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Session Submission Summary

Advancing gender equality in and through Early Childhood Education: Lessons from FAWE, Plan International and VVOB

Wed, February 15, 7:45 to 9:15am EST (7:45 to 9:15am EST), On-Line Component, Zoom Room 113

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Pre-primary education is one of the smartest investments governments can make, with a return of between 6 and 17 dollars on every dollar invested. SDG 4 reflects the importance of this, defining the following target 4.2: “by 2030 ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”. Yet most low and lower-middle-income countries are far from achieving this target. In 2019, 50% of pre-primary-age girls and boys around the world – at least 175 million – were not enrolled in pre-primary/Early Childhood Education (ECE).

While in most countries there is gender parity in enrolment, significant urban-rural and income gaps remain. Factors such as gender discrimination, son preference and overall disadvantage may result in girls not being prioritized for ECE by their families. Across all countries and regions, children from low income families and marginalized groups and communities who would benefit most from ECE programmes are least likely to attend them.

In the context of COVID-19, as well as rising global insecurity and fragility, there has been increasing emphasis on the need to ‘build back better’ and transform education systems. Achievement of greater gender equality to, in and through education is one such opportunity. Whilst progress has been made, gender inequalities persist in education. There is an opportunity to do more work to strengthen education systems to ensure equal access, promotion of gender equality, and tackling of unequal power relations, social norms, discriminatory practices and belief systems that underpin gender inequality and exclusion in society.

This work must begin in early childhood, recognizing that this is the period during which children learn about the gendered norms, attitudes and expectations of their community and society: how they are supposed to behave, what their future role will be, and how they are valued differently. Ensuring that early childhood education addresses gender discrimination and promotes gender equality is a critical element that is often overlooked in education systems.

Considering gender in ECE means recognizing how early in their lives children develop understandings of gender, of what it means to be a boy or a girl, and differing power and value that comes with masculine and feminine identities. The socialization of gender begins at birth and gender attitudes, norms and expectations are learned in the formative early childhood years. Gender-responsive and transformative practices in ECE seek to challenge, disrupt and transform stereotypes, norms and socialization processes perpetuated by school staff, peers, and parents, including through teaching and learning materials, school environments and interactions. Therefore, ECE programs provide a unique opportunity to engage teachers, school staff, parents and communities to advance gender equality, as well as to engage young children at a time when their understanding of gender is beginning to develop.

Despite this critical period in transforming gender-related norms, stereotypes and socialization processes, and the recognition of the importance of early learning environments in the development of gender norms, work in ECE as opportune environments in which to transform gender norms is limited in practice, particularly in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).

Implementing gender responsive and transformative programming with young learners requires approaches, practices, and tools which take into account the unique setting of ECE programs and services, whilst also taking on board the learnings from other levels of education. Early childhood development, play-based learning, and the community-based approaches of many ECE services, as well as the goals of school readiness, indicate that gender responsive and transformative ECE programs do require special consideration. This recognizes that approaches that work with older children and their families may not be appropriate or effective with young children, due to differing developmental needs.

Plan International, FAWE and VVOB share the objective of promoting expanded access for young children in all their diversity to quality, gender-responsive and transformative early childhood education. This can be achieved through strengthening the capacities of early childhood educators to provide early learning opportunities in which young children of all genders have equal opportunities to play, learn and develop the full range of skills. It also means promoting an enabling environment for gender equality in the pre-primary sub-sector in families, school leadership and school systems.

In this panel, presentations from FAWE, VVOB and Plan International will share learnings from the development, implementation, contextualization and evaluation of projects and programs that incorporate gender responsive and transformative approaches to ECE. In particular, FAWE and VVOB will share a key existing resource for gender responsive pedagogy work in ECE, the GRP4ECE toolkit. This is an open educational resource which aims to empower pre-school teachers and school leaders to reflect on their own gender biases and challenge gender stereotypes in the classroom. The Toolkit provides information, practical recommendations and tools on what teachers can do in their daily practice to introduce gender responsive pedagogy into their schools and classrooms. It is focused on working with Ministries of Education and through education systems.

In this panel, FAWE will share their experiences in advocacy and implementation of GRP at primary and secondary levels of education and how this informed work on gender responsive
pedagogy at ECE level, to advance gender equality. VVOB will share how the Toolkit has been used and contextualised to support capacity building and professional development of ECD practitioners, teachers and school leaders in South Africa, with particular focus on their experiences with online courses. Finally, Plan International will provide examples from different countries of how gender transformation is being supported through ECE projects and programs in different contexts.

All panelists will share successes, challenges and recommendations for further supporting gender responsive and transformative ECE, recognizing the importance of this investment, given the opportunity to transform gendered norms, roles and relationships and advance gender equality right from the start, in early childhood education.

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