REFORMS, INNOVATIONS AND APPROACHES USED TO WORK WITH
TEACHERS TO USE THEM AS CHANGE AGENTS AND FACILITATORS OF
GENDER EQUALITY IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES: STRENGTHS AND
LIMITATIONS
Linda Chisholm and Carolyn McKinney
6th June 2003
Introduction: Frameworks and Approaches
Reforms and innovations aiming to work with teachers as change agents and facilitators of
gender equality have varied across time and contexts but appear to be related to the presence
or absence of broader feminist and women’s movements, whether Education for All has been
achieved or not and the nature of the particular approaches and strategies adopted. Particular
strategies focusing on teachers can be strengthened considerably.
The presence of strong feminist movements in the United Kingdom and Australia in the
1970s and 1980s established a social climate within which a range of initiatives were
undertaken focusing on girls’ participation in maths, science and technology, improving
access to gender-specific occupations and creating ‘girl-friendly’ environments in schools.
These have arguably led to a ‘narrowing of the gender gap,’1 although others have
emphasised the emotional complexity of gender reform in schools.2 Equally, the presence of
the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) in the African context has facilitated
initiatives aimed at enhancing girls’ access to and participation in schools, although the
overall successes over time and space need more in-depth study. Strategies adopted within
the developed and developing world contexts can arguably be linked to the broad approaches
used: whether these are focused on girls only or on boys and girls or on boys only. They can
also be linked to whether or not Education for All has been achieved. In those contexts where
access for girls to schools is limited, this issue is emphasised alongside others.
In developed countries, different approaches have been linked to first and second generation
feminisms. In developing countries, they have been associated with either women in
development (WID) or gender and development (GAD) approaches. Although there is
significant overlap in the strategies employed, there are also significant differences. In both
first generation feminist and women in development approaches the emphasis has been
largely on girls and improving the situation of women and girls by addressing the particular
problems that girls face in schools. In second generation feminist and gender and
development approaches, the emphasis has been on relationships between and an emphasis
on both boys and girls. In some second generation feminist approaches, there has been a
major shift towards looking at and addressing masculinities. In recent GAD approaches, on
the other hand, there seems to have been a movement towards dissolving the specific gender
focus into broad-based community approaches in which the gender focus is made visible in a
related rather than direct manner.
1
Madeleine Arnot, Miriam David and Gaby Weiner, Closing the Gender Gap: Postwar Education and Social
Change, (Polity Press: Cambridge, 1999)
2
Jane Kenway and Sue Willis with Jill Blackmore and Leonie Rennie, Answering Back: Girls, Boys and
Feminism in School (Routledge: London and New York, 1998)
Initiatives taken to make teachers change agents for gender equality need to be seen in
context. Gender issues in schools are generally deeply embedded in social values, attitudes
and practices. Changing unequal access to, participation and performance in and outcomes of
schools requires not only that in-school issues and participants are addressed, but also out-ofschool issues and participants in schooling. As a result, teachers have mostly been targeted
alongside other groups, rather than simply on their own. This is especially the case in
developing countries where gender and education programmes tend not to focus exclusively
on teachers, but on schooling more generally, addressing a broader range of participants
including the Ministries of Education, school managers, parents and the community.
Whatever approach is used, results have generally been mixed, sometimes leading to change
and sometimes to resistance. The strengths and limitations of different approaches are
context-dependent and can be examined most clearly in relation to examples of particular
efforts, reforms and initiatives undertaken in particular contexts.
But before examining these frameworks and strategies in different contexts in greater detail,
it is necessary to provide a brief overview of the kinds of issues that have been addressed in
relation to teachers.
Gender Equity and Teachers
Approaches to gender equality in the classroom focus on relationships between boys and girls
as well as the relationship between learners and teachers. They address
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Gender stereotypes, i.e. challenging stereotypical views such as girls being unable to
benefit from secondary education or less able to succeed in mathematics and science
Sexual violence, abuse and harassment – raising awareness of these issues and using
teachers to raise awareness of learners
Differential access to and enrolment of boys and girls in school
Ideologies underlying the curriculum
Curriculum choices – e.g. encouraging girls to take maths, science and technology
subjects.
Teaching styles, including differential attention paid to boys and girls
School organisation and discipline – making schools more girl-friendly
Extra-mural activities e.g. providing sporting opportunities for girls as well as boys
Teachers are critical to all these areas. Teachers can provide role models, a sense of direction
and encouragement to boys and girls or they can denigrate and marginalize them and so
perpetuate stereotypes and particular ways of looking at and discriminating between boys and
girls in the classroom. Gender imbalances exist within the teaching profession itself and are
indicated by negative cultural values and practices resulting in a reluctance to accept women
as educational leaders by both men and women; the refusal by women themselves, because of
lack of self-confidence, to accept leadership roles, as well as existing discriminatory
promotional mechanisms. Teachers can however also become school leaders and managers
and impact on the school as a whole, empower other teachers, use texts to foster gender
awareness and create relationships in the classroom that acknowledge and promote the
participation and contributions of all learners.
Experience in both developed countries (e.g. the UK Girls into Science and Technology
Project, UK) and in developing countries (e.g. Nepal and South Africa3) shows that initiatives
and interventions must frequently work in contexts where teachers often reinforce gender
inequalities in their practices rather than act as change agents for gender equity. Difficulties
in involving teachers in gender equity programmes can be more acute where most of the
teachers are male. This is frequently the case with Science and Mathematics teachers who are
overwhelmingly male in the sub-Saharan African context. Gibbons (1999) writes that there is
a direct correlation between low achievement and participation levels of girls and lack of
female teachers in schools.
