intense, and sure, I would have attained better marks if it had not been for cramming coursework in work breaks, but I managed to see myself through and come out with a piece of paper on the other side to show the world I had a degree. Looking back, however, it cost a lot more than money. My identity – my working-class ontology, my epistemology, and even my accent, which set me apart – all had to be shed for me to fit in with my peers and absorb white Western male knowledge. I am not ashamed to admit that, if it were not for employers covering the costs of my Master’s and PhD studies, nor for the fantastic support I receive from my supervisors, I would not be where I am today.  

someone holds a sign that says 'education for all'

I was, and still am, lucky — and it is not fair. As a society, we need to strive for something better, and I hope this is where my research will lead me. I cannot see how we can change society without changing education and teacher education. Although I am not naïve, as education alone cannot transform society, the truth is that the social transformation we so desperately need requires a radical shift in the way we think about and approach education. I am making it my mission to explore curriculum theories that promote epistemological justice, embrace diverse and plural ways of knowing, and break away from a territorialised curriculum that is fixed, canonised, and built on colonial and patriarchal frameworks.  

REFERENCES 

Anyon, J. (1997). Ghetto Schooling. New York: Teachers College Press. 

Apple, M. (2000). Official Knowledge. New York Routledge 

Arnot, M. (2002) Reproducing Gender. New York: Routledge 

Bernstein, B. (1971) ‘On the Classification and Framing of Educational Knowledge’. In M. F. D. Young (ed), Knowledge and Control. New Directions for the Sociology of Education (pp. 47- 69). London: Collier-Macmillan 

Darder, A. (1991). Culture and Power in the Classroom. New York: Routledge 

Davies, A. (2019) Woman, Race and Class. New York: Penguin. 

Giroux, H. (2011) Education and the Crisis of Public Values. New York: Peter Lang 

hooks, b. (1987) Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism. London: Pluto Press. 

hooks, b. (1994) Teaching to Transgress. New York: Routledge 

Paraskeva, J. M. (2011) Conflicts in Curriculum Theory. New York: Palgrave 

Paraskeva, J. M. (2016) Curriculum Epistemicides. New York: Routledge 

Santos, B. (2014) Epistemologies from the South. Boulder: Paradigm 

Standing, G. (2014) The Precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury 

TUC (2025). Women are “bearing the brunt” of exploitative zero-hours contracts. 06 March 2025. Available at https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/women-are-bearing-brunt-exploitative-zero-hours-contracts (Accessed 2 June 2025) 

Williams, R. (1983) Culture and Society: 1780-1950. New York: Columbia University Press 

Free to use images sourced from Unsplash, and Pexels 

Chilean children in school
genderanded Blog Writing

Citizen education and gender in Chile: An analysis from the perspective of school leadership

Camila Jara Ibarra

What is the objective of our research?

Understanding the process of socialization and the learning of politics and citizenship during the formative period of adolescence is crucial for comprehending the origin of the gender gap in political and civic participation later in adulthood, including experiences within the school environment. Schools, whether through explicit or implicit content, can contribute to the conceptualization of politics and citizenship as a male domain if their practices and interactions among students perpetuate gender biases and stereotypes (the tendency to attribute specific characteristics and traits to men and women (Jost & Kay, 2005)).

Schools possess formative potential that extends beyond the classroom, involving the institution as a whole. As Kerr (2015) emphasizes, citizenship education encompasses the classroom through the curriculum and teaching practices; the institution as a whole through spaces for deliberation and school participation; and the school’s relationship with the community through service activities and educational outings, among other aspects. While there is extensive literature and empirical evidence focused on the classroom and the influence of teachers on the development of students’ citizenship competences (Gainous & Martens, 2012; Schulz et al., 2018; Torney-Purta, 2002), less attention has been given to the role of school leaders in citizenship education, considering the formative potential of the entire school.

This project focus on school leadership (principals, management teams and teachers in leadership positions within the school) to observe their role in the process and experience of political socialization and citizenship education of Chilean students. In doing so, we aimed to identify their approach to gender issues and the existence of gender biases that could contribute to the construction and (re)production of a citizenship associated with the masculine or feminine roles in political life.

What have we done?

During the months of project execution, we gathered essential data to address the research objectives. Case studies were conducted to observe and analyse gender biases in learning and teaching processes within the school environment, with a specific focus on the role of educational leadership.

We collaborated with a sample of four secondary public schools in Santiago, Chile, including two exclusively female schools. To ensure gender balance in school leadership, we selected two schools led by female principals and two by male principals. In line with our initial proposal, we conducted in-depth interviews with educational leaders and citizenship education teachers. The objective was to gain insights into their perspectives on citizenship learning and teaching from a gender-oriented standpoint.

We interviewed a total of seven citizenship education teachers and six members of management teams. The analysis of these four school cases focused on the discourses and practices of leaders (political and citizenship beliefs and attitudes) and the opportunities for teaching and learning (spaces for deliberation and participation, as well as the school’s relationship with the community) offered by the school as a whole. The interviews, conducted between May and October 2023, lasted approximately one hour each.

What are our main findings so far?

The four schools analyzed exhibit differences in their school culture, yet they also share some characteristics in many of the examined issues.

From the cases examined, citizenship training plans have been developed, as mandated by the Ministry of Education (outlining citizenship education actions and learning opportunities for primary and secondary education students). In a couple of schools, units have been established to address gender issues. However, in the case of citizenship education plans, in general, these are not known by the school community and have a limited impact, as there has been no collective reflection on the type of citizenship the school community seeks to emphasize or the actions this will entail. It is suggested that the formulation of these plans has been primarily for regulatory compliance rather than constructing an educational plan for the community.

A noteworthy aspect in three of the schools is the recent establishment, within the last two years, of an internal department addressing gender issues. However, these departments or units are still in their early stages, and like the citizenship plans, their scope is not yet known or shared by the educational communities. While these units represent progress in addressing the visibility of gender issues, their focus has been oriented toward addressing gender diversity, coexistence problems, and non-discrimination rather than promoting formative or educational strategies from a non-sexist approach.

In all four cases, diverse citizenship conceptualizations are observed, which even differ within each school. Views range from critical positions regarding what has traditionally been understood as citizenship, related to civic duties and rights, to others where a broader and more active conception of citizenship linked to common good and democratic coexistence is observed. Regarding feminism, a common discourse is observed in all four schools around its relevance. While its importance is declared, the concept is not used institutionally, and instead, similar concepts such as gender equality or equity are mentioned.

