COLLEGE PARK, MD (May, 2014) CHSE's International Education Policy program is concluding a three-year research project on the social, economic, cultural and institutional factors that account for the underrepresentation of women as secondary school teachers in sub-Saharan Africa. Led by Drs. Steven Klees, Jing Lin, and Nelly Stromquist in collaboration with the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) an NGO comprised of current and past female educators that operates in thirty-two countries this study connects its findings with policy recommendations, helping FAWE to develop national action plans.
Funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundation, and the UBS Foundation, the research project took place in Tanzania, Uganda, and Togo. These three countries share low female participation in education from 7% to 27%. The study's germinating concern is girls' limited access to education in sub-Saharan Africa, especially at the secondary level. Young women in these countries face several obstacles to receiving an education: school fees, long distances to school, lack of facilities, the absence of counselors, and early pregnancies. Poverty often motivates parents to depend on their daughters' labor, marry them off (sometimes early or forcibly), or send them away.
Another telling issue is the lack of role models. Research shows that the presence of women as teachers is instrumental to girls receiving an education. Klees, Lin, and Stromquist found that in addition to the challenges common to all teachers in these countries low salaries and social status, poor support and working conditions, and limited career advancement female secondary teachers face such challenges as lack of accommodations and health care for their families, sexual harassment, and extreme difficulty in balancing demands at home and work.
Klees, Lin, and Stromquist characterize this as a vicious cycle: few women graduate from high school, so few become secondary schoolteachers, meaning that there are few positive role models for a new generation, who in turn seldom graduate. Breaking this cycle in large part requires lifting people out of poverty. And to do that, these countries need the international community's help which, to some extent, is a matter of governments in the developed world honoring their international agreements. The researchers note a cruel contradiction: thirty years of worldwide attention to the education of girls has been counteracted by a concurrent history of growing barriers to hiring and retaining teachers. The need is greater than ever for us to renew our investment in public education.
Steven Klees is the R. W. Benjamin Professor of International and Comparative Education. His work examines the political economy of education and development, with specific research interests in globalization, the role of aid agencies, human rights and social justice, the education of disadvantaged populations, and the role of class, gender, and race in reproducing and challenging educational and social inequality. Dr. Klees has authored many journal articles and book chapters and, with Dr. Stromquist, co-edited The World Bank and Education: Critiques and Alternatives. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics and Public Policy from Stanford University.
Jing Lin is a professor in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education. She has done extensive research on peace education and environmental education; among her books in this field is Transformative Eco-Education for Human and Planetary Survival. Dr. Lin has also published five books on Chinese education, culture, and society that systematically examine educational changes in China over the last three decades. She received her Ed.D. in Educational Foundations, Administration and Policy Analysis from the University of Michigan.
Nelly Stromquist is a professor in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education. She studies globalization, gender, and adult education policies and practices from a critical sociological perspective. Dr. Stromquist is the author of Education in a Globalized World: The Connectivity of Economic Power, Technology, and Knowledge and co-editor of Globalization and Education: Integration and Contestation across Cultures. She holds a Ph.D. in International Development Education from Stanford University.
-end-
For more information on the College of Education, visit: www.education.umd.edu
or contact
Halima Cherif, Director for Communications, at: hcherif@umd.edu