Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 Natia Gorgadze Centre for Civil Integration and Inter-Ethnic Relations Chapter 1 Gender Development Sustainability in Education System of Georgia Introduction This chapter examines gender equality in education context of Georgia and argues those conceptual visions, which form country education policy in regards to gender. The paper shows that the steps undertaken by the state concerning gender in education are mainly focused on eradication of negative discourse of gender inequality and are less oriented on gender representation in positive light. At the same time, gender equality is predominantly portrayed and evaluated from the quantitative perspectives of view where equal access to the education and participation rate, number of the trainings mentioning gender, policy documents claiming for gender equality are seen as main indicators for positive outcomes of gender oriented education. The review of gender characteristics in education leads to the conclusion about the scarcity of cognitive domains needed for gender mainstreaming. Instead of focus on reconsideration of gender roles, change of biased and arbitrary teaching practices and strengthening personality-centred approaches in all domains of education, the narrative and representation of gender are still oriented on the excuses and clarifications about the disadvantaged practices. More specifically, 1.Gender is still the subject of theoretical frameworks and is less reflected in the implementation process of education. 2. The academy is less sensitive to the gender topics and is not sufficiently interested in inclusion of gender equality in education practice. 3. Teachers are not prepared for gender inclusion in instruction and sensitisation of students about the equality. 4. Civil society is not prepared for review of gender equality in education as an instrument for sustainable development. 1.1. Georgian context in light of gender equality Georgia is a small country located on the coast of Black Sea and surrounding with the Caucasian mountains. While being famous for its ancient and unique culture as well as rich history, and having the period of “Golden Kingdom” between the period of 10-12 centuries, the history full of Turkish, Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 Iranian, Persian and Mongolian envisions and dominations, in 19th century Georgian was annexed by Russia for a long period. In 1936 the independent state of Georgia was enforced to join Soviet Union as a soviet republic. Only in 1991 Georgia seceded from the Soviet Union confirmed by the Referendum of March 31 and by the act of Independence in April 9. The situation in Georgia during the first years if its independence was exacerbated even more by conflicts (Papava, 2013) leading economic situation in Georgia even more complicated (Kakulia, 2008). After almost 20 years, the modern Georgia is strongly pursued a pro-Western foreign policy while striving for NATO as well as European Integration. Georgia has signed, ratified and is party to the most human rights instruments. The Constitution is the supreme law of Georgia and recognizes the supremacy of international treaties over domestic laws, unless a treaty contradicts the Constitution. In 2014, Georgia has declared joining the European Union’s legal and regulatory space as its top policy priority and has signed an Association Agreement (AA) and the accompanying Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU. Georgia is committed to the gender equality as a priority of the national policy too. In 1994 The Georgian Parliament ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and an year later, Beijing Declaration and action plan 1995. On March 26, 2010, Parliament of Georgia approved the law on Gender Equality with a necessary underlined precondition on equal treatment: “Recognition of equal rights and opportunities for men and women in domestic relations and other spheres of socio-political life, elimination of discrimination by gender in parallel to determination of education, labour and social conditions”. On May 2, 2014, Parliament of Georgia adopted Law on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination. The new Constitution of Georgia, adopted in 2017 in Article 11, paragraph 1 contains an equality clause, which reads: “All persons are equal before the law. Any discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, origin, ethnicity, language, religion, political or other views, social affiliation, property or titular status, place of residence, or any other grounds shall be prohibited”. According to paragraph three of the same article the state shall ensure “equal rights and opportunities for men and women . . . shall take special measures to ensure the essential equality of men and women and to eliminate inequality”. The discourse of the new equality article trades earlier formal equality wording for substantive equality that shifts the emphasis towards combating structural inequalities and mandating the State to establish and implement special laws, policies and programmes to ensure that women enjoy equality of opportunities as well as results (UNDP, 2018) The State Concept on Gender Equality (2006) and the Law of Georgia on Gender Equality (2010) were adopted, which underlines the importance of ensuring equal rights between women and men and improving women’s Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 participation in the political, economic and social processes while recognizing the need for specific actions to achieve equality between women and men and eliminate inequality in Georgia. In 2016 the first National Action Plan for 2016-2017 on the Measures to be implemented for Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and Protection Victims/Survivors was adopted, followed by the second action plan for the period of 2018-2020, National Action Plan for 2018-2020 on the Human Rights and National Action Plan for 2018-2020 on Women, Peace and Security. According to the 2019 Human Development Report, in Human Development Index (HDI) of Georgia’ HDI value is 0.786— which puts the country in the high human development category— positioning it at 70 out of 189 countries and territories and in Gender Inequality Index (GII) value of 0.351, ranking it 75 out of 162 countries in the 2018 index (UNDP, 2019). 1.2 Literature review Theories of gender in education Gender is perhaps the most pervasive, fundamental, and universally accepted way we separate and categorize human beings (Meadow, 2010). Although the nature of cultural intelligibility of woman and man has changed over time, the categories themselves continue to be preserved, prescribed, and projected onto our bodies from their very conception in the minds of our families, as parents imagine who their child might grow up to be (the current proliferation of gender reveal parties during pregnancy illustrates this point). Such categorization narrates even our first moments of life, in declarations of “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy! (Keenan, 2017). This separation and categorization put people in the strictly defined positions disregarding that any categorization is conditional and forgetting that “Categories are made, not found” (Amsterdam and Brunner, 2000). Albeit the feminist theories have different approaches, understanding, interpretations about the gender definition, construct, norms, and equality, they have a common notion of viewing it as “characteristics of individuals […] which are also embedded in social interactions, social structures, and cultural forms” (Bank, 2007). With regard to the social structures and norms, the education is one of the strongest social systems “through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms” (Stromquist, 