Concerning forms of organisation and student participation, three parallel phenomena are observed in all cases: 

1. A growing weakening of traditional forms of student participation such as Student Unions, which generally have low attendance and often do not garner validation among students.

2. Minority groups of students with higher levels of politicisation, participation, and mobilisation capacity, who often drive actions such as school occupations.

3. School administrators and teachers report a growing lack of interest and disenchantment among students with topics related to traditional and electoral politics, even due to causes such as feminism during the post-pandemic period (2021-2023). However, there is a reported increase in interest in other types of issues such as animal rights.

These realities have a correlation in the discourses of school leadership, where there is a lack of problematization in relation to the type of citizenship that the school privileges, as well as to possible gender gaps or an education that produces or reproduces gender biases. These discourses, rather, focus on reducing gender issues only to the promotion of non-discrimination and the promotion of sexual diversity, from a focus on reparation rather than prevention, instead of thinking about the development of strategies in the formative or educational field for a non-sexist approach (from pedagogical practices, contents, work materials).

What can we conclude at this point?

All in all, it can be said that there is progress in schools in relation to citizenship education and gender issues, which contributes to the recognition and visibility of both topics. However, these advances are limited and the school leadership rather lacks of a critical or reflective vision on citizenship and the challenges, gaps and biases that citizenship education faces in terms of gender.

Finally, we did not encounter any ethical issues in the fieldwork. Before the fieldwork this study was revised and approved by Diego Portales University ethical committee. Participants were required to read and sign a written informed consent prior to their interview. We also tried to be mostly transparent with our research purposes and the future use that any information will have.

Catherine looks directly into the camera and smiles
genderanded Issues

Remembering Catherine Thomas

Tribute written by Tori Cann, with input from friends and family.

Catherine Wheel

You were fully committed to changing the world
This was your aim
That the barriers faced by young people today
Would no longer remain
You recognised the power of coercion and control
And the damage of self-blame
Your goal was to educate and validate and empower
So that lives were reclaimed

There was not enough time to complete the plan
As you were snatched away
Despite your energy and drive to make a difference
You were denied another day
Everyone you touched with your warmth and kindness
Misses your sunshine ray
Where Catherine was materially, is now an unoccupied space
But your legacy will stay

It was an absolute pleasure to work with you on your doctorate
Like a Catherine Wheel firework dancing
Always so passionate but pulled in different directions, all more important
Than grammar rules and referencing
You always had time to smile and laugh, despite the seriousness of your work
Taking pleasure in achieving
You will be much missed, but you leave behind an inspirational path
That others are now following.

Poem by Catherine’s PhD supervisor, Professor Dawn Mannay, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University

In January 2023 the world of gender and education lost one of our newest and brightest shining lights, Dr Catherine Thomas (also known as Catherine Phillips). Catherine was midway through her (posthumously awarded) doctoral research into young people’s understanding of coercion and consent within and beyond education when her life was cruelly and unexpectedly cut short. For those that worked with Catherine, news of her passing was more than a shock, not least because Catherine was perhaps the most energetic and fearless of our friends. Sometimes the word ‘passionate’ is bandied around when describing our activist friends, but for us who knew and loved Catherine, passionate is likely the word that comes first and foremost to mind when we think of her. Fiercely passionate, protective, and tireless in her fight against injustice, Catherine wasn’t shy about letting you know what she cared about, and she wasn’t going to go easy on you if she thought you might be standing in the way of equality.

One of her friends recalled that he “had the opportunity to witness her profound care and concern for people, particularly those facing disadvantages in society. Catherine would often speak passionately about the children she met during her research interviews and her desire to change societal norms and systems that posed obstacles to their well-being. She would shed tears when discussing potential harm that children might have experienced. Her face would light up when she shared stories of positive changes resulting from her work and advocacy for the well-being of women and children. For Catherine, there was no dichotomy between work and personal life. Her dedication to gender equity and children’s well-being was her work, passion, and her life”

Such was her fire that it’s impossible to imagine a future without her, but it’s also impossible to imagine a future where her legacy doesn’t continue.

I first met Catherine when she was finishing up her MA in Human Rights at the University of West England where she received a Distinction, and she was introduced to me by EJ Renold who Catherine was a research assistant for at the time. We quickly became friends and subsequently worked together on three projects on girls’ rights for the charity Plan International UK, with Catherine taking on the focus on Welsh girls and young women. Anyone who worked with Catherine loved working with her, she approached any project with absolute enthusiasm, a commitment to justice and a fierce sense of humour. As part of her doctoral journey, working under the supervision of Professor Dawn Mannay and Dr Kevin Smith, Catherine continued in this vein. In 2022 Catherine was presented the Audrey Jones Awards for the work on her thesis to date, which further demonstrates the quality of her research and writing.

Friends and colleagues from her PhD community paint a picture of Catherine as just the best person to have around, funny, smart, generous in her spirit and unwavering in her support. Catherine was everyone’s hype-girl. While there were times when it was challenging for her, Catherine, like so many of us to be the first in our family to go to university, to be a mature student, to be at once both ‘Mum’ and ‘student’, delighted in connecting with other ‘misfit’ academics. She would always be the first to let you know that she was grateful for your presence, she was never shy to call out injustice and she absolutely delighted in lifting others. Her friend recalled “When I think of Catherine, I remember her as a source of empowerment and unwavering support for the well-being of people, especially women and children. She had an incredibly kind heart and would go above and beyond to assist others. She took the time to listen and always offered her helping hand to uplift those in need. Personally, she lifted me countless times, and her caring nature left a lasting impact on all who knew her. Many people who interacted with Catherine will fondly remember her asking, “hey, are you okay?”; and “how can I help, my love?”.”

In 2022 Catherine and I published a jointly written chapter on Girls and Mental Health and it was an experience I’ll always treasure. While I was off meeting the academic conventions Catherine would pull me back to make the writing more engaging for the intended audience. Whenever I reread this piece (which I have done a few times since Catherine’s passing) I can’t help but read this line in her voice: “Say it with us. Accountability is everything.” These seven words illustrate Catherine’s approach to writing, academia and activism perfectly. She didn’t just want you to understand the problem, she wanted to hear you say how you will be part of the solution.

