Communication towards Equality in the European Higher Education

This paper addresses the process of creation and implementation of the subject “Communication towards Equality” at the University Jaume I in Spain, within the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA) framework. The purpose of the paper is to present this experience of University teaching reform as a potential guideline for the implementation of equality in other programs. The EHEA offered challenges and possibilities for University reforms, which included the implementation of capacity-building for students. At the communication programs of our University, the curriculum has included issues of gender equality, aimed at training future professionals towards citizen empowerment. The paper is organized around three sections. First, we present the legal and epistemological framework that sustains our experience. This includes an overview of legal regulations (EHEA, Spanish and international laws) and a revision of the epistemological and methodological background, mainly based on Critical Theory and Pedagogy on communication for social change. Second, we unfold the subject “Communication towards Equality” with its main contents and methodologies. Finally, we draw some reflections on its two years of implementation and the implications for training undergraduate students in communications for social change.This article is part of the research project “Evaluación e indicadores de Sensibilidad Moral en la Comunicación Actual de los Movimientos Sociales” [Evaluation Model and Indicators of Moral Sensitivity in the Communication of Social Movements] (CS02012–34066), funded by the Spanish State Secretary of Research, Development and Innovation of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the research project “De víctimas a indignados: Visibilidad mediática, migración de imágenes, espectacularización de los conflictos y procesos de transformación social hacia una Cultura de Paz” [From victims to indignants: media visibility, migration of images, conflicts spectacularization and social transformation processes for peace culture] (P1-1A2012) funded by the Promotion Plan for Research of the University Jaume I