GENDER , CAREERS , STEREOTYPES AND THE DIFFERENCE WE ’ RE NOT MAKING …!
By Dr Ger Graus OBE
The KidZania phenomenon
Chances are that if your school is within striking distance of KidZania , in one of the 19 countries where the brand has now been established , your school has organised a visit there . ‘ KidZanias ’ are large activity spaces which extend the idea of role play for children aged 4 to 14 . Typically children who visit , choose from up to 60 career roles - from banking and theatre to aviation and journalism . Children fight fires and crime , look after patients … you get the idea .
Sharing Good Practice
What roles do children choose ?
One by-product of the KidZania phenomenon , is an emerging body of evidence , into choices made by children , which provides new insights into their perception of adult roles .
During the last year I have worked with Havas London analysing role choices made by 61,000 children , noting , for example , who opts to be pilots and who expresses a preference for cabin crew ; which children get excited about being an engineer , or imagine themselves as beauticians .
What the evidence shows
The research found a stark contrast between choices made by girls and boys and we found that the choices both genders made at 14 years of age are very similar to those made by four-year-olds . It is also striking that , despite a range of government initiatives , girls and boys seem to be exhibiting the same conventional aspirations in secondary school as they are when they start primary .
Career aspirations , it seems , remain conventional and are set at an even earlier age than might be expected .
The strength of career stereotyping
So why aren ’ t children ’ s career aspirations changing between the ages of 4 and 14 ?
There are a number of reasons , but underlying everything , is the low priority given to futures guidance at an early enough age . Moreover , evidence
from conversations with parents , suggests that they too have had insufficient careers advice when they were at school . History repeats itself .
All this is linked to the prevailing educational culture in which success is measured in terms of test results , as opposed to the all-round learning and development of children and the needs of our world . In other words : we have lost both purpose and the plot !
“ Children can only aspire to what they know exists ” holds true and it is from there , through experience-based learning , that building a creative approach to social mobility needs to start . We need to provide an applied purpose to children , to what education is and what it is for .
We also found , of course , that the choices made by children were affected by their socio-economic context . If they have not been exposed to a variety of futures ideas at home and at school , perceptions of the range of careers is narrower than is actually available . In the end it is all about the menu of experiences that children are exposed to from the earliest of ages !
The way forward ?
So where does this leave us ? “ Every child is everyone ’ s responsibility ” is my favourite headteacher ’ s mantra !
Schools and primary schools in particular must be given greater incentives to place futures awareness at the centre of their curriculum , and the world of work needs to come off the fence and to be made to play its proper part .
We must realise that not every classroom has four walls and question who the teachers are . We collectively also need to become less risk averse - if not , entrepreneurs will become extinct .
And finally , schools need to be trusted to know their children and judged how they are best and most appropriately applying the resources to the needs of their children . We are accountable to our children and no-one else and the word “ appropriate ” is key .
Dr Ger Graus OBE was the first Director of Education appointed globally at KidZania . At KidZania London since 2014 , he has been responsible for developing the UK-wide education strategy . Before this , Ger was the founding Chief Executive of the Children ' s University . In his earlier career Ger journeyed from teacher to advisor , senior inspector and director . In 2014 Ger was made an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) for services to children .
Class Time | | Sep - Oct 2017 | 11