Intersectionality within research on gender and education: omissions, opportunities, and challenges

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

When seeking to understand how students from marginalized identities experience education, the theoretical framework of “intersectionality” has emerged as a useful analytic framework. Dating back to the activism of feminists of color of the 1960s & 1970s, the concept of intersectionality was coined by Black feminist scholar Kimberle Crenshaw (1994) to draw attention to the interconnected nature of the racial and gender dimension of violence against women of color in the US (p.1242). The framework underscores the ‘multidimensionality’ of marginalized individuals’ experiences (Crenshaw, 1989, p.157) , thus drawing attention to how overlapping identities linked to race, gender, ability, sexuality etc. produce diverse risks and experiences for individuals.

Despite its origins in Black feminist thought and the initial focus on the intersections between race and gender, the concept of intersectionality has been extensively employed across epistemological orientations and disciplines to identify, discuss, and address oppressions linked to inequalities. Not only has it become the primary qualitative analytic tool for theorizing multiply marginalized identity and oppression at individual and structural levels (Nash, 2008), but it has also led to increased calls for quantitative data for narrow categories to enable researchers to intersect data between different categories. It is no wonder then that Leslie McCall considers intersectionality as “the most important theoretical contribution that women’s studies, in conjunction with related fields, has made so far” (McCall, 2005, p.1771).

Within the field of Comparative and International Education (CIE), the concept has been employed to facilitate a more nuanced approach to thinking about inclusion in education systems; an approach that goes beyond equalizing the numbers of girls and boys (Unterhalter et al.;2020). Understanding how overlapping identities produce diverse risks and experiences for students makes an important contribution not just to education research, but also to policy and practice across all education levels (Nicohls & Stahl, 2019). Researchers within CIE have utilized the concept to study the interaction between masculinity and caste-hierarchies (Roger, 2018), the impact of racial and sexual identity on cyber victimization rates (Stoll & Block Jr, 2015),and how oppressions linked to gender and ability frame the experiences of college students (Vaccaro et al., 2020).

Despite the widespread use of intersectionality, methodological issues linked to it have been the subject of much debate (Hancock , 2007; Thornton Dill & Kohlman, 2012), particularly when the subject of analysis expands to include “multiple dimensions of social life and categories of analysis" (McCall, 2005, p. 1772). When describing an intersectional methodology, Maria Matsuda suggests the procedure of “asking the other question”:

"The way I try to understand the interconnection of all forms of subordination is through a method I call 'ask the other question'. When I see something that looks racist, I ask, 'Where is the patriarchy in this?' When I see something that looks sexist, I ask, 'Where is the heterosexism in this?' When I see something that looks homophobic, I ask, 'Where are the class interests in this?' "
(Matsuda 1991, p.1189)


However, asking the question merely marks the beginning of the analysis. The key methodological challenge within intersectional research is actually finding a suitable framework to manage the complexity that arises out of studying and presenting multiple, intersecting, and complex social identities with intelligibility once they have been identified (McCall, 2005). And without a clear understanding of the methodology, the transformational values associated with intersectionality tend to lose their promise (Unterhalter et al., 20020, Nash, 2018).

Through our panel discussion, we hope to contribute to generative discussions around the promise and challenges linked with conducting intersectional research in education. More specifically, our aim is to foreground a) the need for intersectionality within research on gender in education, b) the challenges encountered when seeking to conduct intersectional research, and c) the transformative promise of intersectionality when fighting unidimensional models of analysis. Students’ experiences are discussed from five different perspectives, i.e., caste, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and developmental disability, and within the different country contexts of India and Switzerland.

The session contributes to existing scholarship on intersectionality within CIE in two ways. Firstly, it goes beyond the analysis of individual causes of inequalities to investigate how the interaction of multiple factors at the structural and individual levels sustain inequities in and through education institutions. It is anticipated that the presentations will present a more holistic understanding of the hierarchical and unequal dynamics, norms, and mechanisms permeating formal education systems. Secondly, by using our participants’ narratives and testimonies as a starting point for our reflections, this session will provide a better insight into the different outcomes of exclusion and oppression experienced by female and gender diverse students in higher education settings. For as long as voices of students belonging to marginalized groups are relegated to the margins of contemporary education discourses; the promise of sustainable development, global gender equity, and inclusive education remains a distant dream.

Sub Unit

• Gender Justice SIG

Chair

• Ruchi Saini, University of Maryland College Park

Individual Presentations

• Female Students’ Narratives of Gender-Based Violence at a large Public University in India: An Intersectional Analysis - Ruchi Saini, University of Maryland College Park

• What do sexual and gender minorities have to tell us about their experiences of gender-based violence?Voices from the University of Geneva - Giorgia Magni, University of Geneva

• Global Perspective on Intersectionality between Gender-Based Violence and Disability - Jung-Eun Kim, University of Maryland College of Education; Elnaz Safarha, University of Maryland College of Education