ANTI-DISCRIMINATION EXPERTISE OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND TEXTBOOKS: EXPERIENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS

Abstract

The implementation of the principles of equal rights and opportunities for women and
men is one of the important conditions for constant socio-economic development, realization
of human rights and self-realization of an individual, as well as European integration of Ukraine.
The legislation of Ukraine provides that the Central Executive Authority for Education and
Science shall ensure the examination of educational programs, textbooks and manuals to
be free of stereotypical ideas about the role of women and men, aimed at the formation of
non-violent behavior patterns, sympathetic attitude towards the victims, respect for human
dignity and sexual integrity; cultivation of a culture of gender equality, mutual respect and
equal distribution of professional and family responsibilities between women and men. In
such conditions, an analysis of the experience of European countries on this issue becomes
relevant. The purpose of this article is to study the experience of the Republic of Cyprus in
developing criteria for anti-discrimination expertise of educational programs and school
textbooks. It is revealed that in the Republic of Cyprus an anti-discrimination examination
of the content of educational programs is carried out in such aspects as culture and gender,
according to the following criteria: didactic and pedagogical expediency, content, language,
structure, aesthetics, illustrative material. The hallmarks of the anti-discrimination examination
of textbooks are: non-/ realistic reflection and non-/ symmetry of the representation of men
and women, non / avoidance of stereotyping, non /presentation of the partitive division of
labor, non/ use of a gender sensitive language. An anti-discrimination examination of textbooks on the identification of non-sexist and anti-sexist educational material is carried out according to such criteria as: the degree of presence / absence of a particular social group, the use of gender stereotypes, the completeness of information interpretation, the realism of the world picture, the fragmentation of certain issues with the allocation in the “special” chapter and / or separate” paragraphs, linguistic sexism and “illusion of gender equality”. We believe that the experience of the Republic of Cyprus in preventing gender asymmetries is positive and can be taken into account in domestic educational practice.