Financed by: Swedish Research Council Grant, 5.4 million SEK (€550k) 2020-2024
Tensions around gender and social equality are commonplace both in societal debates and the classroom and often include reference to the body (e.g. headscarves, skin colour, gestures, touch and comportment). To date, pedagogical research has been mainly focused on dialogic approaches to these tensions and little attention has been paid to their bodily and sensory aspects. The present study combines feminist theory with sensory studies in examining embodied expressions and the social and cultural coding of sensual experiences in the classroom.
The purpose of the project is to explore how tensions and conflicts around gender and social equality are embodied in the classroom and to develop pedagogical-philosophical thinking about how gender and social equality can be fostered in schools. Methodologically, the project consists of two parts: a) an explorative, empirical study with qualitative interviews and microethnographic field studies; and b) a philosophical study that seeks to generate pedagogical thinking about education for gender and social equality in schools.
The project will run for four years with three investigators: Sharon Todd, from Maynooth University; Elisabet Langmann (PI) and Lovisa Bergdahl from Södertörn University, Sweden. The first two years will be spent on planning, collecting and analysing the empirical material and the final two years will be spent on generating pedagogical theory for teachers’ and students’ work with gender and social equality in the classroom.
Project members:
• Profesor Sharon Todd, Maynooth University
• Senior Lecturer Elisabet Langmann, Södertörn University, Sweden
• Senior Lecturer Lovisa Bergdahl, Södertörn University, Sweden