The school of no bias

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 Without Stereotypes" aims to address three key challenges concerning girls and young women in Greece, as documented by academic research and the experience of Women On Top:

1. The differences in how boys and girls are treated by educators at school, which perpetuate gender inequalities.
2. The "confidence gap" in girls aged 10-14, which prevents them, as young women, from pursuing leadership positions and driving positive change in their lives and environments.
3. Horizontal and vertical professional segregation, including the low participation of girls and young women in educational and professional fields related to science and technology, as well as in leadership roles.

The main activities of the project were:

1. Nationwide online quantitative research targeting secondary education teachers and career counselors.

2. Qualitative research for in-depth exploration of quantitative findings

3.Teacher Training Seminar on Empowering Girls

4. Development of a Printed Guide

5. Creation of an Educational Website

6. Creation of a Communication and Networking Platform for Educators

The goals and results of the program “School of no bias” were as follows:

1. Needs assessment | We implemented a small scale research 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, Our goals to better identify the issues that educators deal with relating to gender equality and stereotypes, the challenges they face in relation to the development of social-emotional skills of young girls in the classroom and the tools they think can better support their work in dealing gender stereotypes in the classroom. During our research, we received more than 130 responses. At the same time, we conducted 3 focus groups with the participation of 40 educators, Although it was not planned from the beginning, we felt it was necessary to sum up all the results in a report and publish it.

2. Design and creation of f training curriculum | During the program, we developed 4 training guides for our 4 main target groups - 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

3. Educators’ training | During the program we conducted 4 training cycles, one for each of the training guides. The first 3 had an 8-hour duration, the 4th one was a 6-hour training. In total, we received 368 applications. The final participants were 172.

4.  An increase in the number of educators who are interested in getting trained in such practices and tools and actively use the available material. Up until now, the program’s site has had 3.087 unique visitors, whereas 129 visitors have downloaded the training guides.

5.  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. Up until now, 128 educators have registered in the platform from, literally, all around Greece.

6. Capacity building | Through the program’s capacity building actions, we had the opportunity to redesign our website, translate the basic content in English and support the creation of the organization’s new mentoring platform.