2006). At the same time, education is held to be a key element of the emergent “knowledge society” (Ibid). Although the promise of the education is to provide equality and equity among the diverse groups of society, the cultural expectations and anticipated Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 norms differ by gender. The large number of the researches show that the students consisted of girls and boys, are expecting to develop different valuable aspects and thus, they are taught differently (Kelly, 1981). as Keenan (2017) claims, “Schooling plays an essential role in establishing what Judith Butler (1990) has called the “heterosexual matrix,” the social regulation of “cultural intelligibility through which bodies, genders, and desires are naturalized” (150). The gender gap in education is reinforced not only by the school as a social institution but also by the surrounding social agents. The process of acquisition of social regulations, learning of cultural expectations and norms, “is reinforced by our teachers, our textbooks and our classmates” (Little, McGivern, 2014). Moreover, “far from being self-evident, the social disparities in school achievement are, in actuality, a response to a complex interplay of the multiple social forces of class, region, community, family and the state” (Ramachandran, 2004). The role of the state is mentioned in many gender theories in education and is underlined in almost every key global and regional commitments of gender equality. As Arnot and Mac an Ghall (2006) argue, that messages highlight, the significance of new patterns of educational attainment, a more flexible and open workforce, transformations in gender relations and state commitments to the education of women (27). Banks and McGee (2020) put emphasis on the socio-political context, which “underscores that the education is part and parcel of larger societal and political forces, such as inequality based on stratification doe to race, social class, gender, and other differences. Given this perspective, decision concerning such practices as ability tracking, high-stakes testing, native language instruction, retention, curriculum reform, and pedagogy are all influenced by broader social policies and structures (256). Stromquist (2006) criticize the approaches of the governmental approaches while attempting “to increase access to schooling, some fundamental facts are minimised or even denied in the assessment of their work. One of them is that the state is not neutral to women (145-161). Yet, many researchers and feminism theorists argue the readiness of the education national systems to claim for the equity through the education. “There are exceptionally minor programs that integrate elements that can build critical awareness of gender issues in girls (Stromquest. 2006). In response to the evidences displayed at different international conferences and ministerial meetings governments of many counties made promises to take actions towards the elimination of gender inequity in education. The actions that have been undertaken by the governments include modification of the textbooks and curriculum, informational campaigns as well as provision of teachers gender sensitive trainings. Nevertheless, using more inclusive language and providing balanced images of women and man in the society, making teachers more sensitive towards own biased teaching or influence over different performance and career expectations as well as pedagogical Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 strategies to foster gender quality in the classroom, still remain most activities “sporadic, superficial and far from the comprehensive context” (Parpart, Shirin, Staud, 2002). At the same time, nor of the educational programs has the issue of gender sensitivity training systemically been addressed in Western education, although programs offering these services have found to be successful in developing regions (Unterhalter & North, 2011). Frei and Leowinata (2014) also point out that “gender mainstreaming is not a one-time activity. Instead, it requires ongoing attention when developing education programmes and budgets, designing schools, developing curricula, governing and managing schools and, of course, teaching and using learning materials” (33) In lack of genuine equality in education, the researchers consider large share of international agencies who shape the equality orientations in the world. The researchers challenge efficiency of the “International agencies such as the World Bank, which wields inordinate influence on public policies in developing countries” (Stromquist, 2006) as well as the global and regional policies and indexes, such as (GSI) and (HDI) developed by the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) and of Duncan (Walby, 1993). They see the measurements utilised by these agencies as marginal and unilateral, where “quality is measured exclusively in cognitive terms and reduced to two basic skills, math and reading” (Stromquist, 2006). The major global policies such as Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals, do not consider the importance of inserting gender awareness in the provision of an education of high quality and their objectives see gender only as it relates to equal access to school by girls and boys” (Ibid). Walby (1993) dares the comparability of the nations via universal indices and concludes that they cannot diagnose the gender gap at the country level as it presents a “single standard for the whole world, regardless of cultural and national differences (1339). In order to resist to these challenges, the researchers and practitioners alike have to rely on qualitative micro studies to capture regional and context-specific nuances (Ramachandran, 2004). While the gender is a socially embodied character it should be a crosscutting issue for every stage of education including higher educational institutions with diverse education programs in order to prepare the new generations for wide gender mainstreaming. “Teaching with a gender perspective also stimulates students’ critical thinking capacity, providing them with new tools to identify social stereotypes, norms and roles related to gender. They thus learn to problematize dominant socialisation patterns and develop skills that will enable them to avoid gender blindness in their future careers”. (Verge and Cabruja, 2017). The Catalan University Quality Assurance (2019) defines the frame for gender perspective teaching, which implies a process of reflection affecting design of the competences and skills in the programme’s curriculum, the design of courses, including learning outcomes, the content taught, Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 examples provided, the language used, the sources selected, and the method of assessment and management of learning environment (28). “The gender perspective is also necessary in courses dealing with research methods and techniques, including quantitative methodology, where numbers and statistical methods are conceived of as being gender neutral. Nevertheless, the choice of research questions, the construction of concepts and the design of hypotheses are not value-free and prejudices often inform methodological decisions, such as the gathering of data and the selection of variables (Harding, 1987; Hesse-Biber et al., 2007) Accordingly, the gender is an agenda for every program, not only the teacher education training and has to “introduce gender perspectives in education that is focused on stimulation of “critical, constructive and responsible thinking to identify gender stereotypes” (The Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency, 2019). To summarise, the gender as unseparated part of the education