Minutes SWOT analysis 30/10 2017
Present: Juan Velasquez, Arman Heljic, Olga Sasunkevich, Lena Martinsson, Mia Liinason (taking notes), Jeanette Sundhall, Erika Alm
SWOT- analysis
Positive factors / Negative factorsInternal factors / Strenghts / Weaknesses
Students (motivated); good progression / Too flexible – change courses too quickly
Creative groups of teachers / Lack of stability – constant questioning
Writing & discussing: students feel they make impact in society / Too much writing (linked to widened participation – not only a weakness, see strenghts)
Society is relevant for gender studies / We need to promote gender studies as an education where students get a job afterwards
What topics are we NOT discussing? -> evaluate ourselves
Diversity (in gender studies) / Sameness (at the department as a whole) – homogeneity (teachers and students)
Gendering Practices
External factors / Opportunities / Threats
Gender studies is relevant for the society / Demographics
Good communication with society / Admission process for international students: high fees, border controls, visa requirements, economic expectations etc… Turn to the faculty and university to find ways to deal with this.
Diversity / Sameness
Alumni
Gendering Practices
Hearing with new authority on gender equality (and GD Lena Ag)
Summary of ideas developed during the meeting:
Introductory week where all students and teachers are invited
Organize a mid-term event where all students and alumni take part. At this event, Master students present their internship experiences and where alumni present.
Be more visible in communication around content in our courses
Promote gender studies BA-level as an education where students get jobs
Develop internship course at BA-level to link more strongly to society?
Promote the MA-program within the frame that students have an impact on society
Hearing about/with the new Gender Equality Authority in Gothenburg with diverse participants (ARA, SGF, pantrarna, youth council, trans org. etc.)
Exchange seminars as public events, building up to the larger event with the gender equality authority. Students could follow the seminars as a course, and submit a paper as exam.
Evening courses on the spring (thematic, on a topic of immediate interest)
We need to sit down with Mats Nilsson and calculate the HST so that we don’t lose any students.
Faculty board will launch a call for applications for course development with a focus on blended learning. Check this maybe we can apply for some funding for course development…? Maybe the idea with streaming research seminars as a way to promote the department/gender studies. Think if Sofie Alnäs is interested in helping us with this.
To do (tasks needs to be assigned to someone):
-Plan introductory week and mid-term event with all students, alumni and teachers
-Think about how to promote gender studies bachelor level as an education where students get jobs
-Think about how to promote Gendering practices as a program where students have an impact on society
-Organize exchange seminars for spring 2018. Talk about this during teacher’s meeting next Monday, if there is time.
-Organize hearing with Gender equality agency – think about the timing of this hearing and the exchange seminars.
-Decide meeting with Mats Nilsson to calculate HSTs so we don’t lose students.
-Start to think about evening courses spring 2019.
-Check call for applications from faculty on course development with focus on blended learning – apply for developing technology and skills for streaming research seminars.
Discussion
Develop an Intersectional program at the department?
The name and focus on gender is maybe not always interesting, or relevant. But at present, students are applying for gender studies, these discussions are in focus in society today.
Students have to write so much: can this exclude students? Discussion at the teacher programcurrently – a lot of students who are not used to academic studies. We haven’t noticed problems with this so far. Today, strong emphasis on broadened participation. We need to discuss this. Is expectation on much writing a weakness? Could be an opportunity; we can make it into an opportunity. Students learn the skills. Can we communicate this to students? Can we do more to let people feel welcome? If students learn to write this is a good place to come: Writing, reflecting, thinking critically, participating… Students like this because such skills enable them to make impact in society after graduation. Students develop self-esteem which makes them secure. We might need to put an emphasis on this in the communication of the program. To have an impact – could we frame the program in this way?
Students don’t expect to get a job from reading single courses. We need to promote gender studies and show that students get a job when they read gender studies. Our approach should be: if you read gender studies, you can get a job in the gender studies area or within human rights. We need to promote this.
Suggestions:
Develop an internship course at the bachelor’s level, to strengthen links to the society.
Evening courses at introductory level: Would attract new groups of students. Develop new courses to do this.
To recruit new groups of students: Important that we discuss why we are not interesting for certain groups of students: maybe we are not good in discussing religion or secularism for example. It’s a huge question today. There exist a lot of other examples which are important in society today that we are not discussing. Maybe too much gender, not enough race etc.
We might do a lot more in the courses than what is shown outwards. Be more visible in our communication outwards. How to do this?
We cannot escape that we still live in a racist, capitalist, colonial society. We cannot turn this problem of the society on us – we cannot be responsible for how people get jobs in an exclusionary society. But we can provide the possibility for students to develop intersectional, critical thinking. We can provide the possibility to develop critical thinking. It’s a strength. We turn this discomfort into something more sophisticated and it has an impact on the society.
