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Gender Dimension in Research and Curriculum: 12 SSH and STEM Test Institutions

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Gender Dimension in Research and Curriculum: 12 SSH and STEM Test Institutions GARCIA WORKING PAPERS 7 Gender Dimension in Research and Curriculum: 12 SSH and STEM test institutions Edited by Ana Hofman and Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc GARCIA is an EU-Framework 7 funded project under topic SiS.2013.2.1.1-1 “Supportng changes in the organisaton of research insttutons to promote Gender Equality” Grant agreement n. 611737 • Project coordinator:University of Trento • Homepage: www.garciaproject.eu The sole responsibility of this publicaton lies with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the informaton contained therein. ! Table of contents General introduction 5 1 ITALY, by Caterina Peroni, Annalisa Murgia, Barbara Poggio 6 1.1 Introduction 6 1.2 Mapping a gender dimension in existing curricula and research at STEM department 21 1.3 Mapping a gender dimension in existing curricula and research at SSH department 27 1.4 Comparison between SSH and STEM departments 39 1.5 Conclusions 40 Appendix I – DISI Research Projects – Gender Structure 42 Appendix II – DSRS Research Projects – Gender Structure 47 2 BELGIUM, by Farah Dubois-Shaik, Bernard Fusulier, Caroline Vincke 50 2.1 Introduction 50 2.2 Mapping gender dimension in research: SSH and some interdisciplinary research 57 2.3 Gender in teaching and curricula: List and analysis of SSH and interdisciplinary courses with STEM and SSS 63 2.4 Conclusions on mapping gender dimension in research and curricula 77 3 The NETHERLANDS, by Channah Herschberg 82 3.1 Introduction 82 3.2 Mapping a gender dimension in existing research and curricula – STEM department 91 3.3 Mapping a gender dimension in existing research and curricula – SSH department 99 3.4 Comparison between SSH and STEM departments 113 3.5 Conclusion 115 4 ICELAND, by Thomas Brorsen Smidt, Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, Gyða Margrét Pétursdóttir 116 4.1 Introduction 116 4.2 Mapping a gender dimension in research projects (STEM) 118 4.3 Mapping a gender dimension in curricula (STEM) 119 4.4 Mapping a gender dimension in research projects (SSH) 119 4.5 Mapping a gender dimension in curricula (SSH) 122 4.6 Comparison between STEM and SSH 125 4.7 References 127 Appendix 129 3 5 SWITZERLAND, by Sabine Kradolfer, Nicky Le Feuvre, Michael Posse, with the collaboration of Mélody Pralong 138 5.1 Introduction 138 5.2 Mapping gender dimensions in existing research and curricula in the STEM department 142 5.3 Mapping the gender dimension in existing research and curricula in the SSH department 146 5.4 Comparison between SSH and STEM departments/units 154 5.5 Main conclusions on mapping the gender perspective in research and teaching 156 5.6 Bibliography 157 Appendices 158 6 SLOVENIA, by Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc 169 6.1 Introduction 169 6.2 Mapping a gender dimension in existing research and curricula at STEM department 170 6.3 Mapping a gender dimension in existing research at SSH unit 181 6.4 Comparison between SSH and STEM departments/units 190 6.5 Main conclusion on mapping on gender perspective in research and teaching 191 4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION Here is the collection of reports that map gender dimension in the existing research and curricula, conducted by the GARCIA project partners in the following countries: Belgium, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Switzerland. The reports present qualitative and quantitative analyses of the research projects and curricula conducted during the year 2013 at two test departments – one from social sciences and humanities field (SSH) and the other from the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The reports also include the analysis of the gender structure of the project teams, lecturers and students, if available. The GARCIA project partners analysed the available data on the on-going research projects (e.g. a project outline, web presentation, project summary) and courses (e.g. a course description), focusing on five conceptual fields, namely: objectives, tasks, methodology, theoretical background and expected results. The attention was given to detecting both presence and absence of gender dimension in the content of research and teaching, meanwhile distinguishing between cases where gender is simply not featured and those where gender is excluded. The comparison of these 12 departments revealed some common challenges both in terms of the integration of gender-related content into research and teaching, as well as in terms of the incorporation of gender dimension into organisational principles of an institution. When comparing the institutional and structural context of the test institutions, the first common challenge is the lack of a database on gender-related projects and courses. The second challenge is gender imbalance in teaching and research staff, which is also connected with the allocation of resources. STEM projects proved to be more often