Gender Equality in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Gender Equality in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The promotion of gender equality in and through education is a prerequisite to the achievement of equality between women and men in all spheres of life in society. The Council of Europe has promoted gender equality and non-stereotyped education at all levels. By shaping gender representations, attitudes and behaviours, early education is an essential factor to combat stereotypes and bring about social and cultural changes. Gender mainstreaming will play an active part in implementing awareness-raising and training on gender equality. Policymakers and educators worldwide should not underestimate the importance of early childhood education on the development of deeply engrained gender norms. It is important to consider the cognitive and affective formation of gender identity which develops in early childhood. The types of skills, personality attributes, and career aspirations learned through teacher-child interactions and childhood play can form stereotypical masculine and feminine attitudes toward gender roles, which develop before adolescence. By associating gender equality and STEAM focused on pre-school, primary and junior secondary education the project addresses the underrepresentation of girls in STE(A)M (Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering and Mathematics) who will be the future women in STE(A)M careers.
Objective: This project is concerned with gender equality in pre-school, primary and lower secondary education and aims at contributing to increased capabilities to reduce stereotypes by developing a series of innovative and interactive materials, tested through a behavioural science lens for their potential to increase equality by amendment of practical everyday skills and social norms regarding attitudes and stereotypes, especially in STEAM and in what concerns teachers and youngsters.
Learning Objectives:(using Bloom’s Taxonomy action verbs)
By concluding this project, participants will be able to:
– Define unconscious biases and gender stereotypes in pre-school, primary and secondary STEAM education by raising awareness of target groups
– Support pre-school, primary and lower-secondary school teachers by providing them training, materials to deal with diversity and gender-balance in their classrooms (e. g. helping them to design suitable education programmes, organise hands-on activity, promoting Equality in STEAM and mentoring) and then engage more girls in STEAM education
– Create a friendly ECOSYSTEM in class where girls in early education will feel appreciated and motivated to participate in STEAM activities as equals both in number and in terms of responsibilities
The project will target 3 groups:
I.Early education professionals.
II.Head of teachers, school directors, representatives of regional/national and EU authorities, decison-makers, STEAM women,
III.Children of 5+ – 12, the final beneficiary of project results.
Five outputs will be produced:
O1Training Programme on GE-STEAM (in all partners’ languages – English) for teachers (Behavioural levers)
O2 Repository for teachers on ‘Assistant Platform’
O3 Introducing Art in STEM using Project Based Learning and Kit-hands-on self-teach activities
O4 Peer Mentoring and Business Mentoring Schemes
O5 Adaptation, Translation and Testing/Piloting the GE-STEAM Training Programme accompanied by Assistant Platform ( EBook in 4 languages)
Coordinated by a public body Teaching Staff Training and Research Centre the project gathered a varied pool of organisations: Schools – FPSLD BG and ProF (a language and training school in the countryside) – Training Centres with a long experience and expertise in project’s implementation (one located in the countryside FIP in Ireland and Postal 3 in Vigo, Spain. The majority of the outputs will be translated into all partner languages.
The methodology used is that based on a behavioural sciences methodological framework. According to current reports, we can fully act on this age range to engage more girls in STEAM education. Behavioural Insight is a process that looks at Behaviours, Analysis, Strategies, Interventions, Change (BASIC). This approach will allow the project partners to get to the root of the problem(gender stereotyping and bias), gather evidence on what works, show support for innovation, and ultimately improve the situation. The testing will involve 75 teachers; Peer-mentoring 40 mentors and 40 mentees; 30 Business Mentors and 1124 children/pupils. The evaluation of the actual impact on teachers, decisionmakers and pupils should be done by discouraging a specific behaviour towards gender balance especially in STEAM subjects. Before-after self-assessment questionnaires, using the exact same target group can show us the amount of change in their behaviour.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 149075 Eur

Project Coordinator

Casa Corpului Didactic Mures & Country: RO

Project Partners

• Academia Postal 3 Vigo S.L.
• FUNDATIA PROFESSIONAL
• FUTURE IN PERSPECTIVE LIMITED
• First Private School Leonardo da Vinci Ltd