SESSION 2: Gender equality and social inclusion (gesi)

The session will look into the application of GESI principles as one of the Literacy Leader’s role in creating a positive learning environment for literacy to foster and develop.

Therefore, in teaching literacy, we want to use books and literature that reflect these differences. We want our students to understand these differences and develop respect and appreciation for their differences as well as empathy for others.

In addition, our students will want to read more if they can recognize their own culture or reality in our lessons or the books that we read. When we are more socially inclusive, our students will feel that they are included, that they belong, and that they are valued—this is what social inclusion is all about. Again, with the GESI framework we can uncover important factors that hinder the students’ literacy performance, especially factors that we ourselves are not aware that we are doing.

Implementing GESI principles into the teaching strategies can be clearly seen in the way we communicate with learners and the materials we create for them. The materials we select and the materials we create for the learners affect their thinking about gender and society. Let us take a look at some of the ways Teachers and School Heads can ensure GESI Principles are practiced in school.

Let us try an exercise on how to determine if the reading materials we are using is GESI responsive. Scroll through the images to see the activity.

To also guide us properly determine appropriate learning materials that are GESI responsive, let us look at 4 factors derived from an article by USAID.

As literacy leaders, we have to model these concepts, by actively participating in intentional decision-making about the school’s learning materials. This way, as literacy leaders we ensure that all our students are valued by enhancing opportunities, and access to resources, for all the learners.

And we do this not only because it is part of our job, but more importantly, because we understand how it contributes to our shared vision of our learning organizations and how it impacts learning.

Finally, let us look at how our 3 modules are tied together.

A readership crisis is really a leadership crisis. And for people who know how to respond, crisis is just another way of saying opportunity for continuous literacy improvement.

To end, we have seen that in our working framework through Theme 1 and Theme 2, we see how we are working towards transforming our schools into a learning organization. To this framework we add to our personal mastery and mental models the use of Evidence-based strategies, and the concept of DAP, SEL and GESI as guiding principles in our literacy leadership.