Gender awareness: Kenya's perspective

Mr. Jamlick Bosire

Early Childhood Development & Education specialist.New Horizon Consultancy Services.

ojamlick@yahoo.com

Supporting both girls and boys in their learning.

Objectives 1. To identify gender disparities in

primary schools.

2. To analyze the causes of gender disparities.

3. To suggest possible solutions to gender disparities in your primary schools.

Gender concepts:

1.Sex

2.Gender

3.Gender roles

4.Gender disparities

5.Gender issues

6.Gender stereotype

Sex:

Refers to natural biological characteristics of men and women.

Gender:

Refers to being female, or male.

Gender roles:

These are responsibilities and activities men and women are expected to undertake in the home, work place and in the community.

Traditional gender roles can have an effect on a child’s learning. They can create an imbalance on the work load of boys and girls which can influence how they perform at school. Girls find themselves busy at home most of the time and have less time for studies compared to the boys. The girls also do not have enough time to play.

Gender disparity:Girls and boys perform various tasks. This can affect their school performance and lead to inequality in opportunity between men and women.

Activity:

Take a tally in the number of boys and girls in school to confirm this.

Gender issues:These are factors which affect girls, women, boys and men negatively.

Gender issues affect equality between girls and boys. They include, poverty, early marriages and child labor. These issues need to be addressed if we are to become developed nations.

Gender stereotype:A stereotype is a fixed impression, opinion or belief which is applied to a group of people or individuals within the group. For example: it is a stereotype that women belong to the kitchen, boys are better than girls, boys are good in sciences and math subjects than girls etc.Children growing up in such communities may hold such stereotypes which may eventually affect their academic performance.

How can you change this attitude which is negatively affecting women in

Kenya?In some communities for instance there are beliefs that:

A loved wife must be beaten.

Uncircumcised girl is undisciplined.

A home without a man is like a corpse without a head.

Think about your experiences. Do you feel like you were being treated differently because of your gender? Was the treatment negative or positive? What do you think members of the other gender felt about you being treated this way?

Note If you received negative treatment as a

female perhaps it helped to reinforce the male feeling of superiority. On the other hand if you received a positive treatment, do you think it may have been to the disadvantage of the other gender?

Gender disparity in primary schools

Enrolment:

There is gender disparity in primary school pupils’ enrolment. Some schools have more girls and some have more boys but reaching class eight, there are more boys than girls who sit in their K.C.P.E examinations.

Drop-out rate:There are more girls than boys who drop out of school in some regions while more boys than girls drop out in other regions.

Classroom interaction:Gender disparities can occur in classroom participation.

Girls may participate better in subjects they feel they should perform well in, e.g. Home science, unlike boys who have been brought up to believe cooking is girl job. On the other hand boys will dominate in mathematics, science where they feel confident and think it is a male subject.

Some communities and religious groups encourage girls to sit away from boys. If women do sit amongst men they are not expected to contribute to discussions. Children are aware of such cultural requirements from very early on.

In some communities girls have been made to believe that they are not as clever as boys and to seek guidance and leadership from boys. This gender disparity is carried to class hence boys dominate classes in such cultures.

Do you ask girls and boys different types of questions? Why?

Our own attitude as teachers and expectation of girls and boys participation influences the way they participate in class.

Performance:

Even performance in subject projects may vary. Due to gender roles in society, girls tend to opt for Home science and C/RE oriented projects while boys go for projects in Math, Science and Music.

Gender disparities in learning resources

Teaching/learning resources may bring gender disparities in learning. This is particularly in gender stereotyping in students’ and teachers’ books.Think for example of the Home science books. Pictures in these books depict women carrying out typical tasks around the home. In other text books men are usually portrayed as superior to women in many ways.

Causes of gender disparities:1.Socio-economic factors

2.Socio-cultural factors

3.Biases in resources

4.Teachers’ attitude and classroom interaction

Socio-economic:The high cost of education and our deteriorating economy has reduced the income available to families. This makes it difficulty for families to educate their children. In communities where girl’s education is not particularly valued, poverty can further aggravate their lack of access to education.

Parents with scarce resources choose to educate their sons instead of their daughters.

Socio-cultural:• Many parents and community members may

feel that educating girls is a waste of time and money, as they will eventually be married off so that their education will only be of benefit to their husbands and the family they marry into.

• Some parents also believe that is their sons who will take care of them in old age. To ensure that their sons are well equipped to take such responsibilities, they take them to school leaving girls.

• Some communities believe that its men who are supposed to take care of the families. To such communities, its needless to educate girls.

• Some communities view schools as places where girls’ morals can be corrupted because of the amount of time they spend with boys.

• The long distances that girls may travel between school and home also worries some parents

Teachers’ attitude and classroom interaction

You, as a teacher, will have your own attitudes and expectations about your male and female pupils. These will be influenced by your upbringing, as well as by society. These attitudes may be reflected in statements such as:“Girls are not as bright as boys”“Boys are better in sciences and math than girls”“Girls simply don’t work as hard as boys”

Note:Classroom setting is very crucial. You need to analyze and address it in order to create an enabling learning environment for both girls and boys.Girls may often not answer questions as quickly as the boys. This is not because they do not know the answer, but because their socialization does not allow them to take the risk of being wrong.

• Girls need more time and patience from you, so that their confidence can be built. They especially need confidence developed in subjects considered to be for males, e.g. math and sciences.

• Boys may need more time to answer questions in traditionally female subjects.

• The problem may e aggravated by the fact that female teachers, who in most cases teach English, may be less interested in boys who are not good in language comprehension.

• Similarly, male teachers who mostly teach applied subjects may be less interested in the girls they think are not good in practical subjects.

The school environment:

Physical facilities available to both boys and girls may have a great impact on their learning.

There are many ways we can make the school environment more gender friendly, especially in the provision of facilities and participation in school clubs.

Another issue in relation to space is lack of separate toilets/latrines and harassment of girl pupils by boys.

Solutions to gender disparities1. Use of role models:

A role model can be a person of either gender who is successful in their career or job, school subject, or as a parent or community leader. Some community leaders, including chiefs, counsellors and church leaders can be effective role models.

2. Gender sensitization:

Through discussions during parents’ day, the school can take the opportunity to discuss gender disparity to discuss gender disparity in education.

3. Guidance and counseling:

Girls need to be guided to prevent getting pregnant and dropping out of school.

4. Making the school gender friendly:

An attractive environment can encourage both boys and girls to stay in school. Think of ways of encouraging girls to participate in as many games and clubs as possible. You may think of starting gender club in the school.

These are some of the streams of thought and many others you may think of.

Stream of thoughts

Summary we have considered how to promote equal learning opportunities for both boys and girls and how you should reduce gender disparities in your school. You can begin to do this through role models, gender sensitive teaching approach and classroom interaction. Parents can also be gender sensitized through talks by role models, drama and poems by the pupils.

References: Kyriaiou, C. (1996); Effective teaching

in school “Theory and practice” Stanley thorn Ltd.

Skelton C. (1989); Whatever happens to the little women. Open university press.

Weiner G. (1985); Just a punch of girls. Open University press.

THANK YOU