agenda, which provides inclusive outlook on general and specific topics of gender gap and equality; it questions and examines existing practices through historical and cultural lenses and creates positive attitudes towards the parity and equity based on the critical analysis. Gender inclusive education agenda learns gender dimensions in global and local context using qualitative and quantitative measurements, empowering individuals, and strives at integration of rational and transparent principles that promote sustainable and cohesive development. Section 1.3 Demographic data Number of population in Georgia as of 1 January 2019 is 3 723.5 (Geostat, 2019) excluding the population of occupied territories of Abkhazian autonomous Republic and Tskhinvali region. According to the data, 51.9 percent of Georgia's population were female, while 48.1 percent were male (geostat, 2019). In 2018, the median age equalled 35 years for males and 40 years for females. At the young ages, the share of males exceeds that of females, which women outnumber men in the age group of 65 and above due to females’ higher life expectancy (Goestat, 2017). The population of Georgia is ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse (Tabatadze 2010, Gorgadze, 2015, Tabatadze and Gorgadze 2013, 2016, 2019, Tabatadze, Gorgadze, Gabunia, Tinikashvili, 2020), where the dominant group is represented by ethnic Georgians (86.8%). Azeri and Armenian population are the second and third representative ethnic groups comparing with others and make respectively 6.27% and 4.53% of total population (census, 2014). Beyond of the diversity of Georgian population, the geographical distribution of ethnic Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 groups is also distinctive as the ethnic minority groups are mostly living compactly in three regions of Georgia. At the same time Azeri population is predominantly inhabitants of urban settlements (81.26%) while Armenian communities are represented with 48.5% share of urban locations compared to 40.21% of Georgians living in villages (Gorgadze, 2015). Table 1. Ethnic composition of Georgian population in 2014 1 Total population Georgians Azerbaijanians Armenians Russians Ossetians Yazidis Ukrainians Kistis Assyrian Other 3 713.8 04 3,224,564 233,024 168,102 26,453 14,385 12,174 6,034 5,697 2,377 14,346 % 86.80% 6.30% 4.50% 0.70% 0.40% 0.30% 0.16% 0.15% 0.06% 0.40% According to a 2014 census, 83.4% of the Georgian population identified themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christian, 10.7% Muslim, 3.9% Armenian Apostolic, and 0.5% Catholic. Orthodox churches serving other non-Georgian ethnic groups, such as Russians and Greeks, are subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church. Islam is prevalent among Azerbaijani and north Caucasus ethnic communities in the eastern part of the country and also is found in the regions of Adjara. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), Protestant denominations have become more prominent. They include Baptists (composed of Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Ossetian, and Kurdish groups); Seventh-day Adventists; Pentecostals (both Georgian and Russian); the New Apostolic Church; and the Assemblies of God. There also are a few Bahá'ís, Hare Krishnas and Jehovah's Witnesses in the country and has about 15,000 adherents. The membership numbers for these groups most likely totals fewer than 100,000 persons (Ibid). Ethnic and religious diversity of the country has a strong influence on a gender socialisation in the country concerning the perception and distribution of roles, responsibilities and accountabilities between the males and females, which is reflected in political, economic and social inequality. While child marriage is a persistent problem in Georgia generally, (14% under age 18, MICS 2018), the data suggests that the problem in particularly acute in rural areas with 21% of rural women who have married under the age 18. 1 National Statistics Office of Georgia, census 2014 Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 The data suggests that the early marriage rate is significantly higher among the ethnic minorities, particularly in ethnic Azeribaijanian communities as well as among the Muslim Georgian population. In Kvemo Kartli region which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Azerbaijanians 32% of married women in that they got married before 18 years. Five percent of marriages are early marriages (below 13-14 years), whereas 16% of respondents said they married at between 15-16 years (UN-Women, 2014). While data about the early marriages in Azerbiajanian and Georgian communities is relatively accessible, there is no consistent statistics related to the Armenian population where early marriages suggested to be very common practice too (Tabatadze, Gorgadze, Gabunia and Tinikashvili 2020). Despite of many positive steps undertaken by the Government of Georgia recently, women’s participation in decision-making processes remains low. Under Georgian law men and women have equal rights as voters and candidates. While women may have the formal right to participate in politics, the structure of the electoral system impedes their equal participation. According to latest statistics, Members of the Parliament of Georgia by factions in 2018 consisted of 22 of women and 127 men. The Government of Georgia is composed of 3 female and 8 male ministers, while the proportion of the deputy ministers was 10 females to 47 males. The ethnic composition is reflected in political participation of women too. According to the recent numerous reports, the level of engagement in the public life of ethnic minorities in Georgia is generally low and this is especially evident in regards to the participation of minorities in political life, as well as their representation in elected bodies and governmental agencies (Centre for the Studies of Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, 2018). The condition of women who are representatives of ethnic minorities is especially notable in the process of political alienation and exclusion and the level of political activity of ethnically non-Georgian women is even lower (UN Women, 2014). As for the property ownership, although there are no legal barriers for women to be registered as landowners, the rate of land ownership is higher for men: the 2014 agricultural census found that 70% of total agricultural holdings were operated by men. The study in 2015 revealed that woman’s parcels of land are smaller than men’s (UNDP, 2015). Generally, women are behind men in all regions of Georgia with regard to property registration. Concerning employment, more than 40 percent of women in Georgia are economically inactive and 49% are employed with significantly lower rate compared to men with 63% of employment rate (Geostat, 2018). Occupations are strongly segregated by gender, with a much higher share of men in stereotypically male professions, such as engineering, construction, energy, transport and communications, gas, and water supply. The majority of women is employed in jobs with a caring or service dimension. Women account for around 75% of employees in the health care and social sectors, 60% of people working in the hospitality sector, and 84% of schoolteachers. Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 According to the statistics, the latter is the least paid profession in Georgia (Geostat, 2019). Generally, employed women receive 35 percent smaller salaries than men (UNDP, 2017) where men earned almost 485 GEL more than women each month in Q3 of 2017 (Geostat, 2017). Many study-researches and inquiries point to widespread experiences of violence against women across the country. Intimate partner violence, as well as early and forced marriage, are among the most prevalent forms of violence against women in Georgia. These types of violence cut across all divisions of income, culture and class and remains largely underreported. Approximately 14 per cent of ever-partnered women aged 15-64 reported having experienced physical, sexual and/or emotional violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime (UN-Women, 2017). Section 1.4 Education policy and implementation from the gender perspectives The Government of Georgia began the nationalization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016 while has identified the priority goals, targets and indicators through the adaptation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development where gender equality in and through education is seen as one of the top priorities for the national governments. On March 26, 2010, Parliament of Georgia approved the law on Gender Equality with a necessary underlined precondition on equal treatment: “Recognition of equal rights and opportunities for men and women in domestic relations and other spheres of socio-political life, elimination of discrimination by gender in parallel to determination of education, labour and social conditions”. This law itself does not contribute to establishment of equality principles in all levels of education but only talks about the decrease of the negative practices of discrimination. At the same time the NAP for 2016-2017 as well as for 2018-2020 require from the Ministry of Education and Science to take proactive measures for tackling gender gap in education policy and practice. Based on data, as of population census 2014, the share of females in vocational and higher education levels exceeds that of males. Females at tertiary education are more represented in Bachelors, Masters and PhD Programs (Gorgadze, 2016). Table 2. Educational attainments of Georgia population aggregated by the sex2 Percent Sex distribution 2 National Statistics Office of Georgia, Population census 2014 Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 Higher education Vocational education Complete general education (secondary education) W 36 23 M 32 19 W 55 57 M 45 43 34 41 47 53 Basic education Primary education Has no primary education, but is able to read and write Illiterate 4 1 4 1 49 54 51 46 0 0 0 0 56 54 44 46 1 2 50 100 100 1 045 955 50 Not stated Total percent number The data suggests that there is no obstacles for females to pursue afterschool education. Indeed, the legislation of education is not discriminative towards the women. Nevertheless, it does not encourage clearly gender equality (Gorgadze, 2016). The qualitative statistics, which show women domination at every post-general education stages in reality veil the qualitative traits of inequality represented through hidden curricula and inherited social practices (Khomeriki, Javakhishvili, Abramishvili, 2012, Gorgadze, 2016, Tabatadze, Gorgadze, Gabunia and Tinikashvili 2020). Section 1.5 General education in light of gender equality Full general education includes 12 years of study and carried out in three stages, namely: primary, basic, and secondary. Primary education includes 6 years of study and implemented in I-VI grades; Basic education includes 3 years, implemented in VII-IX grades; Secondary education includes 3 years, carried out in X-XII grades. Primary and basic education is mandatory. Person who completes The Full General Education stages and receives the certificate (Atestate) has the right to continue learning in the higher education institution while passing the national entrance examinations. A person who completes the basic education has the right to continue studies at the secondary education stage of the general education or alternatively take training course of the vocational education (National Centre for Education Quality Enhancement, 2019) According to Education Management Information System (EMIS) in 2019, 584 374 students were enrolled in the public and private schools of Georgia comprised of 278 880 (47.7%) girls and 305 494 (52.3%) boys which Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 mean that the boys exceed girls by 4.60%. While there is no differences between the girls and boys engagement in school education at primary and basic levels, at the secondary education school level the girls attendance exceeds by 4%. This means that more girls are eligible to pursue higher education than boys. Concerning the completion rate of the secondary education, there is no differences per sex but per geographical location (rural / urban) and social status in accordance with the poorest and richest quintile groups (Geostat, unicef, 2018). Subsection 1.5.1 Redistribution of teachers at different levels of education institutions Based on 2017-2018 year data, 66 634 teachers are employed in Georgian schools, out of which 57552 (86%) are female and 9082 (14%) – male (Geostat, 2018). Though, starting from basic secondary (VII-IX grades) and upper secondary (X-XII grades) education, between primary (I-VI grades) and secondary education stages, teachers are not similarly redistributed and share of male teachers (in total number of teachers) increases at basic secondary and upper secondary education stages. It should be noted that part of the teachers could teach several subjects and/or teach at different stages (TALIS 2015, Gorgadze 2016) The below given diagram reflects share of teachers by sex at each stage of school education for 2014-2015 school year and also, average share of female and male teachers in every stage (Gorgadze, 2016) Figure 1: redistribution of schoolteachers per sex and education stage 91.5% 82.0% 8.5% PRIMARY SCHOOL STAGE (I_VI) 86.0% 79.2% 18.0% BASIC SCHOOL STAGE (VII-IX) 20.8% 14.0% SECONDARY SCHOOL AVERAGE FOR ALL STAGE (X-XII) STAGES Female Male In school level, teachers’ distribution per males and females in school administration positions also indicates a vertical segregation. The vast majority of teachers in Georgia are women, while senior school administration positions are predominantly held by men (UNDP, 2019). According to the Ministry of Education, science, sport and culture out of 2057 public school directors, 1265 (61.5%) are the females and 792 (38.5%) - males. The Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 proportion of the directors varied by the regions while in Kvemo Kartli and Adjara the share of male directors is higher than that of females (MoES, 2019) which can conceivably impacted by the ethnic and religious background and subsequent cultural perceptions of the population. Even though, the proportion of the female and male directors generally does not reflect the proportion existing in the teachers’ cadres and thus talks about the advantage of male candidates over female for the administrative positions in the school system. As a conclusion we may say that the statistics and role redistribution give us a basis to presume that even in such “feminine” sphere as education and more specifically – secondary education, the horizontal and vertical segregations are common (Gorgadze, 2016). Subsection 1.5.2. Preparedness of the administration for gender sensitive instruction schoolteachers and By the order of the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia 40 / N, in 2016 the National Curriculum for the 2018-2024 academic year was approved. This is a third edition of a national curriculum that has been developed since 2004 which is a beginning of comprehensive reforms in Georgian following the “Rose Revolution”. The curriculum for the primary grades from 1st to 6th was issues and approved in 2018, and for the grade 7th in 2019. According to the plan, in every next year the next upper grade curriculum will be adopted in the schools and the