The “Gender Equality in Education Award Ceremony” was organized within the Purple Certificate Program supported by the Sabancı Foundation and carried out by Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender).
The “Purple Certificate Program Gender Equality in Education Award Ceremony”, organized by Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) for the third time this year, was held online on November 23. Within the scope of the Purple Certificate Program, 4 projects in 3 categories received awards in the Gender Equality in Education Awards designed to share, support and disseminate the work developed and implemented by teachers and teacher candidates in the field of gender equality. As a result of the evaluation made by the jury, the project “Letter to the Woman Who Grew Hope” by Selda Özgür Aslan from Hatay was found deserving of the “İpek Gürkaynak Creative Pedagogy Award”, the project “Genderless Dictionary” by Meriç Dönmez and Burçin Özkan from Denizli, and the project “Village Reality from a Gender Perspective: Analysis of the novel Nine Months in Katuna” by Emre Şeker from Istanbul were found deserving of the “Egalitarian Practices Award”. The project “EduGender” by Merve Sarılı Kaya from Istanbul was found deserving of the “Purple Seed - Egalitarian Ideas Award”.
The opening speeches of the award ceremony, which was held online, were made by SU Gender Director Zeynep Gülru Göker and Sabancı Foundation Grant Programs Coordinator Hazal Günel. Zeynep Gülru Göker stated that the Purple Certificate Program has developed since its establishment in line with the program's objectives and together with the growing stakeholder network, based on the needs of teachers, and said that the aim of the award program is to make visible the work done in this field that sets a good example, to ensure its dissemination, and to encourage cooperation among teachers. Göker also shared information about the evaluation criteria of the applications and the jury's evaluation process. She concluded her speech by touching on the importance of educators who contribute to the award and project creation process by taking individual responsibility and showing care, and who work to create inclusive classroom environments and raise students who respect human dignity.
In her speech on behalf of the Sabancı Foundation, Sabancı Foundation Grant Programs Coordinator Hazal Günel emphasized that gender equality is a fundamental requirement for ending discrimination and inequality against women and girls, and spoke about the importance and impact of the Purple Certificate Program's long-term work in this field. Günel provided information about the Purple Certificate Program's response to changing needs and concluded her speech by touching on the role of the Sabancı Foundation and Sabancı University in these efforts.
Following the opening speeches, Ayça Günaydın Kaymakçıoğlu took the floor and drew attention to the phenomenon of gender in educational materials. In her presentation, Kaymakçıoğlu provided a comprehensive perspective on the history of studies on gender in education and talked about academic studies conducted in this field. Later, she presented the findings of the THEMIS project, which was carried out in five different countries with an international partnership and addressed gender approaches in English language textbooks, and concluded her presentation by mentioning that although many improvements have been made in educational materials from the past to the present, there are still many issues that need to be solved and developed.
In the second part of the program, the panel entitled “From Dream to Reality: Steps Towards Gender Equality in Education” was held, moderated by SU Gender Education Coordinator Gökçesu Özgül and Berna Diblen, who is also a teacher with a ‘Purple Certificate’ and also the winner of the 2022 İpek Gürkaynak Creative Pedagogy Award. In the panel, the award-winning teachers presented their projects and spoke on many topics from the aims of the projects to their impacts within the framework of various questions asked by the moderators.
13 applications from 8 cities were evaluated
The Purple Certificate Program Gender Equality Award is designed for teachers and teacher candidates who have received certifications to date within the scope of the Purple Certificate Program carried out by SU Gender and supported by the Sabancı Foundation and who have taken part in the Purple File studies. Projects are evaluated in three different categories within the scope of the award program for Purple Certificate teachers and teacher candidates who promote gender equality in their classes and schools and work in this direction. The “Creative Pedagogy Award”, given in the name of İpek Gürkaynak, who has contributed to the Purple Certificate Program since its establishment with her pioneering work in the fields of human rights and education, supports studies that bring non-violent and rights-based pedagogy practices together with the field of gender equality. The “Gender Equality Award” is given to studies that promote gender equality and have been implemented at least once. Project designs that have not yet been implemented and show high potential for achieving gender equality in education are evaluated within the scope of the “Purple Seed- Egalitarian Ideas Award”. Applications are evaluated based on criteria such as contributing to the development of gender equality, sustainability, measurability of impact, and innovation. Within the scope of the program, 13 applications submitted by teachers working in 8 cities were evaluated.
Projects that won awards in 2024:
İpek Gürkaynak Creative Pedagogy Award – Selda Özgür Aslan
Working with her teacher friend Yasemin Ertaş for the project, Selda aimed to instill hope in high school students in Hatay after the February 6 earthquakes and support their well-being. Inspired by the stories and successes of successful women from the past to the present, teachers who wanted their students to dream of a hopeful future opened up spaces for students to express their feelings. The project, which allowed students to conduct research to uncover women’s stories, write letters to these women, and produce outputs by working in groups, continued for approximately 5 months in a total of 7 schools with the founding partnership of Turkey and Romania.
Egalitarian Practices Award – Meriç Dönmez and Burçin Özkan
For the project, students were expected to notice discriminatory and sexist words in textbooks and discover their place in our lives, collect these words in a pool, hold discussions on sexist words, and create a dictionary with alternative definitions. Teachers Meriç Dönmez and Burçin Özkan encouraged the use of more inclusive words instead of words that contain gender discrimination and inequality in the language, and in this way aimed to transform students' perspectives.
Egalitarian Practices Award – Emre Şeker
Teacher Emre Şeker aimed to question normalized gender roles in terms of gender equality in the context of Osman Şahin's novel "Nine Months in Katuna" focusing on the novel's plot through archetypes and created a series of lesson plans in which he meticulously worked out each step. In this context, Emre, a teacher who evaluated sexist attitudes, approaches, and behaviors in society through the characters in the novel with his students and combined the topics discussed in the novel with daily life events, provided his students with the opportunity to examine the text from a critical perspective.
Purple Seed Award – Merve Sarılı Kaya
Teacher Merve Sarılı Kaya, together with 9 friends from her teacher network, wanted to develop an easy and useful resource that would help teachers check whether the materials they use in the classroom are in line with gender equality. In this context, the aim was to prepare a checklist that would make it easier for teachers to evaluate their content in terms of inclusiveness and equality when preparing lesson plans, course content, presentations, brochures, and similar materials.