Conferences
“Values in Education across Boundaries - Teaching Democratic Values for a Sustainable Society”, Umeå 28.-29. October 2003.
Vappu Sunnari and Mervi Heikkinen participated in the 2 nd international conference “Values in Education across Boundaries” organised for and by researchers and school actors in Umeå , Sweden . The aim of the conference was to illuminate issues regarding education, ethics, citizenship, deliberation and social and cultural diversity, as well as the potential conflicts that challenge sustainable development in democratic societies. Vappu Sunnari had a presentation “Heterosexualised peer relations and sexual harassment as a form of violence in primary schools of the nortnern peripheries in Finland ” in the conference . The discussions in the conference grounded the writing of the Aware II study material on sexual harassment by Vappu Sunnari and Mervi Heikkinen. The aims of participation was also networking and making the Aware II –project and its themes visible. Mervi Heikkinen presented the project in the 10 th anniversary event of Femina Borealis network that was organised together with the conference.
“Naistutkimuspäivät 2003”, Rovaniemi 14.-15. November 2003
Vappu Sunnari participated in the national conference ”Naistutkimuksen päivät” in Rovaniemi, Finland. Vappu Sunnari's presentation “Pohjoisen maaseudun tyttönä koulun tiloissa” dealed with the theme “as rural girl from north in school setting”. The issues of the conference were the traditional and basic themes of feminist reseach of knowing, emotions and experience. The aim of participation was to make the Aware II –project and its themes visible.
“Kasvatustieteen päivät 2003”, Helsinki 20.-21. November 2003. Publicity and training project
The Aware II –project was presented by Mervi Heikkinen, the project secretary of the first Aware project, in the annual conference on education sciences organised by the Finnish Educational Research Association, FERA and the University of Helsinki, Department of Education on November 20th – 21st, 2003. The themes of the conference were cultures, difference and encounters.
The poster of the Aware II –project was published in the electronic publication “Kulttuurit, erilaisuus ja kohtaamiset. Kasvatustieteen päivien 2003 julkaisu” Reetta Mietola and Helena Outinen (eds.) in pages 552-553. The poster is available at http://www.helsinki.fi/ktl/julkaisut/ktp-2003/osa5.pdf in pages 91-92.
“Multiple Marginalities: Gender and education in the global, local and transnational world “
Helsinki 2.-4. June 2004Gender and Education Conference was organised in Helsinki, Finland on June 2 nd – 4th, 2004 by EDDI (Education and Difference researchers in Finland), in association with the Gender and Education Association, Department of Education, Department of Sociology, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finnish Youth Research Network and Christina Institute for Women's Studies. Eija Alaraasakka, Anu Kangas and Niina Kuorikoski participated in the conference. The presentation of the team in Oulu, “Aware 2 -course on gendered and sexualised violence from the point of view of inclusion and exclusion” dealed with inclusion and exclusion in gender perspective and as connected with sexualised and gendered violence and with non-sexist pedagogy.
Conference on Higher Education and Research in the Barents Region
Tromsø 11.-13. June 2004Eija Alaraasakka and Anu Kangas from the Aware II -team in Oulu participated in the international conference in Tromsø, Norway between June 11th – 13th, 2004. The conference was initiated by the Barents Euro-Arctic Regional Council to develop a strategy and action plan for future co-operation within the Barents region. In parallel, it was planned that a number of pilot initiatives would be undertaken and successful pilot initiatives given priority in the next phase of Barents co-operation.
The Aware II –project was presented in the conference in two tracks: Track C Social Work and Track F Distance Learning/E-learning/intercultural education. Also suggestions for the projects and networks to be developed under Barents 2010 was made by Alaraasakka and Kangas in the conference. The aim in participating in the conference was to inform other people working in the field of education and research in the Barents region about the Aware II –project, its' results and our future plans as well as to create new networks and co-operation projects in the future. Our suggestion to produce and implement a vitual course on the challenges of globalisation was actually chosen for on of the projects that Barents 2010 -organisation supports.
The course
There were 17 course participants in the course in Finland and 5 course participants in the German course that completed the course or parts of the course successfully. 15 persons in Finland and 7 persons in Germany either enrolled in or started the course but did not complete it. The course participants achieved 42 ECTSs in total during the courses.
Since it is recommended that there are no more than 20 students in online course and since studying in web is new in Germany , we think that we have achieved our goals in Finland and in Germany successfully.
Evaluation
The project was evaluated by the project partners, training organisations, mentors, students, and by the team in Oulu.
• The course evaluation form aimed at course participants was created in the University of Oulu. There were 16 students in total that filled in the evaluation form in Optima or by e-mail.
• There was a project evaluation form available in Optima for the partners who wrote module text(s) to the course. Five partners completed the evaluation form.
• Each mentor filled in the evaluation form aimed at course mentors. Also the representative of the partner training organisation Therapeutische-Frauenberatung evaluated the project on its behalf.
In the project evalution form the project partners were asked to evaluate planning and training seminars, processes and results of developing learning material to the course, partnership in the project and dissemination of results. The training organisation evaluated course preparations, mentoring in the course, course practices, future interest in the course in area and, in case of Therapeutische-Frauenberatung, cooperation with the coordinating organisation ( University of Oulu ). The course participants evaluated their personal achievements in the course, course content, presentation and language of the course material, course activities, discussions and final work, work load of the course, Optima as learning environment and mentoring in the course.
Evaluation by the partners
According to the partners' evaluation results, we succeeded among us to disseminate and use good practices of preventing violence and supporting and protecting children, youth and women in the level of society in the following ways:
• “The course gives ideas and thoughts and maybe active the participants to be more sensitive to the issues of structural violence around gender and sexuality issues.”
• “If the students act in their occupations and life so that they know what's happening in our society (notice and try to influence to violent practices), they can give the message further.”
• “I think bringing different perspectives together is always a good soil for conversation and widening everyones' own perceptions and views.”
• “This was a very positive effort.”
Evaluation by the course participants
According to the evaluation results the students were satisfied to the course since all students who completed the evaluation felt that they achieved their goals, the course increased their awareness of the themes and the course fulfilled their expectations either perfectly, well or well enough. 69 % of the respondents agreed completely that the course activities helped them to learn and 71 % that the activities increased their awareness of the themes. 75 % of the respondents agreed completely or partly that the course activities helped them in constructing non-violence pedagogy. It seems that those students who completed the final work agreed completely or partly that final work was useful and meaningful and it helped to learn. Concerning the gender studies in Russia , the course was found very useful because the development of gender studies had just started there and enough information about the issues was not yet available.
The students gave us feedback also during the course:
• “It is nice to have more material for the texts have been really interesting!” (22.4.2004)
• “The text was really interesting, because it took a practical view of violence victims and child upbringing.” (24.4.2004)
• “Maybe if you have in the future similar courses I will try to participate with better ‘luck' and spirit. I think it is wonderful and important that teacher trainees and people in the field of education (and of course everyone else) are made aware of this theme. For me the women's studies point of view is not a new thing, but connecting it with the school world in your project is good. It is wonderful that in Oulu there are active Women's Studies researchers despite the financial scarcity. And good, that some students made it through the course! Thanks to the whole team! Have a beautiful, sunny summer!” (7.6.2004)
Updated 7.1.2005 AK