Institute on Gender Technology and Education

IT for Change’s Institute on Gender, Technology and Education

A short course for women professionals in higher education institutions in India

About the Institute

In the current context of increased technology-mediated education practices, there are new challenges for women’s empowerment and gender equality. To move towards gender justice, higher education institutions need to re-examine their institutional cultures, within and outside the classroom. The National Education Policy 2020, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has suggested a blended model of teaching and learning. This would allow for 40% of each course to be taught and assessed online. This can be a challenge in the present context of inequitable access to technology and poses a serious risk of furthering gender inequality in terms of access to higher education.

The Institute on Gender, Technology and Education organized by IT for Change and NMKRV College for Women, Bengaluru with support from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL),  will be open to women professionals in higher education including principals, deans, heads of departments in a college/university, teachers and lecturers in undergraduate or postgraduate programmes (in any discipline), as well as administration or management professionals in the education sector. The course will enable them to navigate changing education spaces and work towards equitable access in higher education.

Institute objectives

Through this course we hope to enable women professionals in higher education to:

1. Acquire a critical understanding of gender, technology and education
2. Improve working knowledge on safe and inclusive internet use
3. Apply an intersectional gender lens to ‘technology in education practices

Course Transaction

1. Duration - One and a half days (10.00 -5.00 pm on day 1, 10.00 -1.00 on day 2) 
2. Type of Learning: Lectures, case study sessions, panel discussion and group learning exercises 
3. Transaction: The course will be transacted in English and will require engagement with readings, feedback and assessments to be completed and submitted in English.

Course Content

All presentations used in the course can be found here.

Session 01 - Creating Gender Sensitive and Gender Inclusive Education Spaces

Session 02 - Applying the Gender Lens

Session 03: Reclaiming technological autonomy for higher education

Reading resources

1. A Study of Abuse and Misogynistic Trolling on Twitter Directed at Indian Women in Public-political Life
2. Full article:Feminisms, technologies and learning: continuities and contestations
3. 'Wide Gender Gap In Mobile Phone Access Is Hurting India’s Women,' Indiaspend.
4. 'Digital India Is No Country for Women. Here's Why', The Wire.
5. 'How Online Education is Widening The Gender Gap Thanks to Connectivity Issues', SheThePeople.tv.
6. 'Rise in Child Marriages in the Lockdown: How the Center Ignored Data of Its Own Nodal Agency', The Wire.
7. 'Gender gap in secondary education: Domestic chores the largest,' Scroll.
8. National Curriculum Framework 2005 - Position Paper on Gender issues in education.
9. Other NCF 2005 position papers are available here