Session Information
WERA SES 04 D, Gender “Matters” Internationally in Education
Paper Session
Contribution
This study explores the educational experiences of women from one ethnic group, the Hmong, to gain insight into how government and multilateral institutions working on eliminating gender disparities in education might close these gaps. Research, policy, and development documents suggest that disparities within the Hmong community exist due to patriarchal society, cultural preference of the Hmong to send boys to school, poverty, ethnicity, remotelessness, and a lack of knowledge about the importance of education for girls (Inui, 2009; Ireson-Doolittle & Moreno-Black, 2004; King & van de Walle, 2007). These assessments are based on survey studies completed primarily by economists. Contrary to the fragmentary analysis of gender disparity where gender is broken down into investigations of quantity and quality, representation in curriculum materials, or institutional factors (Aikman & Rao, 2012), this paper examines gender disparities in education within the Lao context through a critical feminist framework (Arnot & Fennell, 2008; Unterhalter, 2005, 2012). This framework does not equate gender with girl or equity to parity, but offers a more complex understanding of gender and how it impacts schooling of ethnic minority women. This analysis is grounded by the following questions: What are the dynamics that continue to sustain gender inequalities in Lao PDR? How does gender inequality intersect with issues of power and ethnic minority status? How is access to schooling influenced by social, cultural and historical contexts?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Aikman, S., & Rao, N. (2012). Gender equality and girls' education: Investigating frameworks, disjunctures and meanings of quality education. Theory and Research in Education, 10(3), 211-228. Arnot, M., & Fennell, S. (2008). (Re)visiting education and development agendas: Contemporary gender research. In M. Arnot & S. Fennell (Eds.), Gender education and equality in a global context (pp. 1-16). London: Routledge. Budlender, D. (2007). Gender-responsive budgeting in education. In S. Aikman & E. Unterhalter (Eds.), Practising gender equality in education. Oxford: Oxfam. Gupta, A., & Ferguson, J. (1992). Beyond "culture": Space, identity, and the politics of difference. Cultural Anthropology, 7(1), 6-23. Fox, C. (2003). No place for girls? Gender, ethnicity and citizenship education in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Compare, 33(3), 401-412. Inui, M. (2009). Minority education and development in contemporary Laos. Osaka, Japan: Union Press. Ireson-Doolittle, C., & Moreno-Black, G. (2004). The Lao: Gender, power, and livelihood. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. King, E. M., & van de Walle, D. (2007). Girls in Lao PDR: Ethnic affiliation, poverty, and location. In M. A. Lewis & M. E. Lockheed (Eds.), Exclusion, gender and education: Case studies from the developing world. Stambach, A., & Ngwane, Z. (2011). Development, post-colonialism, and global networks as frameworks for the study of education in Africa and beyond. In B. A. Levinson & M. Pollock (Eds.), A companion to the anthropology of education: Wiley-Blackwell. Stromquist, N. P. (2006). Gender education and the possibility of transformative knoweldge. Compare, 36(2), 145-161. Stuart-Fox, M. (2006). The political culture of corruption in the Lao PDR. Asian Studies Review, 30, 59-75. Thant, M., & Vokes, R. (1997). Education in Laos: Progress and challenges. In M. Than & J. L. H. Tan (Eds.), Laos' dilemmas and options (pp. 154-195). New York: St. Martin's Press. Unterhalter, E. (2006). Measuring gender equality in education in South Asia. Kathmandu: UNGEI. Unterhalter, E. (2012). Mutable meanings: Gender equality in education and international rights frameworks. Equal Rights Review, 8, 67-84.
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