Implementation of ‘A Timeline of women’s rights in Europe’ (SOI-GR-248)

The story of implementation was organized by Barbara Zadraveli around the learning scenario ‘A Timeline of Women‘s rights in Europe’, originally created by Angela Capezzuto. It was chosen to be implemented in a slightly different age group as a good chance to teach part of the curriculum intended for third graders of Junior High School of the 4th Gymnasion of Preveza, in the subject of English as a Foreign Language. More specifically, it came aside Unit 2 of the class course book with the title ‘Teens idols’, talking about famous personalities, raising awareness on teenagers΄ standards of characterizing a personality important, bringing down stereotypes of the role of men and women in time, dipping into the History of Feminism in Europe through time and making use of Europeana’s treasures.

Class implementation

It was implemented mainly during class sessions using the IT lab in half the hours of teaching and also using the asynchronous platform of ‘e-class’ for all the instructions, worksheets and final products to be uploaded. The implementation followed the ‘flipped classroom methodology’ as it was planned to be delivered via e-class, an asynchronous teaching platform and the conventional classroom or the IT lab., in the face to face teaching. We followed all activities planned by the initial LS while my pupils and I found it extremely motivating and amusing. The specific scenario was chosen by the pupils as the most appealing as they were given the chance to study different scenario themes of Europeana and choose. The clas consisted mainly of girls (13 out of 19 in total) and the fight of women emancipation was very attractive to them.

The narrative

Students were called to explore the various terms used to describe Feminism, the women’s movement focusing on “Gender Equality” and “Equal Rights” which is a basic Human Right. “Feminism”, “Feminist”, “Women’s Rights” were compared and explored through research and discussion and subsequently, inspiring European women who have contributed through their actions towards acquiring rights formally denied to women and the pupils were finally asked to create timelines of outstanding women fighting for rights gained in Europe.

Following the ‘Flipped Classroom’ procedure, a course with the same name with the scenario was created in the platform of e-class and the pupils were invited to participate. It was organized in 4 modules to combine pre- class and post- class activities.

1^st Module: More specifically , we started by raising awareness on the theme of equality by asking the pupils to brainstorm on the key words reliability and bias as connected with it. They were called to collaborate with the answergarten tool, and it was amazing the thesaurus of words hey thought to start with ( Brainstorming on the theme ). Then they were asked to watch the video called “First Women at the Polls”, to help them understand how this right has affected politics and particularly that regarding public spending on social issues.

A comprehension exercise was created in the class for the pupils to react and be introduced to the topic-that was an asynchronous exercise as a post class activity in the first module.

2d Module: Researching the role of women through time and place was implemented studying resources on how work-related roles performed by women have changed over time, in Historiana. Here discussions were raised and as an aftermath and post –class activity to create PPts with women’s roles in the past and present , so as to focus on woman’s place in social status and situations ( that was an extra activity beyond the ones included in the original Scenario) . Then they were called to brainstorm about the word: “Feminism”, and student groups write down all the words they associate with it in a mind-map, using the web 2.0 Coggle. Then discussing the question: Can a male be a Feminist? Why/ Why not? They were asked to watch this video to understand better: “Can a Man be a Feminist?” elaborating the mindmaps with new concepts and ideas.

3d Module: While presenting group opinions, at firstother terms were introduced such as : social justice; gender equality; women’s rights and human rights, and the groups were asked to associate them in their mind-maps on feminism.

And then each group was asked to present their mind-map to the class, explaining the associations they inferred.

Biographical Research- Working with Europeana: The groups were asked to research the Europeana collections and a list of personalities outstanding for fighting for rights and justice, being helped with resources and specific names were suggested.

Students were guided in choosing significant artefacts from the Europeana which go towards giving a historical setting, societal taboos, and legislation opposing the emancipation of women. Each student prepared slides to accompany their talk/role play about their feminist.

Finally the students were asked to create timelines to summarize the life and action of each personality using a web 2.0 tools.

4^th Module: Assessment .During the last stage peers assessed group member’s work and collaborative competences with the Peer Assessment Collaboration Rubric (It was given to study before class in the Docs Section in e-class) . The assessment helped me to assess the overall performance of the class. Also they were asked to comment on an e-board on what they liked from the whole scenario and what was their favorite activity.

Teacher’s remarks

It was another interesting experience for me, teaching with Europeana once again and a special challenge to implement this interesting theme of ‘feminism’ making the most of Europeana resources. I also enjoyed the ‘flipped classroom approach’ as my students were trained after the pandemic to follow instructions in e-class context and instructions for pre-class and post-class activities .They enriched their vocabulary on the theme, they developed their cooperation skills thinking critically on the topic of the sexes equality, the struggle of women through time making use of Europeana resources but most of all challenged stereotypes on how male takes a glance on female with the boys of the class trying to be in ‘the shoes of the girls .we even took it a little further looking upon current news and criticizing social stereotypes on how women are treated by men in various cases.

The process through the pupils’ eyes

The pupils had the chance to enjoy the whole process of the LS , taking initiatives in presenting the figures they chose –women that influenced History –giving reasons for their choices and projecting arguments about it , assessing their performance and their peers and getting improved . Integration of the 2 sexes in a democratic procedure was an expected outcome that was closely approached.

You can see the pupils’ work here: