Voice, silence and privilege in the neoliberal university: The ‘irresponsibility’ of Gender and Women's Studies pedagogies in higher education in India

IF 1.9 3区社会学 Q2 WOMENS STUDIES

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2025-09-05 DOI:10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103198

Maria Tsouroufli , A. Tambe , O. Filippakou , S. Shankar

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Abstract

In this paper we focus on the Indian higher education context, where expansion of Gender and Women's Studies (GWS), as well as institutional and national gender equality policies have not resulted in unsettling intersectional injustices in educational participation and practice. We draw on qualitative data (interviews with staff and focus groups with students) from a mixed-methods study aiming to advance gender equality. Gender and Women's Studies pedagogies were imbued with professionalizing gender, depoliticising criticality and individualising gender equality. Gender sensitising rather than engaging with the affective dimensions of hegemonic power and knowledge, and silencing mechanisms against marginalized groups, implicated in classroom and institutional politics, affirmed privileged subjectivities and diverted from a pedagogical ethic of speaking, listening and participating responsibly in education and society. A shift to pedagogies of discomfort and for democratic citizenship might facilitate intellectual and political activism and alleviate some of the ‘irresponsibility’ of neo-liberalised Gender and Women's Studies in India.

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新自由主义大学中的声音、沉默与特权：印度高等教育中性别与妇女研究教学法的“不负责任”

在本文中，我们将重点放在印度高等教育背景下，其中性别与妇女研究（GWS）的扩展以及机构和国家性别平等政策并未导致教育参与和实践中令人不安的交叉不公正。我们利用旨在促进性别平等的混合方法研究中的定性数据（与工作人员的访谈和与学生的焦点小组）。性别与妇女研究的教学方法充满了性别专业化、批判性非政治化和性别平等个体化的思想。性别敏感，而不是参与霸权和知识的情感维度，以及对边缘化群体的沉默机制，涉及课堂和制度政治，肯定了特权主体性，偏离了负责任地在教育和社会中说话、倾听和参与的教学伦理。向不适和民主公民教育的转变可能会促进知识分子和政治激进主义，并减轻印度新自由主义性别和妇女研究的一些“不负责任”。

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来源期刊

Womens Studies International Forum WOMENS STUDIES-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

7.10%

发文量

审稿时长

79 days

期刊介绍： Women"s Studies International Forum (formerly Women"s Studies International Quarterly, established in 1978) is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women"s studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate. The journal seeks to critique and reconceptualize existing knowledge, to examine and re-evaluate the manner in which knowledge is produced and distributed, and to assess the implications this has for women"s lives.