Measure your AQ
Operationalising Intersectionality: a methodology for organisations that want to change the conditions that hold inequity in place, not just count who is in the room.
Free overview course Beta
Operationalising Intersectionality
Most organisations have diversity, equity and inclusion work underway. Most of it has not closed the distance between what organisations say they want and what they produce. Single axis approaches, which look at one identity category at a time, leave the people who sit at intersections invisible to the policies, programs and leadership that claim to serve them.
Intersectionality is the analytical framework that fixes that. Not as a word to add to a strategy, but as a way of examining how power operates across the structures, cultures and relationships of an organisation. This course gives you the foundation.
Beta, open for peer review. The course is complete and free to use. We are inviting practitioners and scholars to review it, and we will refine it before full release. Every screen has a way to send us a comment, or you can email your review.
Six modules. About an hour and a half. Free.
This course covers the first stage of the Aurum Foundation methodology Operationalising Intersectionality: the stage called Recognise. It is the foundation stage, and the methodology is clear that it cannot be skipped. By the end of it you will understand what intersectionality is as an analytical framework, where it comes from, why it is not the same thing as diversity and inclusion training, how power operates in organisations, and whether your organisation is ready to do the work.
Each module takes 10 to 15 minutes. They unlock in sequence. Your progress is saved, so you can stop and return.
- Module 1
Why intersectionality is not DEI
What the framework is, what it is not, and why the distinction matters.
- Module 2
Where it comes from
Black feminist thought, Crenshaw, Hill Collins, and why naming the tradition is part of the analysis.
- Module 3
Sovereignty first
Why any analysis of power in Australia begins with First Nations sovereignty, not after it.
- Module 4
Power, not identity
The three domains of power, the core constructs, and the conditions that hold inequity in place.
- Module 5 Measure your AQ
Is your organisation ready
Eight questions. An honest reading of where you sit.
- Module 6
What comes next
The Respond and Reform stages, the eight tools, and how to work with us.
Who it is for
Anyone with decision making responsibility.
The methodology applies at three levels of an organisation. Board members and executives setting strategy. Managers running teams, programs and budgets. Practitioners designing services and working with people directly. The same analytical structure applies at every level. The unit of analysis shifts.
It applies across sectors: disability, health and aged care, education, workplaces, government and councils, justice, cultural and community institutions, enterprise and finance. No sector is the origin. The analytical core is universal.
If you are responsible for decisions that affect other people, this course is for you.
Why we ask you to register
The course is free and will stay free. We ask you to register for two reasons.
First, so your progress and your self check results are saved to your account and you can return to them.
Second, so we know who is engaging with the methodology and in which sectors. That register is the beginning of a national picture of organisations working with intersectional analysis, and it tells us where to put our effort.
We will not sell your details. If you tick the box when you register, we will contact you about this methodology and related work from Aurum Foundation, and you can stop that at any time.
Three things this is not
It is not diversity and inclusion training. Intersectionality strengthens that work by giving it sharper analytical tools. It does not replace it, and it is not a synonym for it.
It is not a checklist. There is no list of actions that, once completed, makes an organisation inclusive. The work is dynamic and ongoing.
It is not identity politics. Intersectionality is the analysis of power. Counting more identity categories does not produce intersectional practice.
Developed by Aurum Foundation
Operationalising Intersectionality is Aurum Foundation’s methodology. It takes the analytical framework developed in Black feminist scholarship, by Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins among others, and turns it into a documented practice model that organisations can apply across governance, operations and service design.
The methodology is arranged in three stages: Recognise, Respond and Reform. This free course covers Recognise. Respond and Reform are facilitated work, and the final module explains how that works.
Operationalising Intersectionality applies the intersectionality model developed by Just Gold and Myriad Global, which now operate together under Aurum Foundation. The same model informed the Australian Sports Commission’s Roadmap, An all inclusive approach to governance and leadership in Australian sport, which our team helped develop. The Roadmap is the Commission’s publication and applies the model to sport. This methodology, and this course, belong to Aurum Foundation and carry the model across every sector. Read the Roadmap on the Australian Sports Commission website.
The Autistic Standard on Aurum AQ
Aurum AQ also delivers The Autistic Standard, the behavioural safety framework for how autistic people are treated across organisations and systems. The Autistic Standard is already available, and its courses are moving onto Aurum AQ.
The first tier, the Charter and the three protocols are free to everyone, always, with no login required. Autistic people and families never pay to learn how they should be treated. Verified community and autistic led organisations pay what they can. Every other organisation, including government, business and larger non profits, buys a licence priced by its size, and those licences fund free places for the community.
