Education for Equality – Going beyond gender stereotypes Erasmus Project

Project Title

Education for Equality – Going beyond gender stereotypes

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Gender equality / equal opportunities; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The design of the project was born from a European context that, through some data, which, according to EIGE 2013 (EU Instance for Gender Equality) studies, that the percentage of women who have suffered physical violence from their own partner ranges from 4% (EL) to 37% (EE), with an Intimate Partner Violence index (IPV) which records 9 out of 10 victims as women. This scenario emphasizes even more that the fundamental tool to change “gender culture” is education from early childhood, so we asked ourselves the following questions: a) Regarding education and schools, what strategies are needed to overcome gender stereotypes and gender roles in curricula and textbooks? B) What specific teaching tools can be used to address the problem of sexual difference and sexism in language c) How can schools encourage the free expression of different sexual identities, promoting equal opportunities and respect for differences? To concretely respond to these questions it is necessary to “provide” the world of education, especially teachers, with additional knowledge, skills and teaching tools.
Objective: to spread a gender culture and support the overcoming of gender stereotypes through the development of tools and methods for the system and educational institutions.
The participating organizations that have been part of the partnership are:
Teseo (coordinator): training company, specialized in the design, implementation of European projects.
FBI: research and education organization, born in 1992. Among the main expertise: elaborating gender issues (e.g. gender history, Gender Pedagogy, gender dialogue, gender sensitive counselling, cross work and intersectionality) including mainstreaming techniques.
OLIKA: publishing house founded in 2007. Specialized in the publication of children’s books and method books, ith the aim to find new channels to children and making an impact on norms concerning gender, equality and diversity.
COGAM: Since 1986, is The Lesbian, Gay, Transgender & Bisexual Collective (LGBT; LGTB) of Madrid is a democratic, participatory, inclusive, independent non-profit organization.
Italian Committee for UNICEF: it is part of the UNICEF international organization (United Nations Children´s Fund), a body of the UN, with the mandate of protecting and promoting children (age 0-18) rights.

The actions and activities of the project were implemented by members identified within each partner organization and who were part of the Steering Committee. The validation of the results produced was validated by a Scientific Committee, which included two experts such as Prof. Irene Biemmi (University of Florence) and Prof. Elena Mignosi (University of Palermo). Going specifically to the activities carried out, E4E began with the search and selection of the best practices adopted in each of the 4 countries involved in the partnership. This work served to define the Model E4E (O1). At the same time, was created the E4E website, the Facebook profile, a communication email within the partnership, the newsletter template (O2). Following the definition of the Model and the basic principles of all the E4E methodology, the main outputs to be transmitted to the teachers were implemented: “E4E Teachers Tool kit” (O3) composed of activities and educational tools (exercises, group work and fun activities ) and the “E4E Language labs” (O4) with exercises and activities, aimed at both children and adults (teachers and parents) to encourage reflection about the use of a language oriented to gender equality. After the creation of these tools, some staff members (2 for each partner organization) participated in the training and development of the tools (C1 – 32 hours). Subsequently, the same members trained the teachers of the schools identified and selected in each country, with the aim to test the outputs with their students. During the course of the project, 6 meetings were held between the partners, during which the main activities were carried out and the objectives to be achieved were defined. Furthermore, transversal activities have been carried out with the aim of disseminating the results achieved and the objectives of the project. In particular, the dissemination was carried out through various tools such as: newsletters, communications on the Facebook profile, website and multiplier events in each of the 4 countries to which teachers, educators, stakeholders and policy makers were invited.
The project involved 16 schools, 258 teachers and 766 students. Subsequently, the network of relations was enlarged, also involving other actors such as associations, public bodies and political decision makers who were interested in the development and deepening of the priorities indicated above, guaranteeing E4E an impact even in the long term, involving at least 5 other schools in each country (+ 35%) around 60 classes (+ 30%), reaching another 180 teachers and around 900 children, reaching indirectly up to 1800 parents.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 223941 Eur

Project Coordinator

TESEO SRL & Country: IT

Project Partners

• OLIKA förlag AB
• Institut für gesellschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung, Bildung und Information
• COGAM
• Comitato Italiano per l’UNICEF ONLUS