Asserting the existence of two sexes as a law of nature. One person in two thousand is born intersexual. Many societies have a more highly nuanced concept of gender affiliation. Many individuals reject unique gender assignment verbally, socially and physically.
Implications for research ethics
“Gender-typical” behaviours and a static view of two genders are not natural givens, but rather continually reproduced (“doing gender”), for example through heteronormative classifications of education clients, school pupils, teachers or researchers. Therefore, research conducted at IAE does not divide populations into “girls” and “boys” as a matter of course. Gender is used as an analysis category rather than as a naturally given attribute. The researcher will therefore ask how gender assignments (rather than simply “gender”) impact on teaching and learning. Gender is also considered in intersectional terms, i.e. in its interaction with other categories such as social origin or educational background.
Literature