Majority of our students are well prepared in this landscape of inequality, to make impact in these structures. We should say something more about this. Could we turn this into one opportunity? What are we striving for? We can be even better. One weakness is the question of sameness, uniformity, in terms of backgrounds etc. This is valid for the whole society. In gender studies we have a more diverse group. It’s a strength. We should propagate this.
Almuni: How to connect to previous students? We could be better on this. No one at the department is working on this. It’s one of the things Erika has been pushing for. Students would like it. We could do something with gender studies quite easily, for example one introductory week where all students meet each other, and invite also alumni students.
-If so, maybe we need to move the internship period a bit?
-Involve students in the ground level and the advanced level in the planning of such an introductory week.
Considering the internship course: Could the introductory week be scheduled in mid-term? We could call it something different. - Combination of students presenting their internship and alumni who got jobs?
When it comes to refugees or attracting new groups in the society: We need to take part of discussions that are going on in society, make advertisement by doing things.
We need to be clear who we are – so we are not just one of the group supporting normalizing and disciplinizing “gender knowledge”.
Hearing:We have a golden opportunity to make impact on the new authority in Gothenburg (the Gender Equality Authority). We see the existence of binary thinking (gender binary etc) as a threat. We can have impact here, make ourselves clear. Write an open letter to Lena Ag, the new GD of the Gender equality authority. We can organize seminars with members of Kvinnofolkhögskolan, Pantrarna, ARA, SGF, trans organizations, youth council… If we brought together all these conversations that we are having (as reseachers more than as teachers) would be a situated intervention into this gender equality authority in Gothenburg. Invite journalists. Be clear that we are not this gender equality, binary, cis- normative thing. Speak clearly so that Lena Ag hear this.
Exchange seminars: On decoloniality with Pantrarna? On racisms with ARA? On gender equality with the Gender secretariat? Making these exchange activities more real. Enable students to apply for this seminar series and take this as a course.
Discussion aboutwhether the exchange seminars should be before or after the open hearing with gender equality authority. We need to show where we stand. Bring back the questions to where we discuss them, so that we are not used as alibi.
Also, the anti-racist institute at the Univ. of Gothenburg. We can invite them to our seminars. We can collaborate with other teachers/scholars at the department working with gentrification, class, participation, decision making etc.
This works as a kind of student recruitment at the same time.
Question:
The ground course that is cancelled during spring term: fewer students on the ground course, more students on continuation. The same number of students on bachelor level (third term). We should calculate number of HST (student places) so that we don’t miss out on any.
Gendering practices: 15 students this fall… There was a drop in students during the third term of the program. First cohort 13-14. Fairly stable in terms of how many students we get. The amount of students applying may fluctuate. Many international applicants, which is good. Also a risk factor because they might not be able to come due to difficult admission process. We can try to help them as much as we can.
Strengthen the profile more in relation to gendering practices +develop the idea more strongly to promote the program: What is gendering practices?
Question: Is it possible for students at other departments to read gender studies as a specialization?
Single courses: We should have one broadcourse in feminist theory, focusing on decoloniality, neoliberalism etc.
We could think about collaborations in or outside of the department, but make it easy for us to do. For example, for a course in migration we would need other departments be
But we should also have courses open for students reading other programs, social worketc. Problem is that these programs doesn’t have a lot of free choice courses.
Idea:
Develop one or two free standing courses, thematic courses as evening courses during next spring (2019). If these students become really interested in taking the introductory course, they should be able to deduct the credits taken already. These courses should be thematic and focus on a topic of immediate interest, it should be general enough so that more than one of us could teach the course. We could maybe have the exchange seminars as a starting point for these courses.
We could plan the exchange seminars for spring 2018. We can let students follow the seminars as a course. As a strategy to attract more students and new groups of students. Strategy for research also.
Mix of having courses with progression (ground level, continuation and bachelor level) and to have evening courses in order to reach out to other groups. Think of examination formats.
Online courses: We need to learn online pedagogies. Much work with online courses. It’s a lot of work. Given time, we could give good courses online. Should be on advanced level and based on the research we do here, that students from everywhere could read. That’s going to take time. A good tool for promotion. Are there resources to promote this course internationally? New kinds of student fairs internationally, where Gendering practices is promoted.
Online courses – time consuming. Cannot replace regular courses. Why would we develop online courses? To attract students to our programs then it makes sense. In the US they have huge number of online courses at the moment; a high competition.
Suggestion: Making the seminars publicly available. The exchange seminars could perhaps be published online? Real time exchanges, streaming video with chat possibility.
Urbanity, rurality and space. The group of uneducated?unemployed? men in the countryside. Online courses could be a way to reach this group.
Evening courses is good to attract new students.
Question about difficult admission process for international students:
-Develop some kind of routine among teachers to fill in the student certificateto the Migration Agency in a way that support students and simplifies the process for teachers.
-Discuss the difficult admission process for international students with the faculty and with the university centrally.
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