The EU Space Awareness project together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) organised a training workshop for teachers in space and education. The event was held in Leiden, Netherlands, from 18 to 22 October 2016.
As a partner in the Space Awareness project, the OAD participated in the workshop. Sara Anjos from NUCLIO, coordinator of PLOAD and Ramasamy Venugopal from the OAD conducted a workshop on “Gender Balance and Diversity through space education”.
“Diversity actually encompasses the infinite range of individuals’ unique attributes and experiences”,
– US Dept of Labor
Some guidelines proposed, for teachers, for encouraging gender diversity in the classroom:
*These guidelines were adapted from the following projects: TWIST; @mindset; Hypatia
1. Actively Challenge Stereotypes
2. Actively target girls, but design for boys and girls
3. Address women and minorities invisibility in science: highlight women scientists
4 .Promote “mentors” and provide “role models”
5. Target parents
6. Adopt participatory design approaches
7. Mirror your own profile and of your own institution
When running activities in the classroom, please
– Create inclusive activities adapted to a gender and culturally diverse classroom
– Make sure that the activity can be completed by all students
– Consider at which point of an activity the teacher might need to confront potential issues of discrimination and manage it.
– Teachers should be prepared to confront situations where students might raise controversial issues.
– Teachers should challenge their own racial and cultural biases.
For more resources on Inclusion, go to the website of the IAU Working Group for Equity and Inclusion – http://sion.frm.utn.edu.ar/iau-inclusion/
Space Education International Workshop – http://www.space-awareness.org/en/news/space-education-international-workshop/
Page in Portuguese from PLOAD office