EquALL(ING) - Equality in Adult Education Lifelong Learning (Intersectionality and Gender) - Igualdad en el Aprendizaje a lo largo de la Vida Adulta (Interseccionalidad y Género) is a two year term exchange of best practices project. Its aim is to improve gender equality in lifelong learning (adult education). With the intention of adding value to the expertise of the teachers, and being the final target group the learners with an intersectional profile, and in order to explore the topic exhaustively, the project was focus on several small scale products: 1. Analysis of the intersectional reality through the voice of the participants themselves. By collecting life stories of those women we get to better know their complex realities. There have been register XXX life stories coming from different countries, with various profiles (migrants, elderly people, victims of gender violence, refugees…). Besides that, several sessions of focus group discussion have been held with migrant learners, so as to promote their sense of belonging to a community, enhance their identity and strengthen their self concept. 2. The collected texts have been the object of an exploratory qualitative analysis, where one could perceive some links between the role of the teachers and the psychological wellbeing of learners. 3. Best practices bank: while reflecting about the intersectional reality of the learners, the partnership was designing and testing a bunch of activities to work gender equality with a transversal approach with the target group. The activities had a similar structure, so as to facilitate its comprehension and implementation in different contexts. 4. Decalogue of best practices and teachers competences: a list of tips for more successful design of activities addressed to the target group focused on gender equality. Offered as an infographic, the tips are related with another set: a list of teachers' competences related to education that are necessary when dealing with these women with an intersectional profile. 5. Once the partnership has shared the experiences and practices about education, intersectionality and gender equality, the moment to stare at the future has come. Thus, the organisations have elaborated a very first draft, although being truly humble, for a hypothetical training about intersectionality and gender equality within the context of lifelong learning and adult education. The project has been coordinated by Centro de Profesorado Territorial Ángel Sanz Briz – España – ES, and the partnership is conformed by the following organisations: 1. CPEPA Cella – España – ES 2. Orient Express – Austria - AT 3. Centro Provinciale per l'Istruzione degli Adulti 2 Bari – Italia – IT 4. Association Odyssée – Francia - FR 5. TOPCOACH SRO – Eslovaquia - SK 6. Ljudska univerza Celje – Eslovenia - SI
The objectives of the project are to implement coeducation in adult education through the exchange of good practices at a European level, to learn about the intersectional reality of students and to improve teachers' competencies in gender equality and coeducation, as well as to have an impact on students through the exchange of experiences. In addition, the aim was to broaden the perspective of educators in adult education in relation to gender equality and intersectionality, to offer learning opportunities to students with an intersectional profile and to provoke a change of perspective regarding gender equality with an intersectional perspective towards lifelong learning, both at the individual level and related to the culture of the center in each participating organization.
Since 2018 academic year, the Government of Aragon has promoted coeducation and gender equality in schools, promoting the creation of equality plans. In conjunction with its development, training was provided for all teachers, focusing the contents on the primary and secondary educational stages. However, adult education was hardly contemplated, as well as the concept of intersectionality, which is absolutely specific to adult education students. At a European level, the EIGE recognized that there was still a long way to go towards effective gender equality. In the design phase, the project focused on improving the professional competencies of teachers and other essential professionals in lifelong learning, in order to provide an adequate educational response to the students. This is a real need, since in the initial training there are hardly any references to the way of working gender equality with this intersectional vision. It was therefore necessary to know the reality of adult education students in order to understand their own educational needs and possible learning difficulties. In addition, there was a perceived need to share educational experiences already developed in other centers at a European level.