Gender and Education in Politics, Policy and Practice: Transdisciplinary Perspectives

This book presents ideas on education, gender and intersectionality through a transdisciplinary frame by crossing disciplinary and methodological borders. Exploring the diversity of educational settings ranging from early childhood to adult education, it brings together scholars from various disciplines to discuss, deconstruct and problematize gender and education in relation to several themes in a comparative, intersectional, local, national, regional and international perspective. Each chapter approaches the topic in an intersectional and/or transnational manner and creates powerful gendered educational knowledge. Questions addressed in the book include: What are the challenges or barriers to gender-equal education? How can we understand the gaps between formal policies and educational practices?

The chapters in the book illustrate how gender and education are relevant and needed concepts within the field of transdisciplinary research. The authors hail from a range of countries, such as Croatia, Indonesia, Turkey, UK, as well as the Nordic region, and they critically examine gender and education at all levels and in diverse sectors, and with varied lenses, such as neoliberalism in education, and the inclusion of newcomers and refugees.

The work also critically investigates programs and pedagogical approaches, culture and values, knowledge and identity in teacher education. The book further addresses criticisms of Western and Anglophone bias around “white feminism” and the norm of white, male and heterosexual privilege.

Marie Carlson, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, at the Department of Sociology & Work Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interest includes the sociology of education with a special focus on ethnicity/migration, multilingualism, gender, class and power. After her PhD dissertation on Turkish immigrant women’s encounters with the Swedish welfare state in terms of language courses, she has worked in several transnational and multidisciplinary research projects; e.g. Student mobility in Asia and Future Citizens in Pedagogical Texts and Educational Policies. Among book publications: Education in ’Multicultural’ Societies. Turkish and Swedish Perspectives (2007; translated to Turkish 2011). Her work has appeared, among others, in the journals Gender and Education, Education Inquiry, EERJ and TRaNS: Trans – Regional and – National Studies of Southeast Asia. Board Member of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (2010-2018). She is also a co-convenor of network 33, Gender and Education within EERA (European Educational Research Association). Currently she is a part of three-year project in Iceland on immigrant women’s experience of intimate partner and employment-based violence.

Brynja E. Halldórsdóttir is the Chair of the Department of International Studies of Education at the University of Iceland and is Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Diversity. She holds a doctorate is Comparative International Development Education from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was a critical ethnography of multiracial adolescents in a Midwestern secondary school. Her current research areas include critical education theory, intersectionality of lived experiences as an immigrant in Northern European states, understanding institutional and structural racism within modern societies, as well immigrant positionality and culture in diverse societies. Currently she is working on a project regarding internationalization in higher education and access for immigrants as well as leading a three-year project to map immigrant women’s experience of intimate partner and employment-based violence in Iceland. She is also a co-convenor of network 33, Gender and Education within EERA (European Educational Research Association).

Branislava Baranović is emeritus scientist at the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb (ISRZ). She was the Director of the Institute from 2011 till 2016 and one of the founders of the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the ISRZ and its executive director for 10 years. She also taught Sociology of education at graduate level at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Zagreb. Her main fields of interest are social inequalities in education, gender and education, national curriculum development. She published 6 books and numerous articles in scientific national and international journals. She is also a member of the editorial boards of international journals and a member of many national and international scientific organizations and bodies, such as the Council of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), link convenor of the EERA Gender and Education Network (NW33), President of the Section of Sociology of Education of the Croatian Sociological Association.

Ann-Sofie Holm is Associate Professor in Education at the Department of Education and Special Education at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her main research interests concern various themes of sociology of education, such as gender and education, school choice and marketization of the Swedish education system. Her doctoral thesis was an ethnographic study of constructions of femininities and masculinities in secondary school. Over the years she has been involved in several research projects funded by the Swedish Research Council e.g. Achievement and gender. On teaching, youth groups and local conditions; Upper secondary education as a market; Inclusive and competitive? Currently, she is involved in the large ongoing research project ‘Going global’ exploring Swedish school companies and their international operations. Holm is also a member of the editorial group of the international journal Gender and education, and is the chair of the Collegium for gender and education at her department.

Sirpa Lappalainen is Associate Professor in sociology at the Department of Social Sciences in University of Eastern Finland, she also holds a title of docent at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation was a feminist ethnography on intersections of gender, nationality, and ethnicity in children’s peer relations and pre-school practices. Her research interests are in cultural studies of education focusing on equality, social justice and citizenship in various educational contexts from early childhood education to tertiary education, as well as ethnographic methodology. Currently she is starting a project concerning labour-market citizenship and politics of belonging in Finnish academic education. She is also convenor of network Justice through Education within NERA (Nordic Educational Research Association), and deputy leader of the Research Community Learning in Digitalised Society at the University of Eastern Finland.

Andrea Spehar is Associate Professor in political science and director of Centre on Global Migration (CGM) at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Spehar's broad research interest is comparative public policy, particularly with regards to gender policy and immigrant integration policy in a European context. Her work has appeared, among others, in the Journal of European Public Policy, Comparative European Politics, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Eastern European Politics & Societies, International Feminist Journal of Politics and the Journal of Refugee Studies. She has spent a significant portion of her career studying migration in Sweden and in particular, immigrant integration. She is currently the PI for the research project “Refugee Migration and Cities: Social Institutions, Political Governance and Integration in Jordan, Turkey and Sweden” (SIPGI) (2019-2025). This project asks how urban municipalities address forced migration, considering how it not only changes the social composition of neighbourhoods but also influences norms and behaviours within them.