Teaching Meets Gender : An Exploration and Comparison of India and Sweden’s Efforts into Teaching their Teachers about Gender Equality

Abstract: When it comes to gender equality and education, teachers become the influential element of change as their proximity and classroom interactions with students can facilitate more gender sensitive teaching. This thesis aims to investigate the efforts made by India and Sweden to teach their teachers about gender and intersectional practices and sensitivity training and then analyse what one system can borrow from the other, while investigating the role of geo-politics in all of these. The thesis looks at efforts in forms of guidelines, strategies, and manuals that come from each country. The material is read closely, analysed, and then compared to determine what can be borrowed for both. The thesis presents its analysis from the theoretical lens of gender and intersectionality, transnational feminism, and decolonial feminism. The implications of this thesis are tangible as well as intangible, however - the biggest one is building a bridge between two countries to share knowledge and strategies in order to bring about a change in education systems which will ultimately create a ripple effect of gender awareness