CHAPTER SEVEN
7.3.1 School Contextual Factors
Pannizzon and Levin (1997) point that since the greater part of a child's day is spent at school, it is reasonable to assume that students' perceptions, values, beliefs and attitudes may be shaped by the school system to a greater extend than normally realised. School contextual factors found in this study to affect fourth form girls' participation and
Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form choice of and achievement in D&T 185 achievement in design and technology subjects included school type and location, school organisation and policy implementation, curriculum effects and resource allocation. These are discussed in the following sections.
(i) Type of school and location. Due to strict zoning of residential areas and schools in Zimbabwe, high SES parents send their children to private high SES and government group A medium SES schools located in the low population density areas of Harare and Masvingo towns. On the other hand low SES parents had their children in rural and high population density urban government group B schools. Socio-economic differences between the types of schools and families were found to affect resource allocation to learners. For example, Riverdale and Telford high SES private schools and Denlow and Gemston government group A medium SES schools were found to have highly qualified staff, well equipped workshops, libraries and classrooms. This
contrasted sharply with Mari and Tembo urban low SES and Mau and Mbizi rural low SES schools which had to make do with temporary, unqualified and lowly qualified teachers in poorly resourced workshops, libraries and classrooms. Mau and Mbizi rural schools were not electrified and students used hand sewing machines in fashion and fabrics and basic hand tools for wood technology and design while Telford, Riverdale Gemston and Denlow high and medium SES schools had modern electric equipment and offered a wider technical curriculum (see table 7.8).
Subjects like music, typing, computers, metal technology and design, technical graphics and design, art and food and nutrition which were offered at medium and high SES schools could not be offered at Mau and Mbizi as well as at Mari and Tembo because of lack of funding, thus affecting all students who might have wanted to take them. Only two design and technology (wood technology and building technology and design) and two technical subjects (agriculture and fashion and fabrics) were offered at the two rural schools (see table 7.8). At Mau, Mbizi, Mari and Tembo rural and urban low SES schools, study participants reported serious problems of materials and
equipment shortages that were crippling the day-to-day running of their design and technology and technical departments. Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture were blamed for inadequate allocation of equipment and material grants to all schools. As one teacher put it:
We don't see Ministry as concerned about the welfare of poor schools at all especially their technical departments. If they cared, they would have reviewed the allocation they give each subject, as the present allocation is simply not enough (MMTT:MGBSM).
Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and achievement in D&T 1 86 Table 7.8
Technical and design and technology subjects offered at eight schools sampled
Technical School
Mau Mbizi Mari Tembo Denlow Gemston Telford Riverdale
F/nutrit
-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
T/graph-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
Comput-V
-V
-V
-V
Art-V
-V
-V
-V
W/techn-V
-V
Mltechn-V
-V
Agric-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
F/fabrics-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
-V
Music-V
-V
-V
Typing-V
Building-V
Bakery-V
W/techn= Wood technology and design, Mltechn= Metal technology and design, Agric= Agriculture, FI fabrics= Fashion and fabrics, FI nutrt= Food and nutrition, T/graph= Technical graphics and design, Comput= Computers,
Design and technology teachers pointed that much as they would like to enrol more girls, there were limited by controlled numbers that could be enrolled each year in each of the subjects because of limited resources. One teacher said:
The lack of facilities and controlled numbers in design and technology subjects deters many students from taking these subjects. Take for example, a subject like wood technology and design which may accommodate only 20 students per session and yet there could be as much as 100 students who want to do it. Teachers in this case tend to choose the best 20 students who are likely to be boys, so girls will be left out (MTGT:MGBSM).
Faced with such a situation, design and technology teachers said they enrolled boys whom they considered as having the background knowledge of the subjects at the expense of girls.
School type differences were also noticed on fourth form girls' choices of careers.
There were four fourth form girls in rural schools who wanted to pursue a career in farming compared to only one from urban schools. This was perhaps because farming was the main pre-occupation in rural environments. None of the urban girls wanted a career in farming preferring more scientific and technological ones (see appendix xxxii).
Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and in D&T 1 87 These results tend to explain the effect of market demands of the rural and urban
environments.
(ii) School organisation and policy implementation. In all the eight schools
sampled in both Masvingo and Harare provinces, male parents and three male design and technology teachers were inherently not supportive of girls' participation and
achievement in design and technology subjects. The twelve girls not taking the subject encountered subtle overtones in schools not supporting design and technology subjects for girls. For example, only Gemston allowed its students to enroll in technical and design and technology subjects of their own choices. In the other seven schools, girls and boys were simply directed to traditional gender specific subjects without any questions raised. Girls were channeled to take food and nutrition and fashion and fabrics while boys took metal technology, wood technology, building technology and technical graphics and design. Contrary to this, Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture Girls in these schools said they ended up taking subjects they did not like because they were just pushed to do them by their respective schools. At Mau one girl said:
It's like when we began form one, teachers selected the subjects for us all. Girls were told to go and do food and nutrition and fashion and fabrics while boys were told to go and do building and technical graphics. (Rute:SMRSM).
A teacher at Tembo school spoke of how the school organised its pupils:
We have a system of allocating classes to subjects first and boys and girls to their respective subjects. Girls do fashion and fabrics and food and nutrition while boys take technical graphics and design, metal technology and wood technology (WTT:TGBSH).
One Education Officer was of the view that separating girls and boys' activities and channelling them into gender stereotypic subject areas happened because there was an aging leadership in most secondary schools whose views were conservatively non generational. He perceived that many school principals had overstayed in their schools to the extent of not accommodating any new and innovative views, preferring to hold on to old ideas and gender stereotypic thinking. The Education Officer pointed out that where progressive voices said gender should no longer be an issue in the selection of students for design and technology subjects, these old principals believed in separate engagement for males and females and stood in the way of any autonomous voices calling for student choice decisions. He commented:
In our schools we have got older leaders who themselves when they went to school, knew these subjects as boys' subjects and others as girls' subjects. So, in
Chapter Seven: Reasons for 4th form girls' choice of and in D&T 1 88 most of the schools, pupils are simply channelled into subjects and of course they will never put girls into boys' subject areas, and that is a fact (EO).
Most fourth form girls supported this view and perceived that teachers did not want to change from the system they themselves went through during their schooldays. As one of the girls put it:
The problem with our teachers is that when they went to school, they were told which subjects to take by their teachers so they don't see anything wrong with that. It never crosses their minds that we have got interests of our own.
(Laura:SMGBSM).
My observation of how school timetables at all the eight schools revealed that the way most school curricula were structured did not allow girls to enrol in some subjects though they would have liked to do so. For example, girls who wanted to study metal technology and design at Denlow and Gemston medium SES schools could not do so as the subject was time-tabled at the same time with food and nutrition which they had been forced to enrol into by the school. As one girl pointed that, "I think the time-table should be more flexible to allow us to do the subjects we want. At the moment if you are
scheduled to do food and nutrition, you cannot do technical graphics and design because they are scheduled at the same time" (Tina:SDGASH).
One teacher at Gemston raised that most of the design and technology and technical subjects were timetabled for afternoon sessions for two and a half hours or more. This deterred most girls because afternoons in Zimbabwe were usually hot and many girls found standing for long periods of time doing practical work most daunting. The subjects themselves extended into the afternoon way after other students had finished school and gone home. This did not appeal to many students. As he put it:
If you look at our timetable, you will notice that our subjects are done in blocks of two or four periods stretch. Considering that our country is hot, some girls may find doing a technical subject for four periods stretch while standing in the
afternoon difficult. School normally finishes at 3 . 1 5pm but when we have four periods in the afternoon our subjects extent to as late as 3 .45pm when all other students would have left for home. Not many students would want to stay another period when others have closed for the day (MWTT:GGASM).
My observation in schools revealed that Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture gender policy on technical education had had little or no effect in influencing greater enrolment and achievement by fourth form girls in design and technology subjects. For one, not many female design and technology teachers had been trained to make any