The Girls’ Empowerment through Politics in Classrooms (G-EPIC) programme is a set of five lessons designed to increase the political self-efficacy of Year 9 students, particularly girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. The programme was developed through collaboration between researchers, teachers, students, policymakers, and civil society organisations. In the UK, this process was led by Professor Hoskins' research team at Roehampton University, and then co-constructed and contextualised in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Germany by the research teams at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Charles University, Aarhus University and the University of Giessen, respectively.
The G-EPIC Programme focuses on 5-learning outcomes:
- Improving self-confidence in knowledge and understanding of politics,
- Broadening the understanding of what is politics and reduce resistance to using and engaging with the word ‘politics’,
- Improving self-confidence in political activities in school,
- Improving self-confidence in political activities outside of school and participating in political activities in the future, and
- Challenging preconceptions and stereotypes of social roles in politics.
The G-EPIC programme was implemented across 45 schools by 46 teachers with 1,340 students in Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, and the UK between January and April 2025. Across all five countries, the programme demonstrated notable success in enhancing students’ political self-efficacy, broadening their understanding of politics, and building confidence in political engagement.
This resulted in the following country toolkits:
- Belgium toolkit
- Czechia toolkit
- Denmark toolkit
- Germany toolkit
- Spain toolkit
- UK toolkit
- Italian toolkit
- Welsh toolkit
- French toolkit
