ABSTRACT

Higher education practitioners concerned with addressing gender on the curriculum inevitably come up against a complex range of institutional barriers. Research presented here, drawing on in-depth staff interviews, sheds light on such ‘gender work’ and the challenges and its complexities in the current moment in the UK context. Through an institutional case study, we identify multiple ongoing and contemporary challenges arising for those engaged in this work. A constellation of intersecting obstacles are elucidated, wherein gender, far from being ‘mainstreamed’, is continually side-lined and deprioritized due to being positioned as peripheral, optional and of questionable value in the neoliberal episteme. Yet with urgent challenges inherent in gender equity and social justice education in the contemporary socio-political context, we contend that addressing such barriers and moving the gender mainstreaming agenda forwards is crucial. Renewed emphases on curricula may yet offer an opportunity to re-open discussions, reimagine and reinvigorate gender mainstreaming.

摘要

关注在课程中解决性别问题的高等教育从业者不可避免地会遇到一系列复杂的制度障碍。此处介绍的研究利用对员工的深入访谈，揭示了此类“性别工作”以及当前英国背景下的挑战及其复杂性。通过机构案例研究，我们确定了从事这项工作的人面临的多重持续和当代挑战。阐明了一系列交叉障碍，其中性别远非“主流”，由于在新自由主义认识论中被定位为外围的、可选的和有问题的价值，它不断地被边缘化和被置于优先地位。然而，在当代社会政治背景下，性别平等和社会正义教育固有的紧迫挑战，我们认为，解决这些障碍和推动性别主流化议程至关重要。重新强调课程可能会为重新开启讨论、重新构想和重振性别主流化提供机会。