Teachers are not separate from the powerful cultural and social norms of their society. In
strongly patriarchal environments, it is not easy to commit and involve teachers in gender
equity programmes. And when they do become so committed and involved, they face
powerful obstacles linked to the power of patriarchal values in determining their lives, careers
and activities.4 This problem is exacerbated by the neglect of gender in teacher training in
many developing countries – again sub-Saharan Africa stands out here. In an attempt to
address this problem, FAWE has set up ‘centres of excellence’ in different countries to build
the capacity of teachers, including courses on gender sensitisation and awareness, training in
gender responsive methodologies and courses in the teaching of science, maths and
technology (FAWE, 2002; see also South Africa case study later in this report).
Reforms and Initiatives in Developed Countries
United Kingdom
The UK has seen a successful closing of the ‘gender gap’ with a significant improvement in
girls’ educational performance, an increase in girls’ entry into traditionally male subjects
such as mathematics, science and technology, up to age 16 and an increase in the number of
girls staying on at school post-16 and entering university5. Arnot, David and Weiner argue
that several factors have worked together to produce girls’ successful performance. The role
of teachers and the feminist movement, and alongside this the changing norms in society,
have had powerful effects. The decentralised system of education prior to the national
curriculum enhanced teachers’ autonomy and sense of professionalism, enabling them to take
initiative in gender equity strategies. Teachers, motivated by feminism, were extremely
active in the 1980s in networking, advocacy and conducting research for as well as
implementing equal opportunities programmes.
These successes are largely attributed to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). The
EOC was set up to support the implementation of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1974 and the
Race Relations Act in 1976. Initially voluntarism drew on committed teachers who could
encourage change from the ‘bottom-up’. It was well-supported by the social justice agenda
of the Labour Party. The Sex Discrimination Act gave teachers legislation around which to
mobilise and gave them the power to challenge their schools on gender policy and sexism.
Several strategies were deployed in the equal opportunities approach.
3
This point is made by Gibbons (1999) in relation to Nepal and by the Gender Equity Task Team Report
(Wolpe et al, 1997) in relation to South Africa.
4
5
Shirley Mahlase, The Careers of Women Teachers under Apartheid (SAPES Books: Harare, 1997)
Madeleine Arnot, Miriam David and Gaby Weiner, Closing the Gender Gap: Postwar Education and Social
Change, (Polity Press: Cambridge, 1999)
Examples of strategies used to involve teachers in the UK context:
GATE – Girls and Technology Education Project (early 1980s)
GATE focused on:
 Improvement of curriculum and assessment in craft, design and technology
 Developing “good practice” in schools
GIST – Girls into Science and Technology (1980 – 1984)6
GIST was an action research project aimed at increasing the participation of girls in science and
technology subjects after these become optional (secondary school focus). Strategies included:
 Workshops with teachers: presenting relevant research; sensitising teachers to their role in
perpetuating sex stereotypes
 Visits to schools by female scientists and technologists
 Curriculum innovations – developing ‘girl- friendly’ science materials
 Classroom observations and feedback to participating teachers
 Providing career information for girls
Substantial publicity was a key to success of the project. It enabled the teachers involved to feel
valued and made the project desirable to those schools and teachers not participating. Problems
experienced with GIST related to teachers’ participation. Many of the teachers were male and many
did not see the under-representation of girls in science as a problem.
Many teachers were also reluctant to re-examine their own beliefs and values regarding differences
between boys and girls. A distinctly uncomfortable message for teachers was that they had been
disadvantaging their female pupils. The project was viewed as generally successful, however,
especially with regard to the apparently increased awareness of teachers on gender issues.
The Schools Council Sex Differentiation Project (SIDESWIPE)7
The Schools Council was formed as a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, local
education authorities (LEAs) and teacher unions. The Council aimed:
 to initiate, support and develop work by groups of teachers in a number of LEAs
 to gather together examples of good practice to be disseminated through a newsletter to schools
and teachers – the Equal Opportunities Resource Centre was formed to co-ordinate this.
Teachers were relied upon to raise awareness of the educational problem of sexism in schools with
other teachers. Because of the resources and institutional framework provided by the Schools
Commission, this was relatively successful. However active teachers were most successful where
awareness-raising was accompanied by institutional support from the schools commission and from
within their schools.
Alison Kelly, ‘Changing Schools and Changing Society: some reflections on the girls into Science and
Technology project’ in Arnot, M. (Ed) Race and gender equal opportunities policies in education Pergamon
Press in association with the Open University: Oxford, 1985)
6
Gaby Weiner, ‘The Schools Council and Gender: a case study in the legitimation of curriculum policy’ in
Arnot, M. (Ed)(1985)
7
Girls and Occupational Choice Project (GAOC)8
This project involved:
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investigation of processes girls of 11-16 go through in making decisions about their future
employment
Action research involving volunteer teachers to develop “curriculum- focused intervention
strategies designed to attack sex-stereotypical occupational choices for both sexes, but centred on
girls” (243).
Positive outcomes of the project included changes in teachers’ attitudes as a result of awareness
raising, as well as a noticeable increase in confidence of many girls who became more outspoken in
class and realised that a range of career opportunities were available to them. Some problems arose
from teachers who did not support positive discrimination for girls. In addition, teachers who were not
involved in the project were sometimes openly hostile to it.
Example of local authority initiative9
This involved the appointment of an equal opportunities adviser who: visited schools, making contact
with head teachers and gaining their support; brought together existing groups of people who had
expressed an interest in the area; and held awareness raising workshops. Three day workshops were
held with senior management in schools (e.g. all heads of primary schools) as a group apart from
workshops with teachers and an EO working group was established in each secondary school.
