Gender-inclusive pedagogy for community-level early childhood education in Guatemala and Honduras

 

Education inequalities can start from early childhood, including exclusion from community and educational spaces, insufficient provision of care and education programs and discrimination against girls. To address these issues in Guatemala and Honduras, this project will adapt and contextualize an innovative pedagogical model of gender-inclusive care and education for early childhood, with active community participation and collaboration with local educational organizations. Using a systemic approach, the model aligns multiple components, including curriculum development, appropriate pedagogies for young children, training and support for teachers and community engagement. The model is based on a proven approach successfully designed and implemented in Chile.

The objective of the project is to generate evidence on how to scale the impact of the gender-inclusive model in Guatemala and Honduras. This includes mobilizing new knowledge on factors that encourage, make possible or impede the scaling up of the pedagogical innovation, as well as its integration in public policies for early childhood education. The project will also work to strengthen the capacities of teachers, educators, community leaders, families and authorities, so that they have relevant tools to sustain and scale the application of the gender-inclusive model considering diverse needs and contexts. The project will embed co-creation at all stages of the research process, including the identification of main issues.

This project is funded under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange, a joint endeavour between the GPE and IDRC to connect expertise, innovation and knowledge to help low- and middle-income countries build stronger education systems and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal on education.