For the generations of the future
This is the concept of violence on which the project created by Findomestic together with WeWorld was based — an independent Italian non-profit organization active in 25 countries, with development cooperation and humanitarian aid projects. The initiative was aimed not only at a group of 375 middle and high school students, but also at about twenty teachers from the same schools. “The first year we worked with final-year high school students and third-year middle school students […] In particular, we focused on the stereotypes and prejudices that underpin gender-based violence,” says Simona Piva, Diversity Officer and People Care at Findomestic.
Strengthening teachers’ skills in the field of Global Citizenship Education hinges on the key aspect of training. At the beginning of the 2022 school year, an online training course was launched for middle and high school teachers, lasting a total of twenty hours. The course provided a general overview of the 2030 Agenda and on the cross-cutting themes of gender and education, offering not only data on gender stereotypes and how they are structurally embedded in our culture, but also focusing on how they impact teaching — consciously or not — and, consequently, on the central role of schools in these dynamics.
Several case studies were also examined, based on international cooperation projects that WeWorld carries out in various countries around the world, addressing issues of women’s empowerment and the promotion of women’s rights, with an in-depth look at international conventions.
The goal was to provide the educational community with tools and practical ideas to value differences, promote equality, foster empathy, strengthen students’ relational, expressive, and emotional skills, prevent male violence against women, raise awareness about mutual respect, and encourage individual well-being and classroom cohesion.
Later, the same topics were addressed directly with the students, placing them at the center of the learning process, as is typical of Global Citizenship Education methodologies. In fact, during the same school year, two in-person conferences were held for middle and high school classes in the city of Florence, each lasting two hours, with the aim of encouraging a critical perspective on gender inequality and violence, the delegitimization of women’s value, and toxic masculinity — to recognize the structural nature of discrimination and explore its intersectional aspects.
“With the middle school classes, we used games to bring out the stereotypes rooted in their minds and then deconstruct them, involving them directly in the process,” says Piva. “In high schools, on the other hand, we went deeper into the different faces of violence […] conducting a sort of survey: we asked the students what they thought of a girl who had had many partners in the past, and, as you can imagine, the response was negative. Quite the opposite of what emerged when we asked the same question about boys, of course.”
“What struck me the most,” Piva continues, “was discovering that some girls thought that a jealous outburst or even a slap were demonstrations of true love.” These meetings revealed how deeply certain labels take root in our minds from the age when relationships between boys and girls begin to form — adolescence, perhaps the most delicate stage of all. That’s why it’s so important to intervene in secondary schools, to intercept the formation of such stereotypes early on and try to mitigate their effects by fostering open, constructive dialogue based on non-judgmental listening.
The approach proved so successful that, in 2024, Findomestic continued its work in schools with the support of Fondazione Libellula, as part of the “Le Chiavi della Città” (“The Keys to the City”) program promoted by the Municipality of Florence. The aim was to introduce a training course designed to challenge gender stereotypes and prejudices and to create fairer environments in the school setting. In this context, Fondazione Libellula developed the “Generazioni in Genere” (“Generations in Gender”) program, aimed at middle and high school students and their teachers, providing a space for reflection to promote gender sensitivity and awareness in the educational process, and to foster the development — both among younger generations and teachers — of behaviors and models free from discrimination and stereotypes.
“Generazioni in Genere” offered six hours of online training divided into three two-hour sessions, involving the entire teaching staff of the participating classes. In addition, Findomestic and Fondazione Libellula organized a plenary meeting on March 8, 2024, once again in collaboration with the Municipality of Florence, taking the opportunity to work in person with students.
“It was a truly wonderful experience. We invited two of our colleagues who had been victims of gender-based violence to share their stories, and the best part, in my opinion, was seeing the students completely captivated — probably because, when you talk about what really happens, it reaches people more deeply than when you use hypothetical examples,” continues Simona Piva, who, deeply moved, recounts how, after these sessions, a girl from the audience came on stage to share her own experience in a toxic and violent relationship. After her, another girl also found the courage to tell her story.
“These are important moments,” she concludes. “They are concrete signs for teachers, showing that talking about such topics in class helps create a safe environment where students can feel free to speak openly — and perhaps bring to light extreme situations that can still be addressed.”
Source reference in the summary: Brief Report No. 20/2023, WeWorld, “Parole di parità.”