corresponding textbooks approved. The new national curriculum aims at the achievement of national education goals through development of core knowledge and competences among the students integrating crosscutting competences and pointing out the prioritized topics that include protection of cultural heritage; protection of environment, healthy lifestyle; civil safety; conflict management; financial literacy, cultural diversity. Gender equality principles are discussed in different subject matters of the curriculum and are covered at all school education stage from the primary to secondary. These subjects include social subject matters, (“I and Society” in the primary grades, civil education in grades VIIIX, biology in grade VIII and sports). The gender discussion is introduced from the perspectives of gender social roles and equality, human rights and democratic development, early marriage and discriminative practices, reproductive health (UNDP, 2019). There are still several concerns related to the mainstream of the gender responsive curriculum in the schools, which are related to: a. Readiness of teachers for proper interpretation, analysis and synthesis of curriculum in the classroom interaction; b. Appropriateness of approved textbooks as a main resource for school education; Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 c. Ability of the school to integrate the curriculum into the school practices using interdisciplinary approaches, mainstreaming it in practical work for an achievement of those goals, which are described in the curriculum. Those include crosscutting competences and prioritised topics of direct education and extracurricular interventions. a. The readiness of teachers for proper interpretation, analysis and synthesis of curriculum in classroom interaction; Teacher profession is state-regulated profession whose professional knowledge, skills and appropriate qualifications are determined by the Professional Standard for Teachers (Low on General Education, Article 21.2). Teachers Professional Standard, the part of general statements defines those competences that all teachers regardless of their subject orientation or professional seniority should demonstrate. More specifically, the chapter 3, paragraph four states: The professional characteristics include: g. Sharing the values of inclusive education and adhering to its principles d. Recognizing the uniqueness of each student and having the expectation of success of any student e. Focus on the cognitive as well as personal development of each student v. Development of a curriculum that takes into account the age and gender characteristics of students, their ability, interests and needs, existing material resources; g. Understanding the importance and responsibility of own profession towards the sustainable development of civil society and the state; Adherence to the principles of democracy and equality; d. Sharing the values of inclusive education and adhering to its principles e. Recognizing the uniqueness of each student and having the expectation of success of any student; v. Focus on the cognitive as well as personal development of each student z. Development of a curriculum that takes into account the age and gender characteristics of the students, their ability, interests and needs, existing material resources; Adherence to safety rules; The Teachers Code of Conduct also defines the teacher’s accountability towards the gender particularities while the 11th clause of the fourth paragraph in “Relationship with students” clearly articulates the requirement for the teacher to show equal attention to all students despite of their sex. Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 It means though that the teachers should be equipped with the high competences and thorough knowledge of the various teaching principles in order to meet the professional characteristics and to be capable for implementation of the national curriculum. While the knowledge can be builton the positive practices, there is very limited empirical evidences about the gender gap and gender equality importance in the country representing in academic studies and research. The system lacks methodological resources and evidence-based experiences. The insufficiency of the academic research resonates with the inconsiderable attention to the practical mainstream and positioning of gender in the whole system. The teacher professional development programs are mostly implemented or coordinated by the National Centre for Teachers Professional Development (TPDC). As of 2016, TPDC had about 300 existing training modules that ensure continuous professional development of teachers, oriented on diverse training programs. These included long-term trainingcourses oriented on knowledge acquisition and development of skills in a specific direction and short-term subject programs that would help teachers to systematize their professional knowledge. Also, the teachers had an opportunity, referring from their own views, took and free of charge attended the program that would to be better adjusted to their professional needs and enabled them to go through the effective professional development. According to the statement of TPDC, the subject of each training program of the TPDC is based on the analysis of the teacher’s standard, national curriculum and teacher’s needs. In 2016 in response to the inquiry3 about the teacher professional development trainings that include gender aspects, TPDC cited the program “problem based instruction” for the teachers of geography where the demography, pronatalistic and antinatalistic demographic policy and their relevance were discussed. In the same period, the teachers of geography were targeted through two master classes called: “Gender as global problem” which aimed at the sensitization of teachers on gender as terminology and concept and awareness raising about the gender equality dimensions comparing the profiles of different countries. According to the centre the courses for teachers of civil education “directions and components of civil education” also included the topics of gender as a part of the teachers competence framework where gender was discussed in light of human rights and civics teachers competences. The gender was represented as one of the essential competences in relation to the strategies against the discrimination. While recognising the culture of democracy and human rights as the learning topics supported by social unity and inter-cultural dialogue, protection of the values such as human rights, supremacy of law, democracy, 3 Letter from the TPDC on an inquiry about the teacher professional development programs received on Apr. 3.2016 Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 violence free environment, ethnic diversity and equality, including gender equality, in 2018, TPDC has initiated a new program “Supporting Democratic Culture and Human Rights Education”. Main goal of the program was to support democracy culture and human rights learning at general education facilities through elaboration and introduction of the training program module for teachers. Worth noting is that the program didn’t target the civics teachers solely but aimed at the awareness raising of all schoolteachers and other individuals engaged in education processes on democratic culture and human rights. The program consisted of multiple elements including elaboration of subsequent materials and supporting of the meetings and conferences. In the scope of the program it was planned to elaborate training module for teachers in democracy culture and human rights; organize studies, meetings and conferences; elaborate supportive materials (guidelines/handbooks/films and etc.) (UNDP 2019). However, the data about these interventions is not available publically. In the same period, the TPDC introduced the training program in “Bullying Prevention in Schools and a Culture of Tolerance Development” which targeted 600+ teachers of civil education. The training was underlining the topics of violence including stigma and stereotype mind-set on violence and bullying. Another program encouraging females’ engagement in technology, elimination of stereotypes and reducing of inequalities was launched by the UN Women. The training begun in March of 2019 and tackled young females in Western part of Georgia (Ibid). The initiatives are doubtlessly planned with the purpose to develop of positive attitudes towards the gender equality and combat reproduction of stereotypes among the students; nonetheless, these interventions: 1. Did not contain teaching methodology as a training component and outcome. 