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Description
The project “The school of no bias” addresses 3 main challenges that teen girls and young women face in Greece and which have been established both in academic research as well as from our WoT experience.
1. The different treatment of boys and girls by educators and the reinforcement of gender stereotypes and the inequalities these cause
2. The confidence gap observed in girls between 10-14 yo, which prevents them, as young women, from pursuing leadership positions
3. The professional segregation in the domain of work, which involves low participation of teen girls and young women STEM fields both in education and employment
The project’s target groups are secondary school educators, school career counsellors, and, also, later on, educators from all educational levels and fields.
The project’s goal is the creation of a hub of educators who will contribute to the mindset shift and the introduction of new practices in the empowerment of teen girls and a bias-free school career counselling at the secondary education level.
The objectives:
1. Familiarization of educators with tools which facilitate the empowerment of teen girls and the development of their social-emotional skill , through the educational training of the organization Girls Leadership.
2. Familiarization of career counselling educators with issues such as gender bias and stereotypes in career counselling and with tools which facilitate the prevention and management of bias, through the educational training of the organization Openous.
3. An increase in the number of educators who are interested in getting trained in such practices and tools and actively use the available material.
4. Active networking amongst educators and the formation of task groups that can point out issues that need to be resolved and co-design tools and activations, through the program’s digital platform that will be implemented by Sociality
Summary of project results
The project “School of no bias” aimed at the creation of a hub of educators who will contribute to the mindset shift and the introduction of new practices in the empowerment of teen girls and a bias-free school career counselling at the secondary education level. This was achieved through different activities. Initially, a small scale research was implemented in order to find out as well as better understand the needs of educators from all levels, as well as those of school career counselling educators in relation to issues such as gender bias and stereotypes in career counselling and the prevention and management of bias, At the same time, 3 focus groups were conducted with the participation of 40 educators, Although it was not planned from the beginning, it appeared as necessary to sum up all the results in a report and publish it. The project also involved the design of 4 training guides specifically:
a) A training guide for educators of elementary schools for the development of girls’ social-emotional skills in the classroom
b) A training guide for educators of secondary schools for the development of girls’ social-emotional skills in the classroom
c) A training guide for educators for handling gender bias and stereotypes in the classroom
d) A training guide for career counselling educators and freelancers for handling gender bias and stereotypes in career choices
During the project 4 training cycles were conducted, one for each of the training guides. In total, 368 applications were received and the final participants were 172. There was also, an increase in the number of educators who were interested in getting trained in such practices and tools and actively use the available material. Up until now, the project''s website has had 3.087 unique visitors, whereas 129 visitors have downloaded the training guides.
Finally, an active networking amongst educators and the formation of task groups were created, that can point out issues that need to be resolved and co-design tools and activations, through the project’s digital platform. Up until now, 128 educators have registered in the platform from, literally, all around Greece.