Prior to her arrival in academia, Catherine’s career showed her deep commitment to gender equality for children and young people. In 2017 she joined Welsh Women’s Aid as a Children and Young People Public Affairs Officer and a Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) Trainer. As part of this role she worked with service providers, Welsh Government, schools and the police to advocate for young people’s rights and to train service providers in gender equality (you can read the Welsh Women’s Aid tribute to Catherine here). One of Catherine’s most valuable skills was her ability to speak across groups and to garner enthusiasm from others for gender equality work. Colleagues from Welsh Women’s Aid described Catherine as ‘unfaltering force for good’ an opinion that echoes across all of the tributes that have come from her friends and family. Her previous experience included copywriting, editing, and content management for not-for-profits and she also worked with CAFCASS Cymru on children and young people’s experiences. In 2014 she completed an internship with UN Women in New York which Catherine was immensely proud of (you can read her writing about this experience here). Catherine also took great enjoyment in writing poetry and fiction prose.

Words can’t do justice to the way Catherine made you feel; supported, loved, valued, and there remains a great sense of injustice to losing her so early. She was, and is, loved by so many and both professionally and personally, and her loss has been acutely felt, she still had so much to say and to do. So, in the spirit of Catherine, and her love for poetry I leave you with a poem of hope from Catherine herself:

Things don’t stay the same for long, so
wherever you are hang on. Even if your
fingernails splinter and all you feel is winter
deep in your bones

When there is no comfort at home, and no love
to call your own. When you feel like your soul is
broken and all the words spoken are of loss

You have the power to shower yourself with all
you need, you’re already complete.
You are not the actions or words of others, you
are not drowning in shame. You’re not to
blame.

So hang on, and soon you’ll plant your feet on
a different street. The season will change, cold
winds replaced by birds in trees and the low
hum of bees

You’ll have love at home, which will be your
own. Your heart will repair and you’ll feel safe,
in that place that reminds you you’re
strong and you’ve found where you belong.

So hang on.

Catherine Thomas, 1979 – 2023.

people around a globe
genderanded Featured Stories

Collaboration, communication and connection: Reflections on the politics of carrying out international feminist research

By Tamsin Hinton-Smith, University of Sussex; Fawzia Mazanderani, University of Sussex; Nupur Samuel, O.P. Jindal Global University; Anna CohenMiller, Nazarbayev University; and Ruth Goodman, University of Sussex 

In January 2021 as an interdisciplinary team of feminist academics from participating universities in five countries, we embarked on a research project seeking to interrogate and increase gender inclusion and sensitivity in the focus and approach of higher education teaching in universities across five participating countries: India, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, and UK. Set against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and with technology as the only bridge between us, our journey as a research team was not always smooth. In this blog we reflect on the challenges faced as a research team and our developing learning from being part of the research process. Gender on the Higher Education Learning Agenda Internationally is a 2-year British Academy funded research project funded as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, with a central focus on equitable collaborative partnership between global north and global south countries to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.  

Reflections on the research journey 

The formal research design from the outset focused around online survey and interview data collection with university students and staff across partner institutions. However, as we undertook this research underpinned by principles of equitable collaboration, as feminist researchers we became increasingly aware of the need to focus more on reflecting on the research process and challenges within this, alongside the substantive focus.   

Through our mutual reflections on our research journey, four themes emerged: communication styles and expectations, our sense of connectedness, the embodied and emotional dimensions to carrying out the research, and ethical considerations in terms of where power sat across countries and individuals. 

We hope this blog provides interest to anyone concerned with the promotion of more equitable ways of researching collaboratively across intersections of gender, ethnicity, country context and academic seniority. 

Complex communication 

The research took place during the Covid-19 pandemic and so communication, and the majority of data collection, took place online. With all aspects of the research being conducted remotely, the ‘digital divide’ became apparent with inequalities arising both in access to internet but also confidence and experience using technical tools. Internet access and power outages compromised some colleagues in participating fully in all online meetings resulting in frustration and compromising opportunities for people to have their voices heard.  

 
Research outputs were translated into local languages to support equity of access of research insights. However, reflecting colonial legacies, English was the first language of two of the partner countries (UK and Nigeria), the language of academia in India, and third language after French in Morocco, and after Russian in Kazakhstan, and so was the common project language shared by all research team members.  The use of English as the project language represented uncomfortable communication inequalities, placing additional burdens on team members communicating verbally and in writing in a second or third language.  

Beyond the need to translate languages there is also the challenge of translating cultural understandings. As the Morocco based research assistant expressed, ‘we don’t usually have the same interpretation, and this causes sometimes problems of understanding and problems of progress.’ For example, assumptions about what is meant by gender in different international contexts, for instance, whether ‘non-binary’ was a relevant and appropriate gender option for our surveys, resulted in difference of opinion and reinforced the need for clear and explicit communication and to create a space where clarifying understandings and reflecting together were encouraged. Differences in assumptions and understanding existed for research practices more broadly including frequency and conventions for communication.  

Connectedness and humanisation of research process 

Conducting international research as feminist scholars, connectedness and humanisation of the research process, was of strong importance influencing the way sought to carry out the research. Not all of the co-investigators had met each other in-person, and the research assistants were appointed specifically for the project and had no prior connections with any other team members, so actively creating online spaces to get to know each other was central to the success of the project as a collaborative endeavour. We met regularly as a Team via zoom, including space for informal as well as project management discussion within this, and made sure that all stages of the research process were developed as a team in a consultative manner.  

Embodied experience and affect 

Online research design brings the potential to disrupt the privileging of embodied presence that favours able bodies, geographic proximity and monetary access to education. Yet, working in this way brought with it challenges to managing time zone conflicts and pressures encompassed in the collapsing of work and home, that virtual communication brings about.  

The pandemic required all team members to adopt new working patterns in terms of homeworking and researchers experienced intense experiences in the lifecycle of the project including childcare; illness of loved ones; and the emotional impact of fulfilling pastoral responsibilities for students in the context of the pandemic. The latter was particularly acute in India in Summer 2021 when pandemic conditions made continuing with the research in any meaningful way temporarily impossible. A humanising approach was vital to making sure that our continuation of the research through these challenging times took place in a way that recognised and supported what the research team and participants were negotiating in their wider lives.  

Ethical concerns and considerations 

Finally, we faced ethical challenges in moving beyond hierarchical approaches to knowledge production where research on the Global South is conducted by researchers from the Global North, to achieving equitable partnership in practice.  

