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Lead beneficiary: VUB

Description of work 
WP1 will shed light on the contextual and policy framework linked to gender political inequality as part of a comprehensive gender analysis approach. The aim is to identify the differences and inequalities in participation and representation of women in various policy sectors and levels of governance, across the involved countries and in the European Union. This will provide an evidence-base to assess the extent of the gender gap, and to provide an overview of the barriers and constraints, at national and European level, sustaining this gender gap in political engagement, with a focus on the policy and regulatory framework. In addition, it will serve to map relevant stakeholders who can provide insights into the important societal issues in the disadvantaged communities where schools are located. This will allow us to map the sources of inequality and the extent of a gender gap in political participation in different cultural and political contexts in Europe, elucidating its structural causes. 

Objectives 
O1.1 To assess the state of political inequality among disadvantaged groups in the participating countries, and the European, national and local regulatory framework addressing it. 
O1.2 To create and mobilize a consultative body of relevant stakeholders that guarantees the effectiveness and strengthens the impact of the intervention.
O1.3 To conclude on best practices and general guidelines to scale up the intervention.
O1.4 To develop tools for stakeholders at the micro, meso and macro-level, to sustain the intervention. 

Lead beneficiary: UC3M

Description of work
WP2 will provide a systematic overview of literature and secondary data evidence regarding inequalities in political involvement. It will be guided by the following questions: 1) when do socioeconomic, gender, ethnic based inequalities in attitudes and participation start? 2) do inequalities show in the same way in different forms of action (institutional and non-institutional participation), diverse attitudes (trust, external and internal efficacy), and levels of government (local, regional, national/federal and European)? 3) how do differences vary according to intersecting characteristics? 4) How and what are the underlying mechanisms behind those inequalities? It will also provide a comparison across countries: 5) how do internal and external political efficacy interact? And, 6) do countries matter? what is the role of institutions and country context? For this purpose, G-EPIC implements a two-steps approach: 1) a systematized literature review on origins of inequalities in political involvement and political efficacy and 2) a quantitative analysis of longitudinal, panel datasets that provide information on political socialisation or youth studies in Europe. These analyses include time series analysis and latent growth models. 

Objectives 
O2.1 To update previous knowledge on the antecedents of various inequalities in political involvement
O2.2 To identify the origins of inequality in political involvement
O2.3 To examine the interaction between internal and external political efficacy
O2.4 To provide evidence of the long-term impact of such inequalities on political involvement
O2.5 To explore the intersectionality of different characteristics on political involvement
O2.6 To explore the relationship between inequalities and forms of political participation (institutional versus non- institutional)
O2.7 To examine differences and similarities across countries and institutional settings
O2.8 To develop hypotheses guiding WPs 4&5 (together with WP3).

Lead beneficiary:  RU

Description of work 
Parallel to building an evidence base from WP2, WP3 will obtain an in-depth insight into the classroom dynamics through mixed-method data collection. This data collection will take place in five countries (Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany and the UK) and comprises video recordings, in-person structured observations, interviews, student checklists and surveys. The combination of types of observations and types of methods allow for triangulation as well as consideration of complementary foci. This in-depth approach will identify contextual factors and mechanisms that can be explored in subsequent phases of the project (WP4&5). 

Objectives 
O3.1 To analyze how an open classroom climate is experienced by pupils of different gender, race/ethnicity and socio-economic characteristics, and whether and how political inequality manifests itself in classroom dynamics
O3.2 To generate data and hypotheses to inform WP4 (experiments) and WP5 (interventions)
O3.3 To inform outputs for wider dissemination (e.g. Teacher Training Toolkit - see WP5).

