Gender education and teacher training: educational and teaching tools, implicit curricula, educational paradoxe

Abstract

Gender education is a complex process that involves not only boys and girls who are the recipients of specific educational activities, but
also, and above all, teachers, both in training and in service, who are responsible for managing the complexity of social inputs that, in
explicit and implicit form, come from outside to those in training (Burgio, 2020), as well as consciously intervening in the relational
dynamics between the various actors. However, in order for this objective to be fully achieved, it appears necessary to design training
courses for teachers who are capable of acting with a view to deconstructing stereotypes and normative representations, which are unconsciously
enacted in everyday school life, and of recognising and counteracting the “implicit curriculum” that often perpetuates hierarchical
models (Muscarà, Romano, Giannone, 2025).
Starting from this premise, this contribution aims to reflect on the centrality of teachers' critical subjectivation – with regard to gender
– as a prerequisite for transformative educational intervention. More specifically, it will describe 1) developments in the Italian educational
landscape in relation to gender pedagogy; 2) the experience of university courses in gender pedagogy in Italy (based on the experience
gained at the Kore University of Enna, in the degree course in Primary Education Sciences); 3) the complex work focused on
education on differences, which characterises the laboratory area and the courses offered in the fifth year of the degree programme; 4)
actions related to the initial training of teachers (TFA, 60/30 credit training courses). These will be treated as 'case studies' (through
educational autoethnography) and training actions implemented at the University of Enna, which aim to provide future teachers with
educational and teaching tools capable of making gender asymmetries visible and transformable, while at the same time promoting
identity pluralism, with the conviction that schools can and must truly act as a driving force for change in society.