189 research outputs found
An answer to everything? Four framings of girlsâ schooling and gender equality in education
Girlsâ education has been widely promoted as the answer to a wide range of problems. This article maps four key ideas that have framed this formulation. These are firstly, a techno-rationalist approach linked to narrowly defined interventions, termed here âwhat worksâ. Secondly, a more normative engagement is outlined, termed âwhat mattersâ which explores how girlsâ education is part of processes to extend and defend rights, support feminism or decoloniality. Thirdly, an approach termed âwhat disorganisesâ looks at the ways in which girlsâ education has been used deceitfully and hypocritically to mask the perpetuation of unjust power. Lastly, an approach termed âwhat connectsâ maps processes associated with building connections and epistemologies of co-ordination The implications of these four framings are considered for the development of discussions on girlsâ education and gender equality and methods in comparative education
Assessing gender mainstreaming in the education sector: depoliticised technique or a step towards women's rights and gender equality?
In 1995 the Beijing Conference on Women identified gender mainstreaming as a key area for action. Policies to effect gender mainstreaming have since been widely adopted. This special issue of Compare looks at research on how gender mainstreaming has been used in government education departments, schools, higher education institutions, international agencies and NGOs .1 In this introduction we first provide a brief history of the emergence of gender mainstreaming and review changing definitions of the term. In the process we outline some policy initiatives that have attempted to mainstream gender and consider some difficulties with putting ideas into practice, particularly the tensions between a technical and transformative interpretations . Much of the literature about experiences with gender mainstreaming tends to look at organizational processes and not any specificities of a particular social sector. However, in our second section, we are concerned to explore whether institutional forms and particular actions associated with education give gender mainstreaming in education sites some distinctive features. In our last section we consider some of the debates about global and local negotiations in discussions of gender policy and education and the light this throws on gender mainstreaming. In so doing, we place the articles that follow in relation to contestations over ownership, political economy, the form and content of education practice and the social complexity of gender equality
A Review of public private partnerships around girlsâ education in developing countries: flicking gender equality on and off
The article reviews the literature on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and policy on girlsâ schooling in developing countries. It considers the ways in which aims around gender equality and womenâs rights are positioned in policy texts concerned with girlsâ education PPPs. The argument made is that these documents exemplify an oscillation, using a multipolar register, between pragmatic initiatives that recognise existing sites of power, and attempts to develop a political project that dissolves differences between public and private constituencies, who share an interest in getting girls into school. The potential and limits of this approach to support integrated policy around rights and equalities is considered using the case of DFIDâs Girlsâ Education Challenge. An analytical framework is sketched that maps a political and epistemological process termed dispersal, which is used to consider some ways to investigate the effects of PPPs as a mechanism to address intersecting inequalities
Higher Education, Inequality and the Public Good in Four African Countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa: Report of Johannesburg Workshop, 22-24 May 2017
This report provides a synthesised overview of the deliberations of the Project Workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 22 to 24 May 2017 for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Newton/National Research Foundation (NRF) funded project, Higher Education, Inequality and the Public Good in four African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The Workshop had two main purposes. As the first face-to-face meeting of the project since its start-up in December 2016, it was designed to provide an opportunity for in-depth planning by the full, cross-country research team, particularly towards the refinement of the research steps and instruments, as well as the further development of the first set of research outputs. In addition, the Workshop was structured to include on the second day a Stakeholder Workshop. This day was aimed at bringing together key higher education stakeholders from the participating countries to engage with them around the conceptual and contextual framing of the project and to strengthen the research design. The three days were therefore designed to enable more in-depth planning for going forward with the project and to begin to facilitate stakeholder involvement in the research.
This report is aimed at providing an overview of the proceedings over the three days and, most importantly, drawing out the emerging issues from the Workshop for the project. It is therefore intended as both a record of key milestones within the project process and as a tool to assist in its further development and implementation. It has been organised into two main sections. The first discusses important themes that emerged out of the planning process and stakeholder engagement that are important for the project going forward, particularly towards deepening the conceptual thinking around the project, refining its research design and strengthening the planned research outputs. Discussion on and agreements reached on the next steps that need to be taken in the project are outlined in the second section. Attached to the report are also a number of appendices related to the workshop process and its outcomes
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