Several elements led to success in the project:
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provision of the necessary (research) information to prove and support the necessity of EO work
allowing time for the knowledge developed from workshops to sink in and spread before schools
were asked to draw up gender equity policies
showing how changes could be made without impinging on the head’s authority too much
making resources available to teachers
working with head teachers and classroom teachers at the same time enabling a “two way
fertilization process to take place”
Australia
Significant in Australia has been the powerful involvement of feminists within government.
They successfully placed gender equity on the national agenda and pushed for appropriate
policy development and legislation. The Commonwealth Government produced two main
reports, Girls, School and Society (1975) and Girls and Tomorrow: The Challenge for
Schools (1984). This led to the development of a national policy in 1987, The National Policy
for the Education of Girls in Australian schools. After the first report in 1975, most states
developed policy guidelines relating to EO and established Gender Equity Units (GEUs) with
advisory powers. GEUs together with teacher unions have organised conferences on gender
and education and there have been a number of funded gender equity programmes as well as
de-centralised school based initiatives similar to those of the LEAs in UK.
Four different types of gender reform are identified in Australian schools:

Changing girls’ choices (in relation to subject choices and career ambitions)
Lyne Chisholm and Janet Holland, ‘Anti-sexist action research in schools: the Girls and Occupational Choice
Project’ in M.Arnot and G.Weiner (Eds) (1987)
9
Hazel Taylor, ‘A local authority initiative on equal opportunity’ in M. Arnot (1985)
8
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Changing girls themselves (increasing self-esteem, valuing femaleness)
Changing the curriculum (promoting gender-inclusivity and social criticism)
Changing the learning environment (whole school, classroom, policies, school cultures).
Examples of funded projects included:
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1979 School to work transition programme
1983 Participation and equity programme
1986-1988 Girls and Maths and Science Teaching Project (GAMAST)
Kenway, Willis, Blackmore and Rennie10 have examined what happens in schools when
gender reform is attempted and come to the conclusion that feminist teachers need to pay
more attention to the “reception and rearticulation of feminist practices in schools”. They
caution that the emotional aspects of gender reform cannot be ignored; such work often leads
to impassioned support or impassioned resistance: views on gender roles are powerful and
difficult to contest. This complexity needs to be recognised by all gender reformers.
More recently, second generation feminisms have focused on boys and masculinities on the
basis that unless boys change, relationships between boys and girls and men and women will
not change. The expectation for girls alone to change, it is argued, leaves unaddressed the
problematic masculinities which give rise to violent, aggressive and generally derogatory
behaviours towards girls. Connell has suggested that the gender-relevant strategies for work
with boys include “pursuing knowledge, improving relationships and pursuing justice.”11 The
success of these initiatives is as yet largely undocumented. Not unrelated to this has been the
moral panic in the UK and elsewhere about boy’s educational failure relative to girls now that
girls are performing better than boys in some cases.
Reforms and Initiatives in Developing Countries
In contrast with the examples in the UK and Australia, most of the approaches in developing
countries have been top-down initiated by NGOs (such as the Forum of African Women
Educationalists, FAWE) or international organisations in collaboration with the Ministries of
Education. This can have the advantage of increased legitimacy for addressing gender equity
but the disadvantage of programmes being sidelined where individuals in the ministry are not
committed, or are not themselves aware of gender inequalities.
Targeted approaches
An initiative specifically targeted at teachers, but initiated from above was the Gender
Sensitisation and Training Programme conducted in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland,
Tanzania and Zanzibar between 1994 and 1996. It was conducted under the auspices of the
10
Jane Kenway, Jill Blackmore, Sue Willis, S and Leonie Rennie, ‘The Emotional dimensions of Feminist
Pedagogy in schools’. In Patricia F.Murphy and Caroline V.Gipps (Eds) Equity in the classroom Towards
effective pedagogy for girls and boys (Falmer Press and UNESCO publishing: London and Washington D.C,
1996)
Jane Kenway and Sue Willis with Jill Blackmore and Leonie Rennie, Answering back girls, boys and feminism
in schools (Routledge: London and New York, 1998).
11
Robert W. Connell (1996) Teaching the boys: new research on masculinity and gender strategies for schools,
Teachers College Record, 98:2 (206-235)
Commonwealth Secretariat teacher management and support programme and FAWE.
Officials in country ministries of education were targeted.
The synthesis report12 of the training workshops outlined 4 different stages in the programme:
 Recognition of the lack of focus on female disadvantage and antagonism to women’s
issues
 Needs assessment surveys in the participating countries
 Gender sensitisation workshops
 Formulation of objectives for implementation from the workshops.
While significant hostility and resistance was recorded amongst teachers and officials, a way
forward was suggested in the form of the institutionalisation of regional gender trainers in
education. The strength of the approach lies in the focus on teachers, the weakness in the
sustainability of the initiative as a once-off workshop.
South Africa: GAD and HIV/AIDS
South Africa exemplifies the case of the move from GAD to more general approaches which highlight
gender via other issues. In South Africa, gender is now more often than not taken up as part of a
broader focus on HIV/AIDS and/or human rights and social justice.
South Africa has adopted a policy of gender mainstreaming based on the GAD approach. In
accordance with this, ‘gender focal persons’ have been introduced in government departments to
coordinate gender work. Here there has been some but not major targeting of teachers. While a
Gender Directorate has been established in the national Department of Education, its work has mainly
focused on gender violence and sexual harassment and abuse in schools. Work with teachers has been
limited.
Another type of targeted approach is one undertaken by teachers’ unions and associations themselves.
In South Africa, for example, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union has historically had a
gender officer and committee which has undertaken various campaigns and action research projects to
highlight and raise awareness around specific gender issues. The adoption of a GAD approach has
meant that not only women are involved in this work. The initial focus of SADTU in the 1990s was
on creating equal conditions of employment for female teachers (e.g. in relation to salaries and
pensions) and the lack of female teachers in leadership and management positions. The officers and
committees have reported ongoing lipservice and a great deal of internal resistance to dealing with
gender issues.
