Tensions around gender equality and social equality are commonplace both in societal debates and in the classroom and often include reference to the body (e.g. headscarves, skin colour, gestures, touch and comportment). To date, educational research has been mainly focused on dialogic approaches to these tensions and little attention has been paid to their bodily and sensory aspects.

The present study combines theory on embodiment with sensory studies in examining embodied expressions and the social and cultural coding of sensual experiences in the classroom. The purpose of the project is to explore how tensions and conflicts around gender equality and social equality are embodied in the classroom and to develop pedagogical-philosophical thinking about how equality can be fostered in schools.

Methodologically, the project consists of two parts: a) an explorative, empirical study with qualitative interviews and microethnographic field studies; and b) a theoretical study that seeks to generate pedagogical-philosophical thinking about education for gender equality and social equality in schools.

The project will run for four years with three investigators: Elisabet Langmann (PI) and Lovisa Bergdahl, senior lecturers in education from Södertörn University, Sweden, and Sharon Todd, professor of education from Maynooth University, Ireland.

The first two years will be spent on planning, collecting and analysing the empirical material and the final two years will be spent on generating educational theory for teachers’ and students’ work with gender equality and social equality in the classroom.