Designing Effective Education Programs That Promote Gender Equality in Education - Digest

Acknowledgments

USAID commissioned this document, First Principles: Designing Effective Education Program that Promote Gender Equality, through the Educational Quality Improvement Program 1 (EQUIP1), with the American Institutes for Research in cooperation with CARE.

First Principles: Principles: Designing Effective Education Program that Promote Gender Equality was developed under the guidance of Suezan Lee, former USAID AOTR of EQUIP1; Yolande Miller-Grandvaux, current AOTR of EQUIP1; Pamela Allen, Director of EQUIP1 at AIR; and Cassandra Jessee, AIR Deputy Director of EQUIP1.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the USAID, particularly Julie Hanson Swanson, whose input during the development process was invaluable. Feedback, excellent criticism, and suggestions on improving the material have been provided by Ginny Kintz, Joyce Adwola, Diane Prouty, and Cassandra Jessee. Editorial support was provided by Holly Baker and design support was provided by Becca Simon and the AIR Design Team.

Introduction

Investing in education is seen as one of the fundamental ways nation states and their citizens can move toward long-term development goals. Given the essential role that education plays in the economic, social, cultural, and political development of individuals and societies, promoting gender equality ensures that the opportunities and benefits that come with an education are available to both boys and girls in developing countries. USAID's 2011 Education Strategy recognizes gender equality as a strategic principle and affirms gender integration as necessary for strong strategies and programs. When designing education programs, projects, and activities in support of the new strategy, USAID will consider the gender issues affecting girls and boys, and young men and women, and develop interventions to address these issues during implementation. For the past two decades, the focus on access has driven the discussion on girls' education and has overshadowed the real goal of parity, which is to provide girls with a quality education that offers them the same opportunity and advantages as boys.

This digest is a complementary reference to other tools and guidance to help education officers recognize and respond to gender issues in their work. It provides guidance in support of gender integration in education strategies, development objectives, and projects and activities. The digest encourages USAID staff to think about gender equality in education holistically, in terms of access, parity, quality, and relevance, and to challenge gender norms and attitudes that often perpetuate gender inequality in societies.

5 Key Principles for Promoting Gender Equality in Education

The following Five Key Principles for Promoting Gender Equality in Education can serve as a tool for education programmers. These principles will help ensure that education projects meet the needs of all learners. Using an approach that takes into account the relations and interaction between males and females (also known as gender dynamics), the key principles for equality in education are equality of access, equality in the learning process, involvement of men and boys, effective policy, and multiple entry points.

1. Achieving equality requires attention to access, quality, and relevance.

Over the years, education has focused on access and parity—that is, closing the enrollment gap between girls and boys—while insufficient attention has been paid to retention and achievement or the quality and relevance of education. Reaching parity in enrollment is necessary, but not sufficient, for achieving equality and should be considered a "first stage" measure of progress toward gender equality in education (Subrahmanian, n.d.). Narrowly looking at enrollment figures has created the notion that if boy and girls are getting into school at the same rates, gender issues in the classroom simply do not exist and should be neither investigated nor addressed. To get beyond these assumptions, which put educational success at risk, USAID developed the Gender Equality in Education Framework, which has four dimensions: equality of access, equality in the learning process, equality of educational outcomes, and equality of external results.

Creating opportunity through learning entails carefully considering the disadvantages and unfair treatment that students experience in each dimension of the framework. Equality of access means that girls and boys are offered equitable opportunities to gain admission to formal, non-formal, or alternative approaches to basic education and should be reflected in any education program. Equality in the learning process means that girls and boys receive equitable treatment and attention and have equal opportunities to learn. It requires that boys and girls be unconstrained by traditional gender roles and norms to learn, explore, and develop skills in all academic and extracurricular offerings. Equality of education outcomes means that girls and boys enjoy equal opportunities to achieve outcomes based on their individual talents and efforts. To ensure fair chances for achievement, the length of school careers, academic qualifications, and diplomas should not differ on the basis of a person's sex. Mechanisms for evaluating individual achievement should also be free of any gender bias. Finally, equality of external results occurs when the status of men and women, their access to goods and resources, and their ability to contribute to, participate in, and benefit from economic, social, cultural, and political activities are equal. This implies that career opportunities, the time needed to secure employment after leaving full-time education, and the earnings of men and women with similar qualifications and experience are equal.

