Quality Education for Gender Equality
| Authors | Type | Stream | Full Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheila Aikman, Nitya Rao | Commissioned | Quality |  en |
This background paper is a review of the literature on quality education for gender equality which will provide an overview of the theoretical debates, and a review of the scope and focus of empirical work in this area. The paper focuses its review on three broad areas which are at the heart of meeting girls and women’s needs for and expectations of a gender equitable, empowering quality education: an environment that is empowering and enabling, an education that is relevant and meaningful and which operates on the basis of democratic principles.
The paper is based on a literature search and review undertaken at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. The literature is critically reviewed and evaluated to identify key policies, promising and innovative approaches and key issues in research, policy and practice.
Global policies and interventions aimed at meeting the EFA goals and the targets for MDG 2 and 3 have put much emphasis on understanding the extent to which girls are increasing their enrolment in schools in relation to boys and what kind of interventions have been successful in improving gender parity. Education for All has emphasised the achievement of a basic education for all boys and girls measured through exam scores and numbers of years of schooling and compared across countries, regional and the globe (Subrahmanian 2005). Such limited aims and limited measures take little account of the diversity of contexts and conditions in which young girls and boys live and attend school or their gendered aspirations and experiences of schooling (Aikman and Unterhalter 2007).
The inclusion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the MDGs seemed to suggest that the importance of addressing gender equality in meeting the challenges of poverty and development had been recognised (ASPBAE 2009). But, the limited target of parity and its quantitative measurement do not go nearly far enough in terms of assessing what the value of formal education is for the increasing numbers of girls and young women who are accessing schooling. As week 1 of this e-conference identified, there are many political, economic and social processes and factors which deny rights to girls and undermine their ability to have a qualitative educational experience and use this in their lives.
But what do we mean by quality education? Policies and practices of and for quality education are varied and contested. Important though exam results and years of schooling are, what is also needed are more insightful, multi-dimensional and critical approaches to quality education that offer opportunities to tackle gendered inequalities that undermine girls’ and boys’ wellbeing.
Policy makers, teachers, parents and learners have different perspectives and opinions about what a quality education is. There are many frameworks for thinking about quality education and many different notions of quality that underpin policies. Mostly these frameworks ‘unpack’ quality into interrelated dimensions or criteria in order to inform programmes and practices and improve educational quality. Nevertheless, many frameworks consider issues of gender equality and equity more broadly as a separate issue and restrict quality to a list of educational inputs (Verspoor 2008), while others consider equity – subsuming gender equality within it – as one distinct dimension of quality (e.g. UNESCO GMR 2005; Nikel and Lowe 2009). Often, too, quality frameworks focus exclusively on schooling as if it were disassociated from the wider social, cultural, political and economic environment – at the local, national and global levels.
By thinking about quality from the perspective of social justice and gender justice a more critical and value-based notion of quality emerges (Tikly and Barrett 2009), one which has the potential to put equity and equality at its heart. By starting with the importance of social justice and examining educational practices in terms of the values that they are built upon (often implicit) we can begin to identify the dimensions of a quality gender equitable education. Working towards such an education recognises that gendered roles and relationships as well as educational practices and processes are outcomes of negotiations of power and identity within specific historical and social contexts.
This is not an easy task and here are using three broad areas which are fundamental to meeting girls and women’s needs for and expectations of a quality education. These are: an environment that is empowering and enabling, an education that is relevant and meaningful and which operates on the basis of democratic principles
An enabling environment for quality education and gender equality
An enabling environment refers not only to the physical, social and cultural environment of the school and the classroom, but also the wider environment in which a school is located and functions. What makes these environments enabling for girls as well boys; how are they changed and through what kinds of actions by whom? This area examines resources (human, physical and financial), strategies and opportunities.
Relevant and meaningful education
Achieving a relevant and meaningful education is contingent on the quality and gender equality of the curriculum and the teaching and learning processes. It assesses the literature from perspectives of, inter alia, learning outcomes, teacher education and training, leadership.
Democratic processes as integral to quality gender equitable education
This area engages with questions of equality and quality of participation, voice and decision-making and the structures and practices in the context of decentralised education institutions and community engagement with questions of governance.
Indicative References:
Aikman, S. and E. Unterhalter (eds) (2007) ‘Gender Equality in Schools’ In Aikman and Unterhalter (eds) Practising Gender Equality in Education, Programme Insights Series, OxfamGB: Oxford.
Alexander, R. (2008) Education For All: The Quality Imperative and the Problem of Pedagogy. CREATE Research Monograph 20. University of Sussex, http://www.create-rpc.org/pdf_documents/PTA20.pdf
ASPBAE (2009) Make Girls and Women Count: South Asia Gender Equality in Education Report. ASPBAE/UNGEI
EdQual (2009) ‘Education Quality: Principles and Framework’ EdQual Research Programme Consortium. www.EdQual.org
Halai, A. (2007) Boys are better mathematicians: Gender issues from mathematics classrooms in Pakistan. In J.Rarieya and G. Qureshi (eds) Gender and Education in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Nikel, J. and J. Lowe (2009) Talking of Fabric: a multi-dimensional model of quality in education. Compare First published June. www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a911854206&db=all
Pialek, N. (2008) ‘Is this Really the End of the Road for Gender Mainstreaming? Getting to Grips with Gender and Institutional Change’ in Bebbington, A., Hickey, S. and D. Mitlin (eds) Can NGOs Make a Difference? The Challenge of Development Alternatives. London: Zed. Pp. 279-297.
Subrahmanian, R. (2005) Gender equality in education: definitions and measurements. International Journal of Educational Development Vol, 25, p. 395-407
Tikly, L. and A. Barrett (2009) ‘Social Justice, Capabilities and the Quality of Education in Low Income Countries’. Paper presented to the 10th UKFIET Conference on Education and Development, Politics, Policies and Progress. New College, Oxford 15-17 September. www.edqual.org
Verspoor, A. (2008) ‘The Challenge of Learning: improving the quality of basic education in sub-Saharan Africa’ The Changing Landscape of Education in Africa. Symposium Books: Oxford. Pp. 13-44.
UNESCO (2005) EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005: Education for All, the quality imperative. Paris: UNESCO.
