Introducing the Education on Gender Equality and Sexuality

in the Croatian Schools' Curriculum:

Designing the Pilot Program

SUMMARY

This project seeks to create a draft version of the educational program on gender equality and sexuality. The draft program will be presented as a policy proposal according to the specific program task as stated in the National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality, elaborated by the Commission of the Government of the Republic of Croatia for Gender Equality: Section 6: Women and Education; Objective a) To develop the program of systematic education on gender equality and sexuality; Program Task 10: Until the end of 2002. the Ministry of Education will establish a team of experts, based on the public call for applications, who will design a draft program for sexual education.

Framing the project:

In all societies today prevailing gender systems are still emerging from specific traditions that privileged male power and control, and female marginalisation from power and dependency on men. These dilemmas of gender, power and control, the difficulties of establishing gender democracy haunt all modern societies and all efforts to democracy. In the Republic of Croatia, the move to the market economy has not strengthened plurality and individual freedom, but reinforced traditional gender roles. Gender difference in Croatian society is often understood as biologically rooted sex differences and, as such, natural and necessary. Differences between women and men are essentialized and the space for adopting alternative gender and sexual identities remains limited.

The conservative attitudes towards gender and sexuality are also part of the educational discourse. Schools have a great role in reproducing traditional gender system embedded in gender inequality. They do not exist within a socio-political vacuum, but operate within a society which automatically and often invisibly privileges men; particularly those associated with power, status and wealth. The failure of educational policies is also evident in the perpetuation of gender inequalities based on traditional gender stereotypes, and in the division of certain types of schools and occupations as "female" and "male".

Governments have a key role to play in creating conditions for gender equality, by removing legal barriers and changing laws, policies and programmes. Political leaders can advocate and promote gender equality and encourage others to do so. The Government of the Republic of Croatia appointed the Commission of the Government of the Republic of Croatia for Gender Equality as the national body for the promotion of position of women in the society. Its task is to elaborate and implement the National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality, but, after first five years of implementation of the National Policy, it occurred, that in practice, it fails to realise measures that are suggested.

One of the objectives of this National Policy is to develop the program of systematic education on gender equality and sexuality. Lack of sexual education has resulted in an incomplete understanding of one's sexual behaviour and a poor understanding of different sexuality issues. What this means for young people is exposure to risks of sexual behaviour such as sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, as well as unrealistic expectations and distorted views of their own sexuality. Young people's sexuality is often characterised by communication difficulties with partners, unstable relationships, emotional conflicts, secrecy, and frequently by unsafe sex.

In advocating for sexual education it is essential to encourage educators to give serious attention to gender system and gendered behaviours that inform unsafe sexual and reproductivepractices among young people. Important recent research has thrown light on how sexual experience is intimately connected to gendered power relations. Prevailing gender systems invite girls and young women to mobilise what they understand as their "femininity" by servicing and pleasing men. This often traps them in positions of economic or emotional dependency where it becomes "normal" for them to abdicate from their own preferences or needs.

Meanwhile these gender systems call on boys to activate - anxiously or arrogantly - what they understand as their "masculinity" in ways linked to benign or abusive forms of power and a lack of responsibility for consequences of sexual intercourse. Young men and women face different social pressures and expectations, which may work against responsible sexual behaviour. Unequal power relations between men and women often limit women's control over sexual activity and their ability to
protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Teenage girls are particularly vulnerable.

Gender-sensitive educational programs on sexuality and reproductive health are essential to counter inequality and protect women's health. Such programs should address the dynamics of knowledge, power and decision-making in sexual relationships. Non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) are increasingly playing important roles in providing services, for instance to address sensitive topics such as adolescents' needs. Training young people as peer educators encourages responsible behaviour. Parents and other adults can learn to be sources of information and counselling.

The project's objectives:

• to produce a draft version of Croatia's educational program on gender equality and sexuality to be presented to the Commission of the Government of the Republic of Croatia for Gender Equality as a policy proposal meeting the directive of the National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality

• to formulate recommendations for programmatic interventions and provide a blueprint for implementation

• to begin a regional analysis on gender equality policy focusing on the educational system in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Serbia

• to organize a database for further research

• to write a resaerch and policy paper in the area of gender equality and sexuality education for the Commission

Plan for for the project fulfillment:

I envision this project as the next step in the continuation of the "Building Gender Awareness" program that CESI has started 3 years ago. The program's activities include:

• education (lectures, workshops, seminars, training for trainers, peer-education),

• research (Research on Zagreb secondary schools principals' attitudes towards introducing sexual education into schools, and "Urgently Claiming the Future: Focus on Gender for Safer Sex Relationships"),

• publishing ("Sex and Gender under the Magnifying Glass" manual, and brochures on family planning, AIDS and STDs, in collaboration with the Department of Reproductive Health of Children's Hospital in Zagreb),

• advocacy and media campaign (organising of a round table discussion "Introducing
  Education on Gender Equality and Sexuality into Schools").

