Learning for state‐building: capacity development,education and fragility

This paper examines capacity development in education in fragile contexts. This is a current concern for donors and development partners, but there has been little work on the nexus between capacity, education and fragility. The paper examines the concept of fragility and the particular problems in education associated with fragile contexts. The key argument – and tension – is that the focus should be on restoring state functions, yet this may be in a context of severe difficulties for donor agencies or NGOs of aligning with the government. The paper outlines some of the choices to be made in deciding on a focus for capacity development in education, examining the levels for intervention (individual, organisational, cultural and political) and the different sectors (administration and education institutions). It provides examples of the different sorts of areas in capacity development in education arenas that would address specific features of fragility, but draws attention to the need for research and indicators of the different impact of these strategies. The paper concludes with an analysis of what appears to be necessary to ensure that capacity development efforts are sustainable.     

Gender inclusion and horizontal gender segregation: stakeholders' strategies and dilemmas in Swedish teachers' education

This paper contributes to our knowledge of teacher educators' strategies for, and dilemmas with, working with gender inclusion in teachers' education. It illustrates how gender is constructed and reconstructed in teachers' education. The study revealed that teachers' education is not only – as earlier described – a highly feminised field, it is also a discipline that is permeated by horizontal and vertical segregation typical of higher education. The study analyses how university teacher educators experience and handle consequences of this horizontal segregation, building on interviews with subject representatives at a Swedish university. The results exemplify how university teachers reflect on gender policies and their own roles when working with teacher students. Heteronormative patterns also become visible in strategies meant to facilitate gender equality and desegregation. The author argues for the need to include university teachers' perspectives in future strategies for developing gender inclusion in university education.     

Understandings of gender and education in the political and cultural context: the case of Afghan students in an MA (education) programme

Globally, gender differences in education have been an area of policy concern, research, and development partnerships. The international agenda of gender equality has been adopted by national governments even in countries, such as Afghanistan, where predominant views are clearly at variance with this agenda. Attempts to analyse such conditions must be based on examination of gender and education in the broader political and cultural context. Gender issues have been a central theme in an EU-funded Master's programme in Educational Research and Development for Afghan students at Nangarhar University, conducted during 2008–2010. This article analyses the political and cultural context of gender in Afghanistan, which constitutes the framework for the Afghan students' understandings of gender and education. These are examined as expressed in texts produced by the students and in group interviews. On the basis of our analysis, the following tension is clear: the students are aware of the international agenda of gender equality in education, but at the same time they are concerned about problems in the practical application of this agenda in their own society and relate these concerns to their interpretations of principles of Islam and Afghan cultural traditions.     

Developing an inclusive system in a rapidly changing European society

This paper uses Ireland – one of Europe’s most rapidly changing societies – as a case study and examines progress towards an inclusive education system. It explores policy and progress on developing an inclusive system under a number of key headings: social class, ethnicity, gender and disability. On the basis of analysis of official statistics and of research evidence from a study of the inclusion of children with disabilities and special educational needs, this paper assesses whether the impact of recent state policy and legislative change has significantly increased the degree of inclusion in the education system under the four headings. There is a particular focus on the area of disability. The particular questions explored in this paper are whether the unprecedented changes which have taken place in Ireland since the mid‐1990s have resulted in a more inclusive system, an increase in equality, and an increase in inclusive practices in schools. On the basis of the available evidence, the results appear to be mixed.     

Exploring the possibilities of gender equality pedagogy in an era of marketization

In this article, we research and revisit our own experiences of gender equality work to determine the societal and discursive power relations that have shaped gender equality. We conducted our study in Finland, a ‘Nordic model of gender equality’, but we argue that these results have worldwide relevance, especially since Nordic models of gender equality and education have been exported globally. By combining earlier research, our own extensive experience of conducting gender equality work, and previous literature on feminist pedagogy, we examine the possibilities of what we call ‘gender equality pedagogy’ in an era of marketization. To develop the concept of gender equality pedagogy, we ask how combining an analysis of gender equality work with feminist pedagogy can help to acknowledge and utilize power relations. We suggest that understanding gender equality work as a form of pedagogic practice might help overcome some of the barriers that gender equality work has encountered for decades.     

Gender Equality in Science: A Philosophical Perspective

Arguments used to justify gender equality in higher education often appeal to values which belong to the social context of science (human rights, efficient use of human resources, economic growth), and hence, may appear to practicing scientists as policy interventions from the outside. The author suggests that arguments which appeal to the values internal to scientific communities (objectivity, rationality, and truth) can be used to bring the goal of gender equality in higher education closer to practicing scientists and academics. Two such arguments in support of gender equality in higher education are presented.     

Gender discourses in an NGO education project: Openings for transformation toward gender equality in Bangladesh

This article seeks to illustrate how various actors participating in a non-governmental organization (NGO) education project in two Bangladeshi communities represent different framings of gender. Teachers, as critical actors in this education project, utilize multiple discourses of gender equality and when viewed in relation to community members’, parents’ and students’ ideas of gender equality, we argue their discursive practices can create spaces for transformation. The use of multiple discourses suggests that specific local adaptations of women in development (WID), gender and development (GAD), post-structural and rights and capabilities approaches may all be useful in the work toward gender justice as these approaches inform the different meanings of gender equality in the communities. We conclude that NGOs play a critical role in making micro-level changes in schools as well as have a broader impact on communities and national agendas by engaging different actors’ uses of gender equality discourses.     

Contradictory values in doctoral education: a study of gender composition in disciplines in Swedish academia

Contradictory values in the Swedish doctoral education system are analysed through an interview and survey study of different academic disciplines: female-dominated, mixed and male-dominated. The focus is directed towards how the selected disciplines conduct application and selection processes in doctoral education and special attention is given to values regarding doctoral ideals, what a successful thesis should be like, how gender balance or imbalance is explained, and how activities aiming at gender equality are carried out. In the findings of this study, some specific patterns that show gendered discipline cultures in relation to doctoral education are apparent. The analysis shows an unclear or ambivalent view on gender and gender equality work in doctoral educations. In many of the issues investigated, essentialist views on gender emerge and a focus on gender differences is evident. The implicit assumption is that men and women are different and contribute to the discipline in disparate ways. The effectiveness of gender-specific doctoral strategies and to what extent gender equality work is viewed as a support strategy for women only, is discussed.     

Reflections on mainstreaming gender equality in adult basic education programmes

This article is about mainstreaming gender equality in adult basic learning and education (ABLE). Gender equality is defined as equal rights of both women and men to influence, participate in and benefit from a programme. It is argued that specific gender analyses of emerging patterns of gender relations is helpful in formulating gender equality objectives and strategies of ABLE programmes. Both female and male roles and motivations are important to understand. The consequences of poverty and unemployment for men, as well as women, need to be addressed in gender sensitive ABLE strategies so that, at the same time as women are empowered, men get a chance to regain a meaningful role in society without regressing to old partiarchal attitudes.     

Learning to be Swedish: governing migrants in labour-market projects

This article focuses on adult learning in labour-market projects targeting unemployed migrants in Sweden. Drawing on a Foucauldian analysis of governmentality, the results of the study problematize the ways that such projects produce individualizing discourses – targeting individuals, constructing them as responsible for their position as unemployed. The project’s target groups are generally defined not on the basis of ethnicity as such, but rather using terms such as non-Nordic background, foreign born and immigrants. However, two groups considered especially problematic are constructed through ethnicity: Somali and Roma people. The notion of social competency is analysed here as a way of constructing the unemployed migrants as not yet employable. Another significant result concerns the notion of gender equality, which makes migrants governable because it constructs boundaries between Swedishness and Otherness. In line with this rationality, the targeted migrants are governed towards Swedishness through learning gender equality. These results raise a number of issues of great concern for the inclusion of migrants in the labour market, as they highlight a paradoxical relationship between the inclusive ambitions of interventions targeting unemployed migrants and the ethnicized discourses of ‘Othering’ that imbue these learning practices.     

