D3.1 - GUIDANCE NOTES ON INTEGRATING GENDER PERSPECTIVE INTO ENERGY EDUCATION

Report on the integration of the gender-energy nexus into basic education at primary and secondary level in selected European countries. The aim was to demonstrate how social representations of energy issues, and in particular socio-technical imaginaries related to energy transitions, can work through education to achieve gender equality in energy systems. The synthesis is based on the four national reports prepared by the four research teams. The results show that the gender-energy nexus cannot be communicated in popular school textbooks due to the specificity of teaching about energy with them. Despite the observed differences between European education systems, in all analysed countries, energy topics are scattered among different subjects, presented mainly through economic and technological lenses, without a human-centred approach. The textbooks analysed do not encourage female students to develop their interest in further studies or future careers in energy fields. There is no or very little information about new job opportunities created by the energy transition, while social practices are limited to marginal examples of the use of electrical appliances or energy saving. The introduction of a people-centred and gender-innovative approach in curricula and textbooks could help to overcome the existing bias in the social perception of technologies in relation to gender.