G.13. Intersectionality in Educational Research: Epistemologies and Methodologies favouring a Democratization of Postmigrant Societies

This panel examines how critical, intersectionally informed research can revitalize the relationship between education and democracy in postmigrant societies amid a global backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

We treat intersectionality as an analytic and methodological lens to shed light on how overlapping systems of oppression (re)produce marginalization, discrimination, and exclusion (Crenshaw, 1989/2011; Collins, 2019) in both formal and informal educational contexts. The aim of the panel is to foreground intersectionality’s transformative potential to reconnect education and democracy through practices of equity, belonging, and peaceful coexistence.

We invite contributions that investigate how educational policies and practices can move beyond declarative inclusivity, that is, contexts in which rights are affirmed in principle while multiple barriers persist. The panel mobilizes critical, interdisciplinary, and decolonial perspectives to advance a holistic understanding of individuals, educational pracitces and institutions. In line with international calls for intersectional approaches in educational research and practice (Varsik & Gorochovskij, 2023; Gross & Portera, 2025), we seek to synthesize productive epistemologies and methodologies capable of grasping social complexity and to chart a forward-looking methodological agenda for democratizing postmigrant society.

We welcome papers that explicitly move beyond the realm of normative argumentation, and empirical studies assessing the effects and impacts of (missing) DEI approaches. Expected outcomes include: (1) a state-of-the-art synthesis of research on the nexus between education and democracy in postmigrant societies; (2) an interdisciplinary reflection on methodologies for intersectional inquiry; and (3) a forward-looking research agenda offering policy-relevant insights for building genuinely diverse, democratic schools and societies.