Gender representation in the public sector schools textbooks of Pakistan

This paper examines gender biases in school textbooks after a decade long effort by the ministry of education (MoE) Pakistan and international organisation (IOs) to eliminate all forms of gender inequality in education. The intention underpinning these initiatives was to nurture a view of gender equality based consciousness through the introduction of more positive gendered images into school textbooks in Pakistan. However, the study discussed in this paper discovered that schools textbooks are still embedded with gender-biased messages and stereotypical representations of male and females. Gender biases in 24 textbooks (Urdu, English and Social Studies) from class 1 to 8 were analysed with the help of a qualitative content analysis approach. The paper draws attention to the insouciant approach taken by the MoE and IOs towards the goal of gender equality. The study found that, despite the prevailing claims of achievements, the new textbooks are ideologically invested – and contribute to the perpetuation of gender inequality. In this context, the gender blindness of the curriculum designers and textbook authors is a matter of serious concern.     

Gender equality in education: Definitions and measurements

International consensus on education priorities accords an important place to achieving gender justice in the educational sphere. Both the Dakar ‘Education for All’ goals and the Millennium Development goals emphasise two goals, in this regard. These two goals are distinguished as gender parity goals [achieving equal participation of girls and boys in all forms of education based on their proportion in the relevant age-groups in the population] and gender equality goals [ensuring educational equality between boys and girls]. In turn these have been characterised as quantitative/numerical and qualitative goals respectively. In order to consider progress towards both types of goal, both quantitative and qualitative assessments need to be made of the nature of progress towards gender equality. Achieving gender parity is just one step towards gender equality in and through education. An education system with equal numbers of boys and girls participating, who may progress evenly through the system, may not in fact be based on gender equality. Following Wilson (Human Rights: Promoting gender equality in and through education. Background paper for EFA GMR 2003/4, 2003) a consideration of gender equality in education therefore needs to be understood as the right to education [access and participation], as well as rights within education [gender-aware educational environments, processes, and outcomes], and rights through education [meaningful education outcomes that link education equality with wider processes of gender justice].     

Schooling the new generation of German citizens: a comparison of citizenship curricula in Berlin and Baden‐Württemberg

In Germany, unlike other European countries, citizenship education has a long history. Since the Second World War, its role has evolved from promoting de‐Nazification in the West and state socialism in the East to emphasising common citizenship in a multicultural society. Today, the federal states (Bundesländer) are largely autonomous in matters of education. Drawing on citizenship curricula from two states with historically opposite political constellations – Berlin and Baden‐Württemberg – we argue that they share an emphasis on the fragility of democracy and the challenges arising from migration. While Baden‐Württemberg favours the concept of tolerance, Berlin privileges the idea of interculturalism. There are important within‐state differences: the Baden‐Württemberg curriculum for the vocational‐track Hauptschule being more similar to the curricula in Berlin, perhaps as a result of the larger concentration of migrants. This raises questions for educators and policy‐makers around the need for a single coherent model of citizenship education and the importance of citizenship in multicultural Germany for all.     

Challenging gender inequalities in education and in working life – a mission possible?

This article deals with challenging the gender inequalities that exist in education and working life. It contemplates the kinds of discursive power relations that have led to gender equality work in Finland. In today’s conditions where equality issues are being harnessed more strongly to serve the aims of economic efficiency and productivity, it is even more important to understand how people who actively seek change have succeeded in negotiating equality issues. The article also explores the current situation by conducting an analysis that makes clear not only the discursive power relations that shape gender equality work, but also how it has been possible for the work to continue successfully.     

