Developing a Framework for Interprofessional Deliberation on Gender Awareness and Inclusion

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-19 - Diversity and Social Change in Curriculum Studies

Abstract

Inclusive education is dominated by deficit assumptions that fail to take socio-political context into account (Waitoller & Artiles, 2013). A more sophisticated alternative is a curriculum theory approach of inter-professional deliberation that considers gender as a problem of socio-cultural construct. Deliberation as boundary crossing in activity theory (Engeström, 2001) was used to frame this study. Data analysis involved cluster analysis of components in activity theory and contextual understandings of teacher educators. A main insight was that tensions in activity components, in case studies with a high value, resulted in gender awareness as a complex socio-cultural construct, and with a low value, in a more simplistic view of sex differences. Findings suggest (re)conceptualizing teachers’ practices as boundary crossing in activity theory.

Authors

• Geraldine Mooney Simmie, University of Limerick

• Manfred Lang, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education