March 2022  |  Pretoria, South Africa 

VVOB’s Gender Responsive Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education (GRP4ECE) project has created a variety of resources that can be used by teacher trainers, ECD practitioners, and teachers of young children to develop knowledge and skills to promote gender equality in early childhood development.

The material supports early childhood educators and school leaders in South Africa to become more aware of gender stereotypes and biases and to apply a gender-responsive pedagogy in five aspects: the learning environment, learning materials, learning activities, interactions, and language use in the classroom and interactions beyond the classroom.

As part of this project, VVOB in South Africa partnered with Construct Education to create the course Promoting gender equality in early childhood development in both English and isiZulu, one of South Africa’s 10 official languages and the most widely spoken home language.

This free online course, consisting of 7 modules is designed for anyone who is involved in the development or education of children aged 0-9 years. The course takes 5 to 8 hours to complete and can be accessed on VVOB’s zero-rated learning management system. Educators who have completed the course receive a certificate and can earn SACE points.

“Working with the Construct Education team on this course was a great experience,” says Hanne Huysmans, Education Advisor at VVOB. “The course is highly interactive and is greatly appreciated by early childhood teachers and practitioners in South Africa. For the VVOB team, the collaboration was a valuable learning experience, in a changing world where online and blended professional development becomes ever more important for educators.”

When Construct was asked about what it was like working on the VVOB project, Karen Hillard, Head of Delivery had this to say: “We love working with VVOB! Their mission and vision resonate strongly with our team. It’s hard not to be excited and passionate about being a part of that through the courses and materials we develop for them. ”

ABOUT VVOB
VVOB – education for development is an international non-profit organization aiming to improve the quality of education in the Global South and in Belgium, with over 35 years of experience in quality education. Through capacity development, VVOB provides support to ministries of education in Africa, Asia, and South America to improve (initial) professional development of teachers and school leaders in early childhood, primary, general secondary, and technical and vocational education. Through capacity development trajectories, VVOB in South Africa gives local partners maximal expertise and ownership in the execution and management of their own change processes. They are supported with technical assistance by our South Africa team, which includes both local and international educational and change management experts.

ABOUT CONSTRUCT EDUCATION
Construct Education designs customized hybrid and online learning experiences. We’ve digitized courses for some of the most prestigious universities and organizations in the world – from short courses to full-blown MBA programs. At Construct we work with Higher Ed and K12 institutions, companies, governments, and nonprofits to bring online programs to life – no matter the starting point, platform, time, or budget.  A common goal, to unlock opportunities for our clients through transformative learning experiences, unites our teams of instructional designers, technologists, and creatives who are located in Construct offices across the US, UK, and South Africa. Visit our services page to see how we help our non-profit clients.