Voytovska A. Gender socialization of student youth with special educational needs in institutions of higher education

Theoretical and experimental materials of the research were used at lectures, seminars and classes of those disciplines which are included in the training program on specialty “Social work” in educational institutions of I-IV levels of accreditation, and were discussed with students in institutions of postgraduate education. The results of the study were implemented in the work with students having special educational needs at Centre for Social and Educational Integration, Inclusive Rehabilitation and Social Tourism “Without Barriers” and Gender Centre of Social and Psychological Education Department in Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. The research materials can also be valuable for social educators, social workers, psychologists, special education teachers and parents having children with special educational needs. The investigation of Ukraine’s gender legislation and the regulations on the access of young people with disabilities to higher education has shown that the Constitution and the legal system contain the acts on powerful social support for women and persons with disabilities, and consequently, there is the basis for obvious paternalistic approaches presented in discriminatory legal statements and practices. Gender socialization is defined as the process of assimilating a social role by a person when this role is assigned at birth by society, depending on a person’s gender. Gender socialization of student youth with special educational needs is the result of a multi-stage process of assimilation of norms, rules of behaviour, and attitudes to male and female roles, which are most favourable for the effective functioning of the youth with nosologies in institutions of higher education. The criteria for the effectiveness of gender socialization of students with special educational needs have been established. The individual criterion is related to the content of a person’s values-based and emotional attitude to gender issues. The information criterion reflects the set of theoretical (scientific, social, normative) data and ideas on gender issues as they are the basis for individual traits, social and intimate behaviour to be formed. The behavioural criterion is connected with a person’s specific behaviour during interpersonal communication (public and private) in a gender context. On the basis of the defined criteria and indicators, the levels (high, sufficient, low) of gender socialization of students with special educational needs in institutions of higher education have been characterized.