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Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Ruya Leghari -
Number of replies: 20

/Edited/ Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate the launch of the UN Women Training Centre’s new Working Paper on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, online training has become the predominant modality for delivering training for gender equality worldwide. But what implications does this shift to online learning have from the perspective of feminist pedagogical principles and practices? This is what we will discussed during this Virtual Dialogue Webinar on 3 November 2022 at 10:00 New York time. 

Virtual Dialogue Webinar 3 November 2022

You can watch a recording of the webinar here: 


Read more in our Concept Note below.

In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Ruya Leghari -
Thank you to all our wonderful speakers and audience members for making today's Virtual Dialogue Webinar such a success! Our participants raised so many excellent questions and points today that we didn't have time to discuss during the webinar. Please join us to discuss these here in this forum

You can watch a recording of the Webinar on our YouTube channel: 

Please contribute to the discussions with your own comments, questions and responses below
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Ruya Leghari -
Here are some of the excellent questions and comments from our participants:

  1. What are the key recommendations or design considerations that should be taken on board by organizers of online training that directly address the digital gender divide? – Mirko 

  2. In this part of the world I live (Nigeria), poor internet connectivity and poor electricity supply is a major barrier to effective online learning! – Aishatu

  3. I find the poor internet connection for the people I work with to be the biggest challenge. It makes it really hard for them to contribute their thoughts. The chat function overcomes some of it but if English is not their main language they are again limited. Are there any platforms that work better than others? It feels like the platforms are geared towards people living in cities in the west and don’t allow for low bandwidths. – Sarah

  4. What is forum theater, and how do you work with it online? – Tania

  5. I think that the last point that Lucy made is really crucial and wonder about the linkages between academic publishing companies and educational technologies? There’s so much that requires feminist transformation and democratization/decolonization in the academic publishing industry and I have the feeling that similar issues arise within businesses offering online educational services. – Joanna

  6. Do you make your exit questionnaire anonymous? We have had some trouble where some people can be quite mean in their anonymous feedback surveys. Differently from when trainings were in person. Almost like it is an extension of some of the online bullying - when a trainer is online, they seem like less of a person, and people don’t feel as bad. – Lindsey

  7. Can you please also recommend some examples of exit questionnaires and online energizers? – Ritu

  8. I found polling and polling results quite engaging as well as the strategy of Spontaneous participant engagement. kept them awake. –  Caroline 
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Claudia Callegari -
Dear all,

Thank you for the question about the "Forum Theater". Here you have a video recorded during the last F2F Gender Academy delivered at the ICTILO Turin Campus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=KvW0ULXkJ0I

From the "Working Paper on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies: Key findings, challenges, opportunities and recommendations", UNWTC :  

GOOD PRACTICE SNAPSHOT 4 | Be ambitious and experimental with online methodologies
As demonstrated in ITC-ILO’s work, some of the dynamics of a face-to-face Forum Theatre approach can be replicated in an online environment. While long performances are not feasible, many of the games used in this type of work can be used online. Techniques can be used to make it appear that the facilitators/actors are together, as well as indicating when they are off/onstage, and when facilitating/not facilitating. This is currently being used in the context of C190 in order to guide participants to come up with fictional scenarios to identify unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.

VR training: download the podcast attached to know more

Claudia, ITCILO
In reply to Claudia Callegari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Ritu Gupta -
Dear Claudia,

Thank you for sharing this. But the code on the postcard is not working. Is it possible to share a new code? Best regards,
Ritu
In reply to Ritu Gupta

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Claudia Callegari -
Dear Ritu,

Thank you for bringing the problem to our attention. Here is a new code: 238437. Please note that the validity of the code is 30 days. Kind regrds,

Claudia
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
I will address these questions in turn:

1. What are the key recommendations or design considerations that should be taken on board by organizers of online training that directly address the digital gender divide? – Mirko

I think the most important thing is to keep the tools as simple and accessible as possible. This means avoiding the use of too many different platforms, complicated software, etc. Also, the training should be designed to allow for participants to be able to turn their cameras off when necessary in order to save bandwidth. Another important aspect to consider is how to keep checking in on participants who have bad quality internet connection, so that they feel included as best as possible. Often this can be done by sending a private message in the chat.
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
2. In this part of the world I live (Nigeria), poor internet connectivity and poor electricity supply is a major barrier to effective online learning! – Aishatu