By analyzing gender issues through this framework, USAID education officers will be more effective in producing results that will contribute to human development, broad-based economic growth, and democratic governance.

2. Gender equality and educational quality are inextricably linked.

An education system that is inequitable and discriminatory cannot be considered of high quality. Dimensions of educational quality that have an impact on equality include curriculum content, teacher-student relations, and the safety and security of the learning environment. Research has also shown that girls seem to be more sensitive to school quality than boys and that the quality of teachers has a greater impact on the demand for girls' education than for boys' education (Kane, 2004). Curriculum and instructional materials need to be reviewed for inherent (although possibly unintended) bias against women and girls and other at-risk groups. An education system must ensure that everything is reviewed through a gender filter or lens. This becomes particularly important as Information Communication Technologies (ICT) becomes a more common instructional tool with immediate feedback loops and individualized instruction. In addition, without specific efforts to address ICT and education, this technology can further isolate and work against women and girls (Sanders, 2005 and Colley, 2010).

Moreover, as education systems adapt and change to respond to male and female learners, they begin to demonstrate more gender-equitable social norms that relate to greater gender equality in society. For instance, education systems that promote female voices on school boards, that share work burdens between girls and boys, and that accommodate physical spaces for girls and boys (such as separate latrines) make important statements in society about the value of women's voices, the role of men and boys in work, and the worth that is attached to girls' safety and health. These actions reinforce a quality school experience and gender-equitable norms in society (Schumann, n.d.). This is a powerful tool in achieving gender equality because of the extensive presence of schools in even the most remote parts of a country.

3. Addressing gender issues involves working with girls and boys, men and women.

Education programs have opportunities to be transformative in society, not only because of the benefits that come with greater numbers of girls achieving in school but also because of their ability to affect power dynamics between boys and girls and men and women. Any program that seeks to effect change in gender equality in education should support interventions both in the classroom and within the communities in which the program is being implemented. Such an approach includes developing activities that reinforce school-based activities to address gender discrimination in households as well as in communities. Reaching out beyond the school to influence the gender dynamics that are played out in homes and society is essential for bringing about any long-term meaningful change.

For example, a project may identify that boys are encouraged to show their power through physical violence, that women have little voice in governance systems, or that girls face unequal chore burdens. These characteristics of society are often manifested in school systems through corporal punishment and bullying among boys, little participation of mothers in school oversight activities, and insufficient time for girls to complete homework assignments. With attention to the relationships between boys and girls and men and women, education projects can start to address the underlying causes of these social norms, bringing about systemic, transformational changes that affect not only children in the classroom but also the root causes of gender inequity (EQUATE, 2008a).

4. Effective gender strategies in education programs include the policy environment.

Key to achieving sustainability in promoting gender equality in education is the institutionalization of gender-equitable policies. An education program should seek to ensure that gender concerns are identified and addressed at the highest level of decision making through the development and implementation of gender-equitable policies. Otherwise, many of the gains achieved in classrooms and communities may be undermined when policies do not reinforce gender-equitable practices.

To achieve gender-equitable policies, it is important that there be meaningful consultation and participation with all levels in society (by both sex and age) in the policy-making process. In addition, the key to the institutionalization of gender-equitable polices is to ensure that policies and interventions—no matter what sector—specifically address gender equality as a development outcome. Several policies are commonly used in response to gender (for example: pregnancy and reentry policies). As important as these gender-sensitive policies are to ensure that systems are responsive to female education professionals and to the education and school-based needs of girls, it is equally important for policymakers to be aware that any policy has the potential to have negative consequences on gender. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a review process in place that examines all policies for gender impact and serves as an early warning system to identify unintended negative consequences. This process should be accompanied by a mechanism for making modifications to counterbalance any unintended negative results (Tietjen, 1991 and Aikman, 2005).

