Cedos, together with Södertörn University (Stockholm, Sweden), is working on the project “Strengthening Educators’ Capacity to Promote Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Ukrainian Schools” with the support of the Swedish Institute. The Swedish Institute is a public agency that supports cooperation between Swedish and Ukrainian organisations, including initiatives and projects that contribute to Ukraine’s reconstruction and European integration.

Ukraine has been actively introducing inclusive and gender-sensitive approaches in education. At the same time, there is still a gap between how these approaches are reflected in policies and how they are implemented in practice. In particular, the understanding of how teachers interpret gender equality and social inclusion is limited. As a result, teacher education programmes may not fully respond to educators’ needs.

The project aims to identify these gaps and help address them. Its primary goal is to develop a research methodology focused on gender equality and social inclusion in teacher education in Ukraine. The project also facilitates knowledge exchange between Ukraine and Sweden.

Today, Ukrainian education is going through extremely difficult times: schools must continue teaching despite the challenges of the full-scale war. In the future, the education system will also need to support children who lived and studied in temporarily occupied territories during the war, as well as children abducted by Russia, in accessing Ukrainian education. At the same time, education reform is ongoing. This places significant pressure on teachers, students, school administrations, and children’s parents and guardians. In such circumstances, gender-sensitive and inclusive education may seem less urgent. However, meaningful and lasting change requires a comprehensive approach.

Viktoriia Odusanvo, Cedos analyst, project manager