Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World (1999) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4 Implications of Formal Schooling for Girls' Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries
4 Implications of Formal Schooling for Girls' Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries
Pages 80-104
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 80... ...
In reviewing these literatures, we take a particular interest in what they can tell us about how school provides different experiences for girls and for boys, as well as the role of formal schooling in gender role socialization.
|
From page 81... ...
However, much can be learned from this literature about elements of school quality that potentially have implications for school retention and transitions to adulthood. The second literature relates to the role of formal schooling in the socialization process in traditional societies undergoing development.
|
From page 82... ...
SCHOOLING AND THE SUBSEQUENT DEMOGRAPHIC BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENTS The literature on schooling and the subsequent demographic behavior of adolescents focuses largely on the relationship between years of formal schooling and critical demographic events in girls' transition to adulthood. The duration of schooling or the achievement of critical levels is seen as a factor that can influence the timing of these events, a view that is based primarily on extensive empirical evidence of strong statistical associations.
|
From page 83... ...
Small percentage differences (less than 10 percent) in age at marriage between women with no schooling and those with completed primary schooling can be observed in countries with both high and low ages at marriage.2 Larger percentage differences in age at marriage (more than 25 percent)
|
From page 84... ...
TEENAGE PREGNANCY AND CONTINUATION IN SCHOOL In general, as noted earlier, continued attendance in school is possible only for young women who can avoid pregnancy or childbirth while in school even while still in primary school, where most girls are when they reach adolescence because of delayed entry and/or grade repetition (Mensch and Lloyd, 1998~. At the same time, the risks of pregnancy for unmarried adolescent girls may be affected both positively and negatively by schooling.
|
From page 85... ...
Indeed, rather than pregnancy causing girls to drop out, the lack of social and economic opportunities for girls and women and the domestic demands placed on them, coupled with the gender inequities of the education system, may result in unsatisfactory school experiences, poor academic performance, and acquiescence in or endorsement of early motherhood. In marked contrast to the absence of studies from developing-country settings, there is a considerable literature on the consequences of teenage childbearing for school completion (as well as other socioeconomic outcomes)
|
From page 86... ...
, who studied gender differences in performance on exams in Kenya and found both parents' and teachers' attitudes about the natural ability of boys and girls to be significantly correlated with differentials in performance. At the same time, it may be noted that the concern with regard to including attitudinal variables in a production function of school inputs and outputs is that they may be jointly determined, in that gender differences in actual performance may be a factor in shaping teachers' attitudes.
|
From page 87... ...
In our Kenyan survey, we col lected data on various aspects of learning time. From our primary school data, based on a sample of mainly mixed schools where boys and girls can be compared within the same school settings, we found that a slightly higher percentage of girls than boys performed chores during the day prior to the survey (72 versus 64 percent in Kilifi, 79 versus 71 percent in Nakuru, and 77 versus 64 percent in Nyeri)
|
From page 88... ...
In our Kenyan study, we found that the educational background of parents of girls in single-sex secondary schools (such schools are rare at the primary level) was significantly higher than that of parents of boys in single-sex secondary schools, which was higher again than that of parents of boys and girls in mixed secondary schools.
|
From page 89... ...
This study provides direct evidence of the potential responsiveness of enrollment to changes in school inputs and underscores the importance of disentangling the effects of school quality on cognitive competencies from its effects on enrollment and retention. There has been less attention in the literature to other material inputs to schooling, which, while less directly linked to academic learning, may have important implications for gender differences in the quality of the school experience and may affect girls' continuation in school.
|
From page 90... ...
Only about a third of students in primary schools were able to give correct answers to questions on pregnancy risk. Other material inputs with a potential gender dimension include sports facilities for girls.
|
From page 91... ...
120) In the discussion that follows, we seek guidance from this second body of literature relating to the role of formal schooling in the socialization process in traditional societies undergoing development.
|
From page 92... ...
Policies requiring the expulsion of girls who are found to be pregnant (but not of the boys who are equally responsible) and preventing their readmission to the same school suggest to both boys and girls that society values the education of boys more than that of girls and gives girls a disproportionate responsibility for pregnancy prevention in a context of unequal power in sexual relations.
|
From page 93... ...
For example, Benavot and Kamens (1989) conducted an exhaustive review of the curriculum policies of primary schools in developing countries, but did not address the issue of gender differences in curricular content.
|
From page 94... ...
Thus one observer has asserted that "when sex education evolved into family life education, much of the key sexuality content was removed" (Senderowitz, 1995:30~. Perhaps expectations about the efficacy of family-life education programs are unrealistically high.
|
From page 95... ...
Of particular interest in this regard are the responses of Kenyan primary school teachers in Appleton's (1995) study to the question: "Girls tend to do less well in the primary leaving exam.
|
From page 96... ...
This fair but passive behavior of teachers may be particularly powerful in reinforcing gender attitudes and expectations among students in a context where the culture prescribes different forms of knowledge and different styles of learning for boys and girls (Fuller et al., 1994~. It may also explain why the introduction of teaching practices that are viewed positively in the West, such as more open-ended questioning and discussion and the use of programmed teaching and instructional materials, may sometimes appear to accentuate rather than alleviate gender differences.
|
From page 97... ...
In such an environment, girls may come to develop a sense of inferiority and powerlessness vis-a-vis the opposite sex. Physical Maturation and School Attendance Tensions between the traditional culture and formal schooling are particularly visible when children stay in school past the point of physical maturation or the onset of puberty.
|
From page 98... ...
We have found that, while household factors remain overwhelmingly important in explaining girls' higher dropout rates, gender differences in treatment within the school are also statistically important explanatory factors (Lloyd and Mensch, 1998~. How can formal schooling make a positive contribution to successful transitions to adulthood as defined at the beginning of this chapter?
|
From page 99... ...
In Kenya, where girls underperform boys in all subjects except Kiswahili and English in the primary leaving exam, girls begin to drop out of school at an earlier age than boys because of their poorer performance. Yet we know that this poorer performance cannot be explained by underlying differences between boys and girls in basic aptitude because in many other settings, girls' exam performance is equal to or better than that of boys at this level of schooling.
|
From page 100... ...
1995 Exam Determinants in Kenyan Primary School: Determinants and Gender Differences. Washington, D.C.: McNamara Fellowships Program, Economic Development Institute of the World Bank.
|
From page 101... ...
Merritt, and J.O. Abagi 1989 Language policy and science instruction in Kenyan primary schools.
|
From page 102... ...
Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1994 Barriers to equality of educational opportunity in mixed sex secondary schools in Malawi.
|
From page 103... ...
Lloyd 1998 Gender differences in the schooling experiences of adolescents in low-income countries: The case of Kenya. Studies in Family Planning 29(2)
|
From page 104... ...
1976 The social consequences of teenage parenthood. Family Planning Perspectives 8(4)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.