Legacies in policy enactment: the bureaucratization of gender in universities in Catalonia

• In Event: Global Education Reforms Across Time and Space: Tendencies, Drivers, and Explanations In Comparative and Historical Perspective (Part 2)

Proposal

Reform scripts promoting gender equality and justice in education have been advancing for decades, yet they have gained increasing prominence in recent years within the global education policy field (Besche-Truthe et al., 2024; DeJaeghere, 2015; Lahelma, 2014; Monkman & Hoffman, 2013). In line with these global mandates, policies in Catalonia (Spain) have increasingly emphasized the inclusion of gender perspectives in university teaching since 2015, as part of broader gender equality measures (Benito & Verge, 2020; Verge, 2021). This paper analyzes how these policy mandates are translated, recontextualized, and implemented in Schools of Education, considering both the ways in which university actors reinterpret them and the dynamics of the historical-institutional settings where they are enacted.

The paper is theoretically grounded in the approach to ‘policy enactment’ that understands it as a process involving the (re)creation, reconfiguration, and reinterpretation of policy mandates (Ball et al., 2012; Maguire et al., 2018; Ozga, 2000; Verger & Skedsmo, 2021). The role of actors’ agency, beliefs, and priorities, as well as local factors such as institutional context, are key to understanding a process marked by negotiation, contestation, and conflict (Braun et al., 2010; Hodgson et al., 2007; Viczko & Riveros, 2015). Our analysis is further informed by a historical institutionalist approach (Díaz-Ríos, 2024; Kickert, 2011; Pollitt et al., 2007; Suárez & Bromley 2016), which emphasizes how historical administrative traditions—in this case, the Napoleonic tradition (Ongaro, 2008; Donina & Paleari, 2019)—shape the context where certain responses to policy enactment are more likely to occur (Peters, 2021, p. 24; Verger et al., 2019). Methodologically, the study combines semi-structured interviews (N=23) with faculty members—including responsible parties, equality officers, and teaching staff—from the five public Schools of Education in Catalonia, alongside content analysis of institutional documents and course syllabi (N=510). Data collection and analysis followed Rubin’s (2021) integrated and iterative approach, diverging from the traditional linear and sequential research process.

The findings reveal significant variability in the incorporation of gender perspectives into formal curricula, with some institutions showing a higher degree of formal inclusion than others. More importantly, the study uncovers a notable decoupling between formal documentation and actual teaching practices, reflecting a broader trend of superficial compliance rather than substantive inclusion. We argue that this decoupling is partly influenced both by path dependency and the Napoleonic administrative tradition in Catalan universities, which often leads to the bureaucratization of policy mandates, treating gender perspectives as a box-ticking exercise rather than a meaningful educational practice. Despite these challenges, the study identifies instances where the formal inclusion of gender perspectives has sparked greater awareness and gradual changes among some faculty members. The paper concludes by discussing key implications. First, it emphasizes the role of historical-institutional factors in shaping actors’ responses. Additionally, it suggests that what translates from these global mandates into Schools of Education in Catalonia is largely limited to the bureaucratization of gender perspectives, which risks trivializing the issue by reducing it to superficial formality, thereby hindering more impactful changes in educational practices.

Authors

• Alejandro Caravaca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Mauro C Moschetti, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona