Issues of Inequality in Education: Gender Equality on School Development

downloadDownload
  • Words 2016
  • Pages 4
Download PDF

Introduction

Background of the Study

Gender and education have become a popular component of mainstream development dissertations over the past era. In such a short period, the attention, goals, application, and observing procedures of gender and education have changed rapidly. Though conceptions of gender and education have focused on uniformity and a ‘get girls into school’ repetition, analysis has shifted the academic and strategy discussion on the topic (King et. al., 2007; Miske et. al., 2010). As with the shifting discussion on gender and education in the progress situation, it is thought that it is significant to evaluate whether development is being made as fast as some global and native strategy may lay claim. If they are not, it is essential to inspect the dialogue in which the subject is being enclosed and investigate whether this discourse has consequences for the victory of gender resourcefulness in education. In the shifting scenery of gender and education, discourse presents itself as an extremely influential and dominant factor. In that situation, a hypothetical outline of current gender mainstreaming discourse analysis (Miske et. al., 2010; Kabeer, 2015; Unterhalter, 2016; among others) will be used. In the situation of this extensive discussion, and this research, discourse represents a system of demonstration (Hall, 1997, 72) as a way of ‘constituting knowledge together with social practices’ (Weedon, 1987, 108).

It is extensively acknowledged that teachers’ insights, practices, and teaching are active in permitting the new generations for alteration. Teachers are viewed as role models who set good models through their behavior – the words they speak and the actions they do in and outside school. Pupils, especially in their performance development phases, tend to compete with the behavior and physical responses of the teachers as they spend most of their school time with teachers. The worth scheme learned in this period play a fundamental role in forming in the adult mind (Hussain, 2005, p. 30). The teacher’s whole personality is revealed in the minds of the students. If the teacher treats all equally without discriminating against any gender and leads a qualified life with honesty and fairness, the children adopt these human qualities as ideal behavior unconsciously, which in turn contributes to forming a fair social world for girls (Ritzer, 2000), because feminism is for everybody (Hooks, 2000, p. viii ) and it prevents from risking human development as the simple but comprehensive message ‘ human development, if not engendered, is endangered’ has already been provided by the Human Development Report 1995.

Click to get a unique essay

Our writers can write you a new plagiarism-free essay on any topic

In education, gender equality is generally understood as overcoming obstacles to equal admission and success in schooling for girls and boys (Aikman, Unterhalter, & Challender, 2010; Subrahmanian, 2005). Nevertheless, debates have widened the space from gender parity to gender equity and equality. Functional equality, on the other hand, focuses on instruments for confirming equality of result by keeping in mind that gender inequality is a result of the unequal authority relations between men and women, which is duplicated preferring the dominant group through the use of their ethnic principal (Bourdieu, 1977). Global research exposes widespread gender discrimination in educational situations. Researches and studies have shown that teachers treat boys differently from girls; recognizing them more willingly and giving them more care (Mushi, 1996, Colclough, 2004, Kimbal, 2003, Ifegbesan, 2010, Gunawardena, & Jayaweera, 2008, Sadker, 2008, Terry & Thapa, 2012). As a result, even parity has not been accomplished in education.

The dominant male-controlled system and prejudice against the females other than males are observed as the fundamental reason for discrimination and segregation ensuing in inequality between boys and girls in schools. Educators say that the purpose of education is to duplicate inequalities through the reproduction of the dominant ideology, ideological domination (Giroux, 1983, Bourdieu & Passer, 1990; Bourdieu, 1977a, 1977b, 1990, as stated in Poudyel, 2007). As reproduction theorists, most feminist concepts also view education as an essential part of the male-controlled system – a system that analytically puts women at a hindrance, which not only places women in secondary positions but instructs the dominant philosophies of femininity and masculinity (Abbott & Wallace, 199, p. 83, as cited in Measor & Sikes, 1992) so that girls learn to be subordinated and boys to inferior. Teachers play a vigorous role in this process; the Lebanese education system is not an exception to this.

Consequently, no matter how many programs have worked against this prejudiced approach, belief and practice remain intact. As a result, women are still regarded as missing the potentials of leadership (Bista, 2001), are considered the property of others, are a family load, and investment in girls is thought to be waste without any return (DEO, 2007). Nevertheless, there are no enough concentrated efforts that address dominating misunderstandings and no important communities prepared to encourage the view that women are as capable as their male colleagues (Bista, 2001; Khaniya, 2007). As a result, gender stereotypes continue to be recognized even in curriculum and textbooks. While teaching, teachers are apt to favor boys in their classroom communication by paying them more attention than girls (Terry & Thapa, 2012).

Gender inequality in education is less about the registration of girls in school, as global discourse proposes than what is being taught (Velasco, 2014). For example, Velasco claims that it is the curriculum that is a large zone for development, as it can be labeled as ‘gender blind’ (2014, 38). Velasco concludes that this is because of socio-economic and old-fashioned ethnic prejudices that are rooted within the system of education itself. Nonetheless, it is claimed that this can represent a neo-colonial and transformation argument, linking the ‘lack of development’ to culture. Regardless, lack of quality is seen as a key deterrent of parents sending girls to school, which shows that gender equity and education is a complex issue in Lebanon, with numerous effects such as family values and the gendered division of labor.