5. Multiple entry points exist to promote gender equality in education program design.

In any education program, myriad entry points exist for addressing gender inequalities in education. These include activities that address enrollment policies and practices, curriculum relevance, teacher deployment, learning environments, security, new technologies, or resource allocation, among others. Effective programs will carefully select which entry points to use and base their selections on sound analysis and a clear understanding of the relative state of each of the facets of gender equity and education described in Principle 1. Sound educational plans select these entry points and sequence them in a way that will bring about enhanced educational outcomes and the greatest chance for sustainability.

It is essential to remember that sometimes more is not always better. Focused, thoughtful approaches that can gain traction with policymakers and government systems stand to bring about the most dramatic gains in educational outcomes and sustainable change in education systems.

4 Steps for Promoting Gender Equality in Education Programs

Listed below are the four steps for designing and implementing education programs that support gender equality, including long-term planning, development objectives, and projects and activities.

1. Conduct a gender analysis.

Gender analysis is effective in identifying, understanding, and describing gender differences and the impact of gender inequalities on education at the country or project level. Gender analysis is a required element of strategic planning and project design at USAID and is the basic foundation on which gender integration is built. Gender analysis examines the different but interdependent roles of men and women or boys and girls and the relations between the sexes. Gender analysis identifies disparities, investigates why such disparities exist, determines whether they are detrimental, and, if so, looks at how they can be remedied. A gender analysis will provide the data needed for the five principles outlined previously. It is important to identify change agents to collaborate with who appreciate and value the need for a gender analysis, understand the principles relevant to a gender analysis, and are in a position to be a catalyst for change. It is not sufficient to just identify a group of women to lead this process who are assumed to be "right" solely on the basis of their sex. It is important to understand that women can be as gender biased as men.

USAID's approach to gender analysis is built on two key questions, which have been adapted in this paper for education programs. Sub-questions are also included here to guide the reader in his or her analysis.

How will the different roles and status of girls and boys, men and women in the community, school, and household (for example, roles in decision making and different access to and control over resources and services) affect the work to be undertaken?

• Do boys' and girls' different roles within the household influence how decisions are made? For example, do parents prioritize educating their sons over their daughters?
  
• Do teachers treat boys and girls differently in the classroom?
  
• Are learning outcomes different among boys and girls?
  
• Does the curriculum reinforce traditional gender roles?
  
• Do men and women participate in school management differently?
  

The purpose of this question is to ensure that (1) the differences in the roles and status of males and females are examined and (2) any inequalities or differences that will impede achieving program or project goals are addressed in the planned work design. The different roles, responsibilities, and status of boys and girls in school as well as within the community and household must be addressed. It is important to remember that male and female community members, teachers, and government officials will also be engaged by the program, and the consequences for these groups should also be carefully considered.

How will the anticipated results of the work affect males and females differently?

• Will promoting men's participation in the project undermine or support women's empowerment and autonomy? How have similar projects in the past affected gender dynamics within the classroom and the community?
  
• Will girls' increased educational participation cause higher household burdens for women? Will a father's engagement in getting girls in school mitigate this risk?
  
• Will school management responsibilities for women have an impact on community power dynamics? Could there be any unintended negative consequences?
  

The second question calls for another level of analysis in which (1) the anticipated programming results are fully examined to discern the possible different effects on girls and boys and (2) the design is adjusted as necessary to ensure equitable and sustainable program or project impact. For example, a project may identify the need to increase the recruitment and deployment of female teachers, but if the teachers have not received training in gender-sensitive pedagogies, they may reinforce in the classroom many of the gender inequities that exist within society. Education programs and activities must take into account not only the different roles of boys and girls and men and women but also the broader institutional and social structures that support them.

As part of the gender analysis, sex-disaggregated quantitative and qualitative data can provide the empirical foundation for the analysis. Data can be collected by reviewing secondary sources in a literature review and by using qualitative and quantitative survey methods that gather information directly from stakeholders. While examining these sources of information, in addition to the general guiding questions above, program planners should be looking at specific trends:

• Analysis of sex-disaggregated data and information.
  
• Assessment of roles and responsibilities/division of labor.
  
• Consideration of access to and control over resources.
  
• Examination of patterns of decision making.
  
• Examination of the data using a gender perspective (that is, in the context of girls' and boys' gender roles and relationships).
  

