Art Pedagogy and Gender Education: The Dialectic between Images and Consciousness, Words and Meanings

Abstract

The close relationship between gender stereotypes, representations of masculine and feminine roles and the images of women and men produced by art, mass media and the collective consciousness is as self-evident as it is—all too frequently—underestimated and misunderstood. This evidence is closely related to the persistence of damaging stereotypes of gender roles still common accepted in the Italian culture (as well as in other UE Member States), nevertheless gender stereotypes reduce the life opportunities for women and girls, for men and boys. In fact, inequality between women and men, and the prevailing gender roles are deeply rooted in obsolete social structures and anachronistic mental attitudes. Thus, equal opportunities education beginning in early childhood plays a crucial role, both in creating a new language to underpin the relationship between the genders and in enhancing children’s critical understanding of the plurality and complexity of the life contexts, narratives, representations of gender and social roles and, also, symbolic universes surrounding them.

Keywords

• art pedagogy
• early childhood
• equal opportunities education
• gender education
• picture books