Transforming Gender Norms through education: evidence and entry points

• In Event: Protesting Societal Norms for Sustainable Girls’ Empowerment through Education

Proposal

Schools are widely acknowledged as sites where inequitable gender norms can both be reinforced and contested. They are thus one of the most strategic spaces for pro-gender equality actors concerned with shaping young people’s perspectives at scale. In recent years anti-rights actors have recognised this, and increasingly targeted gender equality and sexuality education curricula, lobbied for the removal of progressive education ministers and officials, and sought to ‘capture’ school governance systems. In this context, understanding how pro-gender equality advocates can better embed actions with demonstrated effectiveness is critical.

Despite enhanced efforts over the past two decades to promote more gender-equitable norms through education, knowledge about ways of doing so effectively at large-scale is scattered and has not been effectively synthesized. This is particularly the case for approaches that seek to embed change within education systems, as opposed to assessments of the impact on gender norms of specific curricular initiatives. A growing (though still small) body of literature now discusses the impacts and challenges of initiatives integrating gender equality content into sexuality/ personal and social education, positive masculinities programming and school-based GBV prevention programmes. By contrast, studies exploring the impacts and dynamics of initiatives working with teachers, education leaders, and/or reforming learning materials are much fewer.

One reason for the absence of consolidated insights on large-scale initiatives to embed gender equitable norms is methodological: it is easier to measure learning from particular courses than from system reforms. Another is the lack of a widely used framework for conceptualising the spaces within education systems with scope for enhanced action to transform inequitable gender norms and the different strategies that may be needed in each. Further, insights from the world of policy and practice and from academic studies rarely reference one another, meaning that opportunities for deeper learning about effective change are being missed.

Based on a review of academic and grey literature spanning diverse world regions that is currently in progress, this paper outlines a framework that focuses on the dynamics of reforms in four key spaces: education sector planning; teacher professional development; curriculum, learning materials and assessment, and gender-equitable school environments. It will synthesize insights from existing evaluation evidence in each of these areas and from studies of the political economy of change in education, including the roles of committed political leaders, civil society activism, teachers, students and external funders.

In sum, this paper aims to present a framework to advance thinking about how to achieve systemic shifts in gender norms through education systems, and solicit feedback from CIES participants. It is also intended to frame the discussion in the following two papers in the panel.

Author

• Daniel Mark Waistell, Cambridge Education