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Gender and Education for All
THE LEAP TO EQUALITY |
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| Box 1.3. Gender, education and citizenship | |
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Nation-states have particular ways in which they shape young people as citizens. Some countries, based upon egalitarian and socially inclusive principles, have educated all children within a common school system, with the aim of assimilating social, ethnic and cultural/religious differences. Other societies have segregated, or differentiated the education received by different groups of children – either to recognize differences or, more negatively, to exclude certain categories in society. In all these contexts, education plays a key role in shaping future citizens’ identities and lives.
The wish to transmit core values (or ‘citizen virtues’) across social groups in order to help unite members of a community has to be balanced against the need to provide them with diverse skills and knowledge, in preparation for economic life. Some education systems have prioritized national values and cultures through an emphasis on patriotism and key national institutions. Socialist countries have emphasized the importance of schooling in creating social equality and collectivity. Western European liberal democratic approaches have tended to focus on the development of individual potential. These principles change with shifts in societal values. However they all point to the key role of education systems in nourishing citizenship.
Normative models of the male and female citizen are learned as children progress through the levels, hierarchies and processes of the school.
| | School rituals (assemblies, uniforms, celebrations), forms of discipline, relationships between teacherand pupil, and curriculum content, all help to shape male and female citizen identities. School staffing structures represent to pupils the principles of the social order. These normative models are not always conducive to the promotion of greater social equality. Ideally, learning environments should model democratic principles in all their aspects. If girls are able to learn, through schooling, that they can be in control of their own lives, they will be more likely not just to perform well but also to engage in political issues when they become adults.
Achieving full citizenship status for men and women is not a single event. Attention needs to be focused on how male and female civic participation can be encouraged through styles of teaching and learning. Opportunities are needed for both boys and girls to achieve a sense of agency – of being in control of their lives and of the social environment in which they are located. Boys tend to be offered more chance to negotiate their identities in school, whereas girls can be constrained by an overly protective environment. This difference can be expressed by the amount of physical, linguistic and pedagogic space taken up by boys in mixed classrooms and schools: much of the ‘action’ in schools is male. Girls and boys each need encouragement to experience the possibilities of human action, and they should be allowed to participate fully in the learning experience without fear of intimidation, violence, marginalization or silencing.
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Source: Arnot (2003); see also Heater (1990); Gordon et al. (2000).
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