Peer Review

The Gender Policy Report

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Apr 20, 2020 by Sociology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Gender Policy Report contributions clarify the gendered bases of policy practices and conflicts. They offer diverse public audiences informed perspectives on how policies matter for gender equality, gender equity and constructions of gender itself. Working across varied media platforms, the Gender Policy Report seeks to inform policy debates and improve public discourse. Our mission is to take the best insights from scholarship and research and make them accessible to broader communities in a way that is timely for addressing serious policy challenges.

Type of Material:

Collection of resources and dialogues on a variety of policy issues as prepared by a panel of curators at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Recommended Uses:

This material could be used for group discussions and in-class debates. The dialogue background information is a great starting point for thinking about a variety of issues.

Technical Requirements:

High speed internet and browser.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Goals include:

The use of resources on contemporary issues regarding gender identification and equality issues as may be applied to specific research assignments.

Recognition of ongoing dialogue on gender issues including various applications of the issues to public policy and society.

Target Student Population:

Undergraduate, graduate, professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

This website would assume a basic understanding of social policy issues and therefore the student should have basic courses in the introductory social sciences.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The background information on the dialogues/topics provide a quick overveiw of the issue(s) with a representation of different perspectives in the debate. The dialogue articles offer a variety of perspectives to be considered and the policy implications. The issues are current and relevant to our everyday lives. The content is well researched, screened by the curators and referenced. Content comes from a variety of scholarly sources.
Concerns:: It is not clear how the topics or content are picked for inclusion.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The presentation of different perspective on current policy issues related to gender provides students with an excellent example of considering a wide variety of perspectives in deciding their perspective on the issue. Often students are asked to argue the pros and/or cons to issues and often offer only one side. It also helps students identify the social factors impacting policies. The articles are written in a way which is not too technical but does supply information for scholarly study.
Concerns:: The teaching and learning goals are not explicitly stated anywhere. It is assumed to be a resource to be used for student research. In lower undergraduate courses, some scaffolding might be needed.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The research areas button quickly provides access to ten topical areas - built and natural environments, criminal justice, economic security, education, health, human rights, labor and family, immigration, leadership, violence. Main front page clearly shows the areas of study. Clicking on each box brings up the section. Each article has a summary and then a box which when clicked brings up the full article.
Concerns:: Although the site is relatively new, I would have liked to seen more dialogues. It appears that they are still developing a dialogue schedule -- twice a year. It appears they are more active on twitter, instantgram and facebook. Educators who are using this material may want to look at these medias as well. To make best use, the student should use the search which is located on the top of the page but is not clearly marked.

Other Issues and Comments:: The site is intended to be a resource. It does not have learning interaction with the students as other learning tools do and there is no means of evaluating student learning.
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