The focus has now also shifted to the impact of HIV/AIDS on teachers. Gender work is often linked
to this focus and situated within a broader human rights focus. Initiatives are broad ranging and
include:
*
*
*
leading the Education International and World Health Organisation collaborative HIV/AIDS
project with the Ministries of Health and Education,
a survey of the prevalence rates and impact of HIV/AIDS on teachers with the Human
Sciences Research Council and other research partners,
life history research with teachers living with HIV/AIDS, 13
Sheila P Wamahiu, ‘Gender Sensitisation and training Programme: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland,
Tanzania and Zanzibar Phase 1: 1994-1996 (Commonwealth Secretariat Working Group on the Teaching
profession Teacher Management and Support Programme (Nov 1996).
12
*
*
negotiations with the Ministry of Education to ensure that HIV/AIDS becomes a compulsory
part of the core curriculum for Pre Service Training for new teachers
campaigning for more time for Life Skills teaching in the curriculum.
A Broad Approach
As mentioned earlier, approaches in developing countries seldom target teachers as an
exclusive group. Broader approaches thus include teachers within a wider target-group of
participants that might include government officials, community leaders and parents. In such
approaches, the entry point is usually the national ministry of education.
In Tanzania, for example, Stella Bendera14 has explored how gender issues were taken up
comprehensively by a range of interconnected groups networked around gender. The
cooperative efforts of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC), NGOs and women’s
groups at the University of Dar es Salaam and other institutions of higher learning were
extremely significant in reaching out to girls through research, workshops, seminars,
documentation, popular media and drama. Teachers were amongst those who were targeted.
The Ministry of Education and Culture undertook a number of initiatives after 1994,
including a sensitisation programme for senior officials, a curriculum review and
establishment of a Gender Coordinating Unit. The curriculum review of 1997 undertaken by
the Tanzanian Institute of Education and the MoEC aimed to introduce gender and family life
education into the education system. Under the auspices of the MoEC a module, ‘Better
Schooling for Girls’ was prepared and used in teachers’ centres. The module contained useful
training material to promote gender awareness.
NGOs such as the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme played an active role in
lobbying and advocacy. It held weekly seminars for people in government departments, youth
and women’s groups and published Swahili publications to highlight the challenges that girls
have to face. The Forum for African Women’s Educationists (FAWE), launched in 1996, has
also held workshops for a range of participants including educationalists and teachers.
Among the issues considered are physical and sexual harassment in schools, drop out due to
pregnancy and cost-sharing. Another NGO, the Tanzania Media Women’s Association
(TAMWA) has campaigned around issues of direct relevance to girls and female teachers:
violence against girls and women, teenage pregnancy and female genital mutilation. Women
academics at the University of Dar es Salaam have also played a critical role in raising
awareness about girls’ education and developing teachers as change agents. Through their
research projects, publications and courses, they have raised awareness of the problem of
education for girls.
Much of the strength of the Tanzanian initiatives were based in the location of initiatives
within strong women’s movements, and most particularly that of FAWE and university-based
Shermain Manna, ‘The Teachers’ Perspective: The Complex Role of Teaching about HIV/AIDS in South
African Schools’ (SADTU, Johannesburg, mimeo, 2003): Through this work, it is hoped that ‘the collective
voices of teachers, who are the real footsoldiers in this war against HIV/AIDS, will provide the arsenal
necessary to counter the attack against HIV/AIDS’.
14
Stella Bendera, ‘Promoting Education for Girls in Tanzania’ in Christine Heward and Sheila Bunwaree (eds)
Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment (Zed Books: London and New York,
1990)
13
academics. The limitations of the approaches taken here appeared to rest mainly in the
exclusive and thus limited focus on girls only.
Community-based participatory approaches
Efforts to make change agents of teachers in Nepal reveal similar efforts to go beyond
teachers and include the wider community linked to schools.15 Here, top-down donor projects
that at first focused only on girls and women failed dismally. A major problem here, as
elsewhere, is the fact that there are so few women teachers. This factor further disadvantages
girls. Initiatives to address girls’ education had much in common with those in other
developing countries. They included using scholarships as incentives to encourage girls in
most disadvantaged communities to go to school, encouraging more female teachers and
girls’ hostels combined with free textbooks and midday meals. As a result of failures in the
‘women in development’ approach, a broader approach was developed which did not separate
out men and women and boys and girls, but instead treated gender inequalities holistically
within the communities that gender projects sought to address.
The Nepal Secondary Education Project exemplified this broader gender in development
approach. A project of the Ministry of Education in Nepal, it was funded by the Asian
Development Bank and a grant from DFID. This project used in-service teacher training and
regional workshops for the development of locally specific strategies. The latter were by far
the most successful. They involved drawing together participants from parents
representatives from school management committees, teachers, head teachers, teacher
trainers, supervisors and district and regional ministry educational officials. A creative
solution was found to the resistance to addressing inequality in girls’ education from officials,
teachers and parents. While gender awareness was the purpose of the workshops, it was
backgrounded in the title. Even the themes for small-group discussions amongst teachers and
other participants did not focus on gender per se. Policy, the schooling process and children’s
socialization were the main themes but of course issues of gender arose in all of these. The
result of the workshops was extremely positive. Different participants expressed their views
and were heard, issues about gender were articulated and addressed, all in the context of
broader discussions about constraints on secondary schooling. Very different from the
Tanzanian example, the Nepal Secondary Education Project ‘put gender at the heart of all
activities’ while appearing not to do so, and addressing all participants and issues in an
integrated way.
