Erin Stern with Alice Clarfelt 21,22
4.8 Gaps, lessons learned and future priorities
Many educational interventions that seek to promote gender equality have not been evaluated. There is a particular dearth of in-depth qualitative research and longitudinal studies to provide causal explanations or assess the sustainability of interventions over time (Unterhalter et al. 2014), or how they influence the gendered experiences of students, teachers and educational outcomes (Levtov 2014). More qualitative indicators, such as measuring perceptions and expectations regarding the treatment of girls and boys, are required to paint a more accurate picture of the lived experiences of girls and boys at school and to explain processes of change. In particular, a deeper understanding is necessary of how schools and processes of learning can reproduce and transform gender inequalities and how gender equality educational efforts with boys influences girls’ empowerment. Evaluation data should be disaggregated by other grounds of discrimination including class, age, sexual orientation, disability and ethnicity (Kosciw, Bartkiewicz and Greytak 2014), in order to cater educational policies and practices to the needs of marginalised and disadvantaged young people. Additional research is also needed on the effectiveness of specific content and pedagogy in teacher training around gender, and how to create and sustain
gender-transformative educational environments (Levtov 2014). Questioning and changing gender attitudes and behaviours needs to be rigorously monitored to assess evidence of desired change (Bhata et al. 2015).
Many educational experts have indicated that there ought to be a shift beyond gender parity, a reflection of achieving gender equality in education, towards addressing the issue in a more comprehensive manner (Bhana et al. 2009; Unterhalter 2014). In a review of the international literature on gender equality and education, Unterhalter (2014) found that more studies were concerned with the expansion of girls’ education than with aspects of
empowerment and, more broadly, gender equality. This review highlights the necessity of paying more attention to the gendered processes of teaching and learning, and to consider how schools can powerfully assist in the reconstruction of gender identities and inequalities.
Overall, there is a need for a more contextualised understanding of young people’s gendered experiences at school, particularly for boys and young men where we have less information, to provide a stronger foundation for gender-equitable education efforts among youth in school environments. As Bhana and Pattman (2009: 69) assert:
Currently, we know very little about the world inhabited by young adults, how they see themselves, what they wish for, their desires and passions, their fears and the ways in which the performance of masculinities and femininities are constructed, how it is advantageous and how it can inhibit other potential experiences and how it is vulnerable to disease.
This review also indicates the need to not only work at interpersonal levels with students, but to also address school environments to transform gender relations. Areas of concern at the school institutional level are how to mainstream gender equality within all levels of the education system, particularly through education sector policies and school curricula. A greater understanding of successful strategies and approaches to engage parents and community members including faith communities within the education system is needed.
Organising school and community-based meetings and campaigns to engage with
community-level stakeholders and religious leaders is a notable strategy (Plan/ICRW 2015).
It is further necessary to understand the opportunities that the school settings may afford for the provision of psychosocial support, and to explore different pedagogical approaches to education that adopt a more equitable teaching-learning experience.
This review reinforces the call for gender equality efforts to comprehensively eliminate violence in schools against girls and boys, and the conditions that deny boys and girls quality and safe education (Unterhalter 2013; Letov 2014; Sen 2013). Suggestions for this include establishing national- and school-level policies and codes of conduct prohibiting violence, clear procedures and sanctions to effectively address violence that does occur, and training programmes for violence prevention including teacher and bystander interventions
(ICRW/Plan 2015; Levtov 2014). Social taboos and fear of repercussions hinder
opportunities for children to acknowledge and report experiences of school-related gender-based violence (UNESCO 2015). Referral systems offering legal, social and psychological support should exist in school environments to support reporting and responses (Bhata et al.
2015). Implementing school policies condoning a positive disciplinary climate can enable appropriate teacher–student relations (Levtov 2014). Part of effective violence prevention at schools entails the reconstruction of harmful norms of masculinity that are equated with demonstrations of violence and power in relationships. Given that boys appear to have more rigid and stereotypical attitudes, sessions will need to be regular, intensive and supported and evaluated.
The United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI 2013) highlighted the limited data and research on the nature, scale and consequences of sexual violence in schools at the global level, as well as evidence on the best programmes and policy approaches to address this issue. More research is also needed on how addressing violence can keep boys and girls in schools, and on boys’ experiences of violence at schools, including sexual violence.
Additional research is needed to understand the conditions that encourage gender-based acts of bullying, particularly in developing countries, as well gender-disaggregated
experiences of bullying (UNESCO 2015). Accurate gender-disaggregated data are needed to monitor changes in schools’ use of corporal punishment, and forms of discipline that
discriminate by gender (UNESCO 2015). Overall the review indicates a particular dearth of efforts and evaluation of gender-equitable education interventions and policies with boys and young men, including how this influences girls’ empowerment in school settings.
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