Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation is an attempt to explore my understandings of Black feminist engaging largely with the groundbreaking work of Black feminist, Gloria Anzaldúa. It is my belief that her work is vitally important in encouraging academia to experience decolonial perspectives in classrooms and other spaces of learning.

Paper Abstract:

This presentation is an attempt to explore my understandings of Black feminist engaging largely with the groundbreaking work of Black feminist, Gloria Anzaldúa. It is my belief that her work is vitally important in encouraging academia to experience decolonial perspectives in classrooms and other spaces of learning. Thus, my presentation explores the writing of the self under the decolonisation perspective. I want to focus my attention on the exercise of telling stories and on the political uses of autobiographical writing, called autohistoria (Anzaldúa, 2012), as a feminist exercise that is practiced by women of colour, taking responsibility of the need to experience meeting points between the commitment to the articulation of an awareness of recognition and the urgencies of demands for social justice and collective. I wish to provoke an epistemology rupture which rejects the practice of repeating stereotypical concepts that the modern discourse continuously tries to maintain. These concepts are so familiar that sometimes we cannot notice the strategy of exclusion practices. The writing of the self, autohistoria, considers the enunciative locus, that is, the bios, as well as the geoistoric site as a theoretical path to enable personal and collective memories to emerge and give voice to marginalised subjects. My reflections are based on the Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (GUERRA, 2017; FOUCAULT, 2014); and Decolonial Thinking (ANZALDÚA, 2012). Problematizing this theme is necessary, since this current society discusses a social change in relation to minorities, excluded groups and, unfortunately, it ignores the history from their point of view.

Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation places the feminine teaching as learning to deconstruct binaries which separate human values such as genius, joy, love, empathy and human vulnerability in contrast to measuring intelligence, disconnecting body/mind, and privileging non-human capacities as academic performance

Paper Abstract:

Historically there is enough evidence of women in charge of teaching and education. It is overwhelming the number of women in education in each society, historical periods on democracy or not democratic societies. Also, it has been documented the erasure of women in leadership positions within administrative roles inside educational institutions. For a feminist perspective such realities are not indifferent and have concrete explanations.

It is also overwhelming the impact of womanist teaching practices informed by diverse women of color intersectional methodologies centered on teaching to shift narratives. This praxis may be deconstructing binaries as only one example. In this presentation I explain what is deconstructing and decolonizing the binaries, which is a threshold concept within diverse feminist approaches. Specifically, the canonical binary feminine v. masculine which created frameworks where the masculine is separated from emotional attachments and feminine becomes the land of emotions, feelings, connection, integration, holistic and embodied ways of knowing. These contrasting words feminine and masculine are still historically thickly layered with opposite values and have created struggles for holistic connections, empathy, fluidity and creativity, skills that are necessary inside of diverse ways of learning.

We can uncover the feminine approach(es), we can teach and facilitate these days under the guideline: For your sanity, be feminine with your thoughts, shift the narrative of anxiety, afraid of felling and practice inner dialogues, among others, curate mi estudiante/learner as Maria Sabina Mexican healer taught us. We can unpack our methods as divine feminine teachers.

Paper Short Abstract:

Based on ethnographic research conducted in Czech schools (2021-2024), this paper examines the implementation of feminist-inspired sexuality education reforms and their complex interplay with embodied knowledge. While current Euro-American reforms advocate for student-centered teaching methods, this study reveals persistent tensions between abstract knowledge and embodied meaning-making in educational practices. Through analysis of teacher trainings, classroom observations, and public discussions, the research demonstrates how sexuality education, even when attempting feminist transformation, often defaults to traditional modes of knowledge production centered on rationality and efficiency. Drawing on anthropology of ethics, the study shows that ethical positions emerge not through rational deliberation alone but through visceral, intersubjective experiences. By examining the situated nature of ethical engagement across the educational landscape, including the researcher's positionality, the paper argues for reconceptualizing sexuality education as a relational practice rather than mere transmission of universal truths. This approach not only reveals how educational practices may inadvertently reproduce the epistemological frameworks they seek to challenge but also suggests new methodological possibilities that acknowledge the complex relationship between embodied experience, ethical engagement, and knowledge production in sexuality education.

Paper Abstract:

Drawing from ethnographic research on sexuality education in Czech schools, this paper examines how teachers, students, and the researcher herself navigate between feminist-inspired educational materials and lived experiences that shape understandings of sexuality, gender, and embodiment. Current Euro-American reforms in sexuality education advocate moving from prescriptive to student-centered teaching methods. This study examines the implementation of feminist-based sexuality education policies in the Czech Republic (2021-2024). Through a detailed analysis of teacher trainings, classroom observations, public round tables and researcher's field notes, it reveals complex tensions: abstract knowledge still tends to dominate and legitimize educational practices while marginalizing embodied meaning-making. The research highlights that the ethical positions emerge not through rational deliberation alone, but through visceral, intersubjective experiences, and employs anthropology of ethics to illuminate how sexuality education falls back on traditional modes of knowledge production centered on rationality and efficiency, even when attempting feminist transformation.

By examining the situated, embodied nature of ethical engagement across the educational landscape, including the researcher's own position, the paper argues for understanding sexuality education as a relational practice rather than transmission of universal truths. While this theoretical approach reveals how both research and practice can inadvertently reproduce the very epistemological frameworks they seek to challenge, it also offers new methodological possibilities for both educational practice and anthropological research that acknowledge the complex interplay between embodied experience, ethical engagement, and knowledge production.

Paper Short Abstract:

In most Euro-American societies, teaching jobs in primary and secondary schools are predominated by women. Although Czechia’s teaching occupation took a slightly different path, it ended up in the same position. My aim is to describe what forms the experience of the teaching profession from the perspective of gender and what the feminisation of the profession looks like. I zoomed in on one VET secondary school in Czechia and drew from the five-year ethnographic research of the school, its management, staff and students. The distribution of powers and responsibilities was highly gendered and influenced the evaluation of a person's job.

Paper Abstract:

Gender has become an embedded organising category that shapes all our experiences. Male perspectives dominated fields of knowledge, shaping paradigms and methods (Babcock, 1987), and in many aspects, still do. Conrad’s concept (2021) of “women work” refers to “how women of the early twentieth century, who were increasingly entering the public sphere and outside-the-home employment, were discursively contained and diminished by subsuming their work into the (already-in-place) gendered logic of the domestic sphere” (Conrad, 2021, p. 101). As much as we have moved far from the early times and women have been in public jobs successfully for many decades, a lot of the gendered logic of occupations persisted. The teaching profession is a prime example. The profession is still, and even more than in the past, gendered.

I analyse data generated in five years of ethnographic research at Lego Upper Secondary Vocational School (SŠ Lego) through the lens of feminist theories of gendered work and its value. I show structural and experienced gendered teaching identity.

Male teachers are more represented at upper secondary schools than in primary and lower secondary; their role is largely different from that of female teachers there. Their position is that of a professional in the field who is not expected to do the “little things”, like administration. However, a man is called to help when greater power is necessary. It shows the stereotype of man greater authority and the stereotype of women caring and being kind, perhaps too kind to be taken seriously.

Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation will facilitate dialogue on intentionally creating spaces that are interdisciplinary, intersectional, and application based, with a strong emphasis on queer, feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial pedagogies. I will use a lesson I teach on queer feminist spirituality and deconstructing spiritual binaries as a case study to demonstrate this and my work as a spiritual activist. I will draw upon Laura Rendón’s latest edition of Sentipensante (Sensing / Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice, and Liberation (2023), Gloria Anzaldúa's “conocimiento,” and my personal experiences to show how I am able to co-create and co-construct knowledge with my students, connect what we are doing inside the classroom to lived experience and social justice, and facilitate open dialogue that centers marginalized experiences and communities.

Paper Abstract:

Working with feminist scholars, and participating in conferences such as El Mundo Zurdo, was instrumental in my ability to implement radical pedagogical approaches in the classroom. As a folklorist and Americanist with an appointment in Women and Gender Studies, I intentionally create spaces that are interdisciplinary, intersectional, and application based, with a strong emphasis on queer, feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial pedagogies.

My classes in Sexuality Studies are not limited to one method, framework or discipline. I dismantle socially constructed binaries, evaluate power dynamics, and assess how structural racism, colonization, capitalism, and patriarchal and heteronormative frameworks influence our ways of living, being, doing and thinking. I will use a lesson I teach on queer feminist spirituality and deconstructing spiritual binaries to demonstrate this and my work as a spiritual activist.

