Colourful Children
The term ?power?, theoretically, has several public and private, individual and social meanings. It could be feel bad or good basing on which type of actions and consequences power produces. Here?s some connotations of ?power?: ? legal or official authority, capacity, or right ? group of people in command ? possession of control, authority, or influence over others ? actual ability to act following every one own will ? power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior ? actual liberty to take actions, choices and decisions More specifically, teachers have the possibility to take decisions thanks to their socially and juridically position (art. 33 of the Italian Constitution), and to their public and institutional role. Therefore, teachers can exercise this faculty through freedom to choose educational methodology, to organize school?s spaces, to offer specific educational activities. The concept of ?power? can effectively be expressed in preschools through the possibility to settle on rules, and to put specific attention on the context offering to all children the chance to use all materials and toys regardless of their gender. In this way teachers can promote gender equality and equal opportunities, encouraging everyone to respect other people while building their own self esteem. Teachers have the power to provide a respectful school environment educating children on a gender equality educational model. In order to do that teachers can put particular attention on language (for example using male and female nouns) and offer gender less toys and activities, providing same opportunities to all children. Settled rules must be presented in a simple but effective way in order to be easily understood by children. In this way rules gradually become part of daily schools life and they must be followed also by adults. We reflected for long time on the possibility to be truly inclusive, in particular during the planning phase of activities and projects. In order to do that we came to the awareness that being inclusive doesn?t necessarily mean ?breaking rules? but simply to include norm-breaking characters or actions as something natural. We should always ask ourselves ?Am I reflecting to all the thinkable possibilities?? In an effort to do that we can expand the range of occasions for confrontation with colleagues, exchanging points of view about our own professional roles through the assessment of our professionalism. We can also carry our work on putting even more attention on indoor and outdoor spaces, offering more playing opportunities for every children regardless of their gender and proposing natural and recycled materials (usually defined as gender less materials). Developing areas: In order to encourage sharing of ideas and points of view could be useful to define a common theme and frame for all educational activities.
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