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

In the era when globalisation have challenged the ways we traditionallyconceptualise higher education curriculum and its implications, the academicdebates with respective to importance of gender inclusive higher education hasbrought to the surface the necessity of discussion about the factors/componentswhich contributes in making higher education curriculum inclusive. Although thereare multitude of publication which exists on gender inclusivity and higher education,very less work has been done on designing an inclusive curriculum for genderresponsive higher education. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by taking widerand a more holistic view that is based on a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)framework. A comprehensive list of factors/components essential for designinghigher education curriculum was extracted from extant literature and expert opinionwas developed. Further, Analytical Hierarchy Process was adopted as a MCDAmethod and established priorities using pair wise comparisons and judgements toidentify the relative importance of these factors/components. Our findings show thatamong all the factors/components identified (Educational, Dispositional, Conditionaland Cultural), Educational component which consists of attributes like entryqualifications, educational experiences, experiences of work and life, learningapproaches contributes maximum in designing an inclusive curriculum for genderresponsive higher education. Moreover, the paper contributes methodologically byproposing first time development of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis Framework inprecise and a unique way. Through this study, we also highlight the need foradapting a pro active anticipatory approach in teaching pedagogy by highereducation instructions.