2. Alternatively, the trainings targeted only teachers of certain subjects while gender is seen as part of the particular subject content. 3. All trainings were focused on the particular topics of violence, stigma, bulling, reproductive health, e.g. that resonate with the main statements of social and political character highlighted in the international and national documents and did not challenge teachers to make parallels and clues between the training topics and their real instruction. 4. Moreover, all trainings listed above were mainly of informational character and were less oriented on integration of gender in teaching, demonstration of instructional approaches, critical questioning of the subject content, self-reflection and drive for the teacher action research about the gender roles and participation in the classroom. Consequently, gender related topics remain beyond the educational practices, and hence, are not integrated into the implementation process of curriculum in the classrooms. Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 2. Appropriateness of licenced textbooks as the main resource for school education In the period of Soviet Union, the education system was centralized and standartazed (Zajda 2010; Tabatadze and Gorgadze 2017). After the Soviet Union collapsed, Due to the economic hardships and political instability, Georgia has struggled for many years to implement an independent educational policy. School curriculum and textbook reform began in 2004. Up to today, three waves of the curriculum has been implemented. The first wave, in 2004-2005, involved development of a national secondary education curriculum and its implementation. Private publishing houses developed the school textbooks and the MoES inspected the quality against the authorization criteria (Tabatadze 2010). The publishing houses begun promoting their textbooks and competing for the free market as the public schools could choose the prioritised textbooks from those approved by the ministry (Tabatadze, Gorgadze, Gabunia and Tinikashvili 2020). The second wave of the reform began in 2011. The National Curriculum was developed and approved for the period of 2011-2016. Concerning the textbook approval rule, one of the important articles claiming: “Contents, design or any other sign [that] covers discriminative elements (language, nationality, ethnical and social belonging, etc. must be a subject for rejection of the approval of the book.” – was detached. Therefore, the textbooks that were published in the period of the second wave curriculum have not been examined against the criteria of discriminative elements. The negative effect of the change was identified in the analysis of ten textbooks of social sciences (History and Civil Education, grades VII-IX) (Khomeriki, Javakhisvhili, Abramishvili, 2012). One year later, 17 randomly selected textbooks of grades I-VI were analysed against the intercultural sensitivity. The analysis covered every subject taught in primary school and represented every publishing house that received licence from the Ministry in 2013 (Tabatadze and Gorgadze 2013). The analysis revealed qualitative and quantitative misbalance of gender representation in illustrations and content in every textbook. Beyond of quantitative superiority of males, the misbalance, stereotyping and prejudice were revealed in regards of social roles, activeness, and representation of gender. For instance, the math textbook in arithmetic problems often described the situations where the older women (mothers, grandmothers) are cooking, eating cakes or suing while younger females are going to the cinema. Males are purchasing textbook for their children, are learning foreign language, calculating, sketching house model, going to the business trip. The males earning considerably exceed that of females. Boys unlike girls are doing sport including football, athletics, basketball. The math problems, quizzes or illustrations that depict girls and boys in joint activities are to be found rarely. In the textbooks of history (My Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 Motherland), the males outnumber females three times representing kings, heroes or scientists and they fight, govern, invent and discover. The females are wives, queens delivering the grown prince, amateur artists or organizers of a receipt for the high society. In the textbooks of mother tongue the authors of the texts are predominantly males; heroes of the texts are also males very often the historical figures. The men are cited as “Father of Georgia”, “Kind of Georgia without a crown”, “mountainous eagle” who are described with the adjectives: “thinker”, “genius”, “excellent story-teller”, “wise”, “cordial”, “polite”, “fair”, “kind”, “influential”, “energetic”, “eloquent”. The infrequently representing women are described as “beautiful”, “modest”, “caring”, good mothers and faithful wives. (Khomeriki, Javakhisvhili, Abramishvili 2012, Tabatadze and Gorgadze 2013) The findings of research studies of 2012 and 2013 were taken into consideration by Ministry of Education resulted in an amendment of the textbook approval rule of the third wave of the curriculum. The positive changes were reflected in the criteria for: 1. balanced gender representation in the school textbooks; 2. content ensuring gender equality in the textbooks of social sciences; 3. The publishing houses received guideline from MoES to consider gender issues while preparing school textbooks (Tabatadze, Gorgadze, Gabunia and Tinikashvili 2020) While the textbooks of primary grades and grade 7 are already approved and published in 2018-2019, we do not analyse those in this paper. Keeping in mind that the textbooks may have an impact on students’ gender socialisation, perception and mind-set formation years later, there is little hope that the positive outcomes are observed within the next couple of years even if the publishing houses are diligently adhered to the amended criteria of the textbook approval. Knowing that school society, including teachers, view gender equality as something imposed, rather than being real or necessary, and questioning whether teachers are capable to equip students with social and critical thinking, self-confidence and lifelong learning skills, we argue that the positive impact of the newly published textbooks even in case of their gender-sensitiveness, is not expected soon. 3. The school ability for full adoption of the curriculum in instructional practices using interdisciplinary approaches and strengthening practical work for achieving those goals, developing crosscutting competences and representing the prioritised topics in direct and extracurricular education. In the previous sections, we have discussed the professional development activities for teachers in light of gender equality. In this chapter, we represent the case-analysis of the large-scale professional development