Considering the benefits of a gender-sensitive and reflective education for all, and recognising the social importance of transformative educational interventions in the early lives of individuals, along with the need for a more active engagement of boys and young men into the gender equality conversation, this project aims to provide educators/facilitators (e.g. trainers, teachers, youth and NGO workers, gender experts, gender and LGBTIQ+ activists, policy makers and other stakeholders) with a coherent, open, online educational tool-kit that will include a complete course on gender/gender-sensitive education targeting the audience of teenage boys, between 15 and 17 years old. The project will be implemented by a coalition of organisations from three European countries, that is, Cyprus, Spain, and the Netherlands. The applicant organisation is a newly established NGO in Cyprus, the Center for Gender Equality and History (KIIF). The partner organisations include the Gale Foundation in the Netherlands, that is, an NGO focused on LGBTIQ+ education, the Conexus NGO in Spain, which specialises in combating gender-based violence, and the Center for Social Innovation (SCI), a social enterprise based in Cyprus with particular expertise in digital and interacting learning environments. In this context, with a consortium consisting of gender experts, LGBTIQ+ activists, youth workers, educators/trainers/facilitators, psychologists, and technology experts, the partnership aspire to present an Interactive Digital Learning Tool-kit that will help educators/facilitators to successfully engage teenage boys in gender education; target the particular needs and challenges faced by teenage boys in regard to their gendered experience; offer to the participants a meaningful experience of transforming harmful gender norms; empower teenage boys to become allies in the goal of gender equality. Methodologically, the first step toward this goal will be the development of a course curriculum that will follow an interactive and playful approach aiming to be particularly attractive and relevant to the adolescent male audience and that will address subjects such as gender issues and social justice, gender identities and individual/collective freedom, combating gender-based violence, building healthy relationships from the perspective of gender equity, men's sexual and reproductive health, strategies for assuming personal/collective responsibility and positive change etc. from a gender-aware, gender-sensitive, and age-appropriate perspective. The second step will be the integration of the course curriculum into a digital environment in the form of an open, online learning platform, namely the "Interactive Digital Learning Tool-kit" consisting of a complete gender education course of approximately 50-55 hours of work; including preparation, "homework" or any other “out-of-class” activity. If taken as a complete course, it will therefore correspond to 2 ECTS. However, the tool-kit will also be applicable as an easy-to-use tool for facilitating short autonomous workshops and individual activities, while part of the digital learning tools delivered by this project will be a mobile application based on the tool-kit. Overall, the project will provide educators/stakeholders with a European oriented course aiming to address the common needs, challenges and attitudes shared by young (adolescent) boys living in the social, legal and economic context of the EU, while being designed to be easily adjusted/adapted into the national/local environments of the EU states. For this purpose, the last one of the project's deliverables will be a "Methodology & Adaptation Guide (Interactive eBook)" aiming to provide specific guidelines to educators, stakeholders and multipliers on how to integrate the learning tools and the project's outputs in their training activities in different social-cultural settings and implement accreditation processes relevant to the European context (i.e. youth pass, ECVET and ECTS). By providing the world with these learning tools, the project will contribute in the engagement and empowerment–in terms of gender equality, gender awareness, healthy relations etc–of a particular category of young people, the male adolescent, who are often vulnerable to gender stereotyping/labeling, gender-related insecurities, perceived threats to their identity, toxic behaviours linked to particular perceptions of masculinity & power relations etc. but who are often excluded from gender/gender-sensitive education as societies continue to consider gender-related issues as women's issues. This will advance the visibility of the need and the benefits of engaging boys/young men in the issues of gender justice and will strengthen the partners and all organisations/individuals involved in (gender/gender-sensitive) education/research/activism in their overall efforts to engage men, especially young men, into the gender equality conversation.
The main objective of the project was to develop an educational tool-kit with the following characteristics: - Provide trainers, teachers, youth workers, gender activists and others with a comprehensive course aiming at a gender-sensitive and transformative educational intervention in the early lives of young men, especially developed to target the audience of teenage boys, between 15 and 17 years old. - Address the challenge of educating teenage boys on gender issues/identity/justice, combating gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, healthy relationships and similar issues. - Consisting of playful lessons, attractive, friendly and particularly relevant to the adolescent male audience. - Consisting of approximately 50-55 hours of lessons and divided in four modules. - The toolkit would be found in the form of an online platform and a mobile application (These are now the GEDU platform and the GEDU Mobile Application). - It can be used either for facilitating all modules as a complete course or for facilitating short autonomous workshops and individual activities (applicable not only in groups of teenage boys but also in mixed-gender audiences of teenagers).
The main objective was to provide educators and stakeholders (trainers, teachers, youth workers, gender activists, policy makers and other stakeholders) with a coherent, open, online educational tool-kit which would consist of a complete course on gender/gender-sensitive education education, targeting the audience of teenage boys, between 15 and 17 years old. With this project we wanted to address: - The need for a gender-sensitive and reflective education for all, recognising the importance of transformative educational interventions in the early lives of individuals - The need for a more active engagement of boys and young men into the gender equality conversation - The need to help educators on gender issues and gender justice to overcome particular challenges regarding the audience of teenage boys and offer the educators strategies and methods to engage this particular social group into their trainings and introduce/engage them into the principles of gender equality, the key debates on gender identity, issues of sexual and reproductive health, critical reflection on stereotypes, combating gender-based violence etc.