Homo'poly
Start date: Sep 1, 2016,
End date: Aug 31, 2019
PROJECT
FINISHED
Homo'poly seeks to promote understanding and acceptance of diversity, especially homosexuality.Because sustained gender specific inequalities in education and upbringing have been exposed in numerous studies, national and international organizations are looking for approaches to complement their co-educational infrastructure for the specific needs of both genders, to fight discrimination and to promote tolerance towards diversity in life styles in general.The newest LGBT survey ‘European Union lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender survey’ shows the actuality of the topic. In March 2016 a resolution of the European Parliament was published. This resolution request, from the European Union, sought for equality and against discrimination of LGBTI- people: “In a key report (…) on Gender mainstreaming in the work of the European Parliament, the European Parliament made a strong call to include ‘the rights, perspectives and well-being of LGBTIQ people’ in all gender mainstreaming activities.”The relevance and challenges of these issues are evident on different levels: nationwide controversy about the incorporation of the topic of homosexuality into school curricula, the controversial discussion about the implementation of gay marriage, homophobic attacks and bullying (particularly at a young age), the outing of and dealing with homosexual migrants, homophobic behavior in sport, homophobic legislation of LGBTI-people in Russia and likewise many African countries, with images published and distributed by the mass media helping fuel it further.The aim of this project is to make a contribution towards better understanding homosexuality. This is true equally for the areas of tertiary as well as secondary education. Taking a cross-sectoral approach, cooperation between eight countries is proposed for the project, with one university and one secondary school participating from each country respectively. The project thus addresses students and lecturers at teaching colleges and universities, teachers in secondary education and students at secondary schools. Greater understanding is hoped to be achieved through resources which will be created by the project team and then implemented, tested and evaluated within the relevant institutions.A comprehensive assessment and a comparative study is to be published, including images related to homosexuality in the participating countries, and the mission, aims and content of gender-appropriate behaviors in schools (for example: the topic of homosexuality in the training of teachers, in curricula and teaching resources for secondary schools) and of complementing non-school initiatives in other educational institutions. A curriculum module ‘Gender & Homosexuality’, covering general diversity of lifestyles, sexual identities, the question of coming-out and sexual well-being, is to be established across target groups and will form the basis of a school project over a period of several days. In addition, curriculum module ‘Migration & Homosexuality’ taking into account the problematic situation of refugees in Europe will be developed. Implementation and evaluation is planned to take place in all participating secondary schools in the third year of the project.During the project a Knowlegde-Portal will be created. All developed resources will be integrated in this portal. An e-learning-portal, the project website, a news-portal etc. will be part of the Knowlegde-Portal.A conference during the third year will bring the project to a conclusion. The resources will continue to be available (indefinitely and without limitation); through the development of applications thus their transparent dissemination is ensured far beyond the duration of the project itself.The project intends to make an active contribution towards establishing intercultural dialogue towards gender equality, and, last but not least, acceptance and better understanding of homosexuality. Apart from its comprehensive geographical reach across the diverse historic backgrounds of the partner countries, the project is enriched especially by our Turkish partner. Cultural differences in the ‘West’ are manifest also in gender-specific education and upbringing, in gender-specific interactions and attitudes towards tolerance, diversity, and homosexuality. The participating countries from Eastern Europe will further enrich the project outcomes and activities as their traditions and specific experiences, too, are analyzed and incorporated into our project.