A UVic-UCC project will examine how to address inequalities in university teaching from the perspective of intersectionality

Young people from very diverse cultural, ethnic, socio-economic or gender profiles come together in university classrooms. The university environment contains inequalities, but they are often not addressed or addressed from a single perspective, i.e. taking into account only one aspect of inequality, such as gender, which has the longest history. The "Intersectionality in Higher Education (InterHEd)" project aims to adopt an intersectional perspective, which takes into account the relationship between different social categories such as gender, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation and age in experiences of inequality and discrimination. Based on this approach, the primary objective of the Erasmus "InterHEd" project, coordinated by researchers at the Centre (CEIG) at the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) is to develop tools to incorporate intersectionality into university teaching. 

This research at universities is based on the CEIG's previous experience in how to apply intersectionality to public policies, and remedies a shortcoming. While intersectionality in higher education environments (primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom) has focused primarily on the intersection of gender, ethnicity and social class, little research has been done on how these inequalities interact with other categories such as religious affiliation, age, rurality, migration status, language and even the positioning of teachers within educational environments. Indeed, there is little training material containing specific recommendations on how to apply intersectionality to higher education in Spain and Catalonia, and the innovative approach of the "InterHEd" project involves precisely this aspect.

In this case, the research team will focus on creating and implementing innovative methodologies based on challenges in order to involve teaching staff and students from various social groups and disciplines. They will work on all aspects related to teaching in order to integrate intersectionality within higher education: different dimensions will be taken into account, such as teaching methodology, study plans (which are not based on ethnocentric, sexist or ableist standards, etc.), learning spaces (to determine whether they are a barrier in relation to students' social position, for example), tutoring (to find out if more personalised attention for the student is a help or an obstacle, depending on the student's profile) and assessment.

Four European universities

Apart from UVic-UCC, the other participants in the "InterHEd" project, which has a budget of 400,000 Euros, are the Technische Universität de Dortmund (Germany), the Jagiellonian University of Cracow (Poland) and Universitat Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France). At UVic-UCC, the project involves members of three research groups - the Gender Studies Group: Translation, Literature, History and Communication (GELTLIHC), Audiovisual Translation, Communication and Territory (TRACTE) and Aquatic Ecology Group (GEA), which shows the interdisciplinary nature of the project, with de collaboration of the Equality Unit, the Center for Innovation and Training in Education (CIFE) and the University Teaching and Educational Technology Unit (UDUTE) of the UVic-UCC.

Given that inequalities have different characteristics at each of the European universities participating in the project and between the different programmes taught there, each partner will work with its teaching staff and students while simultaneously engaging in interdisciplinary work. At UVic-UCC, the research will be carried out with 32 members of teaching staff and 440 students in the Faculty of Translation, Interpretation and Applied Languages; Journalism; Audiovisual Communication; Biology and Social Education, to find varied student profiles. The other universities will work with sociology, sports, business and engineering studies to cover the gaps in these areas.

The project's activities, which will continue for three years until September 2026, include in-house mutual learning training, student working groups, teaching staff working groups, training sessions for students, etc. According to Gloria García-Romeral, a sociologist and the coordinator of the "InterHEd" project and a researcher in the GETLHIC research group, the participation of these members of teaching staff and students is "part of the working methodology that will enable us to identify the needs to be able to adapt the design and implementation to each university's context and specific characteristics. All the materials and results in the project will use this participatory methodology."

The "InterHEd" project is expected to produce several practical resources, a report on innovative methodologies, a guide to tools on integrating intersectionality in higher education, a student training model and a teacher training model, policy recommendations and a website with open access resources. "If we do not reflect on and take action to address the inequalities we have in our classrooms in university teaching, what we are doing is contributing to reproducing these inequalities, which may be the result of various factors, such as a more disadvantaged socio-economic environment, or a disability, for example. The aim is to move towards more inclusive higher education institutions," explains García-Romeral. In addition to her, the researchers Marina Garcia and Lorena González, from the CEIG, who are present as part of the consolidated research group Gender Studies Group: Translation, Literature, History and Communication (GETLHIC) (2021 SGR 399).

Project launch meeting

The "InterHEd" project began last October, and the first face-to-face meeting took place at UVic-UCC last week from 21 to 23 February, and was attended by representatives of the four universities in the consortium. The Mutual Learning Internal Training, an internal training in which each member presented a workshop on the subject, and a round table presentation of international experiences and similar projects, took place on 22 February. The inauguration of the event was attended by the vice-rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer of UVic-UCC, Eva Espasa.