In general, all gender analysis approaches should examine the representation of boys and girls and men and women in education, how resources are distributed, and why these differences exist, particularly for individuals whom are in decision-making positions. It may also be useful to examine the historical and contemporary social context relevant to education to understand gender differences.

2. Integrate findings from the gender analysis into solicitations.

The solicitation documents for both contracts and grants/cooperative agreements/annual program statements (APS) have similar requirements for addressing gender issues. Although the contracting or agreement officer is responsible for ensuring that gender is integrated into the procurement request and the corresponding technical evaluation criteria (or that a rationale is provided for not addressing gender), the education officer should be prepared to take the lead in crafting the solicitation so that it adequately incorporates findings from the gender analysis described in the previous step. To do this effectively, the following should be considered:

• Statement of Work and Project Deliverables (RFP) or Program Description (RFA): The background description should include findings from the gender analysis and include a thorough description of how current efforts have supported or neglected gender. The statement of work and the project deliverables or program description should state areas where gender is to be addressed and lay out expectations for how learning will be incorporated into the policy environment. Specific mention of actors (parents, students, teachers, policymakers) and the behavior or attitudes around gender that the project seeks to change should be clearly articulated.
• Key Personnel Qualifications: Key personnel qualifications should include knowledge and experience in analyzing gender dynamics. Specific areas to consider, depending on the content of the solicitation, are experience developing or supporting gender-sensitive policies, ministry support, or capacity building around gender issues; experience designing or delivering gender-sensitive content (including instructional materials, curriculum modules, and others) with teachers or in classrooms; and experience assessing and reflecting on underlying causes of gender inequity with communities.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Requirements: At a minimum, the M&E section should require gender-disaggregated data and reflect a strong orientation toward sharing and reflecting on results with populations in an effort to transform gender relations.

3. Monitor project implementation to ensure appropriate attention to gender.

Once the project has been awarded, the education officer has a responsibility to see how gender is being incorporated into the project on an ongoing basis. Regularly reviewing and discussing gender-sensitive indicators and sex-disaggregated data with the implementing agency are essential. These activities should look for the following:

• How the different roles and status of boys and girls within the school as well as the community and household (for example, access, retention and completion rates; learning outcomes) affect the activities to be undertaken
• How the anticipated results of the work would affect boys and girls differently

The education officer can help direct the project to collect both qualitative and quantitative data to determine the impact of proposed or already implemented projects on policies and practices that affect boys and girls. He or she can also monitor how well capacity building is being provided to various stakeholders in an education program, such as community members, teachers and school administrators, civil society, and the Ministry of Education, depending on the context. Capacity building may take different forms, including formal training, experiential learning gained from participation in processes, and mentoring. While monitoring the quality of this capacity building, the education officer should return to the gender analysis that was done in the first step to see whether opportunities to address root causes of gender inequity are being maximized.

Asking pointed questions and supporting the project to connect to different levels of government to share innovation and learning around gender (or other aspects of the project) are important roles of the education officer.

4. Disseminate lessons and promote learning.

When a project comes to completion, evaluation data will help pinpoint learning from the project. Careful attention to gender at this stage is important for maximizing the benefit of the project. A careful review, a specific reference to gender in the terms of reference for an evaluator, and a request for close out reports that include an analysis of how the project affected the aspects of the gender analysis will aid in ensuring that learning takes place and is fed into the next project cycle.

Challenges and Limitations

The challenges and limitation highlight some of the problems encountered when addressing gender considerations in education. Challenges can continue to occur even when all the aforementioned principles and suggested steps are followed.

1. Viewing quality through a gender lens.

There is still work to be done to gain widespread understanding of how educational quality and gender equity are linked. Educational quality is not gender neutral or gender blind. On the contrary, a quality education environment is highly aware of gender dynamics and reacts aggressively and flexibly to accommodate all learners. An education system that discriminates or marginalizes students because of their sex or gender cannot be considered a quality system (EQUATE, 2008b).

2. Leveraging the transformative power of education for gender equality.

Not all actors in the education sphere see their jobs as influencing gender equality. Instead, they view their role as improving the mechanics of teaching and learning—pedagogy, school governance, or educational content. Indeed, sometimes actors in the education sphere hesitate to press too far into activities that appear to be culturally based or too tangential to improving learning outcomes. This hesitation squanders an opportunity to use the classroom as a setting both for improving learning and for advancing social change. Through its gender policy, USAID recognizes the virtuous cycle that is created when both ends are considered.