Purpose of the Study

In Lebanon, worries about growing the number of girl children and female teachers in schools have been elevated, and various efforts have been made to attain gender parity in education. However, as mentioned earlier there is little inquiry into the perceptions and practices of teachers about gender equality. This is vital because it is through teachers’ knowledge, attitude, and practices that these ideas are officially conveyed to a new generation. The accomplishment of equality in education depends not only on children’s admission to the school but how and what gender standards are established in the classroom and conveyed or transformed while teaching by teachers. In Lebanon, teaching is the profession which reaches the most people, as the government has established schools in every area to ensure the right to education as preserved in Lebanon, to achieve responsibilities made locally and globally in gender equality in education.

Teachers play a significant role in the building and renovation of children’s approaches, principles, and practices through the spread or renovation of customs and standards. The thought of ‘gender equality’ which has been recognized worldwide has yet to be made known to most people in Lebanon. This belief of gender equality can be made known in a sustained way only through education in general and through teachers in particular. This develops possible only when the teachers understand the current idea and put it into practice in teaching and their daily transactions. Therefore, it is commanding to understand teachers’ insights to find out whether their views are in line with modern ideas of gender to allow them to help students in saving themselves from the traditional concepts that legitimize discrimination based on biology. This is vital especially because the idea of gender discrimination is rooted in teachers’ nerves as they are the product of educational institutions formed by the societal forces that spread gender‐based discrimination (UNGEI, 2012, p. 3). Education systems are both a result of external forces and instrumental in preserving or applying gender equality. However, unless teachers are armed with up-to-date understanding and abilities, they may not able to cherish gender equality in education in a practical and continued way. Thus, this study can serve two purposes. First, it will help to stimulate teachers further to the concepts of gender equality. Second, it can notify developers and policymakers about teachers’ opinions and practices on gender equality to address gender inequality concerns in teachers’ training programs. Besides, due to political change, the possibilities for speedy gender equality are huge. Universal and historically fixed male-controlled cultural practices are being unfavorably inspected, questioned, and discussed for change, mainly through the resourcefulness of evolving feminist and human rights activists, intellectuals, academicians and the global community. The pressure to bring about such a transformation is powerful and enormous. As the achievement of equality in education is one of the prerequisites for understanding equality in other domains of life, this type of perceptual and practice-related study is important for bringing about the perceptual change and change in practices that are required for supporting change that happened in the people’s movement in Lebanon. Last but not least, this study is vital to speeding up the development towards accomplishing gender equality at all levels of education.

Martha Nussbaum writes, ‘Education is a key to all the human capabilities’ (Nussbaum, 2004: p: 17), and when looking at the mission of developing human competences after the destruction of an armed battle, the important role the development of the education sector plays in the rebuilding of a country is clear. Mendenhall fights that education plans in many post-conflict settings can be termed ‘policy bricolage’ (Mendenhall, 2009: p. 182). The policy bricolage – a variety or patchwork of plans – is included in the local reconstruction efforts. This truth makes a clear education plan a true challenge, especially for stimulating gender equality in places where historically there has not been any. This thesis suggests how we can learn more about local conditions in a way that can encourage more effective and just national gender equality plans.

Finally, education is needed to be effective in the modern world. It is also important to self-awareness, self-identity, and self-development. Without it, mankind is reduced to instinct and the kingdom of animals. With it, males and females can improve their lives and learn about one another and the world. More specifically, education for females is important because it helps them unlock and develop their potential. Educating females in Lebanon has substantial returns and in most cases exceeds the returns on males. However, there are challenges to obtaining an education. Some of the challenges that females face in obtaining an education are the same for males, but, in the case of females, the challenges are more difficult because of mysterious custom and male-controlled preference. While such studies by expert organizations, patrons, and policymakers have shown that education for females in Lebanon is important and has many benefits associated with education, they have, however, failed to show the many challenges that females in the developing world face in the process of attaining a formal education. While this paper takes it as a given that education is valuable and worth pursuing and having, its purpose is to study the challenges that females face in obtaining an education in developing countries and to investigate the international efforts to address those challenges. Because of space and time constraints, this paper cannot cover every challenge to female education in developing countries. Instead, it tries to elicit the major challenges by studying problems in a select group of the state that is representative of developing nations, a sort of cross-section of modernizing states.

Research Question:

Regarding the discussion above, both genders are affected by the way they are treated. The question is: What is the impact of gender equality on school development?

Gender inequality in education likely affects education indirectly, through different channels by increasing the life span of the population and increasing social cohesion. However, one possible channel that has not been widely explored is educational outcomes. Gender inequality in education may hurt educational outcomes, which in turn will hurt economic growth. There are many ways in which this might happen. There will also be inequality in society as a whole, which would mean that there aren’t many opportunities for them to be successful in life.

image

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy.