| Project “Equal at School – Equal in Life” |
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About the project
This project, implemented from January to June 2007, is part of the larger initiative “Equal at School – Equal in Life” of the CWSP for promoting the introduction of gender perspective and issues in the process of education. The main aims of the initiative are: - To contribute for the elimination of gender stereotypes, still widespread even among children;
- To provide the educators’ community with some practical tools for use in the classroom and outside it;
- To promote gender equality in the process of education of responsible future citizens of the democratic society.
The project included several main activities for awareness-raising of the representatives of the educators’ community regarding gender equality issues in education: This project of CWSP launches a series of joint activities with national and international partners aiming at awareness-raising of school students, teachers and parents in gender issues as well as developing successful models for mainstreaming gender in the process of education. The project under the initiative “Equal at School – Equal in Life” of the CWSP is financed by: - the Directorate on Culture and Education of Sofia Municipality;
- CWSP’s own resources.
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All Different - All Equal Campaign
European Youth Campaign for Diversity, Human Rights and Participation
Background In 1995 – 50 years after the end of World War II – the Council of Europe ran a European Youth Campaign entitled “All Different – All Equal” in order to reinforce the fight against racism, anti-Semitism, Xenophobia and Intolerance. Nevertheless the struggle – 10 years afterwards – still goes on. For this reason, from June 2006 to September 2007, the Council of Europe will run a new Campaign for Diversity, Human Rights and Participation, based upon the same slogan and using the same successful logo. Why is the Campaign Important? What is the slogan “All Different – All Equal” about? It refers to the fact that people all over the world differ in so many ways, for example what people believe in and how people look, but regardless of these differences they should be given equal rights. Did you know that in some regions of Europe people with a non-white skin colour are afraid of walking alone on the streets? Did you know that in some regions of Europe gay people cannot kiss in public without fearing harassment? Did you know that in several regions of Europe having a handicap means not taking part in public life? Did you know that you have the right to be heard in all decisions regarding young people’s issues? That is what the Campaign is about: to respect diversity, to know about human rights and to take action in defending your own rights as well as to stand up against the discrimination of others.
The 2006-2007 Campaign The 2006-2007 Campaign is being organised in partnership with the European Commission and the European Youth Forum. Its target group is the civil society, both at European and national levels, in particular non-governmental youth organizations and youth initiatives as well as national governments and local authorities. The European Steering Group (ESG) takes decisions at strategic level and oversees the implementation of the Campaign. The ESG comprises 8 members from the statutory bodies of the youth sector of the Council of Europe (governments and NGOs), and representatives of the European Youth Forum, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, The European Commission, UNESCO, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). The Secretariat manages the planning, implementation and the evaluation of the Campaign according to the decisions of the Steering Group. It is responsible for the European-level activities and the communication strategy of the Campaign. It offers support to the NCCs in their work. In the 48 states that adhere to the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe were set up National Campaign Committees (involving NGOs, authorities, institutions, media). Their task is to develop and implement a national campaign programme in co-operation with the Council of Europe.
In Bulgaria In Bulgaria the Campign responds to the priorities and aims of the Campaign at the European level and is implemented with the support of the State Agency for Youth and Sports through the National Campaign Committee, established on 19 January 2006. it is chaired by Vesela Lecheva, and the Coordinator for Bulgaria is Vesela Mangeyna. The constituent committee was comprised by representatives of a number of youth non-governmental organizations from the whole country, of media and local authorities. Coordinating organisation: mailto:ncc-bulgaria@alldifferent-allequal.info NCC Bulgaria , 75 Vassil Levski Str., Room 111, Sofia 1040, BULGARIA Tel:+359 2930 05 79; + 359 2 930 06 72; Fax: +359 2 989 67 53 e-mail: nkk@youthsport.bg Contact person:
Vesela MANGEYNA
Tel: +359 2930 05 79Mob. + 359 887 55 42 31
e-mail: mangeyna@abv.bg
Fax +359 2 989 67 53
Sources: Official website of the Campaign: http://alldifferent-allequal.info/ European Information Centre, Veliko Turnovo: http://www.europeinfocentre.bg/  
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Events
Roundtable, 12 May 2007 Lecturerers and participants in the Roundtable |
The Roundtable for representatives of the educators’ community was organised in the Municipality of Sofia within the framework of the initiative “Equal at School – Equal in Life” of the CWSP in partnership with Sofia Municipality. The roundtable was attended by more than 40 teachers, principals and specialists, working in the sphere of education in Bulgaria. The lecturers from the Center of Women's Studies and Policies (Tatyana Kmetova, Roza Dimova and Magdanela Delinesheva) and from the Regional Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education and Science, Veliko Turnovo (Kina Kotlarska), presented information about the EU policy on gender equality in education, successful practices from other countries, as well as the status of the Bulgarian education system with regards to mainstreaming gender. The participants were introduced with the educational module “Equal at School – Equal in Life”, developed by the experts of CWSP and designed for students from 5-7 class. The module can be used either online for classwork, or for independent work at home. All materials will be accessible at the website of CWSP in pdf format as well in order to facilitate the teachers. It is envisaged that the module will be accessible online at the end of May 2007.