Lead beneficiary:  AU

Description of work 
As part of the Design based methodology, WP4 will use experimental methods in two paths: experimental and quasi- experimental within-group pre- and post-test design. This twofold strategy serves to combine causal inference with increasing external validity. The aim is to disentangle the causal effects of how dimensions/factors related to open classroom climate and didactical teaching behaviour identified in the systematic literature review (WP2) and the conclusions of the observations (WP3) influence gendered political efficacy and decision-making among girls within disadvantaged schools. We will explore how teacher engagement and instruction, scene setting (didactic) and teachers’ social support within class influence experienced political self-efficacy across genders. The controlled setting provides the evidence to test causality and isolate the effect of each factor. Such conclusions are key to inform the intervention in WP5. WP4 will also supplement the insights in WP2 and WP3 in relation to the connection between gender, social background and democratic participation in classroom dialogues on political topics. These are fundamental research contributions that the research field generally lacks, and relate to G-EPIC’s goals. 

Objectives 
O4.1 Provide experimental results on influential factors linked to political self-efficacy of girls in open classroom climates.
O4.2 Provide contextual informed empirical knowledge built on a theoretical assumption of political socialisation so as to improve the general didactics across subjects, in order to improve political empowerment of girls in schools with a large share of disadvantaged pupils for the intervention in WP5.

Lead beneficiary:  RU

Description of work 
WP5 will co-create a Gender Empowerment intervention with teachers and students that will lead to greater participation of girls and in particular girls from less advantaged groups in classroom discussions, particularly on social and political issues that are pertinent to them and their communities, such as climate change, social and economic equity. Research has shown that this involvement in classroom discussion can enhance levels of self- efficacy for political engagement. The WP will build on the evidence from the observations in WP3, the systematic literature review WP2, and the experiments in WP4 to create ‘real world’ teaching programmes that can increase the levels of political efficacy of girls from marginal groups. The intervention will include the use of role models, and bring in successful female politicians and female community activists as speakers, involving them in classroom discussion. It will include working with the teachers to explore observation data collected in schools (WP3) and explore pedagogical approaches that are used by teachers to develop an inclusive classroom (small group discussions and use of technologies such as padlet). 

Objectives
O5.1 To empower and increase the levels of political self-efficacy of girls in schools with high rates of disadvantaged intake
O5.2 To improve the teaching of girls’ empowerment in schools through the development of an intervention
O5.3 To create an intervention on gender empowerment that can be disseminated to the teaching profession across Europe.

Lead beneficiary:  G5P

Description of work
The fourth and last stage is impact and exploitation of results, which will be jointly addressed in WP1 and WP6. On the one hand, it will consist of gender assessment of policy frameworks as part of the cross-walk tool (WP1) to establish in which way the school-based intervention helps to address the needs of women, and particularly girls, in the area of political participation and how it aligns with the national and European policy framework in place. In addition, there will be a gender stakeholder consultation in national and European advisory groups, with policymakers, civil society organisations and end-users and as part of the multinational forum of stakeholders. This will inform a report on best practices and policy recommendations (WP1). This report will combine insights from the classroom, context & policy assessment with the insights of the stakeholders. The goal is to draft policy recommendations, including strategies and regulations, for the European and national level. It will also include the tailored communication and the strategy to disseminate G-EPIC’s results to the plethora of stakeholders and target groups, as stated in the Impact section. 

Objectives 
O6.1 To communicate the provisional and final findings of the research to the academic community, educational practitioners, European policymakers and civil society using a wide range of platforms and means.
O6.2 To monitor and coordinate dissemination undertaken by project partners to maximize impact.

Lead beneficiary: VUB

Description of work
The main coordination takes place at the VUB. The VUB team will, therefore, oversee the setting up of the project governance structure. 

Objectives
O7.1 To efficiently organize the administrative coordination of the project within the team and with the Commission.
O7.2 To attain, in a timely manner, milestones, produce deliverables and fulfill the overall goal of the project.
O7.3 To guarantee that scientific quality standards are applied during the entirety of the project

Lead beneficiary:  VUB

Description of work
This work package sets out the 'ethics requirements' that the project must comply with.