Leveraging education for power and protest: Evidence and practice from a systematic review and projects in Bangladesh, India, and Zambia

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

"Education is the foundation of a just society. It is through education that we can challenge and dismantle oppressive systems." - bell hooks

Education holds intrinsic value and is also a powerful lever for social progress. Schools are where we learn the fundamentals of being citizens: about civics, rights, government, and history, through which we learn to understand the roots of justice and inequality. Even when education systems do not teach these things, education may nonetheless be an antecedent to people learning about their rights or equality from other sources. Quality education teaches us the skills we need to thrive and to build a better world, from reading to writing to thinking critically. Schools can instill values of equity, compassion, kindness, and humility and foster norms of gender equality, inclusion, and non-violence. Schools have also often been settings where collective action is inspired, activated, or organized.

Empirically, educational attainment has been associated with greater political knowledge, increased support for democracy, greater political participation, increased likelihood of peaceful protest, and greater tolerance (UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, 2013/4). Causal studies provide a more nuanced understanding of this pathway. For example, Le and Nguyen (2021) use the exogenous changes in educational years induced by compulsory schooling reforms to identify the effects of educational attainment on political engagement in 39 countries. They find that while educational attainment does not increase the likelihood of voting in elections or the likelihood of a position in the left–right political spectrum, it does significantly increase political interest and political knowledge, and fosters supportive attitudes towards political freedoms (Le and Nguyen, 2021). An analysis of data from Africa finds evidence suggestive of a causal link between education levels and protest, and that the link is particularly strong in more authoritarian settings (Dahlum and Wig, 2019).

Yet not all children have access to school, do not have the support they need to stay in school, or receive adequate education to pass minimum standards. Therefore, while education remains one of society’s foremost tools for transferring knowledge, building skills, and leveling the playing field in employment, political participation and leadership, too often it does none of these things. Instead, it can replicate privilege and inequality and leave behind the poor and marginalized. Education can include, and it can exclude. We need a better understanding of the ways through which education directly, or via supplemental empowerment-based life skills programs, can foster the skills and perspectives needed for advocacy for a more just and equal world.

In this panel, we will share evidence and practice from low- and middle-income countries to further illuminate how education may impact civic engagement and protest, and what skills and approaches hold promise. Specifically, findings from a systematic review will explore which education indicators – including literacy, numeracy, and attainment – are causally associated with precursors or enablers of protest such as agency, participation in community groups, and more equitable gender attitudes. Second, data from a randomized controlled trial in Zambia will explore whether there is a causal relationship between learning – literacy, numeracy, non-verbal reasoning and reading behavior – with girls’ confidence to speak out. A third presentation will focus on key features and practice-based learning from the civic participation module of a gender-transformative curriculum implemented by a large local NGO in India. Finally, secondary analysis of data from a four-arm randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh will explore the association between empowerment – including the most empowered, who were mobile, socially active, and socially progressive – and learning (literacy and numeracy) and the ways in which the two domains of skills interact.

Sub Unit

• Gender Justice SIG

Chair

• Nicole Haberland, Population Council

Individual Presentations

• Causal Mechanisms Linking Education with Agency, Gender Attitudes, and Participation in Groups - Fatima Zahra, Population Council

• Gender-transformative curricula to foster social change in India: The case of Breakthrough’s civic participation module - Sunita Menon, Breakthrough Trust; Nicole Haberland, Population Council