Of special interest for the participants was the presentation of Kina Kotlarska, Inspector in History at the Regional Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education and Science, Veliko Turnovo, who presented the recent experience of the European Information Centre in developing teaching aids and materials and teaching gender issues to high school students. A number of practical ideas were presented how this could be achieved within the Cultural and educational field of Social Sciences, Civic education and Religion or in the so called the Hour of the Class. Different teaching aids and information materials for teachers and students were presented. The roundtable ended with a discussion on the necessities of the Bulgarian education systems regarding gender issues like: the needs of the teachers for additional training in this topic and their introduction to educational practices, methods and techniques for promoting gender equality at school as well as the funding opportunities for educational projects in the field of gender equality.
All presentations in Bulgarian are available at the Bulgarian version of the website - click the button at the top to switch the languages. The event attracted media interest and was reflected in: News Agencies: Bulgarian News Agency, Focus, News.bg Newspapers: Telegraph Radios: Horizont, Darik TV Channels: Evropa, Evrokom, VTK, BBT, Diema 2
Pilot trial lesson, 14 June 2007 The pilot trial lesson for a group of students from the 6th grade in the 112 Sofia Basic School "Stoyan Zaimov" was organised with the kind assistance of their teacher. Most of the students have already discussed the topic of human and women's rights during the Optional Instruction Subject of History and Civic Education and the teacher has shared that there is a need of training materials on gender equality which makes it difficult to include the topic in the programme. | Participants in the pilot lesson |
CWSP's experts chose gender stereotypes as a topic for the trial lesson using the cartoons' superheroes and superheroines to demonstrate in a friendly way to students how stereotypical images of women and men are reproduced in programmes for children. An amusing test for comparison between male and female superheroes' outlook, behavior and characteristics was held with the students to open a discussion about the ways for portraying male and female characters in TV programs and the influence of the television on kids' perception about men and women in society and their choices of professions and personal development. The CWSP's message to students was that they should think and raise questions about everything around them, because in real life right answers are more than one. There is no recipe for being a true man or a true woman and students should choose freely and enjoy the diversity of people, with different characteristics, skills and interests and genders. During the trial lesson the children shared that they have never read information about the topics in their textbooks and found it very interesting. They shared that they will be challenged to access the module as it is online and that is more convenient. However, most of them emphasised that they would do it, if the teachers ask them to prepare such topics. This fact once again highlights the importance of the help, collaboration and commitment of teachers to the topic in order to reach the school students. Training of Trainers (TOT), 28 June 2007 The TOT workshop was attended by 22 teachers, pedagogical advisors and CWSP's volunteers. This follow-up activity was organized in order to widely distribute the information about the available programme and prepare a pilot group of teachers and volunteers to start work with children from the next school year (2007-2008). The CWSP's experts presented to the participants in TOT the Council of Europe All Equal - All Different Campaign and the aims of the "Equal at Scholl - Equal in Life" project and its results. The main part of the workshop was focused on practical training for teachers and volunteers to use the module. The organizers demonstrated online two interactive lessons from the module focusing on gender stereotypes and human rights. The participants were shown two possibilities to organize the lessons in class. The first possibility is to use the online training approach if possible in their schools as a modern and attractive way of learning and provoking more interest on the part of the students. The second possibility is to use the training materials, included in the Teacher's Book - a training manual for the teacher and/or volunteer with lesson plans, additional information and references for other sources. The workshop ended with a discussion on the quality and appropriateness of the suggested materaials.The teachers shared their opinions and experiences from their work with students at that age. The majority of them were on the opinion that the module's topics and lessons are applicable and suitable for that age group and were willing to try the module. They were happy to learn that educational methods and techniques for promoting gender equality and human rights at school are already online and could be used in class. Some of the participants expressed their willingness to start using the module from the next school year ando also to provide CWSP with feedback information about the lessons held and newly emerged ideas for improvement of the online module or the Teacher's Book.