墨西哥教育平等:现状、对策与启示

墨西哥教育不平等通过其教育贫富差距、教育地区差距、教育性别差异彰显出来。为此,墨西哥政府通过政策规约、法律保障、措施落实以实现人民对教育平等的诉求。本研究通过把脉墨西哥教育平等背景、现状、对策,透视发展中国家新自由主义政策与教育不平等、教育现代化与教育平等的两难困境,揭示发展中国家教育平等、教育公平到教育质量之发展理路。     

Equality and Democracy: a decade of struggle over education

According to the Conservative Party, the ‘age of egalitarianism is now over’. This article explores the development of egalitarianism in the United Kingdom in the last decade and the threat represented by the Education Reform Act 1988. It focuses on the political struggles over gender and ‘race’ equality in education since the significance of these struggles appears to have been neglected in current reassessments of social democracy. Teacher autonomy, child‐centred learning and freedom of curriculum choice, as defined by social democracy, have been challenged by campaigns for social equality. Yet calls for increased state intervention and more coercive strategies of reform were not conducive to a participatory democratic order. The analysis, therefore, demonstrates the tensions between equality and democracy as political goals within advanced capitalist societies, and suggests that not only liberal, but also the egalitarian approaches of the 1980s require critical re‐evaluation.     

Editors’ introduction

In response to court rulings, states such as California and Washington have sought to promote greater equality in per pupil spending by shifting from local financing of public education to state financing. In this article, we investigate how constraints on local discretion resulting from this shift to state financing influence the level and growth of education spending. The analysis uses an expenditure function framework and a 21-year panel for the 50 states. To understand the extent to which expenditures are influenced by constraints on local discretion, we distinguish between court-ordered and other reforms of school finance systems. We show that the stringency of constraints on local discretion determines the effects of reforms on the level and growth of spending. In addition, we find that, for any type of reform, the characteristics of a state's population and of that state's schools determine the direction and magnitude of the postreform changes in spending.     

当今英国研究生教育规模和结构的变化与走向

本文通过分析20世纪90年代以来英国研究生教育在规模与结构上的变化,反映出英国研究生教育与职业市场紧密结合的趋势,揭示了高等教育二元制结束的结构性调整、男女平等思想、终身学习需求对研究生教育的影响以及英国在高等教育国际化方面所采取的战略措施.     

Curriculum-making in South Africa: promoting gender equality and empowering women (?)

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2000?2015) are clearly embedded in South Africa's education policy documents. However, they are not adequately infused into the curriculum. This article focuses specifically on the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) ? promoting gender equality and empowering women ? and the need to place this curriculum content at the centre and not on the periphery, to achieve its goal. Qualitative document research was used to explore the extent to which South Africa's curriculum-making has promoted gender equality and the empowerment of women during the promotion of the 2000–2015 MDGs. The findings of this research show potential intersections of poverty, age and worldviews with gender; a stronger focus on human rights values; and concrete strategies to combat unhealthy sexual behaviour. However, the curriculum continues to be saturated with negative perspectives and binary perceptions of gender. There is also a lack of attention to the world of work. The assumption underlying this seems to be that gender equality and the empowerment of women are unattainable or that they are unimportant. This article concludes by underlining the need for the curriculum to be a genuine agent of change, which necessitates a new gender discourse in curriculum-making.     

Gender in schools and culture: taking stock of education in Italy

When politicians discuss Italy's position in terms of achieving equality between men and women, the school environment is rarely called into question or mentioned. This is despite the fact that gender inequality remains a prominent feature of the Italian education system. The reason for this failure to perceive the problem, and the consequent lack of investment in policies for gender equality in education, derives from a massive misunderstanding: school is perceived by the public and the political class as one of the few environments within the highly sexist Italian social fabric in which equality has been achieved. On closer examination, however, it is clear that the Italian school is merely the image of a sexist society which in turn acts as the driving force for a traditional and stereotypical view of male and female roles. This article will discuss this perspective and investigate three areas of education that are problematic in gender terms: gendered educational choices; sexist stereotypes transmitted through textbooks; and the lack of adequate training for teachers.