‘Getting the best of both worlds’: aspirations and agency in relation to marriage and schooling among Haalpulaar women in northern Senegal

Entangled navigations: Intergenerational care relations in neoliberal eduscapes in Benin

“…My findings also confirm Newman’s (2020, 2021) critique of a literature that often frames becoming pregnant while in school merely as ‘teenage pregnancy’, de-emphasizing the girls’ agency. Pregnancies and the consequent decisions over marriages can also be seen as expressions of agency by acknowledging that marriage is seen by both parents and children as an important step in everybody’s life.…”

“…For instance, Falli's first relationship offered her an opportunity to move to the in-laws' household and continue her studies in nursing. In Newman's (2021) words, such navigations could also be read as an attempt to realize 'the best of both worlds' under precarious conditions. Even in this step, her mother was intensively involved: by paying for nursing school, she opened a pathway along which her daughter could later get out of that relationship.…”

“…Teenage pregnancies have been a major topic in the literature on gender and educational trajectories in the region since the second half of the 20th century (Akuffo, 1989; Cole, 2004; Dunne, 2007; Johnson-Hanks, 2002, 2006; Keller et al, 1999; Mensch et al, 2001; Newman, 2020, 2021; Varga, 2002). In many African contexts, pregnant girls are forbidden to attend school (see Kwayu, 2024, for Tanzania), though there is no legal requirement to exclude them, and I am not aware of any cases where a young pregnant woman continued schooling in rural northern Benin or returned to the classroom after giving birth.…”

Indigenous and non-Indigenous proficiency gaps for out-of-school and in-school populations: A machine learning approach

“…In Guatemala, 74% of Indigenous women are literate compared to 85% of males (Orozco and Valdivia, 2017), with the poor implementation of bilingual education programs further marginalising women, as too the discontinuity of education due to early marriage, intensity of chores and care activities (Adelman and Székely, 2017;Orozco and Valdivia, 2017). Early marriage and teenage pregnancies are a massive hurdle; Latin America faces huge educational disengagement due to early pregnancies (Murphy-Graham et al, 2020;Taylor et al, 2019), while the prominent dropout reason for Senegalesan girls is early marriage (Delprato et al, 2017;Lloyd and Mensch, 2008;Newman, 2020).…”

Child Marriage as a ‘Solution’ to Modern Youth in Bali

“…The common protectionist approach of ‘saving’ children is increasingly considered unproductive, as it deprives those under 18 of agency and choice (Grugel, 2013: 23; Hart, 2006). For instance, in her study on Senegalese young women, Newman (2020) indicates that development programs and education scholars tend to fail to respect their aspirations to marry and to leave school early. In this sense, the agency of girls in the Third World is the most precarious in international development discourse.…”