The risk of teaching gender equality

• In Event: Promoting gender equitable values in schools in challenging digital and social contexts

Proposal

The role of schools as places to promote changes towards gender equality has been highlighted by declarations from international organizations, cooperation agencies and public policies in a variety of states. A diverse range of pedagogical strategies are designed with the expectation that they will be used by committed teachers. However, little is known about what motivates, enables or prevents such engagement or whether it is sufficiently supported to be sustainable. Even less is known about the risks faced by those committed teachers because of their teaching towards gender equality, especially when the gender-based violence that affects schools is so naturalized and intersects with other forms of violence. In a scenario of growing anti-gender movements that are nourished by previous violence, teaching on these issues can involve risks.

In recent research on gender equality teacher training in Colombia, we found that women teachers who propose pedagogical practices aimed at challenging the school gender regime face a variety of risks. Some of these risks are associated with the victimization of teachers and schools by armed conflict. Others are associated with how criminality surrounding schools in some contexts, finds in the promotion of gender equality a threat to its control over school life. New risks emerge nowadays associated with the arguments used by anti-gender and anti-feminist movements that are deployed by families, communities, teachers and members of government institutions at local and national levels. These movements are affecting the implementation of legal frameworks and have fostered actions of persecution, harassment and criminalization against female teachers who promote discussions on gender and sexuality in schools. The promotion of policies, educational strategies and teacher training processes towards gender equality must also consider the protection of those who engage with these issues.

Authors

• José Fernando Serrano Amaya, Universidad de los Andes

• Natalia Sanchez-Corrales, Universidad de La Salle