training that took place in 2016-2017 with primary focus on teachers of STEM, geography and English as a foreign language, and school directors - as leaders of the school instructional process. In 2013 the Millennium Challenge Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 Corporation (MCC), sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the Georgian Government, launched an education investment for five years. The program aimed to boost the quality and relevance of education, particularly in STEM by improving the learning environment, strengthening school directors and teacher’s professional development as well as national assessments, and developing classroom assessment system (MCA-Georgia 2017). Four weekends’ long teachers’ professional development training covered the topics of general pedagogy and subject-specific methodology. The training of the general pedagogical methods and approaches encompassed the gender equality and inclusion as one session of the training module. The training programme focused on the topics of women’s rights and gender equality, implicit and explicit gender bias in education, non-discriminatory teaching practices, gender-sensitive attitudes and non-stereotypical ways of thinking. Gender equality was discussed in view of overall inclusion and highlighted individual differences of the students and importance of student-centred approaches. Along with the theoretical frames, the session incorporated the case studies and practical exercises in gender gap analysis. The session of the training was prepared by the cooperative input of UN Women and MCA-Georgia (UNDP 2019). While the performance and impact evaluation of the program is still in progress, there are some qualitative study outputs from the 12 participant public schools. The schools were selected through stratified randomisation and thus, every type of Georgian public schools were representing in the study, including small and large, rural and urban, mountainous and remote as well as ethnic minority schools. (There are 208 schools and 83 school sectors where language of instruction is other than Georgia, state language (Gorgadze, 2020). Totally 12 interviews with school directors and 60 interviews with the trained teachers of STEM, geography and English language were organised and aimed at the overall assessment of the training modules where inclusion and gender were considered as one topic of the study. The interviews showed sharply polarised attitudes towards the training session in gender equality and inclusion where the helpfulness and practicality of the training session were questioned on the one hand and highly praised on the other. Small part of the training participant teachers stressed the useless and irrelevance of the training session and restated their opinion about the gender discrimination and gap as an imposed topics. This part of the teachers “felt assaulted” by the presentation of the topics inasmuch as they believe in own objectivity and unbiased instruction practices and see the gender disaggregation for an inappropriate practice for the school environment. “It [gender equality and inclusion session of the training] was the least interesting and useful session of the whole training…” Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 “I was close to leave this training when this session had begun…” “We encounter so many real challenges during the classroom instruction that this artificially, imposed topics sound as mocking” “We do not have cases of unfear treatment of students based on gender. How can I change my pedagogy and claiming equality for girls when they are even more active in the classroom?” I treat all students equally don’t notice their sex.” Another type of perception connects the gender role to the physiological and mental disposals and stresses these differences while ignoring social patterns. This type of attitude is based on the students’ sexrelated distinctions, which does not recognise the need for different approaches. “Ok, I try to give to the students the same assignments and have the same expectations from every student. Nevertheless, do you know what? The boy comes to the whiteboard and solves the math problem so easily and logically as would never do the girl.” “It seems so imposed and artificial to make the girls the hammer in a nails and to ask boys to clear up the classroom” The interviews revealed many positive changes yet. The good practices are obvious among many teachers and directors. According to larger community of teachers, they have never reflected on their teaching practices from the gender perspectives before. In their interviews, they acknowledged that the training has changed their approaches to teaching. They admitted that they used to have the arbitrary expectations based on gender and dissimilar vision of the potential of girls and boys. The teachers shared their strategy of self-control and meta-cognitive approaches gained during the training in order to provide non-discriminatory, equitable and student-oriented instruction. “I am still ashamed because of my past practices. I was always sure that math and physics are the subjects where boys perform better due to their better mental abilities. Now I really control my feedback and try to encourage girls exactly so as I do it towards the boys”. Apart of the reflection on gender roles and equality, the informants carried out practical interventions focused on strengthening of positive perceptions about the gender equality among the students. These include informational sessions about the female-scientists and inventors and discussions about their contribution to human development. “I asked the students to search for the work of women-invertors and represent their work at the next lesson. I was positively surprised to see how many females contributed to the technological development. The students were Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 also excited to explore their names. What should we do without their inventions?” “I decided to organize the special stand with the photographs and biographies of famous women scientists and inventors. The stand includes the detailed description of their work too. In this way, I try to challenge girls to focus on science and math. There are so many outstanding female scientists in the field of technology, engineering, science, math and architecture. Here, in Georgia we do not have discussions about them”. To conclude, the study showed potentially important impact of the inclusion of the gender topics in the pedagogy and professional training. Even if this data cannot generalised, it emphasizes an importance of continues evidence-based approaches through training in gender equality pedagogy. The interviews show that teachers lack information about the gender pedagogy and are not equipped with the necessary skills for practical realisation of positive approaches and this hinders their ability to reshape own and students’ mind-set, reflect on and mainstream gender-sensitive instruction in the classroom. This means though that the teachers training should embrace gender equality as a crosscutting pedagogical competence, as a curriculum topic and instructional approach. In the final section, we present a general review of higher education structure in Georgia and connect this with the pre-service training programs for the future generation of teachers as well as shows general awareness of the society for gender equality. Section 1.6 Higher education in the perspective of gender At higher education level, the number of female and male students is almost the same. According to the statistics, compared to 2008/2009 year, in 2018/2019 the redistribution of the students in private secondary schools and higher education institutions has increased