Nineteen teachers from various universities across China met recently in Shanghai for a workshop on how to teach about gender and human rights in their courses back home.
Whereas the first workshop in Beijing focused on the theoretical aspects of gender analysis, this seminar involved more practical discussions about case studies and teaching methodologies. Zhang Wenxin, a lecturer in sociology at Hunan University of Arts and Science in Changde, China found the workshop useful in both a practical and theoretical sense.
Through interdisciplinary discussions, the case analysis, and lecture series, we all developed critical thinking and gained theoretical insights and the knowledge to work in gender teaching, particularly within legal and social issues.
Zhang Wenxin now plans to practically incorporate this into their teaching back home.
Currently, the most important thing for me is to build gender, social and law into the bachelor’s curriculum as an elective course in law school. Then we will hopefully, step by step, open the course up to the whole university, which is something I want to do as soon as possible.
The workshop also provided a great platform for teachers to meet like-minded individuals and share ideas said Yu Lian, a lecturer in Public Health Management at Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China.
I got to know many teachers who are interested in gender studies and gender teaching. They shared a lot of information, teaching skills and resources at the two workshops. This project has provided us with a great platform for sharing information on gender studies and gender and human rights related teaching.
Yu Lian also added that they would like to continue the collaboration in the future.
I hope that the project could involve more engagement of previous participants for the future workshops by inviting them to present the gender and human rights related class that they have been teaching, while the rest of the participants could provide comments and feedback.
The workshop was run in cooperation with the Human Rights Institute of Fudan University, and focused on concepts such as gender analysis, sexual orientation, gender identity and human rights. Professor River Kate Hustad from the University of Oslo, Professor Liu Xiaonan from the Constitutionalism Research Institute at China University of Political Science and Law, and Mr Ma Leijun from UN Women China Office all presented their knowledge.