Cover image: © Plan International/UNGEI/UNICEF/Transform Education

Gender transformative education recognizes that education can be a force for achieving positive social change and gender justice: it has the potential to promote positive social and political change by addressing power inequalities between genders and challenging existing and long-standing gender norms. 

The Gender Transformative Education E-learning Course has been developed through a partnership between Plan International, UNGEI, UNICEF, and Transform Education and as a direct response to requests from staff and partners to improve their own knowledge about gender transformative programming. This course is also available in Spanish and French.

The development of this e-learning course has been made possible with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ireland.


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Learning objectives

At the end of this course, learners will be able to:

  • Use foundational knowledge on gender transformative approaches to designing, implementing, advocating, and assessing education programs and influencing initiatives.
  • Apply the conceptual framework to advocate for gender transformative education in programming, and influencing among education practitioners, policy makers, youth-led groups, and other key stakeholders.
  • Use the appropriate tools in their work (designing a new project/program, policy/strategy, advocacy initiative, etc.) through a gender transformative lens.

Audience

  • Education technical experts from governments
  • Youth activists
  • Civil society organisations and multilateral organisations
  • General public working in other areas wanting to improve their understanding of the sector by diving into this intermediate-level content

Length

It should take you about 3-4 hours to complete this self-paced course. 

Methodology

This course is composed of an introductory module and five short self-paced modules and an evaluation at the end of the course. Each module introduces key terminology and concepts illustrated by interactive icons and short videos from youth activists providing further diversity of voices. The videos are available with or without audio, a transcript is provided for all. At the end of each module, there is a short quiz to check your understanding and reflect on the content.

Structure

Module 0. Self-Assessment: Knowing the Basics – Provides an overview and refresher on gender equality and gender transformative language, relevant terminology, and concepts. The entire Gender Transformative Education Online Course is relevant for anyone who wants to have a deeper understanding of the foundations of gender transformative education and the roles that gender inequality, harmful gender norms and stereotypes play in education.

Module 1. Let’s Talk Gender Transformative Education – Offers a basic understanding of the concept of gender transformative education. By unpacking the concept of GTE, participants will be able to describe the concept and its importance; how to identify the six key elements; how to summarize the evidence for gender transformative education and debunk commonly held misconceptions; and outline how the conceptual framework for GTE can advance their own work.

Module 2. Knowing Your Context - Lays out the basic needs and opportunities of GTE. Participants will better understand the following three areas – situation analysis, analysis of diversity and intersectionality, and cultural context and social dynamics – that should inform a context analysis and the design of education programs and influencing interventions.

Module 3.1. Gender Transformative Education Programming - Presents a basic understanding of the core principles of effective GTE programming. Participants will learn how to mainstream gender transformative education through a whole-school approach to education programming, identify the different levels of intervention and gender transformative education activities, and use fundamental frameworks and tools in programming.

Module 3.2. Measuring Effectiveness – Gives a basic understanding of the purpose and importance of monitoring and evaluation in advancing GTE and how to critically assess the effectiveness and impact of gender transformative programs and influencing initiatives.

Module 4. Gender Transformative Education Influencing – Presents basic knowledge of effective advocacy and policy influencing for GTE programming. Participants will learn how to determine the target audience, develop positive context and audience-specific advocacy messages, identify the elements of effective gender transformative education advocacy, and how to implement intergenerational strategies to achieve GTE.

Contact details

In case of content-related issues and questions, please reach out to IQE@Plan-international.org.