A MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS APPROACH TOWARDS CREATING A INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM FOR GENDER RESPONSIVE HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

In the era when globalisation have challenged the ways we traditionally conceptualise higher education curriculum and its implications, the academic debates with respective to importance of gender inclusive higher education has brought to the surface the necessity of discussion about the factors/components which contributes in making higher education curriculum inclusive. Although there are multitude of publication which exists on gender inclusivity and higher education, very less work has been done on designing an inclusive curriculum for gender responsive higher education. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by taking wider and a more holistic view that is based on a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) framework. A comprehensive list of factors/components essential for designing higher education curriculum was extracted from extant literature and expert opinion was developed. Further, Analytical Hierarchy Process was adopted as a MCDA method and established priorities using pair wise comparisons and judgements to identify the relative importance of these factors/components. Our findings show that among all the factors/components identified (Educational, Dispositional, Conditional and Cultural), Educational component which consists of attributes like entry qualifications, educational experiences, experiences of work and life, learning approaches contributes maximum in designing an inclusive curriculum for gender responsive higher education. Moreover, the paper contributes methodologically by proposing first time development of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis Framework in precise and a unique way. Through this study, we also highlight the need for adapting a pro active anticipatory approach in teaching pedagogy by higher education instructions.