This CESI's program emphasises the importance of establishing connections between educational system institutions and autonomous educational programs, conducted by NGOs, as well as the need for introducing the educational program on gender equality and sexuality to schools, as the necessity for long-term changes in Croatian society. This International Policy Fellowship program offers me a great opportunity to significantly develop this initative and to gain more advocating skills to assist me in this experimental process of introducing the educational program on gender equality and sexuality in the Croatian schools' curriculum.

This research project will be partly based on my active participation in the above mentioned CESI's program, and on my 4 years' experience with working with adolescents on the issues of gender equality and sexuality through non-institutionalized educational programs and activities such as partcipatory and interactive workshops, and peer-education training. Besides, I also plan to utilize two already existing educational manuals (see the list of publications), as well as the findings from my current research on how adolescents, by reproducing traditional terms of gender system of inequality, engage in unsafe sexual and reproductive practices. In addition, I mean to compare and analyze regional context (Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia) of implementation of gender equality policies focusing on the strategic issue of education, as well as to get more information on the existing local non-institutionalized educational programs on sexuality, reproductive health, and gender relations. Moreover, I intend to get more acquainted with a couple of similar educational programs in Europe that are already established and running.

One of the important aspects of this research project is an active engagement of young people, displacing the notion of youth as "object of study" and involving them more in the actual reserch process. It means giving them opportunity and empowering them to reflect on and discuss the issues addressed in the proposed educational program. I plan to conduct several focus group disscussions and/or participative workshops with adolescents to enable them to comment on and to explore the designed program of education on gender equality and sexuality. After analysing young peoples' input and after the final consultations with my mentors I would continue with the application of the project's results as outlined below.

Application of the project's results:

The expected outcome of the project is a draft version of the educational program on gender equality and sexuality. This version would be submitted as a policy proposal responding to the program task in the National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality: Section 6: Women and Education; Objective a) To develop the program of systematic education on gender equality and sexuality; Program Task 10: Until the end of 2002. the Ministry of Education will establish a team of experts, based on the public call for applications, who will design a draft program for sexual education.

Dr. Aleksandar Štulhofer, whom I intend to propose as one of my mentors, in paper presented at CESI's round table discussion "Introducing Education on Gender Equality and Sexuality into Schools", described a posible future process of implementation of such educational program in schools in Croatia. I intend to submit the outcome of this research to the interdisciplinary team of experts and to actively participate in the production of the final draft of the program. This version would be presented to the boarder team of experts (including the representatives from the government, NGOs, school teachers, young people) and after a public discussion, the final experimental version of the program should be adopted. Following this, the program should be piloted in selected group of schools, and after the analysis and evaluation, and if the program would demonstrate its efficacy, the Ministry of Education should start with the publishing of needed educational materials and with the training program for teachers and peer-educators, as the last step before implementing the program to all schools in Croatia.

In addition, this draft version could also serve as means for facilitating further discussion and policy recommendations for the implementation and realization of other measures suggested and designed in the National Policy of the Republic of Croatia for the Promotion of Gender Equality. In the regional context, the outcome of this research could also function as the effective "tool" in some future processes of drafting, adopting and implementing similar educational programs in the region. In that way it also contributes to the creation of the necessary conditions for long- term social changes towards gender equality.

Preliminary research time-table:

1. Gathering and organizing of information, literature review, reading and analyzing, contacts and consultations with indviduals and organizations in Croatia
(March - April 2002)

2. Research trips to Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, meetings with relevant individuals and organisations, starting the regional analysis
(May - June 2002)

3. Arranging and classiying of all gathered materials/resources, analysis, further co-operation with established contacts, drafting the first version of sexual education (SE) program
(July - August 2002)

4. Research trips to the Netherlands and Sweden (SE implemented in school curriculum), further analysis, finishing the first version of SE program
(September - October 2002)

5. Presenting the first version of SE program to students and teachers using Focus Group Discussions (FGD), analysis of FGD findings
(November - December 2002)

6. Writing the final version of SE program, presenting it as a policy proposal to the relevant government's institutions
(January - March 2003)

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