Highlighted session: Gender-based violence within educational spaces: Policy, practice and lived experiences of students

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Gender-based violence (GBV) refers to acts of violence that are underpinned by gender relations, gendered norms, and stereotypes (Parks, 2015, p.2). It can be grouped into five heuristic categories of physical violence (hitting, punching, beating, etc.), sexual violence (rape, sexual assault, trafficking, etc.), psychological violence (stalking, harassment, humiliation, degradation, etc.), harmful traditional practices (honor killing, female genital mutilation (FGM), denial to safe abortion, etc.) and socioeconomic violence (unequal property rights, denial to educational opportunities, discriminatory workplace practices, etc.) (Burke et al., 2020). Within the specific context of formal educational spaces, acts of GBV may be direct, such as rape, homophobic denigration, sexual harassment, stalking, psychological violence, and online violence, or they may be built into the institutional structure and culture.

Freedom from GBV in educational institutions is a human right. It is also linked to several instrumental advantages such as equitable access to education, increased student retention, better academic performance, and the physical and mental well-being of students (Dunne et al., 2003; Leach, 2006). Mengo and Black’s (2016) analysis of data from 74 case files of service users of a campus-based relationship and sexual violence program in the US revealed that those who experienced sexual and physical/verbal violence displayed a significant drop in their GPAs. Similar patterns were echoed in findings by studies on GBV carried out within HEIs in Australia (AHRC, 2017), Canada, (Bergeron et al., 2016), France (Lebugle et al., 2018) and the UK (NUS, 2011; 2019). Freedom from GBV is also tied to the attainment of SDG4 (ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all), SDG5 (achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls), and SDG 16 (promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development).

Despite the intrinsic and instrumental benefits linked to freedom from GBV, it is a widespread phenomenon across schools and colleges across the globe. Data from the “Violence Against Children Survey” carried out among students aged 13-24 shows that in most countries, cases of unwanted sexual touching are experienced by all children, with girls being the overwhelming victims. An estimated 246 million children across the globe experience school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) such as bullying, physical abuse, non-consensual touching, and sexual/verbal harassment every year (“Gender-based violence in schools a significant barrier”, ND).

While there exists a growing consensus within the international community on the need to address GBV in education settings, it continues to remain a hidden dimension of students’ educational experiences. It is also a relatively underexplored area within the field of Comparative & International Education (CIE) possibly because of the amorphous manner in which such misbehaviors exist, thereby creating a challenging atmosphere to study them, even so more comparatively. These silences can also be attributed to limited local research capacity, taboo surrounding sex, institutional gatekeeping, and participant fears linked to academic sabotage and reputational harm.

To address this gap, we propose a session to discuss gender-based violence within educational spaces in the context of Liberia, India, and Switzerland. We hope that this discussion will enrich our understanding on the role of culture and context on understanding and examining GBV. Along with country specific discussion on GBV, we also intend to discuss the evolution of GBV from K-12 to higher education. More specifically, our aim is to share the manifestation of GBV in different educational spaces, how students experience it, and its impact on students’ aspirations. GBV within the session will be discussed from three different perspectives, i.e., the lived experiences of individuals, policy interventions, and practices adopted by schools. The main goal of the session is to build on existing literature on GBV by investigating a) the policy guidelines b) root causes of GBV and c) the lived experiences of students within three countries Liberia, India, and Switzerland.

The session contributes to the existing scholarship on GBV within the field of CIE in two crucial ways. Firstly, it goes beyond an exclusive focus on direct acts of GBV to instead investigate the structural and cultural features of institutions and societies that sustain it. An exclusive focus on visible acts of GBV without accounting for the structural/cultural factors that sustain it often leads to piecemeal approaches to policy making directed at addressing the symptoms of the problem instead of its roots. Secondly, by bringing together empirical data on GBV from three different continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), the panel provides an opportunity for a critical exploration of the extent to which the causes of GBV tend to be similar in so far as they originate in universal notions of gender inequality, but also the extent to which the manifestations are sustained by culturally specific notions linked to masculinity/femininities, ageism, casteism, etc. (Leach & Humphreys, 2007; Niaz, 2003).

To conclude, freedom from GBV within educational institutions is one of the foundational blocks when it comes to “Improving Education for a More Equitable World” (conference theme). It is also one of the most challenging notions to operationalize and investigate because of the often insidious and invisible manner in which it operates within schools and HEIs worldwide, thus sustaining inequitable and unsafe learning environments across the globe. Through the panel discussion, we hope to achieve the two-fold aim of providing a contextually specific understanding of GBV within educational spaces in three country contexts, as well as tease out those emerging patterns that will be relevant for policy makers and international organizations working on the topic across the globe.

Sub Unit

• Gender Justice SIG

Chair

• Supriya Baily, George Mason University

Individual Presentations

• School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Liberia: A historical overview of its root causes - Elnaz Safarha, University of Maryland College of Education

• Examining the Sexual harassment policy in higher educational institutions of India - Sheetal Digari, University of Minnesota

• The nexus between the structural & cultural characteristics of universities and gender-based violence: Voices of female college students from India - Ruchi Saini, University of Maryland College Park

• Gender-based violence in higher education: what impact on students’ university experience? A case study of the University of Geneva - Giorgia Magni

Discussant

• Shaheen Shariff, McGill University