Gender and Education within East Africa and the Caribbean
This is a new series of 4 projects linked to the Centre for Commonwealth Education.
The first project focuses on girls in East Africa. Whilst there are a number of studies discussing the economic, social and cultural factors that prevent girls from completing their education in many sub-Saharan African countries, much less is known about the factors that can keep girls in school and ensure that they have quality education. Our central research question is therefore: what keeps girls going to school against the odds? Working with colleagues from the Universities of Kampala and Nairobi, together with partners from FAWE and UNICEF, we are currently engaged in an initial pilot study investigating the experiences of girls who stay in school, and seeking to understand the factors which encourage their attendance, the school, family and community factors influencing their participation, and the role of peer pressure. Initially working with four schools in each country, it is envisaged that this pilot study will be followed by a larger study including a wide range of schools across Kenya and Uganda.- Linked to the first project, we are also working with colleagues in Kenya and Uganda on a study of the paths of academically successful women from poorer backgrounds. This research will comprise interviews with women who have themselves completed their education against the odds and who now have successful careers in law, politics, business or education, for example. Findings from this project will therefore complement those from the research with girl children in the first study, particularly because in both projects we are interested in the idea of role models and mentors within the family, community or school, and the part they may play in influencing participation in education and subsequent life paths.
- A third project involves working with colleagues in Tanzania, where we have completed an initial study of teachers’ knowledge and understanding of gender within the Masters programmes at one teacher education institution. Initially devised at a Round Table Conference held in Zanzibar in July 2008, this project to date has included questionnaires to two cohorts of students, and also focus groups with students participating in a specialised gender course. Currently the team is reviewing and revising the questionnaire in order to use it more widely with teachers across East Africa.
The fourth project was conceived during a conference in Jamaica in May 2009 on ‘Boys at Risk’, sponsored by the World Bank and Commonwealth Secretariat. Concern was expressed over the situation of rising numbers of boys and young men in Caribbean countries, with a pattern of disengagement in education, dropping out of school, non-participation in the labour market, anti-social and criminal behaviours, and increasing suicide levels. In response, this small-scale initiative involves working with the Ministry of Education in Antigua on a research and intervention project to identify the factors which lead to boys’ disengagement with school and to promote strategies to raise their participation, achievement and enjoyment in education. The project began with a conference in Antigua in October 2009, at which a pilot study was conceived and agreed. This is now in its initial stages.
Collaborators
- Dr Alicia Fentiman, Dr Susan Kiragu and Mr Mike Younger, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
- Dr Robinah Kyeyune and Dr Alice Tuyizere, University of Makere, Uganda
- Professor Lucy Kibera, University of Nairobi, Kenya
- Dr Jane Rarieya and Dr Mweru Mwingi, Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Irmin Durand (FAWE, Kenya) and Emmanuel Kamuli (UNICEF, Uganda)