Gender-responsive teaching and learning: building inclusive and equitable quality education

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Frameworks for measuring gender-responsive and equitable education

Proposal

In the wake of the widely acknowledged progress through the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) 2000, millions of children are still out of school, school quality in many countries is still lacking, a myriad of evidence on school-related gender-based violence continues to emerge; societal norms hinder progress toward equity, and major challenges still confront the international community in enacting every child’s right to an inclusive and equitable quality education. At the same time, the Sustainable Development Goals now present an ambitious, and perhaps the most balanced, set of access and quality goals for education and gender yet. The SDGs challenge States to increase both access (targeting the poorest and most vulnerable people, including girls) as well as quality of learning experiences and outcomes. The Incheon Declaration’s vision for education is described as “transformative” in many ways – transforming lives of all individuals, communities, and societies; education agendas; education itself; the world; public policies; education systems; and education’s contributions to the fulfillment of human rights, peace, responsible citizenship, gender equality, sustainable development, and health (UNESCO, 2015).

Gender-responsive teaching and learning (GRTL), referred to in some contexts as gender-responsive pedagogy, is emerging as a critical dimension of enacting high quality education to achieve desirable and sustainable learning outcomes. The concept of GRTL needs to be clarified and elaborated further, however, to elicit a commitment and action from governments, international development organizations engaged in education, as well as schools, teachers, and communities.

This presentation provides an update to two literature reviews completed prior to end of the MDG implementation in 2015 (Miske, 2013; Unterhalter et al, 2014). It includes recent research from the global South about gender-responsive teaching and learning; how GRTL is currently defined, described, enacted, and evaluated; and what implications the reviews have for achieving the SDGs related to education and gender. This work also examines the research on school improvement and educational system change to identify insights related to school improvement efforts that are sustainable beyond one single set of international goals.

This presentation draws on insights from the literature reviews to propose a conceptual framework that articulates, situates, and contextualizes GRTL in critical components of teaching and learning and of learning outcomes, as well as in educational systems themselves. The authors will solicit comments from roundtable participants about the draft framework, which is intended to demonstrate to various audiences, including ministries of education, international development organizations, schools, teachers, education administrators, and students the developmental processes of moving from teaching and learning that ignores or overlooks issues of gender to one that is gender-responsive, transformative, and sustainable in both schools and societies.

Authors

• Jan Westrick, Valparaiso University & Miske Witt

• Shirley J Miske, Miske Witt & Associates Inc.