However diligently we sought to attend to feminist ethics around voice, power and collaboration; practicalities including technological inequalities around access, reliability and confidence continued to challenge the potential to meet the goals of equitable participation. Requirements to lead ethical approval, data storage, video conferencing hosting, and paying of budgets, all through UK lead organisations, provides a constant reminder of hierarchies of participation. One researcher expressed how:  

‘Research, which is being done in the countries of Global South, it can be funded by international organizations or it can be funded locally, but what we have at the end of the day, the research outcomes, they are not widely circulated in the local communities.  They go to the Global North…’ (Kazakhstan Research Assistant). 

It is with this in mind that it has been particularly important in this project to ensure translation of key outputs and for the research team to support development of outputs identified by international team members as important to local agendas and audiences. 

Conclusion 

In this blog we have reflected on the process and experience of undertaking collaborative feminist research into gender equality in higher education, as an interdisciplinary, international research team. Through our reflective practice we hope to generate a wider understanding around the challenges of carrying out research equitably in practice, alongside our substantive focus on understanding gender (in)equality in higher education.  

An in-depth reflexive exploration of the process and experience of undertaking collaborative feminist research into gender equality in higher education, as an interdisciplinary, international research team can be found in the forthcoming publication:  

Hinton-Smith, T., Mazanderani, F.,  Samuel, N., and CohenMiller, A. (2022) ‘Co-creating cross-cultural approaches to gender mainstreaming in higher education: experiences and challenges in developing an interdisciplinary, international feminist knowledge-exchange research approach’, in CohenMiller, A., Hinton-Smith, T., Mazanderani, F., and Samuel, N. (Eds.) Leading Change in Gender and Diversity in Higher Education from Margins to Mainstream. Routledge: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003286943 

school toilets
genderanded Blog Writing

Toilet Talk: Empowering young people in schools to research and talk about toilet issues

A GEA Funded project

By Alice Little, Josh, Oscar, Elliot, Charlotte Haines-Lyon, & Nathalie Noret

Pupil toilets are a problematic space in school. Pupils often report feeling unsafe and being concerned about the cleanliness and hygiene of school toilets. As such are often reluctant to use the toilets in school time. We aimed to work with young people to explore and challenge common toilet narratives to develop healthier, more equitable toilet practice.  

Working with young people, we developed a participatory research project to examine: how can young people work with schools to develop toilet policy and practice that is safe, healthy, and socially just? We successfully recruited a secondary school in South Yorkshire to participate in the project. The school had recently conducted a student voice survey and identified a problem with the school toilets. Our student as researchers group decided to investigate this further.

Consistent with our participatory approach to the project, our blog post is co-authored with members of our young people research team, Josh, Oscar, and Elliot. This approach was approved by our institutional ethics board. We highlight why the young people decided to get in the project, what they have done so far in the project, and why they feel Toilet Talk is important.

Why get involved?

Josh – My motivations for joining Toilet Talk was to gain an insight into the processes and factors considered during a research project at University standard. I joined Toilet Talk with these intentions in mind and soon became invested into the opinions and attitudes towards toilets and their usage from the answers given by students at my school and sixth form.

Oscar – I joined Toilet Talk because I have always felt that the quality of school toilets is below adequacy – I believed that through Toilet Talk, we would be able to make meaningful change to our Sixth Form, lower school, and schools across the country. I also felt that the research aspect would be quite interesting, i.e., looking at statistics from peers etc. I was interested in seeing if my opinions on the toilets in and around Sixth Form were shared among peers.

What we have done so far

Alice, Josh & Oscar – Initially we set out to work in a participatory way where the young people could lead the direction of the project. The young researchers chose a method for collecting data about school toilets. We began collaborating on choosing questions that could be asked to other pupils within the sixth form. We discussed ethical considerations such as confidentiality and safeguarding. An aim was to provide reassurance to pupils that we would respect their anonymity when answering the questionnaire. The team of pupil researchers wanted to make sure that respondents felt comfortable and could answer truthfully without any worry of any repercussions. The sessions were held in 25-minute form time slots, which fitted into the school day and were flexible to accommodate those who wanted to take part.  

Some of our findings so far

Josh & Oscar – Initially we believed that social space and toilets were connected; our finding concurred that our predictions and estimations were closely matching to the outcome of the Student Voice Survey. 62% of respondents stating that the toilets in Sixth Form were being used as a social space, with 23% specifying that the toilets do not address all needs of pupils. It would be interesting to see if these findings and statistics are generally found across the country in all genders and age brackets – it would be helpful to research further into school toilets to confirm this belief. It was insightful to discover that many of our views on the toilets were shared with our peers as well.

Why these findings are important and our next steps

Josh & Oscar – Collectively, we agreed that sharing our findings with the head of our Sixth Form would be helpful in working towards a solution with the Student Voice Surveys in mind. An intention was to specifically address the findings on social space and accessibility, as we believe these are the key elements that are contributary towards achieving a more comfortable environment for students using the toilets. We believed that through our research being conducted alongside York St John University researchers, our student voice was elevated, and responses would be better received by our Sixth Form and its management. Therefore, hopefully the findings will result in a higher chance of action being taken towards the facilities, better improving the overall conditions for ourselves and our peers. We believe a higher quality environment is deserved for pupils within our sixth form, especially with equitable toilets being a basic human right.

The young researchers facilitated a meeting with senior leadership, and it became clear that no toilet policy existed within the sixth form. An action plan was created that included the co-creation of a toilet policy, and clear expectations to be set out in whole year group assemblies. The young researchers have opened dialogue with the leadership team about expectations and conditions of the sixth form toilets and they wanted to continue this discussion moving forward.

The Toilet Talk project has highlighted the benefits of employing a participatory approach when undertaking research in schools on sensitive and challenging topics. The young researchers in this project have highlighted how important it was to feel listened to and contribute to a meaningful discussion with their school leadership on their research findings. This has led to a change in school policy and practice related to school toilets.

This research secured ethical approval from the York St John University, School of Education, Language and Linguistics, Ethics Committee in January 2022. Written consent was received from the young people to take part in the Toilet Talk project and those involved in writing the blog attended a workshop session on authorship and anonymity within academia, and verbally consented to being named co-authors.