Conclusion
In both developed and developing country contexts, particular reforms, innovations and
approaches have been undertaken in the context of the existence of feminist and/or women’s
movements who have successfully linked up with either international agencies, governments,
NGOs and organised or individual teachers and academics. Approaches have varied
considerably with girls-only focuses having been replaced by a broader gender focus which
in turn has both broadened and narrowed in the direction of community-based or boys-only
approaches. Each has its strength and weakness. Each has experienced resistance, mainly as a
result of strong patriarchal cultural and social norms and values. In general, however, the
success of approaches to working with teachers relies on
15
Mo Sibbons, ‘From WID to GAD: Experiences of Education in Nepal’ in Christine Heward and Sheila
Bunwaree (eds) Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment (Zed Books: London
and New York, 1990)
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The extent to which specific gender dynamics within the country context are taken
into account in planning initiatives
Support from a broader feminist or women’s movement (even if this is small)
Comprehensive programmes (e.g. going beyond once-off awareness raising
workshops in teacher training)
Sustained sensitisation and awareness-raising workshops for teachers, school
managers and education officials
A supportive legal and policy environment which legitimises teachers’ initiative in
gender equity.
References
Arnot, M.(Ed.) (1985) Race and gender equal opportunities policies in education, Pergamon
Press in association with the Open University: Oxford.
Arnot, M. David, M and Weiner, G. (1999) Closing the Gender Gap: Postwar Education and
Social Change, Polity Press: Cambridge.
Bendera, Stella (1990) ‘Promoting Education for Girls in Tanzania’ in Christine Heward and
Sheila Bunwaree (Eds) Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to
Empowerment, Zed Books: London and New York.
Chisholm, L and Holland, J. (1987) Anti-sexist action research in schools: the Girls and
Occupational Choice Project in G.Weiner and M.Arnot (Eds) Gender under scrutiny new
inquiries in education, Hutchinson in association with The Open University: London.
Connell, R.W. (1996) Teaching the boys: new research on masculinity and gender strategies
for schools, Teachers College Record, 98:2 (206-235).
Kelly, A. (1985) Changing Schools and Changing Society: some reflections on the girls into
Science and Technology project in M.Arnot (Ed) Race and gender equal opportunities
policies in education, Pergamon Press in association with the Open University: Oxford.
Kenway, J. (1990) Gender and education policy a call for new directions, Deakin University
Press: Geelong, Victoria.
Kenway, J, Blackmore, J, Willis, S and Rennie, L. (1996) The Emotional dimensions of
Feminist Pedagogy in schools, in P.F.Murphy and C.V.Gipps (Eds) Equity in the classroom
Towards effective pedagogy for girls and boys, Falmer Press and UNESCO publishing:
London and Washington D.C.
Kenway, J, Blackmore, J, Willis, S and Rennie, L (1998) Answering back girls, boys and
feminism in schools, Routledge, London and New York.
Sibbons, Mo (1990) ‘From WID to GAD: Experiences of Education in Nepal’ in Christine
Heward and Sheila Bunwaree (Eds) Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to
Empowerment, Zed Books: London and New York.
Taylor, H (1985) A local authority initiative on equal opportunity, in M.Arnot (Ed.) Race and
gender equal opportunities policies in education, Pergamon Press in association with the
Open University: Oxford.
Wamahiu, Sheila P.(1996) ‘Gender Sensitisation and training Programme: Botswana,
Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zanzibar Phase 1: 1994-1996 (Commonwealth
Secretariat Working Group on the Teaching profession Teacher Management and Support
Programme (Nov 1996).
Weiner, G. (1985) The Schools Council and Gender: a case study in the legitimation of
curriculum policy in M.Arnot (Ed) Race and gender equal opportunities policies in
education, Pergamon Press in association with the Open University: Oxford.
REFORMS, INNOVATIONS AND APPROACHES USED TO WORK WITH
TEACHERS TO USE THEM AS CHANGE AGENTS AND FACILITATORS OF
GENDER EQUALITY IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES: STRENGTHS AND
LIMITATIONS
Linda Chisholm and Carolyn McKinney
19th May 2003
Introduction: Frameworks and Approaches
Reforms and innovations aiming to work with teachers as change agents and facilitators of
gender equality have arisen from the different frameworks used in developed and developing
country contexts. It is important to understand these frameworks as teacher-focused
initiatives have usually been linked to one or more of them.
In developed countries, different approaches have been linked to first and second generation
feminisms. In developing countries, they have been associated with either women in
development (WID) or gender and development (GAD) approaches. Although there is
significant overlap in the strategies employed, there are also significant differences. In both
first generation feminist and women in development approaches the emphasis has been
largely on girls and improving the situation of women and girls by addressing the particular
problems that girls face in schools. In second generation feminist and gender and
development approaches, the emphasis has been on relationships between and an emphasis
on both boys and girls. In some second generation feminist approaches, there has been a
major shift towards looking at and addressing masculinities. In recent GAD approaches, on
the other hand, there has been a movement towards dissolving the specific gender focus into
broad-based community approaches in which the gender focus is made visible in a related
rather than direct manner.
Another difference between the first generation feminist and WID and GAD approaches is
the somewhat different focus of attention in developed and developing country contexts. The
focus in developing countries has been on improving girls’ access to and participation in
education as well as on preventing sexual harassment/abuse. Developed countries have
focused more on increasing girls’ participation and performance in ‘traditionally’ male
subjects, such as mathematics, science and technology. The common issue faced by all
approaches is the complexity of gender issues and attempts to address them.
Different agencies have at different times introduced reforms, innovations and approaches to
address gender equality to teachers. They have included international agencies, governments,
NGOs, teacher unions and individual teachers. In many cases, international agencies, national
governments, NGOs, teacher unions and feminist movements have worked in collaboration.