3. Understanding that gender equality in education entails more than an exclusive focus on girls.

Gender in education is often identified as a focus on girls, which can lead to their further marginalization in education systems. Discrimination applied in education systems affects both girls and boys during and after their educational experiences. As a result, gender and education must be understood in terms of the learning needs of boys and girls. Understanding gender equality in education must be a process and an outcome that take both men and women and boys and girls into consideration. An attention to gender involves examining the roles, relationships, and dynamics between male and female teachers and male and female students and the impact these roles, relationships, and dynamics have on their needs, what they do and how they spend their time, their access to resources, their ability to participate and make decisions, and the power relations between them.

4. Length of commitment.

As with addressing any social construct, change in gender norms and practices takes time to take root and grow. As discussed elsewhere in this digest, a good contextual analysis will show multiple entry points and multiple needs around addressing gender in education projects. Often, addressing these needs requires patience and persistence over time. Continuity in approach, thoughtful sequencing of issues, and building of the commitment of actors to take on gender issues requires time. As with any development intervention, project cycles may not always be sufficient to ensure that the sequencing of change has enough time to take root. As a result, it is important to be conscious of building strategies to sustain gains in gender equality between projects. This may include working intensively with ministries to monitor or incorporate key interventions of a gender-sensitive program or supporting civil society actors to build capacity around gender analysis and appropriate practices so that they can take up innovations through their ongoing programming.

5. Locating and supporting champions.

Education projects that effectively address gender require individuals and organizations that are willing to challenge the status quo, both within communities and within government circles. Finding the champions for gender issues and ensuring that they are well resourced and incorporated into the project can take time and political capital. Too often, staff in nongovernment organizations or in ministries of education bring to a project their own gender bias that may limit their ability to be effective advocates for change. This problem can be combated by seeking out and building strong partners within government, as well as well-networked local organizations. USAID can support further buy-in and interest in gender work by sharing powerful data and examples from other countries. In addition, solicitations can be written to include a strong capacity-building focus and reflective mechanisms within projects that encourage people to consider their own gender bias.

These activities are particularly important when working in communities that are highly resistant to any changes in gender dynamics. In the past decade, the "easy" gains have been achieved in access for girls. Those girls who remain out of school are the more difficult cases. Many girls are excluded from education for a number of reasons, such as living with a disability or being particularly economically disadvantaged. In addition, the social and economic rate of return argument for sending girls to school is less persuasive among community leaders in some of the most conservative and highly resistant communities. Girls who live in communities that are extremely conservative and where strong taboos exist about their participation in school present a particularly difficult challenge. Their participation demands the utilization and conceptualization of different kinds of information gathering and partnership approaches with those who block their participation and different incentives to communities to get the girls enrolled and retained in school.

Suggested Indicators of Success

Indicators must, of course, be specific to the type of project developed, but they should include not only the standard measures of school enrollment, retention, completion, and transition to upper levels, but also factors affecting educational quality and equality.

Sex-disaggregated results data.

It is important to have a sense of the relative impact that projects are achieving for boys and girls. Relative impact should be considered both from the starting point and with a view to how well the project targets specific needs for girls and boys. For example, if at the start of the project, pass rates were 50 percent for girls and 70 percent for boys, a successful gender sensitive project would see pass rates for girls increase at a rate greater than those for boys. For this reason, sex-disaggregated data are essential for all expected intermediate result areas. These data may include enrollment, attendance, or completion rates, disaggregated by sex, as well as functional numeracy or literacy or other achievement measures, disaggregated by sex.

Factors affecting educational equality.

These factors also should follow the design of activities for each specific project. Examples are listed here to help education officers consider what kinds of interventions can have an impact on gender.

• Proportion of female teachers.
• Proportion of teachers trained/sensitized to gender issues.
• Incidence of gender insensitive behavior in a classroom.
• Incidence of harassment/insecurity in schools, disaggregated by gender.
• Quality and quantity of hygiene facilities.
• Proportion of schools with female leadership involved in school management.
  

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