An educational workshop with young people on National Gender Equality Day in Serbia.
Our Serbian colleague, Professor Svetlana Lazić from Novi Sad, has sent us an exciting report on the National Gender Equality Day, which she organised together with the Association for Women in Science. The aim was to promote interest in the natural sciences and humanities among young people. At the beginning, the President of the Association, Professor Sanja Podunavac-Kuzmanović, introduced all participants to this important day for all women in Serbia and explained the educational workshop
The young scientists consisted of students from the 4th to the 8th grade, who were invited to participate in a competition entitled “From Child to Gender-Equitable World”. The sub-themes were (1) “From a flower to the eco-world” (natural science) and (2) “Gender equality is no coincidence” (humanistic science).
The basic idea of the competition was to introduce young people to important topics such as nature, sustainable development, good relationships and healthy communication. In addition, they were also taught to learn about scientific approaches and how to make them a part of their way of life.
A total of 78 young people took part in the competition. – The natural science part of the project visited the Deliblatska Peščara (Deliblato Sands), a special nature reserve, to explore the flowers they had already chosen. They spent a wonderful day in nature, made new friends and had a lot of fun with their specific scientific research
– The second group of participants from the humanistic sciences took part in the event on gender roles. On this occasion, they were introduced to the Living Democracy materials designed especially for school leaders and parents, as they are all equally important for school and family life and support the principle of equality itself. After an impressive introduction to the topic of the Council of Europe’s competences for a culture of democracy, the young people took part in intense discussions on what they had just learnt
They then split into 4 groups and worked in workshops on 4 different topics: (1) Significant women; (2) If I were a boy/girl; (3) Family history and (4) Males and females. As the young people were mainly concerned with background information and theories, the members of the association decided to organise a day for their mutual introductions and workshops later on. Each group went through each workshop station and familiarised themselves with all the topics.
The cosmetics company L’Oréal supported this project, which is fully in line with their code of ethics. According to the competition proposals, all child scientists will be praised and rewarded and receive an award.