The success of the innovations has been greater in contexts where there are broader feminist
or women’s movements to sustain them, as well as networks of teachers to initiate and
follow-up on different activities. Mostly the target has been the whole-school population, but
there have also been attempts to target teachers directly. The approach used has been linked
to the framework adopted.
Initiatives taken to make teachers change agents for gender equality need to be seen in
context. Gender issues in schools are generally deeply embedded in social values, attitudes
and practices. Changing unequal access to, participation and performance in and outcomes of
schools requires not only that in-school issues and participants are addressed, but also out-ofschool issues and participants in schooling. As a result, teachers have mostly been targeted
alongside other groups, rather than simply on their own. Whatever approach is used, results
have generally been mixed, sometimes leading to change and sometimes to resistance. The
strengths and limitations of different approaches are context-dependent and can be examined
most clearly in relation to examples of particular efforts, reforms and initiatives undertaken in
particular contexts.
But before examining these frameworks and strategies in different contexts in greater detail,
it is necessary to provide a brief overview of the kinds of issues that have been addressed in
relation to teachers.
Gender Equity and Teachers
Approaches to gender equality in the classroom focus on relationships between boys and girls
as well as the relationship between learners and teachers. They address



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



Gender stereotypes
Sexual violence, abuse and harrassment
Differential access to and enrolment of boys and girls in school and the curriculum
Ideologies underlying the curriculum
Curriculum choices
Teaching styles, including differential attention paid to boys and girls
School organisation and discipline
Extra-mural activities
Teachers are critical to all these areas. Teachers can provide role models, a sense of direction
and encouragement to boys and girls or they can denigrate and marginalize them and so
perpetuate stereotypes and particular ways of looking at and discriminating between boys and
girls in the classroom. Gender imbalances exist within the teaching profession itself and are
indicated by negative cultural values and practices resulting in a reluctance to accept women
as educational leaders by both men and women; the refusal by women themselves, because of
lack of self-confidence, to accept leadership roles, as well as existing discriminatory
promotional mechanisms. Teachers can however also become school leaders and managers
and impact on the school as a whole, empower other teachers, use texts to foster gender
awareness and create relationships in the classroom that acknowledge and promote the
participation and contributions of all learners.
Reforms and Initiatives in Developing Countries
Targeted approaches
An initiative specifically targeted at teachers, but initiated from above was the Gender
Sensitisation and Training Programme conducted in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland,
Tanzania and Zanzibar between 1994 and 1996. It was conducted under the auspices of the
Commonwealth Secretariat, DAE Working Group on the Teaching Profession and FAWE.
The synthesis report of the training workshops recorded significant hostility and resistance
amongst teachers on the one hand and a way forward in such contexts on the other.16 Such a
way forward would include the institutionalisation of regional gender trainers in education.
The strength of the approach lies in the focus on teachers, the weakness in the sustainability
of the initiative as a once-off workshop.
The introduction of ‘gender focal persons’ in government departments to coordinate gender
work is a strategy that has been adopted in South Africa. Much of their work has focused on
mainstreaming gender into policy and departmental work with some but not major targeting
of teachers.
Another type of targeted approach is one undertaken by teachers’ unions and associations
themselves. In South Africa, for example, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union has
historically had a gender officer and committee which has undertaken various campaigns and
action research projects to highlight and raise awareness around specific gender issues. The
adoption of a GAD approach has meant that not only women are involved in this work. The
officers and committees have reported ongoing lipservice and a great deal of internal
resistance to dealing with gender issues. How the success of these internal organisational
approaches is to be evaluated remains a challenge.
A Broad Approach
A broader approach would include teachers within a broader target-group of participants.
In Tanzania, for example, Stella Bendera17 has explored how gender issues were taken up
comprehensively by a range of interconnected groups networked around gender. The
cooperative efforts of the MoEC, NGOs and women’s groups at the University of Dar es
Salaam and other institutions of higher learning were extremely significant in reaching out to
girls through research, workshops, seminars, documentation, popular media and drama.
These targeted, amongst others, teachers.
The Ministry of Education and Culture undertook a number of initiatives after 1994,
including a sensitisation programme for senior officials, a curriculum review and
establishment of a Gender Coordinating Unit. The curriculum review of 1997 undertaken by
the Tanzanian Institute of Education and the MoEC aimed to introduce gender and family life
education into the education system. Under the auspices of the MoEC a module, ‘Better
Schooling for Girls’ was prepared and used in teachers’ centres. The module continued useful
training material to promote gender awareness.
NGOs such as the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme played an active role in
lobbying and advocacy. It held weekly seminars for people in government departments, youth
and women’s groups and published Swahili publications to highlight the challenges that girls
have to face. The Forum for African Women’s Educationists (FAWE), launched in 1996, has
also held workshops for a range of participants including educationalists and teachers.
Among the issues considered are physical and sexual harassment in schools, drop out due to
Sheila P Wamahiu, ‘Gender Sensitisation and training Programme: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland,
Tanzania and Zanzibar Phase 1: 1994-1996 (Commonwealth Secretariat Working Group on the Teaching
profession Teacher Management and Support Programme (Nov 1996).
17
Stella Bendera, ‘Promoting Education for Girls in Tanzania’ in Christine Heward and Sheila Bunwaree (eds)
Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment (Zed Books: London and New York,
1990)
16
pregnancy and cost-sharing. Another NGO, the Tanzania Media Women’s Association
(TAMWA) has campaigned around issues of direct relevance to girls and female teachers:
violence against girls and women, teenage pregnancy and female genital mutilation. Women
academics at the University of Dar es Salaam have also played a critical role in raising
awareness about girls’ education and developing teachers as change agents. Through their
research projects, publications and courses, they have raised awareness of the problem of
education for girls.
