Abstract:

Gender stereotypes have an impact on children from a very young age onwards. The present-day society installs norms and values, mostly unconsciously adopted by parents, schools and other socializing environments, influencing the performance and minds of children, and thus reinforcing existing stereotypes. Unconscious or deliberately discriminatory behaviour may lead to an unfair treatment of children, inducing a lower wellbeing and self-esteem of children deviating from the norms, unequal chances, and lasting patterns in education and future professions.

The two-year project Genderpro(o)f (2019-2021) focused on a gender sensitive education and upbringing of children between 0 and 12 years old, by working with teams of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals and primary teachers. More specifically, it consisted of a design research in co-creation with 2 kindergartens and 3 primary schools, in which 3 researchers from the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education, Preschool Education and Primary Education were coaching teams and individual members of ECEC and primary schools through a process of organizational change on the subject of gender.

Four domains were covered:
1) setting and materials,
2) play and activities,
3) interaction with children and
4) communication with parents.

We developed concrete working materials such as a webinar, checklists, to inspirational alternatives for change. We also developed a training and coaching manual for ‘gender coaches’, who can autonomously guide their teams through this process of long term change and vision building.

In our presentation we will focus on the challenges of working with teams of ECEC professionals in this process of change towards gender conscious education, and the answers we have tried to provide. What obstacles may arise and how to take them into account during a process of change, in order to make Genderpro(o)f a durable and broadly supported way of thinking and behaving in schools and kindergartens?

Based Knoster’s model of change management (1991), we based our designs on the 5 conditions that have to be met to manage a complex change: Consensus, Vision building, Skills, Resources, and an Action Plan. When Vision is lacking, confusion arises, when a Consensus is lacking, resistance appears, when a Plan is missing, there is chaos, when Resources are scarce, people get frustrated, and when the Skills are not developed, team members feel scared.

Therefore, during a train the trainer, we provide a future gender coach with a webinar or supportive materials to present the seminar live, in order to interrogate the current mindset of the team, stimulate discussion, and make the team aware of the urgency of the matter. A calendar for the teachers’ lounge is added to inspire the team and keep gender sensitivity top of mind in between the sessions. To stimulate vision building, we made time to formulate a common goal and reflect on it after each domain was tackled. To provide a plan, we drew a map pointing out moments of reflection, vision building, training, with concrete working materials to use at each stage. As resources we provide a trainer’s manual during our coaching, made a booklet for each team member to ‘screen’ each domain, and provided teaching materials. In order to train the skills we designed checklists and working materials to train interaction with kids and communication with parents.

This way we hope to inspire future gender coaches to guide their teams through this process of change.

Keywords:

Gender, equality, education, care, well-being, diversity, inclusion.