Cultnet Meeting 2022 Durham University School of Education Dissemination about the project titled: Development of Intercultural Competencies for Women Engineers: a Story Circles Approach results and story circle outcomes.
The most important results of the project that appeared in the first story Circles were presented, where two things were achieved: the first of them was to know the challenges facing female engineers in the engineering profession, and then to know how to develop intercultural competencies during the story Circles.
The most important results of the project that appeared in the first story episode were presented, where two things were reached: the first was to know the challenges facing female engineers in the engineering profession, and then to know how to develop intercultural competencies during the story episodes.
The challenges facing female engineers in the engineering profession are divided into cultural and political barriers, and they can be summarized in the following points:
political barriers,
- In Gaza, affiliation to a particular political party can tacitly impact on roles and workload.
- Trust is developed among members of a particular party, which could exclude others
- Political situation in Palestine – protracted conflict leads to security concerns, poverty, lack of resources
cultural barriers,
- Women’s family responsibilities impact on work and leisure time and ability to travel for work.
- Men find it difficult to accept working under a female leader
- Persistent gender stereotypes held by staff and students (e.g. treating female academics as secretaries)
But through the story loop that happened earlier,
The mechanism in which competencies will be developed has been reached:
- starts with personal skills development
- moving to having knowledge
- Getting the desired internal outcome
- External outcome
Finally, it was agreed on a date for the second story episode to be held in May, and to think about how to use learning from circles to make a positive impact on others (eg curriculum, relationships at work, writing collaborative giving…).