The project "Fair Play at Schools" focuses on gender sensitive education at schools in Norway, Estonia and the Czech Republic. The project partners KUN, EWAR and GIC NORA have previously worked with gender equality and comparative international projects and have come together for a European project now. Gender segregation in education and gendered labour market choices are present in all European countries, to different degrees and in somewhat different constellations. We believe that these differences are in part a result of socialization, and while all families are different, schools play a large part in young children's lives. The attitudes and possibilities the children are met with at schools will influence how they perceive themselves in society. Teachers' knowledge and awareness of gender roles and how these are presented to the pupils may have a large impact on the children's future. In working toward a more gender equal Europe we think it is essential to provide all children with equal opportunities. The partners will elaborate in common three intellectual outputs. Each output will target a different group of teachers and hence will tackle different aspects of gender in a school environment. First, a two module course in gender sensitive education will be prepared for kindergarten teachers. Second, another two module course will be elaborated for teachers of the first level of primary schools. Third, teachers of the second level of primary schools will be offered 10 webinars in the topic of gender sensitive education with a focus on career choice, gender based violence at schools and also self-reflexivity and critical thinking. The deliverables will be widely disseminated, and can be used for raising awareness of gender and diversity and thus increasing competences of teachers throughout Europe.
Gender segregation in education and gendered choice in the labor market are present throughout Europe. We believe that these differences are partly the result of socialization and that schools play a large role in socialization. Teachers' knowledge and awareness of gender roles and the ways in which they are presented to students can have a major impact on children's future. In the effort for a more equal Europe, we have created three intellectual outputs. Each output targeted a different group of teachers: A) for kindergarten teachers, for whom we have prepared a two-day self-education course in gender-sensitive education. B) for elementary school teachers, for whom we have prepared a 16-module self-education course, again in gender-sensitive education. C) We created 10 webinars for elementary school teachers and for a wide audience on the topic of gender-sensitive education, focusing on career choice, gender-based violence in schools, masculinity, etc. We have achieved the filling of an empty space in the field of gender-sensitive education in the sense of missing materials (especially for Kindergarten) for teachers. Through the implementation of Norwegian and Estonian know-how, we supported the increase of teachers' competence in an innovative way. The outputs are also in English, so the impact is on the whole of Europe.
At the time when the project application was being prepared, GIC NORA had been dealing with the topic of gender-sensitive education for some time. She looked for inspiration abroad, as the topic was practically in its infancy in the Czech Republic. GIC NORA knew about both partner organizations that they have been engaged in gender-sensitive pedagogy for a long time. Particularly attractive for GIC NORA was the opportunity to become familiar with the application of gender-sensitive pedagogy in preschool education thanks to the Norwegian organization. In addition, the Norwegian partner organization was known to use the method of filming and subsequent analysis of video recordings of events in kindergartens during its work in kindergartens. Gender and education is one of the focal topics promoted by the Estonian Women’s Associations Roundtable. EWAR has always been interested in learning about the European best practice of breaking gender stereotypes in and through education and about ways to promote gender-sensitive pedagogy.