Key Questions

Key questions to guide schools to work on gender equality in school (these are a selection from the online kindergarten, primary and secondary questionnaires).

• To what extent is Gender Equality (GE) part of the long-term vision of the school/setting? (Leadership)
• To what extent does the school/setting support staff in receiving up-to-date GE CPD/training? (Leadership)
• To what extent does the school/setting support explicit teaching of GE? (Curriculum)
• To what extent are students involved in non-stereotypical extra-curricular activities? (Curriculum)
• To what extent is GE represented in the physical environment? (Environment)
• To what extent do students use the physical space in a gender-inclusive way? (Environment)
• To what extent is gender-neutral/sensitive language used in school/setting communication? (Attitudes)
• To what extent do children/students understand that they have choices in the way they behave and present themselves and that these shouldn’t be restricted according to gender? (Attitudes)
• To what extent do school/setting staff engage families with GE work? (Community)
• To what extent are students involved in GE work in the wider community including other school/settings? (Community)

Can it be adjusted to my school?

The GECM in its first phase was a three-year project funded by the EU Justice Fund. The GECM itself was initially developed by three NGOs from England (DECSY), Hungary (Anthropolis) and Italy (Oxfam Italy). The five main themes of the charter mark were agreed, along with sub-sections and a suggested framework for incremental improvements.

We recognised from the start that each country had a different social, cultural, political and legal framework in which we were trying to promote GE in education, and that our initial ideas would be adapted by working with groups of teachers and experts in each country. For example, in England, schools are used to award schemes which have aspirational scales such as Bronze, Silver and Gold, whereas in some other countries, teachers feel this is too judgemental and so prefer a series of questions for self-reflection.

The key questions above are intended as a guide for schools to work on gender equality in school and are a selection from the online kindergarten, primary and secondary questionnaires that have a number of questions under each theme. The aim is that a school from one of these phases should look through and select one or two themes which are particularly pertinent to them and some related questions as a way to get started. They may feel that some of the questions need adapting to their context or additional questions may need to be added in.

How are schools using the Gender Equality Charter Mark?