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Training module
The central activity under the project is the development of a short training programme on gender equality "Equal at School - Equal in Life" designed for students from V-VII class. The programme builds on already developed materials by CWSP as well as other sources - translated and Bulgarian. The topics, organized in a Student's Book, are distributed in 5 activities/lessons including relevant exercises, glossary and texts for further reading. They cover concepts like: gender and sex, gender roles and stereotypes, gender patterns in the family, gender equality and inequality, gender-based discrimination, paid work and unpaid care for children and old people, household work, sharing obligations, human rights and responsibilities, women's human rights, violence against women. The training programme was developed with the help of experts from Albania, Romania and Turkey, who consulted the contents of the programme and provided overviews on the situation in their countries regarding the integration of gender equality in education. More about the partners and the overviews. The training materials include a Teacher's Book - a training manual for the teacher and/or volunteer with lesson plans, additional information and references for other sources. The teaching strategy is based on discussion and group work and/or role play. All materials are developed in an easy to reproduce format and are available to download from CWSP's website for free use by the teachers in their classes for optional instruction and hour of the class. In order to help the teachers to find easily the relevant Bulgarian legislation and strategic papers on secondary education, a special handbook was prepared with excerpts from the fundamental EU and UN instruments, as well as Bulgarian legislation and policies, related to gender equality. The training programme has an online version in the special section on our website - E-School. The online module for V-VII class includes an extended version of the materials from the student's book with exercises designed in an interactive form as well as additional reading on the topic. The system allows automatically sending the answers of the online tests and the questions for reflection. They are received directly by the CWSP's training experts with the option to involve an external trainer - teacher or volunteer. The online module has its special section for students, teachers and parents.
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Partners
In the implementation of the project were involved experts from three partner organizations in Albania, Romania and Turkey. The experts participated in the development of the training programme by providing expert opinion on the contents of the module and the suggested topics. An added value to the project was their contribution with a short overview on the experience of integration gender in the educational systems of their countries. The overviews are available here: More information about the international partners: The Gender Alliance for Development Center (GADC) was set up in 1994 as part of a project of "Refleksione" (Reflections) Women's Association and funded by the Women's Program of the Open Society Foundation for Albania (SOROS). In June 1995 the Gender Alliance for Development Center officially got registered as a non-for-profit and non-governmental organization and was re-registered on March 2002 according to the new NGO law in Albania. The organization has special interest in mainstreaming gender in education. In 2005 it implemented the project Capacity building on gender mainstreaming in educational sectors.
The Center for Partnership and Equality (CPE) is established in 2002 as a not-for-profit organization. CPE is committed to mainstreaming the principle of equal opportunities for women and men into the public policies and one of its programmes is focused on gender and education. The CPE has extensive experience implementing projects increasing gender awareness of school teachers and students like: Girls and Boys - All Different, All Equal. Education for Gender Equality; Education of the Young Girls from Orphanages in Order to Decrease their Vulnerability to the Traffic; Young Volunteers Promoting Gender Equality. The Social Development and Gender Equality Center (SOGEP) is a newly established organization by a group of women activists and academicians with vast backgound and expertize in social policies and gender equality fields. İt aims to promote social development and gender equality policies, based mainly on the demands of civil society and the public. SOGEP mainly focuses on conducting research, producing policy documents, tools and kits, monitoring and reporting, and promoting exchange of research findings, exchange of experiences on new methodologies in relation to its mandate, with organizations at the national, regional and international levels, where it mainly concentrates on the work carried out at the EU level.
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overview_bulgaria.pdf
