Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment

The improvement of female education is a top priority for educational policy-makers and for the development community. This book grounds the education of women and girls in the realities of their lives and experiences in diverse areas of the developing world. The chapters all draw on substantial experience in the field, giving a voice to groups of girls and women hitherto invisible. Many present new perspectives on previously ignored problems and social groups by policy-makers, aid agencies and academics. They move beyond the previous emphasis on access to problematize the content of education and the way it is experienced. The case studies range from the Arakambut of Peruan indigenous group whose knowledge of biodiversity is being threatened by formal education - to the changing experience of racialized education in South Africa. The book also presents a critical theoretical analysis of the World Bank's view of women's education.