This blog post explores the Gender and Education Association 2021 funded research project titled Toilet Talk: Empowering young people in schools to research and talk about toilet issues, led by Dr Charlotte Haines Lyon.

embroidery of women with her mouth covered with hand
genderanded Blog Writing, Featured Stories

Visually carving the everydayness of gendered violence: Using embroideries to call for action

By Professor Puleng Segalo and Dr Tinyiko Chauke

Many South African women live in fear due to the high levels of gender-based violence (GBV). Moreover, one in five (21%) women in South Africa who have intimate partners, have  experienced physical violence by their partners. More significantly, black women are identified in South Africa’s parliament report as the most vulnerable group to intimate partner violence due to their unemployment status, which is at an alarming rate of 30%. In 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 there were 902 cases of femicide, and 11,315 were sexual assault cases committed against women.However, People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) is not convinced of the statistics as they believe that these do not provide a true reflection of women’s plight. They do acknowledge, however, that these statistics offer a glimpse of the seriousness of gendered violence in women’s everyday lives.

Therefore, it is critical to create spaces for dialogues to engage with the numerous ways in which gender-based violence affects women in the community. Visual methods and creative arts have been central to African social life and cultural construction even before colonialism took hold of African lives. We, therefore, draw from these methods to engage and reflect on the everydayness of GBV.

A work of art

Addressing social challenges through creative arts

Visual methods offer the vocabulary to often unspoken atrocities and traumas that people have experienced in their lives. Gender-based violence is a global challenge dubbed the parallel pandemic affecting communities alongside Covid-19. In a context such as South Africa where the unemployment rate is very high, many women stay in abusive relationships as alternatives do not appear to be in place. Therefore, it is critical to create dialogues, awareness, and empowerment opportunities where women can engage on alternatives and possibilities for better and safer lives. Visual participatory projects offer an opportunity for collective reflection, creating spaces for solidarity, and thinking differently about challenges confronting women. One such visual method is embroidery. Artworks such as embroideries force people to pause and reflect on the perpetual injustices and challenges confronting us daily. Furthermore, artistic visual images such as embroidery are useful tools that can be utilised to represent people’s reflections of their everyday experiences. Embroidery has the potential to contribute to how we make meaning of everyday realities, and how we can imagine the possible transformation of society. Gender-based violence has become an integral part of our lives — it has become part of ‘the everyday’, and it is therefore important to pay attention to this everydayness – the taken for granted; and how these have detrimental effects on the functioning of individuals, families, and ultimately, the whole society.

A call for action

Visual methodologies such as embroideries precipitate social change. They facilitate the co-production of knowledge in contexts where social injustice occurs. When shared publicly or disseminated on wider public platforms, such creative images have a wider reach, aiding critical awareness of the varied forms of oppression and sometimes raising awareness on the ways in which women internalise oppression knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. With embroidery, there is space to look beyond the perceived hopelessness where women are perceived as victims who do not have the power to change their circumstances. Instead, embroidery also highlights how women resist with the courage and determination to change their circumstances. Furthermore, embroidery offers the opportunity to highlight structural violence and inequalities (for example, patriarchy, unemployment, poverty, lack of access to proper education and health systems) that directly impact people’s everyday encounters. Women coming together to make embroideries that show how gender-based violence makes a home in all aspects of women’s lives, at the personal, the collective and the structural level, is a plea for action. The coming together further allows women to analyse policies and laws on GBV and how that affects their everyday lives.   

Women’s embroideries in communities may also serve as props for public community dialogues. With the various themes that the embroideries highlight (e.g. being hassled in the streets, domestic violence, being accused of witchery, human trafficking, substance abuse, to name a few) we come together as academics, school learners, and community women at various places and platforms within the community to engage on what these themes mean to all of us. We come together to share stories of survival — share networking and referral processes — to speak about possible steps that could be taken by the communities themselves and how the government can take women’s concerns and recommendations forward to effect relevant policies on GBV. 

Conclusion

It is clear that gender-based violence affects all of us either directly or indirectly. Therefore, the call for action is a challenge to all of us to play our role in the spaces we occupy. We should refuse to keep silent in the face of injustice and instead hold each other accountable and collectively work towards sustainable outcomes. From the micro to the macro level, attention has to be given to how gender-based violence affects us. After all, Women’s rights are human rights!

This blog post explores the Gender and Education Association 2021 funded research project titled Embroidery as a visual methodology that carves a bridge for dialogue, led by Professor Puleng Segalo.

genderanded Call for papers

CFP: Racing Class/Classing Race: New Directions in the Sociology of Education

A BSA Early Career Forum Regional Event
Monday, 6 June 2022
10am – 5pm
Brunel University London, Kingston Lane Uxbridge UB8 3PH

Proposals for oral presentations are invited for this BSA Early Career Forum supported one-day in-person event which will drive fresh conversations around the intersection of race and social class within the sociology of education and beyond. In recent years, post-racial ideologies that deny the existence of structural racism has gathered pace in the UK.

At the same time, race- and class-based inequalities have been pitted against each other. These discourses not only fail to grasp the complexities of the issues in hand, but actively deflect attention away from the way racial and classed inequalities within education are interlocked and co-constituted. The COVID-19 pandemic too has laid bare the deep seated racial and classed inequalities in contemporary Britain, which pose challenges to existing sociological frameworks.

Against this backdrop, it is more relevant than ever before to bring together both established and early career sociologists working on the intersection of social class and race to reflect on the current state of affairs, showcase ongoing research projects in the field of education, build networks and further our collective struggle for a more just and equal society. Oral presentations must engage with issues of race and class as they are constructed, represented and experienced in diverse educational settings.

Key Dates:
• Deadline for submission of abstracts (300 words): 2nd May 2022
• Decision communicated by: 9th May 2022
• Date of the event: 6th June 2022

Please send 300-word abstracts (with 50-word bio-note) and enquiries to Dr Utsa Mukherjee (utsa.mukherjee @ brunel.ac.uk)

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
• Prof Sally Tomlinson (University of Oxford and Goldsmiths University of London)
• Dr Pere Ayling (University of Suffolk)

[Please Note: The event will take place at the Uxbridge Campus of Brunel University London with a possibility for remote participation, if needed]

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genderanded Call for papers

Call for Chapters – Questioning Gender Politics: Contextualising the Future of Education and Schooling in Uncertain Times

Teaching with Gender Book Series

Schooling continues to be a very important site where gender relations and sexual politics take place (Mac an Ghaill, 1994; Mac an Ghaill, 1996; Haywood & Mac an Ghaill, 1996; Lesko, 2000; Renold, 2005; Ringrose and Renold, 2012; Mendes et al, 2022). This book explores the role of education amidst persisting gender inequalities in education and schooling. This book will present theoretical explorations, case studies and emerging research mapping out some of the oppressive sexist and patriarchal cultures affecting the educational lives of young people today in educational settings and across various national contexts. The book will also offer an opportunity to host an international forum on contemporary thinking on education and the inequalities that characterise processes of education around the world. The chapters will provide a modern look into education, looking at pressing gender and sexuality issues in educational sectors, including schooling. In previous works a critical feminist approach has been suggested for education (Weiler and Arnot, 1993; Walby 1997, Ng et al, 1995; Ringrose 2013), yet, it is important to continue to explore the shifting issues and concerns of the feminist theoretical debates in order to help shape future feminist agendas better suited for our changing international educational landscapes.

