Gender equality in Rosa Caramelo: A teaching proposal for today’s children

Abstract

At present, we are witnessing a growing interest in gender issues in children's and young people’s literature. In this sense, there are many publications that flee from stereotypes and advocate for an equitable treatment of children. This is the case of Rosa Caramelo, a story of female empowerment and personal growth. Picture books can become a useful and effective tool in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language as well as in the promotion of values. In our proposal, the focus is on gender equality. Here we present a series of interdisciplinary activities based on the picture book Rosa Caramelo. These aimed at the stage of primary education and combine both grammatical and lexical aspects as well as moral and civic ones. In our proposal, teachers act as intercultural guides and help students not only in their cognitive but also emotional learning. The teaching proposal is divided into three stages, namely those of contextualization, development, and consolidation. In short, the integral development of the human being from childhood is pursued with emphasis on gender issues which are essential in the 21st century.