Shifting Discourses of Gender and Education in Global Policy Talk

• In Event: Using discourse and ethnographic methods in gender-focused comparative and international education research

Proposal

Based on discourse analysis of girls’ education specifically, and gender and education more generally, this research reveals a variety of ways that gender is framed in educational policy, as revealed in policy documents from 1995 to the present from multiple organizations and entities. Early on, the work was focused on instrumental concerns, namely arguments that justify educating girls, and barriers to education and strategies for overcome those barriers. The use of metaphors in this era of policy talk reveals ways of thinking that are unique to that era. Later, the policy talk shifted away from metaphors that seems to be designed to convince readers, to measurement and accountability concerns such as improving the data on girls in school relative to boys, and monitoring progress. This era reflects the strengthening of the MDGs and EFA, and the requirements to assess progress. With the current shift from the MDGs to the SDGs we also see another shift in education policy language. Overall, we see several key shifts in the policy discourse and how it engages gender over time and within specifical institutional contexts.

Author

• Karen Monkman, DePaul University