Crucially, the book also poses critical questions needed to frame education differently: Can schools be redefined to be more inclusive? Should the school be more accountable for instilling a sense of political agency in students so that students feel confident in challenging inequalities? Are there any ways in which schools can open up more opportunities to challenge toxic student and staff cultures? What modes of student collaboration and resistance enable an ethical response to the inequitable distribution of common rights at school? What concepts can be utilised beyond traditional concepts to better address gender inequalities in schooling? The book seeks to pose these critical questions and
through its contributions help rethink education and learning beyond the curriculum, and in a way that appeals both to modern schooling, and our popular imagination on education.

Emergent inequalities in gender are associated with the interpretation of gender identities as binary opposites. This book will present scholarly challenges to these binaries which continue to uncritically construct idealised femininities and masculinities as the only possibilities to enact gender, and as necessarily oppositional. In doing this, the book is
contributing to the discourse of, ‘deconstruction of binaries’, best understood through feminist scholarly research and theory (Kristeva 1981; Sedgwick, 2008; White et al, 2017; Youdell, 2006). Consequently, the book will develop its themes guided by some of the critical questions posed previously but with a focus on contemporary formations of gender identity.

In this way the book aims to illustrate how education is an important physical, material and ideological site for understanding and challenging stubborn gender inequalities. Contrary to postfeminist discourses that claim gender equity has been achieved and therefore feminism is redundant, the book positions itself within existing research outlining how gender issues and power cultures have in many cases changed from plain to more insidious inequalities (Ringrose and Epstein, 2015). The notion of education is also expanded in this book, with a focus on more alternative forms of education, such as, youth activisms, creative pedagogies and media research. The book will provide conceptual as well as pedagogical contributions which will help students and educators understand current debates and issues around gender, whilst also reflecting critically on the role of education in turbulent times.

Extended abstracts may be related to, but not necessarily limited to the following themes:

  1. Feminist, material and affective ontologies in education
  2. Heteronormative cultures in education
  3. Innovative feminist pedagogies
  4. Black feminisms in education
  5. Gender activisms – case studies and empirical studies
  6. Gender and sexual identities in education and schooling
  7. Young people as agents of change
  8. Acts of school feminisms
  9. Gender and sexuality extra-curricular learning
  10. Social media and digital activisms and education
  11. Deconstructing institutional power relations
  12. Problematising gender relations in education
  13. New ontologies of gender and sexuality
  14. Acts of school resistance as social justice
  15. Repositioning extra-curricular learning in education
  16. Emerging queer activisms in education
  17. Theorisations against patriarchy in education

Extended abstracts of 700 to 1,000 words (inclusive of citations) are invited for selection; please email jbustillos-morales @ brookes.ac.uk to submit your abstract. Submissions should be made in Word format by 1st July 2022. Please ensure the document has the following details.

  1. Title of chapter
  2. Theme under which chapter is submitted
  3. Name of author/s
  4. Institutional affiliation
  5. Email address – with designated corresponding author, if there are multiple authors
  6. Brief Bio (max. 250 words)
  7. Any other additional links or URLs relevant to authors’ bio and chapters (i.e social media
    campaigns, websites etc)

Suggested timeline:

  • Call for Chapters submission: July 2022
  • Acceptance of contributions: August 2022
  • First submission of full chapters: February 2023
  • Editor’s first feedback on full chapters: April 2023
  • Reviewed chapters sent back to editor: June 2023
  • Editor’s second feedback: July 2023
  • Second submission of full chapters: September 2023
  • Full manuscript sent to publisher: December 2023

Editor details:
Dr Jessie Bustillos Morales
Senior Lecturer in Education, Oxford Brookes University
orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3355-6617

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genderanded Call for papers

CFP: Intersectional approaches to educational research through a gendered lens

CFP (Call for papers) SPECIAL ISSUE of the EUROPEAN EDUCATION RESEARCH JOURNAL

TITLE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE: Intersectional approaches to educational research through a gendered lens

Guest Editors:

CONTACT PERSON: Dr Victoria Showunmi, v.showunmi@ucl.ac.uk

ABSTRACT OF THEME/TOPIC OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE:

This Special Issue of the European Educational Research Journal is led by EERA’s Gender and Education Network, and it is on the theme of gender, intersectionality and educational research, a topic which was a focus of the Network at the 2019 ECER annual conference.  It will feature papers from early career and established researchers. 

Race, class, and gender were once seen as separate issues for members of both dominant and subordinate groups. Scholars now generally agree that these issues along with ethnicity, nation, age and sexuality and how they intersect are integral to individuals’ positions in the social world (PH Collins 2006; Arrighi 2001; Collins 1993; Cuadraz, G. H., & Uttal, L. (1999).  Ore 2000; Rothman et al.2005; Weber 2004) Scholars using the intersectional approach will socially locate individuals in the context of their ‘real lives’ (Weber 2006). They also examine how both formal and informal systems of power are deployed, maintained, and reinforced through axes of race, class and gender (Collins 1998; Weber 2006). Research using the intersectional approach broadly extends across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Understanding of the cumulative impact of structural inequalities arising from gender, race, class, disability and LGBTQI+, on educational institutions and student and staff participation, experience, and achievement within education, requires that intersectional perspectives are further developed (Fuller 2017, Showunmi 2017, Lumby 2011). Historically, critical researchers, especially feminist and race scholars, have decried the inability of the educational sector to challenge power hierarchies and undermine the dominance of white, masculine, heterosexual and ableist knowledges and practices. These  reproduce the negative intersecting effects of gender, race, class, ethnicity, disability and LGBTQI+ (hooks 1989; Abu-Lughud Soziologin 1991; Kandiyoti 2002; Narayan 1993; Skeggs 1997; Smith 2012).  However, there are a myriad of reasons why intersectional understandings have not successfully challenged the status quo.  Arguably we lack the core theories to enable us to engage with the complexity of dominant processes and develop effective transformational praxis relating to different forms of intersectionality (Abbas, Taylor and Amande-Escot, 2019). 

