BEYOND

Numerous studies and researches have shown that boys and girls, up to 4/5 years of age, are unable to identify or use the category of gender stereotype in practice. For them, males and females, given their mainly physical diversity, have the same potential for action, ideation and experimentation of games, and for moving and accessing the space and resources available without any fundamental difference or barrier between them.

Yet gender stereotypes, expressed above all in the form of role expectations by the different subjects that makeup the community around children (parents, families, educators, society as a whole), act from birth, gradually producing the following effects:

- Unequal access to games and related learning for boys and girls, resulting on the development of different and uneven attitudes, potentialities and capacities.

In particular, in the current context in which soft skills are given great attention as a key to respond to the need of adaptability and resilience in the labor market and in the digital economy, there is a need to ensure equal opportunities males and females when it comes to designing and implementing learning activities and settings in early years education.

- Consolidated and biased expected social and familiar roles for boys and girls, with boysexperiencing from an early age a projection towards roles of greater success and social recognition, in which the spirit of adventure, courage and risk-takingare valued as positive and winning elements; while girls are most rewarded for placing themselves in roles and activities of care for themselves, for toys and other people around. “Being in situations”, knowing how to entertain yourself, showing calmness and limited occupation of spaces and places around are in this case valued positively.

Thanks also to the implementation of the GET UP project, focused on the development of a minimum

With the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 the European Commission reconfirms its and that of the others key EU Institutions' responsibility to achieve Gender Equality in the European Union. Considering that progression in gender equality, among Member States, is still slow (the EU Gender Equality Index 2019 has improved by just 5.4 points since 2005) the Strategy defined the EU policy on Gender Equality with reference to three main areas of intervention: 1) Being free from violence and stereotypes; 2) Thriving in a gender-equal economy; 3) Leading equallythroughout society and, transversally, gender mainstreaming. According to this formulation it is evident that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) can play a key role in influencing all three areas, by challenging gender stereotypes since the early years education (page 5 of the Strategy), by increasing high quality childcare settings throughout Europe (page 8 of the Strategy), by reducing economic sectors segregation, empowering girls for instance in accessing STEM disciplines (page 9 of the Strategy), as well inbreaking the glass-ceiling by empowering girls in leading top positions in their future careers.

The limited resources available and shared in Europe, both in terms of pedagogical approaches and gender equalityframeworks in ECEC settings call for an urgent action to put gender equity at the core of the early years' education curriculum like the other humanrights-related contents, which are already treated and explored through different means and didactics in ECEC settings since many years.

The “Mutual Learning Programme ingender equality and the exchange of good practice seminars among countries in the EU” (https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality/who-we-work-gender-equality/mutual-learning-programme-gender-equality_en),have been focused until now on very meaningful and important topics, like the gender pay-gap, the domestic violence by involving men and boys, the female under-representation in all media professions, trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation and others; but less attention has been paid towards Gender Equality Education as a key content to be taught in schools since the early years, so to contribute to a more open-minded attitude of bothgirls and boys towards gender and diversity in general.

In addition, the widespread diffusion in Italy and also in many other European countries, such as Malta, Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, of the so-called Gender Theory, has contributed to the affirmation, in all the different education domains (from ECEC to Upper Secondary School), of an ideology not supported by any scientific evidence and based on the idea that exploring these issues in early childhood would determine children's sexual orientation (obviously in favor of homosexuality) .Thus, instead of a constructive approach to equal gender opportunities, a retrograde and anachronistic vision of stereotyped and biased social, professional and public roles for men and women is being reinforced.

As highlighted in the 2019 Education and Training Monitor, initial training and lifelong learning of Acrosseurope teachers have been updated by including competences and attention on multi-cultural learning settings and ICT introduction into the didactic. Gender equality is not mentioned among the contents of current and needed teachers training, despite the document reaffirms that teachers and educators are cornerstones of the European Education Area, which is considered a leap forward for facing the challenges of the XXist century.

Often early childhood education andcare is brought into the discussion on gender equality as a mechanism to enhance women's participation in the labor market without considering the effects of its provision on future women and men, so the consequences for the labor market structure in 20 years from now. On the same note also one of the conclusion from the Position Paper on the European Minimum Standard of Competences developed under the GET UP — Gender Equality Training to overcome Unfair project (JUST/2015/RGEN/AG/ROLE/9646), for which “In spite of the quality of the EMSC, overall very detailed, the part that could be improved is the educational phase. This part focuses, indeed, on those tools that people may use only in the moment of their entrance into the labor market: at this stage is too late. What is needed is, therefore, the elaboration of proper tools (for schools and teachers) aiming at the implementation of sound actions from the earliest stages of the educational process.” (2018).

For responding to the identified needs and coherently with the European Sectoral Social Dialogue In Education Action Plan 2020-2021 - a reference document for most of the BEYOND partners, the partnership intends to prepare the ground - investing on training opportunities for ECEC educators and awareness raising/engagement actionstargeting the different stakeholders involved (mainly parents and future educators) for adopting practices that promote gender equality in education by reviewing and where necessary adapting school and early childhood education curriculum, teaching and school practices to eliminate gender discrimination and stereotyping (OECD 2013).

Considering that early childhoodyears are critical for cognitive, social and emotional development of boys and girls, the project involves and engages all the relevant stakeholders that have key roles to take social and gender discrimination out of early childhood education and replace it with empowerment: educators and teachers, parents and families, public authorities (as associate partners).

GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE CALL

Tackling gender stereotypes ineducation and early childhood care, focusing on measures such as those aiming at changing attitudes, behaviors and practices that hamper progress towards quality and restrict the potential of girls and boys.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE

• To increase the awareness of ECEC professionals and stakeholders of the unconscious bias affecting the interaction between boys and girls, assessment their skills gaps.
• It reinforces the capacity of ECEC (and first years of primary school for ensuringcontinuity) to apply gender equity in daily routines and settings.
• To enable the ECEC community at large to remove gender bias, by strengthening the awareness and competences of parents/families, future educators and other educational stakeholders

ACTIVITIES

• Mapping of effective practices and pedagogical approaches to counter stereotypes and discriminations in early years' education settings across Europe — including beyond partners' countries;
• Analysis and definition of the expected competences of ECEC teachers and supporting staff on how to counter gender stereotypes and unconscious biases in early childhood education provision;
• Design of the project capacity building strategy and training offer, moving the competences above defined;
• Training of early years' educators/teachers/supporting staff at national level in IT, LT, BG, and CY;
• Planning and piloting of ad-hoc educational and play-based activities targeting children and their families aimed at removing gender stereotypes and bias;
• Information and awareness-raising activities targeting families;
• Policy recommendations.

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