I will speak to how queer feminist spaces allowed me to heal my own traumas and self-reflect, as well as build a community of engaged learners in classes. Laura Rendón’s latest edition of Sentipensante (Sensing / Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice, and Liberation (2023) includes a revolutionary chapter that connects "sentipensante" with Gloria Anzaldúa's “conocimiento.” This chapter greatly informs my work as a feminist educator and scholar. Both Anzaldúa and Rendón’s work encouraged me to look inward at my own personal experiences so that I was able to co-create and co-construct knowledge with my students, connect what we are doing inside the classroom to lived experience and social justice, and facilitate open dialogue that centers marginalized experiences and communities.

Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores anti-feminist narratives surrounding the “feminization” of primary education. Based on ethnographic and policy research in Germany and Czechia, the study identifies three re-masculinization strategies—blaming a “female climate” for boys’ failure, lamenting absent father figures, and invoking “gender diversity” to reinforce male dominance. These findings reveal how such strategies devalue femininity in education and reflect broader anti-feminist political trends.

Paper Abstract:

The “feminization” of primary education is often portrayed as a cause for concern in global educational debates, frequently tied to boys’ declining school performance and the perceived absence of male role models. While this narrative is prominent in the European context, its underlying assumptions and anti-feminist rhetoric represent a travelling discourse, reflected in education systems worldwide. This paper critically examines the feminization of education through two case studies—Germany and Czechia—using data from ethnographic research, policy document analysis, media outputs, systematic literature reviews, and quantitative data.

The findings reveal three re-masculinization strategies that aim to devalue femininity and reinforce traditional gender hierarchies within the teaching profession: (1) attributing boys’ underachievement to a “female climate” in schools, (2) lamenting the absence of male “father figures” as role models, and (3) advocating for “gender diversity” as a pretext to prioritize male teachers and masculine norms. These strategies, while contextually specific, are not unique to Europe; they form part of broader global patterns of anti-feminist backlash against women’s increasing visibility and influence in education.

By exposing how these discourses function to delegitimize women’s work and uphold gendered power structures, this study contributes to feminist critiques of education. It invites a rethinking of the gendered dynamics shaping teaching as a profession, challenging the assumptions embedded in contemporary educational debates.

Paper Short Abstract:

How does the phrase “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach” harm the public perception of educators? With education being a female-led profession, what additional damage is done to women and femininity within the field? How do we reclaim the nobility and expertise in our role as educators?

Paper Abstract:

In 1905, George Bernard Shaw published his play Man, Superman, in which he wrote, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” Nearly 120 years later, this phase continues to diminish the role of educators in our society. To repeat the expression is to take away from the inherent power and politics of educating the next generation. So why, then, is it still used?

In a world built by and for the success of men, women have reigned in the field of education for more than a century. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development), across the 38 countries represented, 79.2% of teachers are female. In patriarchal institutions, the message behind Shaw’s phrase “those who can't" disparage those who gave up on their other aspirations, opting for the “lesser” profession or fallback career. Instead, we must reframe this narrative as men have always been given more opportunities “to do,” as Shaw puts it. It is my intention to examine the ways in which this common saying harms the field of education and, by extension, the role of femininity in such a vital field.

Why do women gravitate towards the education profession?

How does femininity strengthen pedagogical practices?

What steps can we take to unwrite this narrative of condescension and shame in teaching?

How do we reclaim the nobility and expertise needed to excel in our role as educators?

Paper Short Abstract:

The paper is about an action research project which explored how an everyday classroom in a conventional school in India can become a space for counter-socialisation.

Paper Abstract:

Based on a paper written about an action research project, this presentation explores how an everyday classroom in a conventional school can become a space for counter-socialisation.

The project was set in a 'mainstream' school in a semi-urban town in India where the researcher assumed the role of a social-studies teacher, and employed critical-feminist pedagogy to teach. By participating in the everyday learning of the students, the researcher explored various approaches to talk about social issues with a focus on gender. These included conversations, within and outside the classroom, engaging with concepts on power and society beyond the textbook and analysing issues of social relevance through critical lenses, among other practices.

Some initial findings revealed the role of the hidden curriculum, resulting in differential participation in the classroom. On the nature of knowledge and learning, it was found that a strong preoccupation with examinations limits and greatly challenges possibilities of critical thinking which is vital for any conversation on power structures, including gender.

However, on employing critical and feminist pedagogy in the classroom, it was found that creating alternative environments, apart from the rigid time-space-discipline defined classroom, helped generate interest and conversations among the students on issues.

Initial evaluation of the framework indicated that the teacher-student relationship plays a positive role in learning to build and critique structures of power that learners witness. An environment fostering criticality and repeated conversations on society and societal power structures enabled the learners to also question norms and practices they did not fully understand.