Fairy Tale Genderology - TC for youth workers held in Sokobanja, Serbia

Participants from 6 organizations from 6 different countries - Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy and Serbia took part in the Training Course held in Sokobanja, Serbia from April 8th to 18th, hosted by Urban Development Center, the project coordinator.

Great job has been done.

The TC lasted 10 days. Participants were very motivated and engaged in all accomplished activities and tasks.

Before the training, each national team had preparatory work, on line research about gender stereotypes with prepared questions about gender equality in their national fairy tales and task related to making up to 10 photos about gender stereotypes in their surroundings. They found and brought a chosen international fairy tale Cinderella, illustrated and published in their own country. The chosen fairy tale, an old story with a European tradition, on which participants have worked on during the training session, covered all the gender role stereotypes mostly common in their societies. Considering that it is easier for people, especially young people, to accept characters visually, it was interesting and challenging to see Cinderella in an international context.

During 10 working days, with assistance of two experienced trainers from Serbia, each participant was highly motivated and inspired to develop new methodology - Fairy Tale Genderology, as an innovative technique in youth work for gender oriented reading. Passing through all methodology phases, starting from analysis and synthesis, later deconstruction and construction of a new stories, the youth workers gained skills, competences and knowledge necessary for their future work with youth covering gender issues and other questions related to the topic. By finishing training course, participants are inevitably able to actively take part in development of innovative methods in work with youth, including those with fewer opportunities; respond to problems in gender reading with use of Fairy Tale Genderology; express analytical and critical thinking on the topic of EU citizenship; critically evaluate methods in learning and explore interculturality in European activities; work individually and in teams; understand and formulate problems and solve these problems using the innovative approach and technique. Development of training objectives, outputs and contents will be exceptional materials for creation of Toolkit - Fairy Tale Genderology, prospective guidebook for youth workers (current and potential) dealing with gender polices in their work with youth.

The most interesting part of training was creation of several short video gender oriented fairy tales as a result of ultimate comprehension and mastering of new methodology.