for both sex. The increase demand for private higher educational institutions amounted to 58%, and that of male students exceeded 137% (Geostat 2019). This point out the increasing demand to private education generally as to the education of better quality. Nonetheless, the increased redistribution of females and male in the private universities presumably indicates that parents in Georgia try more to put investment in the education of boys rather than in girls. According to population survey (ACT, 2013) 72% of the inquired assume that “University education is not more important for males than for females, however 26% considers that men need more the higher education”. The same survey says that if the parents have both - son and daughter and financial opportunity to pay for the university education of only one child, 44% would pay for the son Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 and 22% would prefer to pay for the daughter. UNDP report of 2019 on Gender Equality in Georgia, found more than one study that showed if parents could not afford to educate all their children, they preferred to send their sons to pursue tertiary education (UNDP 2019) As mentioned, the women outnumber men at every degree of university education. For comparison: in the European Union countries, male with researcher’s qualification are 52,1% of the total number (SHE, 2018). Number of women with PhD degree in Georgia is higher than the average for the European country indicator. The number of doctoral graduates in Georgia is suggestively higher for females than for males too. Table 3. Data on PhD admission and graduation4 2014 2016 2017 2018 Admission for (2014-2018) Female (number, %) 614 51% 673 52% 747 54% 556 50% doctoral degree Doctoral graduates in (20142018) Male (Number, Female Male %) (number, %) (Number, %) 589 49% 216 62% 133 38% 632 48% 260 55% 209 45% 629 46% 249 58% 178 42% 550 50% 295 61% 190 39% As the highest stage of higher education – PhD opens ways to academic activities, logically, women should represent the majority in higher education and scientific institutions, though the below given table reflecting the statistics of professor-lecturers, clearly outlines vertical segregation even at the higher education institutions; redistribution of the major personnel by sex is characterized with sound quantitative advantage for females. However, if we discuss academic staff by academic positions, we will notice that share of male full professors exceeds that of females both in public and private universities. Positions of the associated professor, assistant professor and lecturer are more occupied by females and representativeness increases as we move from higher to the lowest academic positions. Table 4: Professors in higher educational institutions in 2017/20185 Percent Sex distribution Women Men 19 31 Women Men Main staff Professor 4 5 National Statistics Office of Georgia, census 2014-2019 Ibid 54 46 Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 Associate professor 48 44 42 58 Assistant professor 16 12 56 44 12 4 100 4 448 9 4 100 3 783 62 63 54 38 37 46 Professor 7 11 49 51 Associate professor 3 3 64 36 Assistant professor 0 1 52 48 Teacher 66 58 65 35 Others 24 27 59 41 Total percent 100 100 62 38 Number 5 882 3 636 Teacher Others Total percent Number Contracts National Statistics Office, data on higher education institutions, 2019 As for the invited personnel, total number of females also noticeably exceeds that of the males. Actually, this redistribution is conditioned by big number of female teachers/lecturers, which is more than the number of males. Share of male full professors is still higher than that of females. Percent of the invited associated professors is higher for females but the share in academic ladder is equal for both males and females. In total, we may conclude that despite the quantitative advantage of women seeking for or having PhD degree, it is more complicated for females to reach the position of the full professor than for males. Along with the existing asymmetric distribution of academic staff, the university practices show the strong segregation of the programs by gender; where the share of males is considerably higher in the programs, which are stereotypically attributed to masculine professions. This include “hard” sciences, construction, engineering, agriculture, transport, energy, while the females are concentrating around the programs of humanitarian directions, social services and care. Worth to mention is that the programs at the university level do not have any incentives, quota or other encouraging mechanisms for attracting females to the STEM programs. The positive exception is a new program introduced by the MCC and MCA-Georgia within the education investment as a Sandwich-program of San-Diego and three national universities of Georgia Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 where the females were encouraged to choose the programs in IT, engineering, biochemistry, etc. and were offered quota. The lack of interest to the education and gender is typical for the academic space of Georgia, which is resulted in dramatically small number of the academic work including articles, thesis or dissertation focused on gender in education. As mentioned earlier, the universities are preparing the new teachers’ generation for the schools through the state accredited teacher education programs. The analysis of these programs in 2016 showed deficiency of gender perspectives represented as separate courses, course topics, course approaches and interdisciplinary connections. The study-research that was carried out in 2014 and aimed at the analysis the intercultural competences among the students of teacher education programs from six public universities, has shown that the students have stereotypical attitudes regarding the gender roles. In this research, gender was studied as one of the sources of cultural identity. According to the study, 4.83% of the surveyed students showed stages of defence, more than 56% are on the stage of minimization, while only 37%% showed the stage of acceptance and 1.7% stage of adoption/integration in the Development Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), (Cushner, McClelland, & Safford, 2012, p.155)) towards the gender (Tabatadze and Gorgadze, 2014a). Conclusions This paper is an attempt of consolidated review of the Georgian education policy and practice in light of gender equality. While realising an importance of detailed and careful analysis of those component and aspects connected with the gender in education, we tried to show the deficiency of links between the declared policy and real practice, and underline the underestimation of the gender sensitive education policy in sustainable development of the country. As the paper shows, the narrative of the gender in education policy still lacks functional practices of gender inclusion in the education agenda. Therefore, we are inclined to assume that gender is not an integral part of education system and has more formal, declarative appeal rather than conceptualised vision of the education strategy and action plan for gender equality. Since the gender equality in education is yet analysed in qualitative dimensions, there is essential to boost the gender socialization research and analysis and learn about the education consequences that influence societal opinion and shape gender roles in the country. Winnet Centre of Excellence® Series No. 4 References ACT, UN (2013), Public Perception on Gender Equality in Politics and Business, research report, prepared by ACT within the UN joint program “Gender Equality Support in Georgia, 2013 Amsterdam, A., G and Bruner, J., 2000, Minding the Law. 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