School

Lucas Rey-Matias Landaburu.

Teachers

Joserra Jiménez with the involvement of all the teachers at the school.

Autonomous Community

The Basque Country.

Partner countries

Italy, Greece, Spain and Poland.

Educational stage

Primary Education.

Curricular areas

Citizenship, English as a Foreign Language, History.

Language

English.

Recognition

• Quality Label from all member countries of the project.
• Pupils from the Basque Country Primary Education Teaching School spent a day at the Spanish school to gather information about the project to be able to do an end-of-course study on eTwinning and the Coeducation project.

The Italian school took advantage of the national Tablet day (in Italy) to publicize the project via Skype to other Italian schools.

Description

B&G=COEDUCATION (BOYS AND GIRLS=COEDUCATION) is a project that is intended, designed and implemented to raise awareness about the values and principles that must prevail in our society.

To this end, activities have been carried out that on the one hand cover the personal and family environment of the pupils (school, family, media …) and, on the other hand, involve each and every one of the organizations close to the pupils (local and business organizations, NGOs, etc.)

The project was carried out among schools in Spain, Italy, Greece and Poland and although only 6th year primary pupils participated in the twinspace, we must point out that the activities performed have involved all the teaching staff at the school and the families.

The project was carried out throughout the school year, but we think its effects will last over time.

“Citizenship” is the area that has been covered most during the course of the project but we mustn’t forget other areas such as History, English and Technology (use of ICTs)

Link to TwinSpace

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/9840/hom

Aims

The main aim of the project was to implement the Coeducation educational method at schools, a method based on the principle of gender equality and non-discrimination. Coeducation means not establishing sexual power relations, but incorporating the different realities in equal conditions. Through this project we wanted both pupils and teachers, as well as the rest of the educational community (families, environment …), to be aware of the role that men and women have played throughout history.

How did the idea come about to carry out this Project?

The Lucas Rey school is part of a three-year educational project called “Hezkidetza-Coeducation”.

We thought it would be a great idea to use Etwinning as a way of disseminating the different activities and proposals that the school was carrying out. In this way we managed to involve more European schools and so the pupils could critically analyze and compare what was being done on this subject in different European countries.

We should highlight the role of the Italian teacher who had to overcome various obstacles to carry out the project, since her school is religious and some of the activities weren’t well received at first by her school.

Proposed activities aimed at spreading the fundamental values and principles that govern our society (freedom, equality…) 

The activities proposed and developed in the different European schools have been aimed at spreading values of equality and non-discrimination.

Some of these activities are mentioned below:

1. Family survey: the pupils conducted a survey of their families to learn the role that each of their parents performed at home. the results were subsequently analyzed and compared among the different countries
2. Sexist language: male and female pupils from each school visited their respective schools in search of posters and signs of sexist language (teachers’ room, classroom etc. (using the male forms). Anything that could be discriminatory on the basis of sex was replaced by non-Sexist posters made by the same male and female pupils. Later they analyzed and compared them with other countries to see if the native language in each of them was sexist.
3. 8 March Celebration: A few weeks prior to 8 March, pupils worked on producing different murals on the role of women in society. On the same day, 8 March, and by using Hangouts, children from different European schools explained their respective work to the other boys and girls.
4. Christmas Toys: With the arrival of Christmas, pupils from different schools analyzed various toy catalogues in order to see whether advertising used on the subject is sexist.
5. Use of School space: In this activity, participating schools were free to work on the use made of the space with respect to male or female

 The Spanish school analyzed the use of the school playground at break time, the Greek and Italian schools analyzed the use of the classroom according to the places occupied by boys and girls.

Traditional Stories: The pupils analyzed various traditional stories by using a template to note the use of female and male roles in these narrations. Later they rewrote these stories, putting into practice and using what they’d learned throughout the project.

Activities proposed/carried out that promote critical thinking, reflection, judgment, especially in the context of the Internet and social networks. 

Mass Media: Sexual role.

One of the activities proposed throughout the project and possibly one of the most successful ones consisted in searching through the Internet for different examples of advertising over the years and reflecting on whether or not the use that advertising makes of sexual stereotypes has changed.

The boys and girls also made use of the forum tool within the Etwinning platform, courtesy rules about when it is used being stressed to them (language used, manners, etc.).

We also asked the Ertzantza department to send some professionals to give a talk on the use of the Internet (their talk is planned for the second quarter of this school year)

How has this eTwinning project contributed to achieving the objectives of the Paris Declaration? 

The project has tried to create analytical and critical thinking about Coeducation in pupils, teachers and in the educational community in general. To do this, both boys and girls experienced different situations and realities close to their environment so they could get to know their rights and duties.

How does this eTwinning Project promote active citizenship and help prevent and combat racism, intolerance and discrimination in and outside a school context?

Each and every one of the activities carried out throughout the Project has been designed and carried out in order to disseminate Coeducation values to prevent sexual discrimination and to create critical thinking in pupils and their families in discriminatory situations.

Thanks to the project both the pupils and their families have had the opportunity to attend talks about the physical and psychological violence that many women suffer. These conferences have been offered by the “Mundu bat” association.

The school has developed various teaching units aimed at raising awareness among pupils about prevention and reporting discriminatory attitudes.

What impact has the project had on the teaching staff? Have they taken a more active attitude with more involvement in the educational – learning process of pupils to teach them to accept different opinions, beliefs, diversity and gender equality, preventing extremism, inequality, and …?

From the beginning of the project, all the participating teachers were very clear about the involvement of the teaching staff and the school community in its implementation.

As a result of the project, at the Spanish school it was decided that for two days a week the pupils couldn’t use playing materials that we believe are only used by one of the sexes (balls, elastic bands..). In this way we’ve observed that boys and girls spend more time together on those two days and get on better.

On the other hand, all participating schools decided to “be careful” with the language used by their respective teaching staff when sending notes to families.

Other relevant comments on the project related to the subject (synergies with local agencies, immigrant associations, refugee associations, etc

 Thanks to the project, the school has participated in various activities carried out by organizations and associations in the area:

Fundación Glog: at the school we asked fathers and mothers to bring in clothes and shoes that they don’t use to donate to the NGO Fundación Glog.

We’re also awaiting a talk that the Ertzantza Internet department is going to give in the school on the subject of Internet safety and Cyberbullying.

 Pupils and their families had the opportunity to attend a talk on gender violence that we held in the school library. This conference-talk was held by the “Mundu bat” association.

 During the project we’ve used many phrases or sentences related to the subject of Coeducation. One that summarises the essence and the justification for the project is:

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

Brigham Young 

As teachers, we are aware that education in values should be work in which families and teachers must work together. It’s not a question of convincing but of making people think and reflect on situations that we consider discriminatory and opposed to the values that govern our society. In my humble opinion, I think that with the implementation of the project we’ve contributed to sowing a seed that will eventually bear fruit.