Institutional betrayal and fugitive innovation: whistleblowing at the intersection of gender and disability in Ethiopian higher education

This qualitative study examines how women with disabilities navigate whistleblowing in Ethiopian public education, revealing how intersecting gender and disability identities influence their reporting experiences. Through in-depth interviews with 35 whistleblowers across 6 institutions, we identify a critical paradox: participants demonstrated strong ethical commitment to exposing misconduct yet faced systemic dismissal through ableist and patriarchal institutional cultures. Our analysis, framed through the Social Model of Disability, pinpoints three discrimination junctures—report initiation, institutional response, and post-disclosure outcomes—where attitudinal, environmental, and institutional barriers proved particularly detrimental. Counter to victimization narratives, findings highlight innovative resistance strategies, including deaf educators’ collective testimony practices and blind administrators’ adapted documentation systems. These emergent approaches overturn individualistic whistleblowing models, revealing ‘fugitive innovation’ as a critical mechanism for survival and accountability within oppressive systems. The study calls for rights-based protections that address compound marginalization, offering practical institutional reforms for educational systems in the Global South.