NW 33: Reconceptualising Gender(s) for Contemporary and Future European Educational Research

Network
NW 33 Gender and Education

Title
Reconceptualising Gender(s) for Contemporary and Future European Educational Research 

Abstract
We seek papers exploring the question of how 21^st century education researchers should (and perhaps are) defining gender(s).  As societies, and educational systems and institutions, introduce more complex gender categorisations, feminist and gender researchers are forced to engage with conceptual, political and social issues that arise from these changes.  This includes the important question regarding how increased gender categories (men, women, transgender, gender non-conforming and so forth) are integrated into educational research, theorising, policy and practice.  Arguably this additional complexity arises at a time when intersectional gender thinking is not as yet sufficiently integrated into research and practice.   

The Call
This special call seeks papers that engage with the personal, intellectual, theoretical, practical, political and policy challenges (and resolutions) relating to the increasingly complex gendered environments characterising some societies.  

In feminist theorising, the relationship between two sexes (conceptualised as arising from the body) and two genders (as resulting from gendered socialisation) has long been challenged. Blurring the boundaries between sex and gender was important to the recognition of a wider range of genders and has generated some intense debate within academic, political and social contexts. However, until recently it did not challenge the dominance of the two-gender model.  Now in some countries, policy, research and practice have enacted strategies for wider gender inclusion. For example, in some countries there are more gender categories for students and staff in education, gender policies, and the gendering of spaces of education are contested or changing. Also, the way some research is conceptualised is transforming (e.g. in survey categories, participant inclusion criteria etc.). 

Where these changes are afoot, they have provoked some strong reactions and division. In addition, in quantitative and qualitative educational research (particularly policy systems and educational practice) two gender concepts still prevail and findings suggest these have some validity and that it is still important to tackle the injustices they reveal.  However, this context of shifting genders seems to provide us with a moment in which to reflect on whether the gender binary could helpfully be transformed to a more inclusive form.

If the gender binary can be challenged it is also possible that it offers new opportunities to rethink gender as a concept more widely.  There are other problematic omissions within feminist and gender research.  Black, Asian, Hispanic, Roma, Disabled, LGBTQI+, Working Class, Southern and many other social groups of all genders have considered feminism and the two gender categorisations to be unrepresentative of their embodied experiences and as representatives of the interests of a few (globally) white, middle class people (usually women within this context).   

Whilst the concept of intersectionality is widely used to combine different forms of oppressions at the level of the individual, organizations and wider societies; the concept has had little impact on change and in relation to intersectional gender statistics in public policy (nationally and internationally) disabled, black, LGBTQI+ or social class, are added to the bottom of accounts of two-gender descriptions of injustices (if at all) even when the most starting statistics refer to sub-groups. 

Alongside the open call, we seek papers exploring these new challenges. Example questions:

1. Can the concept of gender(s) be transformed to incorporate a wide range of gendered embodiments and experiences?
2. What is the role of the body\embodiment and essentialism in defining a more complex gender structure (e.g. Can there be an all encompassing definition of a man?)?
3. Is it possible to generate a conception of genders that works for internationally comparative education research?
4. How important are boundaries to definitions (between categories such as men, women, gender neutral) within categories (e.g. masculinities, feminities) and in boundary crossing?

Contact Person(s)
Andrea Abbas aa2452(at)bath.ac.uk

References
Benato, R., Fraser, J. and White, F.R., 2024. Getting beyond peeing and pronouns: living non-binary gender in higher education. Journal of gender studies [Online], 33(5), pp.698–710. Available from: doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2024.2334067.

Chetkovich, C., 2019. How non-binary gender definitions confound (already complex) thinking about gender and public policy. Journal of public affairs education : J-PAE. [Online], 25(2), pp.226–252. Available from: doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2018.1565050.

Chin, P., Nambiar, A. and Curry, M.K., 2023. A Critical and Intersectional Approach to Support Multiracial Non-Binary Counseling Students. Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling [Online], 17(4), pp.383–403. Available from: doi.org/10.1080/26924951.2023.2257086.

Collins, P. H., (2019) Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory, Croydon: Duke University Press.

Kavanagh, S.S., 2022. Toward Nonbinary Theories of Practice in Teacher Education Research. Educational Researcher [Online], 51(1), pp.66–71. Available from: doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211052058.

Mckendry, S. and Lawrence, M., 2022. Trans Inclusive Higher Education: Strategies to Support Trans, Non-Binary and Gender Diverse Students and Staff. Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy [Online]. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp.201–221. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04174-7_11.

Morley, L. And Leyton, D. (2023) Queering Higher Education: Troubling Norms in the Global Knowledge Economy, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

 Paechter, C. (2018) Rethinking the possibilities for hegemonic femininity: Exploring a Gramscian framework, Women’s Studies International Forum, 68: 121-128.

Smith, J.M., Wallace, C., Sexton, S. and Menier, A., 2023. The Trans & Non-Binary Computing Education Research Project. SIGCSE bulletin [Online], 55(1), pp.6–8. Available from: doi.org/10.1145/3584667.3584674.

Stewart, D.-L., 2017. Transversing the DMZ: a non-binary autoethnographic exploration of gender and masculinity. International journal of qualitative studies in education [Online], 30(3), pp.285–304. Available from: doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2016.1254302.