Much of the strength of the Tanzanian initiatives were based in the location of initiatives
within strong women’s movements, and most particularly that of FAWE and university-based
academics. The limitations of the approaches taken here appeared to rest mainly in the
exclusive and thus limited focus on girls only.
Community-based participatory approaches
Efforts to make change agents of teachers in Nepal reveal similar efforts to go beyond
teachers and include the wider community linked to schools.18 Here, top-down donor projects
that at first focused only on girls and women failed dismally. A major problem here, as
elsewhere, is the fact that there are so few women teachers. This factor further disadvantages
girls. Initiatives to address girls’ education had much in common with those in other
developing countries. They included using scholarships as incentives to encourage girls in
most disadvantaged communities to go to school, encouraging more female teachers and
girls’ hostels combined with free textbooks and midday meals. As a result of failures in the
‘women in development’ approach, a broader approach was developed which did not separate
out men and women and boys and girls, but instead treated gender inequalities holistically
within the communities that gender projects sought to address.
The Nepal Secondary Education Project exemplified this broader gender in development
approach. A project of the Ministry of Education in Nepal, it was funded by the Asian
Development Bank and a grant from DFID. This project used in-service teacher training and
regional workshops for the development of locally specific strategies. The latter were by far
the most successful. They involved drawing together participants from parents
representatives from school management committees, teachers, head teachers, teacher
trainers, supervisors and district and regional ministry educational officials. Gender
awareness was the purpose of the workshop, but was backgrounded in the title. Even the
themes for small-group discussions amongst teachers and other participants did not focus on
gender per se. Policy, the schooling process and children’s socialization were the main
themes. The result of the workshops was extremely positive. Different participants expressed
their views and were heard, issues about gender were articulated and addressed, all in the
context of broader discussions about constraints on secondary schooling. Very different from
the Tanzanian example, the Nepal Secondary Education Project ‘put gender at the heart of all
activities’ while appearing not to do so, and addressing all participants and issues in an
integrated way.
18
Mo Sibbons, ‘From WID to GAD: Experiences of Education in Nepal’ in Christine Heward and Sheila
Bunwaree (eds) Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment (Zed Books: London
and New York, 1990)
Reforms and Initiatives in Developed Countries
In the UK, teachers were extremely active in the 1980s in networking, advocacy and
conducting research for as well as implementing equal opportunities programmes. Feminism
has been very important in motivating teachers to action and it can be argued that feminism
as a social movement, together with a range of economic, political and social changes have
combined to reduce gender differences in education19. Since the mid- 1980s, there appears to
have been an improvement in girls educational performance, an increase in girls entry into
traditionally male subjects such as mathematics, science and technology, up to age 16 and an
increase in the number of girls staying on at school post-16 and entering university.
These successes are largely attributed to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). The
EOC was set up to support the implementation of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1974 and the
Race Relations Act in 1976. Initially voluntarism drew on committed teachers who could
encourage change from the ‘bottom-up’. It was well-supported by the social justice agenda
of the Labour Party. The Sex Discrimination Act gave teachers legislation around which to
mobilise and gave them the power to challenge their schools on gender policy and sexism.
Examples of projects run under the auspices of the EOC are outlined below.
GATE – Girls and Technology Education Project (early 1980s)
GATE focused on:
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
Improvement of curriculum and assessment in craft, design and technology
Developing “good practice” in schools
GIST – Girls into Science and Technology (1980 – 1984)20
GIST was an action research project aimed at increasing the participation of girls in science
and technology subjects after these become optional (secondary school focus). Strategies
included:
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Workshops with teachers: presenting relevant research; sensitising teachers to their role in
perpetuating sex stereotypes
Visits to schools by female scientists and technologists
Curriculum innovations – developing ‘girl- friendly’ science materials
Classroom observations and feedback to participating teachers
Providing career information for girls
Substantial publicity was a key to success of the project. It enabled the teachers involved to
feel valued and made the project desirable to those schools and teachers not participating.
Problems experienced with GIST related to teachers’ participation. Many of the teachers
were male and many did not see the under-representation of girls in science as a problem.
19
Madeleine Arnot, Miriam David and Gaby Weiner, Closing the Gender Gap: Postwar Education and Social
Change, (Polity Press: Cambridge, 1999)
20
Alison Kelly, ‘Changing Schools and Changing Society: some reflections on the girls into Science and
Technology project’ in Arnot, M. (Ed) Race and gender equal opportunities policies in education Pergamon
Press in association with the Open University: Oxford, 1985)
Many teachers were also reluctant to re-examine their own beliefs and values regarding
differences between boys and girls. A distinctly uncomfortable message for teachers was that
they had been disadvantaging their female pupils. The project was viewed as generally
successful, however, especially with regard to the apparently increased awareness of teachers
on gender issues.
The Schools Council Sex Differentiation Project (SIDESWIPE)21
The Schools Council was formed as a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, local
education authorities (LEAs) and teacher unions. The Council aimed:


to initiate, support and develop work by groups of teachers in a number of LEAs
to gather together examples of good practice to be disseminated through a newsletter to
schools and teachers – the Equal Opportunities Resource Centre was formed to coordinate this.
Teachers were relied upon to raise awareness of the educational problem of sexism in schools
with other teachers. Because of the resources and institutional framework provided by the
Schools Commission, this was relatively successful. However active teachers were most
successful where awareness-raising was accompanied by institutional support from the
schools commission and from within their schools.
Girls and Occupational Choice Project (GAOC)22
This project had two parts:
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
investigation of processes girls of 11-16 go through in making decisions about their future
employment
Action research involving volunteer teachers to develop “curriculum- focused
intervention strategies designed to attack sex-stereotypical occupational choices for both
sexes, but centred on girls” (243).