I understand, and it is very frustrating for everyone concerned. We need to keep trying to work out what kinds of online trainings might work best for people with unstable internet connection and electricity supply. Let's keep talking...
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
3. I find the poor internet connection for the people I work with to be the biggest challenge. It makes it really hard for them to contribute their thoughts. The chat function overcomes some of it but if English is not their main language they are again limited. Are there any platforms that work better than others? It feels like the platforms are geared towards people living in cities in the west and don’t allow for low bandwidths. – Sarah

I think we still have a lot of work to do in this area. I try to use the most simple tools to avoid requiring additional bandwith. As you say, the chat function is useful, but we need to come up with better ideas about how to deal with this.
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
4. I think that the last point that Lucy made is really crucial and wonder about the linkages between academic publishing companies and educational technologies? There’s so much that requires feminist transformation and democratization/decolonization in the academic publishing industry and I have the feeling that similar issues arise within businesses offering online educational services. – Joanna

Yes, this is an interesting parallel, thank you Joanna.
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
6. Do you make your exit questionnaire anonymous? We have had some trouble where some people can be quite mean in their anonymous feedback surveys. Differently from when trainings were in person. Almost like it is an extension of some of the online bullying - when a trainer is online, they seem like less of a person, and people don’t feel as bad. – Lindsey

Lindsey, this is a great question. I think perhaps it would be interesting to explore this with a specialist in evaluation and ask for their thoughts. We could speak to Nicola Popovic, for example, who wrote the Training Centre's Evaluation Tool.
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
6. Can you please also recommend some examples of exit questionnaires and online energizers? – Ritu

Thanks Ritu. I think there are some really good resources around for this. For example, the Cynara icebreakers toolkit. https://mailchi.mp/dd534ea76a58/icebreaker

As for exit questionnaires, you can get some good samples from the Training Centre Manual https://portal.trainingcentre.unwomen.org/resource-centre/entry/161823/ and the Evaluation Tool https://portal.trainingcentre.unwomen.org/resource-centre/entry/51633/. These can be easily adapted for online trainings using Google Forms or other online questionnaires.

Hope this is helpful!

Lucy
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
8. I found polling and polling results quite engaging as well as the strategy of Spontaneous participant engagement. kept them awake. – Caroline

Thanks Caroline. More and more, what I think works well is to change the dynamics fairly often. For example, to mix up activities between solo, pairs, small groups and plenary work. Also, to intersperse quick activities such as quizzes, surveys etc.

It would be great to create an online source to share all of these.
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Drissa TRAORE -
I join the forum in postponing because of some reasons of internet connectivity mentioned by the participant in question n*2. This is one of the reasons why I was not able to participate in the exchanges. I largely share this concern, which concerns my area, particularly in the northern regions of Mali.
The internet connection and electricity are only permanent when you are when you are in the office. In the city or in the countryside it is an ordeal. Even the telephone network is a journey of fighters.
Thus, I agree with the answers given by eminent facilitators with a view to finding adequate models and systems to respond to technical hazards that limit learning and constructive exchange. Drissa
In reply to Drissa TRAORE

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
Many thanks for your comment Drissa.

I think we need to work harder to understand very clearly the boundaries and limits to online training. In some cases courses may need to be simplified so we can find other kinds of interaction - e.g. through questionnaires, discussion forums and quizzes, etc. We may need to think about how asynchronous online training can take the pressure off internet connections.

Lots more work to do!
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Carmen Cavero -
Muchas gracias Ruya.
Pienso que hay una gran tarea y me parece super importante seguir en este tipo de diálogos académicos.
Me pregunto. ¿ Cómo los sistemas patriarcales, siguen vulnerando nuestros derechos? ¿Cómo deconstruir estás estructuras que siguen generando violencias? ¿Necesitamos educar para transformar?
Como seguir trabajando desde los diferentes espacios la "deconstrucción" de las nuevas masculinidades
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Lucy Ferguson -
Thanks for hosting this webinar and virtual dialogue. I look forward to getting into some of the conversations with you.
In reply to Lucy Ferguson

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Ruya Leghari -
Thank you Lucy! We have a PDF that one of our speakers, Claudia Callegari of ITC-ILO just shared for our CoP members on the use of 'bodyswap' technology, you can access it below. 
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Ruya Leghari -
Thank you so much for your replies Lucy and Claudia! I have added a link to the recording of the Webinar at the top of this forum thread.
In reply to Ruya Leghari

Re: Virtual Dialogue on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies (3 November 2022)

de Carmen Cavero -
Thank you very much! It is very interesting to continue advancing the proposals on the gender issue.
I would like to know what possibilities there are to also have the presentations or documents in Spanish.
I am very motivated to continue participating.

Thanks.
carmen cavero