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Dr Vander Viana (School of Education and Lifelong Learning) has secured more than £200k to lead an innovative research project examining the contribution of English language education to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Entitled ‘Gender-ing ELT: International perspectives, practices, policies’, the project takes place in 10 ODA countries (Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Morocco, Philippines, Ukraine and Vietnam), representing different geographical continents, ODA levels, language policies, and gender inclusion levels. Through the participation of key school stakeholders (pupils and parents, school leaders and teachers, university students and lecturers), the research aims to examine their perspectives and practices, raise their awareness of gender matters and foster their context-sensitive reflections on gender equality in ELT in these ODA countries.

Dr Viana, Associate Professor in Education, said: “I am delighted to be working on this project alongside a large group of experts in the 10 partner countries as well as in the UK, such as my co-PI Dr Aisling O’Boyle from Queen’s University Belfast.”

“Gender has been under-explored in English language education, and this is a unique chance to advance the boundaries of existing research, to trigger social change in a bottom-up, context-sensitive way and to support United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5.”

The research is funded by the British Council through their Widening Participation Research Grants. These grants are aimed at supporting research in ODA countries that improves the learning and teaching of the English language and that promotes economic development and welfare.

The project counts on the participation of researchers based in ODA countries and with the support of international research associations.

One of the institutional supporters is the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP). Dr. Marie Paz Morales, the Chairperson on NRCP Division I in charge of Governmental, Educational, and International Policies said: “Integrating the gender perspective in English Language Teaching (ELT) in the Philippines may lead to significant policies that inform gender mainstreaming in the fields of education, governance and international policies the country advocates. As the pillar of the National Research Council of the Philippines is to promote research in the fields of education, governance, and international policies, studies on ‘gender-ing’ may spark initiatives from other sections and sectors of the Council, and may strengthen and further promote policies on gender sensitivity across fields and disciplines.”

Non-academic stakeholders have also been directly involved in the project from its inception. One example is the Education and Culture Office of Banten Province in Indonesia, which is responsible for organizing and managing early childhood education, elementary education, secondary education, and community education affairs and the management of culture.

Teddy Hendra Pratama, Head of Division for Secondary School Affairs, said: “I unequivocally support Gender-ing ELT and strongly encourage an in-depth study on this topic, particularly in Indonesia. The outcome of this research project will help the government to continuously improve gender equality, and I believe it will result on the fast development of human resources at Banten Province.” 

The project will run for 18 months – from April 2021 to September 2022 – and more information can be found on the project website, by following its Twitter account or by liking the project Facebook page. The team can also be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].

International Office of Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (IO-UNTIRTA) conducted an online meeting with Dr. Aisling O’Boyle, Dr. Vander Viana and Cultuture and Education Department representatives, Silvia Widia, Etty, and Nia. This meeting was held on March 26th, 2021 at 3 P.M. the meeting was an introductory session of Dr. Vander and Dr. Aisling to the Culture and Education Department of Banten. In this initial meeting, they shortly explained the focus of their research in which Indonesia, represent by Banten Province is one of case study among other countries in example Bangladesh, Brazil, Columbia, China, Marocco, Philiphines, Ukraine, and Vietnam, Involved in the research. The research is funded by British Council and starts in April 2021 to 2025.

(March 26^th, 2021) The International Office of Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (IO-UNTIRTA) held an online meeting with Kantor Urusan Internasional Universitas Indonesia (KUI-UI). The meeting was held via zoom. The participants were IO-UNTIRTA team and KUI-UI team. The meeting focused on the international networking, research collaborations, international marketing programs and non-academics programs were being presented by KUI-UI.The Head Office of IO-UNTIRTA Dr. Udi Samanhudi, Ph. D. shared information about UNTIRTA’s international networking progress so far to KUI-UI.  In addition, the international networking development was important for an International Office in Universities because from it, an international office could spread information and initiate collaboration in academics or non-academics areas widely, stated by Head Office KUI-UI drg. Baiduri Widanarko, MKKK, Ph.D. This was highlighted by the KUI-UI during the meeting. From this meeting, the IO-UNTIRTA could build larger international networking progressively in the future. 

(March 26, 2021) The Posco Scholarships public information sharing was held by International Office of Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (IO-UNTIRTA). The purpose of this program was to inform the students of UNTIRTA about Posco Scholarships. The Posco foundation is accepting application for scholarships. The time for the registration is March 17^th, 2021 until April 17^th, 2021. The scholarships value is about 1400$ USD. The Posco foundation representative, Rheya and Nadhira shared the information and the requirements of Posco Scholarship. They told about the academics and non-academics requirements of the scholarship. 122 participants coming from different faculties of UNTIRTA attended this online information session of Posco scholarship.