Positive outcomes of the project included changes in teachers’ attitudes as a result of
awareness raising, as well as a noticeable increase in confidence of many girls who became
more outspoken in class and realised that a range of career opportunities were available to
them. Some problems arose from teachers who did not support positive discrimination for
girls. In addition, teachers who were not involved in the project were sometimes openly
hostile to it.
An example of a local authority initiative on equal opportunities exemplifies the approach
pursued23. The borough appointed an equal opportunities adviser to work with schools. The
adviser visited schools, made contact with head teachers and gained their support; brought
together existing groups of people who had expressed an interest in the area; and held
awareness raising workshops. Three day workshops were held with senior management in
schools (e.g. all heads of primary schools) as a group apart from workshops with teachers and
Gaby Weiner, ‘The Schools Council and Gender: a case study in the legitimation of curriculum policy’ in
Arnot, M. (Ed)(1985)
22
Lyne Chisholm and Janet Holland, ‘Anti-sexist action research in schools: the Girls and Occupational Choice
Project’ in M.Arnot and G.Weiner (Eds) (1987)
23
Hazel Taylor, ‘A local authority initiative on equal opportunity’ in M. Arnot (1985)
21
an EO working group was established in each secondary school. Several elements led to
success in the project:
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provision of the necessary (research) information to prove and support the necessity of
EO work
allowing time for the knowledge developed from workshops to sink in and spread before
schools were asked to draw up gender equity policies
showing how changes could be made without impinging on the head’s authority too much
making resources available to teachers
working with head teachers and classroom teachers at the same time enabling a “two way
fertilization process to take place”
It is extremely difficult to assess change within a devolved system of education such as in the
UK prior to the establishment of the national curriculum. The latter resulted in a wide and
innovative variety of ‘equal opps’ research projects being conducted or implemented in a
context where a single co-ordinated intervention emanating from government was not
possible. The strength of many of these ‘equal opps’ projects lay in the enthusiasm of
volunteer teachers who were already committed to the idea of gender equity. A weakness
may be seen in the tendency to blame teachers for inequality in schools, rather than placing
responsibility for inequity at the door of broader structural and societal sexism.
In Australia, feminists within government have also placed gender equity on the national
agenda. The Commonwealth Government produced two main reports, Girls, School and
Society (1975) and Girls and Tomorrow: The Challenge for Schools (1984). This led to the
development of a national policy in 1987, The National Policy for the Education of Girls in
Australian schools. After the first report in 1975, most states developed policy guidelines
relating to EO and established Gender Equity Units (GEUs) with advisory powers. GEUs
together with teacher unions have organised conferences on gender and education and there
have been a number of funded gender equity programmes as well as de-centralised school
based initiatives similar to those of the LEAs in UK.
Examples of funded projects included:
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

1979 School to work transition programme
1983 Participation and equity programme
1986-1988 Girls and Maths and Science Teaching Project (GAMAST)
Kenway, Willis, Blackmore and Rennie24 have examined what happens in schools when
gender reform is attempted and come to the conclusion that feminist teachers need to pay
more attention to the “reception and rearticulation of feminist practices in schools and that, in
particular, this is the case with regard to its emotional dimensions”.
Four different types of gender reform are identified in Australian schools:
24
Jane Kenway, Jill Blackmore, Sue Willis, S and Leonie Rennie, ‘The Emotional dimensions of Feminist
Pedagogy in schools’. In Patricia F.Murphy and Caroline V.Gipps (Eds) Equity in the classroom Towards
effective pedagogy for girls and boys (Falmer Press and UNESCO publishing: London and Washington D.C,
1996)
Jane Kenway and Sue Willis with Jill Blackmore and Leonie Rennie, Answering back girls, boys and feminism
in schools (Routledge: London and New York, 1998).




Changing girls’ choices (in relation to subject choices and career ambitions)
Changing girls themselves (increasing self-esteem, valuing femaleness)
Changing the curriculum (promoting gender-inclusivity and social criticism)
Changing the learning environment (whole school, classroom, policies, school cultures).
They caution that the emotional aspects of gender reform cannot be ignored; such work often
leads to impassioned support or impassioned resistance: views on gender roles are powerful
and difficult to contest. This complexity needs to be recognised by all gender reformers.
Gender equality and boys
More recently, second generation feminisms have focused on boys and masculinities on the
basis that unless boys change, relationships between boys and girls and men and women will
not change. The expectation for girls alone to change, it is argued, leaves unaddressed the
problematic masculinities which give rise to violent, aggressive and generally derogatory
behaviours towards girls. Connell has suggested that the gender-relevant strategies for work
with boys include “pursuing knowledge, improving relationships and pursuing justice.”25 The
success of these initiatives is as yet largely undocumented.
Conclusion
In both developed and developing country contexts, particular reforms, innovations and
approaches have been undertaken in the context of the existence of feminist and/or women’s
movements who have successfully linked up with either international agencies, governments,
NGOs and organised or individual teachers and academics. Approaches have varied
considerably with girls-only focuses having been replaced by a broader gender focus which
in turn has both broadened and narrowed in the direction of boys-only or community-based
approaches. Each has its strength and weakness. Each has experienced resistance. No
particular approach is thus by definition better than any other. Some work in some contexts
and others in others. All have complex results.
In general, however, the success of approaches to working with teachers relies on



25
The extent to which specific gender dynamics within the country context are taken
into account in planning initiatives
Support from a broader feminist or women’s movement (even if this is small)
Going beyond once-off awareness raising workshops
Robert W. Connell (1996) Teaching the boys: new research on masculinity and gender strategies for schools,
Teachers College Record, 98:2 (206-235)
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