Different cultures have different conceptions about gender roles, gender stereotypes. But the detrimental effect and influence such expectations, preconceptions, exclusion, discrimination, gender-based violence have on children is the same worldwide. As so is the importance of promoting tolerance, self-awareness and gender equality all around the globe.

With this in mind, SAFER flew to the historical city of Istanbul, Turkey to participate to the MOV UP Conference on ‘Policies, Practices and Qualifications in Early Childhood Education’ at Sehir University. Together with teachers, researchers, PhD students, psychologists, school counsellors, pedagogy experts and policy and decision makers in education, we participated as a delegate and as trainers in the Conference on the 19^th October 2019 to present and exchange ideas about the formative importance of the pre-school and primary school education.

During the session related to gender education in early childhood, we conducted a workshop on ‘Encouraging reflection of primary school students on attitudes towards gender and gender-based violence’ with the tools and methods based on the gender-sensitive pedagogy approach developed by the SAFER project. Participants had the opportunity to discuss about different cultural glasses which predetermine gender stereotypes, they discussed about the consequences in relation to gender-based violence, and thought of how best to adapt such didactic material with young children.

Now we return back home to plan the next event in December 2019 where we will present the final results of the project, animation movie, a mobile application for children and other SAFER developed materials!

Stay tuned!