There are three  areas that are pertinent to transforming educational systems through intersectional approaches and where there are promising existing bodies of research to build on. They are relevant across Europe and to all educational sectors: from early years to all types of post-compulsory education. Firstly, in relation to exucational leadership, we need to increase the number of people with lived experience of combined intersectional inequalities at all levels of education. Senior positions are dominated by White men, and Black women have the lowest representation of any ethnic and gender group (Lumby 2011).   In addition, LGBTQI+ and people with disabilities are virtually invisible publically and in the research literature regarding leadership  (Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, 2017 Lee, 2020).  Secondly, a wealth of research suggests that pedagogies and curricula that are inclusive, inspiring, and representative of diverse students, their cultures, communities, and ways of knowing, are needed if future generations are to succeed in building equity from their intersecting identities and positionalities (Abbas, 2019).  Change and social justice cannot be achieved unless we understand how intersectional lenses can enrich and inform praxis. Finally, how do we understand and prevent the marginalisation of critical intersectional knowledges in research and teaching? It is important to focus inclusively on each marginalised group in the context of intersectionality. In the past, Black women, LGBTQI and those with disabilities, for example, have been neglected in relation to all of the fields we have identified.  

We would like to invite researchers, theorists and evidence-based practitioners to submit discursive papers that engage in issues regarding the development of   intersectional approaches. We are interested in papers that generate new analytical, critical and methodological perspectives. The aim is to highlight ways of combating the role of education in generating and increasing inequalities.

 The following themes are relevant:

  • Exploring the combined effects of forms of inequality in education
  • The role of curricula and pedagogies in challenging the dominance of whiteness, ableism, masculinity, cis-genderism and other structural inequalities
  • The value of broader or narrower notions of intersectionality
  • How insights into intersectionality can effectively tackle the marginalisation of critical and equalising knowledges within educational contexts
  • Intersectional approaches to gender, race, disability, sexuality, socio-economic backgroundand leadership

EXPECTED DATE FOR SUBMISSION FIRST FULL DRAFTS: 

January 2022    

References

Abbas, A. (2019) ‘Tackling intersecting gender inequalities through disciplinary-based higher education curricula: A Bernsteinian approach’  in Taylor, Amade-Escot  and Abbas (eds) (2019)  Gender in Learning and Teaching: Feminist Dialogues Across International Boundaries. Routledge.

Abbas, A., Taylor, C. & Amade-Escot, C., 26 Apr 2019, Introduction: Debates across Anglophone and European Didactics traditions in Taylor, Amade-Escot and Abbas (eds)  Gender in Learning and Teaching: Feminist Dialogues Across International Boundaries. Routledge.

Arrighi, B. A. (Ed.). (2001). Understanding inequality: The intersection of race/ethnicity, class, and gender. Rowman & Littlefield.

Collins, P. H. (1993). The sexual politics of black womanhood. Violence against women: The bloody footprints, 85-104.

Collins, R. L. (1998). Social identity and HIV infection: The experiences of gay men living with HIV.

Collins, P. H. (2006). Sisters and brothers: Black feminists on womanism. The womanist reader, 57-67.

Cuadraz, G. H., & Uttal, L. (1999). Intersectionality and in-depth interviews: Methodological strategies for analyzing race, class, and gender. Race, Gender & Class, 156-186.

Fuller, K. (2017). Women secondary head teachers in England: Where are they now?. Management in Education, 31(2), 54-68.

Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (2017) Encouraging disabled leaders in higher education: recognising hidden talents, Stimlus Paper by Martin, N. https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/download/f42d907f8b3ede580d56bd372faffc4d39e6c3e6c1f7201de41eff39c66ef761/707151/Encouraging-Disabled-Leaders-in-Higher-Education.pdf

Lee, C. (2020) Why LGBT teachers may make exceptional school leaders, Frontiers in Sociology, 5, 2,  https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00050.

Weber, L., & Fore, M. E. (2007). Race, ethnicity, and health: An intersectional approach. In Handbooks of the sociology of racial and ethnic relations (pp. 191-218). Springer, Boston, MA.

Ore, T. E., & Kurtz, P. (2000). The social construction of difference and inequality. Mayfield Publishing.

Rothman, S., Lichter, S. R., & Nevitte, N. (2005, March). Politics and professional advancement among college faculty. In The Forum (Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-16).

Showunmi, V., & Kaparou, M. (2017). The challenge of leadership: ethnicity and gender among school leaders in England, Malaysia and Pakistan. In Cultures of Educational Leadership (pp. 95-119). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Weber, L., & Fore, M. E. (2007). Race, ethnicity, and health: An intersectional approach. In Handbooks of the sociology of racial and ethnic relations (pp. 191-218). Springer, Boston, MA.

genderanded Issues

Developing ‘hybrid’ workshops for online feminist consciousness raising

Developing ‘hybrid’ workshops for online feminist consciousness raising: Reflections from our work with the Malaysian Youth Council 


by Dr Syafiqah Abdul Rahim (Malaysian Youth Council) and Dr Hannah Walters (UCL)


Two youth researchers in different time zones login to a Zoom meeting. For one, it is 6.45am, rainy and still dark, as she sits alone in her living room in Glasgow waiting for the meeting to start. For the other, it is 2.45pm and a warm Kuala Lumpur afternoon, where she anxiously waits with other members of the Malaysian Youth Council secretariat, head buzzing with the thought of technical issues and other members’ expectations of the event ahead.

Working together over a distance of over six thousand miles, they have spent the last few months preparing to hold a hybrid event aimed at bridging the material and virtual worlds in an effort to create a safe space for feminist discussion and consciousness raising activities with members of different Malaysian youth organisations from across the country.


In this blog post we discuss the aims of the workshop, the methods we developed to meet these aims, and where we see the project going in the future. In doing so we hope our work will speak to some of the challenges other youth, gender and education researchers have met since the outbreak of Covid-19 and consequent shift to online spaces for so much of our educational lives in recent times. More broadly, we hope to contribute ideas and strategies for educators, activists and researchers to make the most of online spaces – a way to bring  a sense of real-worldness and materiality to a virtual space, in particular around the use of arts-based and participatory methods. 


