Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on New Trends in Teaching and Education
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Gender and other inequalities in secondary education in post-conflict Sierra Leone: exploring the experiences and outcomes of girls in schools
O’Bai Conteh
ABSTRACT:
It has been almost two decades following the end of the civil war (1991 – 2003) in Sierra Leone. While the country has made tremendous progress in rebuilding public services including education, it is still struggling to rebuild an all-inclusive educational system as a key element of post-conflict reconstruction. During the civil war, women and girls faced extreme and extensive forms of violence and abuse. For instance, thousands of women and girls were systematically abducted and abused by all parties to the conflict (Maclure and Denov 2009). Rape and other forms of violence were used as ‘weapons of war’ (Marks 2013). As a result, post-conflict educational reconstruction has been underscored as a ‘…key opportunity to rectify endemic discrimination against women by fostering the promotion and protection of women’s rights’ (Maclure and Denov 2009 p.613). It is assumed that post-conflict educational reconstruction reforms educational institutions and facilitates gender equity. Further, Maclure and Denov (2009) argued that post-conflict educational reconstruction is seen as a driver for ‘…contesting gender-related disparities and enhancing the overall status of girls and women’ (p.612).
Unlike the above assumptions that post-conflict educational reconstruction ushers in transformative policies that seek to contest gender-related disparities and promote the rights of women and girls, post-conflict educational reconstruction in Sierra Leone has promoted blatant gender disparities and failed to capture the goal of gender equity, because of ‘…deeply-seated institutional and cultural constraints that exist within systems of education and in the broader social contexts that affect educational structures and processes’(Maclure and Denov p.613). Against this background, this research explored pervasive gender inequalities propagated by a gendered school system that has exacerbated education inequity in post-conflict Sierra Leone and produced negative effects on the retention and attainment of female students in schools. The analysis focused predominantly on gendered experiences of schooling in the southern region and its intersection with other social identities such as socio-economic status, region, ethnic-traditions, sexuality etc. and track how it has shaped classroom practices and produced gender-differentiated patterns of retention and attainment.
What this research does is broadened the in-school research knowledge by focusing on investigating the gendered process of learning, everyday formal and informal in-school interactions, cultures and practices and the intersection of gender with other social identities like sexuality, SES, Location and Traditions. I tracked how these new directions of knowledge influence girls’ performance, retention, and attainment. Therefore, a detailed qualitative ethnographic study was conducted in a secondary school from the southern region of the country to explore gendered experiences and their intersecting inequalities in everyday schooling. This is to understand the gendered institutional life of the schools and as far as possible do this through the voices and perspectives of those within the school, especially the girls. This encompasses a range of institutional conditions and practices including gender bias in textbooks and teaching practices, the hidden curriculum, school-related gender-based violence, and social norms and practices as well as the under-representation of female teachers in secondary school education. In concert with other researchers, I found out that the school as a social institution where teachers and students interact contributes to the production and reproduction of regulated and normalized gendered practices, power relations, and identities. I also found out that the intersection of identities, especially gender, social class, ethnic traditions and location influenced the schooling experiences and outcomes of girls. For instance, a girl from a poor household residing in communities outside urban areas in Sierra Leone are characteristics that has created power relations of inequality.
keywords: Post-conflict, Intersectionality, Secondary Schooling, Gender, Inequality