Abstract
The European Union has been encouraging a move towards gender equality since its 6th framework programme. In its 8th programme, H2020, the EU points scientists to documentation outlining the concepts of sex/gender, inviting those applying for funding to state how and why their research will impact gender and how the project will foster gender equality.
However, it is often difficult for scientists from the science, technology, engineering and mathematics sectors who have not received training on gender issues to include a gendered approach in research. Even when this does occur, it is often limited to ensuring an equal number of men and women in project activities.
The Systemic Action for Gender Equality (SAGE) project produced an online course suited to the research funding application path. The course targets academics and professionals seeking to advance gender equality in the workplace. It enables them to understand the basic principles and biases favouring gender imbalance in research organisations and learn to use methods and strategies to progress toward a gender-sensitive organisation and research path.
Supported by adult learning theory and social constructivism, this case study explores how gender-sensitive methods and strategies can be applied to developing and implementing an online education path. It also discusses the limits and opportunities and the theoretical and practical implications of the move towards gender-sensitive research.
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Acknowledgements
The FIAGES project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 793195. The SAGE proposal received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 710534. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.
The author wishes to thank the other team members for their contribution in developing the online training content: Prof Eileen Drew, Dr Jemimah Bailey, Ms Claire Marshall. The collaboration of Dr Maria Bulgheroni, R&D Director at Ab.Acus, Milan, Italy was invaluable in providing insights on SMEs’ perspectives and allowing access to three EU-funded projects as test beds for the course. Thanks also go to the three anonymous reviewers of the article for their valuable advice.
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Bencivenga, R. (2021). Transferability of Methods and Strategies for Advancing Gender Equality in Academia and Research: A Case Study of an Online Course Aimed at Academics and Professionals. In: Uden, L., Liberona, D. (eds) Learning Technology for Education Challenges. LTEC 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1428. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81350-5_8
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