TOWARDS THE COEDUCATIONAL MODEL IN CANTABRIA: THE ERADICATION OF GENDER ROLES IN STEM ENVIRONMENTS
Last 14th May was held the workshop in the region of Cantabria, carried out by the General Direction for Women Issues and Gender Equality, body belonging to the Government of Cantabria and one of the partners of the region in the FEMINA Project. This workshop had one main objective: the creation of local network for cooperation and promotion development at regional level for best development of European Interreg FEMINA Project.
The activity was related with the first action that will implement in the region: the accomplishment of a pilot model and roll out of gender-neutral kindergarten for high-tech centres, based on the GP Hokus Pokus gender neutral kindergarten (Norway). The action involves the implementation of a kindergartens network based on the coeducational model, with a gender focus. First, where many companies linked to high technology are located, we will be implementing the pilot model in the educational system in Cantabria. Besides the enforcement of conciliation, this action promotes the disappearance of gender stereotypes from early ages, especially in technology.
In the workshop, the partner in charge of the action gave a detailed explanation of the action to the stakeholders group, for its contextualization. After that, the activity was participatory and fruitful. The 17 participants, all of them related with the educational context from the gender perspective, exchanged their experiences in the field. The main inputs acquired from the activity for the best implementation of the action, based on the contributions of the stakeholder group, were:
- To guide the educational project towards dialogic learning.
- To promote in children the critical and creative thinking with their environments.
- To involve families in the pedagogical model: work coeducation regarding all aspects of life.
- To create spaces for dialogue, where we practice active listening with the kids.
All the know-how acquired in the activity was collected by the University of Cantabria and it will be part of the educational itinerary that the organism is developing. Above all this, we achieved that many of the organizations that belong to the associative network related to educational contexts (and more specifically, related with STEM contexts) identify FEMINA as a great ally to end gender stereotypes and promote the free development of people in the professional areas they want.
