Unraveling the ‘female teacher effect’: The positioning and agency of female teachers in girls’ education reform

Abstract

Concerns about the academic performance of students from marginalized groups underscore calls for students to be taught by teachers of similar racial, ethnic, or gender identities (e.g., Miller, 2018). In sub-Saharan Africa, projects enlist women teachers as role models for girls in an effort to redress persistent gender disparities in education. However, in casting women teachers as inherent role models to girls, these projects run the risk of reinforcing long-standing portrayals of women in the Global South as a monolithic group with heightened responsibility for development (Chant, 2006; Mohanty, 1988). I identify one policy pilot in Malawi as a window for examining this phenomenon, and I pair discourse analysis and ethnographic analysis to investigate how women teachers are constructed in this policy and how these constructions unravel in practice. Drawing on anthropology of policy, I first trace how female teachers are created as particular types of “policy subjects” (Ball, Maguire, Braun, Hoskins, 2011). Then, I examine how teachers at one school grapple with these narrowly constructed roles. This study’s findings caution against a disproportionate reliance on same-gender teachers for role-modelling, particularly when these teachers also belong to marginalized groups.

Disparity, Empowerment and Female English Language Teacher in Higher Education Context in Bangladesh: A Narrative Inquiry

“…The scenario very relevantly echoes Freire (1972) that the intention of the oppressor grounds in "changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them" (cited in Stromquist, 2015). A female teacher is thus positioned at the intersections of these discourses, though the nuances of her position have not been well explored (Morley, 2019). That's the reason why:…”

“…Thus, female teacher empowerment is not limited to 'merely' scholarly discourses and dispositions, it needs to highlight the real-life effects of the practices of the power to change the male-dominated scenario of human existence (Morley, 2019). The concept of empowerment is thus shown as a "spiral process, changing consciousness, identifying areas to target for change, planning strategies, acting for change, and analyzing actions and change' (Batliwala, 1994in Stromquist, 2015.…”

Undoing Aid: UK Aid Cuts, Development Relationships and Resourcing Futures in Malawi

“…Given the centrality of aid to the Malawian economy, ethnographers have explored its consequences on communities (e.g. Chinsinga, 2011; Kendall, 2007) and on the mid‐level development workers that populate the sector (Biruk, 2018; Englund, 2006; Morley, 2019b; Silver, 2019; Swidler and Watkins, 2017). According to Mosse (2004: 647), the mid‐level category comprises ‘skilled brokers (managers, consultants, fieldworkers, community leaders)’ who ‘read the meaning of a project into the different institutional languages of its stakeholder supporters’.…”

“No One Really Likes Crying in School”: The Influences of Classroom and Institutional Dynamics Upon Student Absenteeism During COVID-19

“…Educational research uses the ecological agency theoretical framework to understand how educational policy and curriculum influence teacher action (e.g., Biesta et al, 2015 ; Bridwell-Mitchell, 2015 ; Calvert, 2016 ; Jenkins, 2019 ; Morley, 2019 ; Robinson, 2012 ; Tao & Gao, 2017 ). While the use of the ecological agency framework to understand absentee student decision-making has been theorized ( Kipp & Clark, 2021 ), to date no publications have implemented it in practice to inform the supports and capitals that influence absentee students’ daily decisions to attend or miss school.…”