Themes and goals of the workshop

The current project started with a simple conversation around the place of feminism in Malaysian youth movements. We were cognisant that, in spite of its focus on intersectionality, Fourth Wave feminism as a movement for the most part remains entrenched in ‘Western’ ideas of gender and equality. We were curious as to how contemporary feminist debates were mobilised in Malaysian youth groups, and which issues were important to these young women and girls. It was out of these discussions came our plan to design an event that was part-consciousness raising, part-creative, participatory workshop. 

To this end we defined the broad theme of ‘What it’s like to be a girl in a youth movement’ for the event. We hoped this question – aimed at encouraging participants to interrogate their gendered experiences within their youth activism – would serve as a catalyst for consciousness-raising discussion and activities around feminism. We wanted to define a safe space which would allow participants to: discuss their feelings around their gendered experiences and standpoints; discuss their feminism/feminist identities; and/or facilitate feminist consciousness raising for those new to feminist theory and movement. Simply put, we hoped all participants (including organisers) would leave the event with a renewed energy and investment in their feminist identities as part of their broader youth activist work, regardless of whether these ideas were relatively new or well embedded in their practice.  

Based on these principles, we developed a module guided by the following key statements:

  • Feminism as an everyday practice
  • Feminism is for everybody

We wanted to ‘normalise’ feminism and emphasise the idea that feminist work can be part of routine, everyday activities and interactions which promote solidarity between women and girls, embed an ethos of support and care, and raise the profile of feminist causes. In doing so, we hoped to modify preconceived notions around what feminism is/means, and what kind of people feminists are, for participants. This served to (in part, at least) eschew problematic images of feminist-as-man hater, feminist-as-angry, feminist-as-dogmatic – commonplace ‘backlash’ narratives worldwide, which one of us had witnessed in the Malaysian context through the online scrutiny of young women who ‘called out’ sexism on social media. At the same time, we wanted to make it clear that we can all be part of a feminist cause without the need to take part in public modes of feminist politics, such as marches, protests, public discussions, campaigning, training and so on. Simply put, we hoped to encourage the feeling that feminism is for everybody, that feminists are just like me and you, and that the barrier to entry into feminism as a meaningful political movement are low, i.e. can be enacted as routine; in the everyday.

During the event, this took the form of sharing and prompting for examples of feminism as an everyday practice. We shared feminist memes and gifs; we discussed how solidarity could be as simple as a supportive text to a friend; participants raised and made visible examples of feminism in action in their own work (including those who might not have identified as feminist). We believe that this was an effective consciousness raising activity which served to make feminism both palatable and accessible, while still maintaining the meaning of the movement: equality and solidarity for and amongst women and girls. 



Bringing the virtual to life – finding real-worldness in online spaces

We did not want to replicate the online events we had seen elsewhere. It was important to us that the event felt interactive, and that the participants were partners in co-producing a safe space for feminist discussion. Consciousness raising activities were thus designed to probe our – both participants’ and facilitators’ – relationships with and understandings of feminism, feminist activism, and how gendered inequalities impact our lives. Taking this a step further, we developed a range of strategies designed to make the discussion feel less hierarchical, and encourage open communication between participants. We encouraged participants to use the chat box to respond to ideas raised, and to use the stamp function on Zoom to draw attention to items of interest on the screen.

Alongside these tactics for breaking down the artificiality of online spaces, we also wanted to bring in a sense of materiality. To do this we developed a poster-making workshop by creating craft packs which we sent out to participants in advance. 

The packs contained hard backing paper, craft paper, scissors, glue, washi tape, glitter, pipe cleaners, stickers, pages from magazines pages and felt-tip pens. We also included items in line with an ethos of self-care and feminist caring practices, including face masks (one clinical, one sheet mask) and hand sanitiser. 

A strategy was adopted from the YouTube ‘unboxing’ trend, whereby all participants who had been posted the pack were asked not to open it until the event. Opening it together, all at once, gave the event a sense of being not only linked by the material sense of touching, feeling and engaging with the same materials, but also that we were working in a shared realtime. 

Following the discussion, we all opened our packs together. The enthusiasm in the space was tangible, as participants excitedly opened the package to discover the contents. 

We shared some images of simple feminist posters as inspiration, and discussed the ethos of DIY projects and ‘craftivism’ in feminist movement. Listening to a feminist-inspired playlist, broadcast via Zoom, we began making our individual posters. 

So, what did we learn and what’s next?

This was our first hybrid workshop and it taught us about the specific value of a feminist ethos in online spaces. Everyone, participants and facilitators, were working hard to be present in the virtual meeting space, and to build real connections online – in spite of our shared awareness that sometimes, as with many virtual events, we can feel like disconnected faces on a screen. We learned valuable lessons in the construction of a safe space to discuss feelings around sexism, feminism and gendered experiences, as well as a space in which to energise and inspire each other in our broader activist work. We were required to navigate the competing public and private spaces at work in activist circles, and respect these barriers when discussing complex, sometimes sensitive topics. This included considering the nature of sexism at work in activists’ lives, and the relationship these experiences had to their broader feelings about activism.  

We felt the posters that came out of the event demonstrated a keen awareness of specific feminist issues arising in participants’ lives. People explored body image issues, femininity, gender in workplaces, as well as broad themes of solidarity and sisterhood. Posters were as diverse in design as the topics discussed and there were many innovative and creative responses to the brief. Some made TikTok videos of their poster-making, sharing these online and bringing the virtual back in! More broadly, we felt the hybrid nature of the workshop, with physical craft packs and the tactile experience they facilitated, altered the feel of the event. It allowed for a greater feeling of connection between us all, and a sense that we were working in a shared space, with the same tools.

We had a few technical hiccups during the workshop, but believe that the feminist ethos of the event supported us to overcome them, with participants jumping into facilitator roles when technical issues occurred, and vice versa. We felt the way others stepped in when we as facilitators were faced with technical issues resonated with a broader feminist ethos of support. It highlighted the importance of solidarity and emphasised a feeling of: “it’s OK when things go wrong”. The less-/non-hierarchical facilitation allowed us to pass around the ‘power’, both in terms of making contributions to the content of the workshop, as well as in the facilitation of the event. 

We hope this ethos will continue into our future projects, and currently have two upcoming events :

1) an interactive movie screening featuring dialogue, discussion and debate around themes of feminism and sisterhood; and

2) A workshop on feminism and media, accompanied by an interactive workshop on gif and meme creation as a feminist practice. 

For updates on these projects follow @beliaMBM on twitter, Facebook and Instagram!