Influence of gender norms and school quality on children’s educational participation

• In Event: External Influences on Education in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia

Proposal

Empirical research on factors which influence children’s educational participation have demonstrated ways in which a variety of national-level, community- level, and family-level variables influence children’s school enrollment. This is due in large part to a search for generalizable large-scale solutions to children’s school absence. Using Whitsel’s (2009) framework, this work investigated the role of community factors play in children’s school participation, highlighting ways in which gender norms and school quality interact. To demonstrate this, I utilize fieldwork data collected from 2006-2013 in Tajikistan. The data were collected in a variety of projects following the conversational partnership model of Rubin and Rubin (2011). Data collection, storage, and analyses connect to the theme of the conference. All data were digital and all analyses were completed using computers.

The data shows that indeed gender norms and school quality factors interact in particular ways to affect educational outcomes. For example, parents value girl’s safety because of norms relating to chastity and having enough teaching staff to monitor teenage school children becomes a concern for parents. I also find variance in the data as parents account for individual children’s aptitude and preferences for schooling which demonstrate the role individual children play in advocating for their own schooling. This work helps develop the field because often the factors are considered in isolation. There is a long history of research on gender norms, as well as school quality, but this work illustrates a unique interaction between the two fields.

Author

• christopher whitsel, North Dakota State University