led by male researchers and usually lacking any gender dimension. At the same time, STEM institutions tend to obtain significantly more research funds than SSH ones. Further, the ratio of female STEM professors is significantly lower, while men are lacking in the research and teaching of gender-related topics. When analysing the presence/absence of gender dimension in the content, it is noticeable that issues of gender are usually studied as "isolated topics" by (usually female) researchers who specialise in this specific subject. In most cases, incorporating gender into a research plan or syllabus is a matter of individual initiative and enthusiasm, not an institutional strategy. Furthermore, when a project outline or a course description mentions gender, it actually refers only to women. As far as STEM test institutions are concerned, there is virtually no gender-related topic in curricula or research contents. When analysing the presence of gender-sensitive methodology among the projects in the test institutions, we found that it is very rarely employed, and even when a methodological outline is presented as gender-sensitive, it sometimes turns out that gender-sensitive principles were either unsystematically applied throughout the project or that they were applied very narrowly. Bearing in mind that interdisciplinarity is one of the crucial means for introducing gender-related content, it is suggestive that it is very rarely practiced between STEM and SSH scientific fields. These mapping reports will give an insight into how gender dimension is present/absent in the contents, objectives, methodologies and results of the projects and courses at six European universities and research centres. 5 GARCIA - GA n. 611737 1 ITALY 1.1 INTRODUCTION This report maps the Curricula and Research Projects with a gender dimension in the two departments of Trento University involved in the Garcia project: the STEM unit, the Information Engineering and Computer Science Department (DISI), and the SSH, the Sociology and Social Research Department (DSRS). The gender dimension was mapped according to its presence in the content description and to the participation In reference to the Master curricula, the map was realized through a desk analysis of their webpages and of the guide books published for the 2013/4 academic year, which are available on the websites in PDF format: ñ DISI: http://www.disi.unitn.it/education; ñ DSRS: http://web.unitn.it/en/sociologia/28037/courses. The contents of courses were analysed by checking several keywords in syllabus, bibliographies published on the webpages and on the “Esse3” online teaching platform for students.1 In this platform, several training course webpages contain also a link to the web community for students where further information about exams, bibliography and slides2 can be found. We also administered a web-survey to all the teachers of the DISI and the DSRS departments, in order to have clearer information on the courses and interact with the teaching staff during the data collection. The survey aims is to ask professors whether a gender dimension is present in their courses but not explicitly mentioned in the syllabus. The web-survey was submitted by email, and was structured in two stages: the first was a filter question “yes/no”, asking if the course presented any content related to gender. The button “yes” led to the second stage with other three questions: ñ Which course presents gender-related contents? ñ Are these contents explicit in the syllabus? Does the theoretical or methodological approach of the course consider gender theories or perspectives? At the SSH department 48 emails were sent and 27 professors answered the survey. At the STEM department 43 emails were sent and 24 professors answered the survey. Their answers are reported in the “Mapping” section of the paper/report. We also analysed the gender structure of Master Courses considering, on the one hand, the sex composition of students enrolled and of those who passed each training course test in the a.y. 2013/2014.On the other hand, we considered the sex composition of the teaching staff, both permanent and temporary. 1 Esse3 is an informatics system, which make available all information about curricula and training courses. It was introduced in 2002 and then developed on the basis of the changes introduced by the last university reforms and the new needs related to administrative and teaching issues. It is shaped on two user’s profiles: teacher and student. Depending on the profile logged, it provides specific information about the plan of studies previously selected by the student, together with the syllabus of each course, the ECTS, the objectives and tasks and the bibliography. 2 We have asked to the Student and Teaching Service Office of the University of Trento the assignment of a student “standard profile” in order to access the web communities and check the bibliography that were not published in the main pages. Furthermore, the same office gave us the Excel file containing the syllabus of the training courses of each MS curriculum. 6 GARCIA - GA n.
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