Early Childhood Character Education Based on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

The aims of the present study are threefold: (1) portray the parenting style in early childhood in the families, (2) analyze gender issues in early childhood education in villages, in lower and upper-class communities, and (3) formulate a model of early childhood education with a gender perspective and social inclusion. Following the survey method with focus group discussion and in-depth studies, the study involved 8 Early Childhood School in East-Java Province, nine schools in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, and ten schools in West- Java. After analyzing the data, this study arrived at some interpretative points. The points are: (a) character education implemented was appropriate to Early Childhood Curriculum, consists of principal characters and additional characters qualified the school, (b) The parenting style in urban and rural areas show the same pattern which is dominated by authoritative parenting patterns-giving choices to children to decide on something, and (c) the disparity exists in the socio-economic classes that parents treat the children differently, particularly pertinent to freedom of play and an impact on self-reliance. The gender issue in early childhood education, it is argued that learning values do not discriminate between boys and girls. Male students are more active, dominating the classroom, whereas female students tend to be shy. All early childhood education principals are women, and teachers are almost all women. The Character Education Model applied in early childhood education has not yet depicted gender and social inclusion perspective to accept and to attend children with special needs. The findings lead to the possibility to formulate the Logic Model of Early Childhood Character Education based on Gender Perspective and Social Inclusion. The proposed model has taken into account the educational input, teacher and manager resources, curriculum, and learning processes. Additionally, it pays attention to the specific problems and needs of girls and boys, in various conditions related to the marginalization of early childhood families, to achieve gender equality and attract children from the exclusion group into the majority group of child character development.