Buzzwords at play: gender, education, and political participation in Kenya

Abstract

The discourse around development is full of buzzwords, including gender and a myriad of variants that underscore the importance of development policies addressing gender imbalances. Despite their prevalence in development policy and research, terminology related to gender is often used broadly, inappropriately, and without nuance. For international education policy in particular, discussions related to gender equality and equity in education are engaged in such a way that assumes shared meanings between policy designers and policy recipients. Using Kenya as a site of analysis, and in the spirit of a vertical case study for data collection, this study explores how the abstractness of a buzzword functions in the microcosm of the school classroom. In comparing gendered representations in textbooks with students' perceptions of those representations to explore how development discourse plays out in Kenyan schools, findings here demonstrate that there is minimal impact due to textbooks' mixed messages, reinforcing women's marginal position in community and political engagement and demonstrating that broad-based understandings of gender empowerment are not always translated in application.

Keywords:

• Sub-Saharan Africa
• education policy
• gender equality
• development goals
• textbooks

Notes

1. Kenya implemented universal primary education in 2003.

2. Emerging issues here include gender responsiveness, the environment, and ‘a group of other issues comprising: HIV/AIDS, Integrity/anti-corruption, Drug and Substance Abuse, Child and Human Rights’ (RoK 2005).

3. For more information on this process, please see Foulds (2013, 165–174).

4. From the larger study, I interviewed students in Standards 1, 5, and 8. These grades represent the beginning, middle, and end of the spectrum of primary school.

5. My research assistant is a well-known and well-respected member of the community, and most, if not all, teachers knew her. We had previously discussed interviewee selection and she knew that this was the plan for selection. I chose to defer to her in these discussions with teachers to most effectively use the relationships previously built between my assistant and the community. I knew teachers would feel more at ease working with her in these instances.

6. These variations in family voting habits suggest that voting in Kenya has class implications. While corruption and voting patterns are widely disputed across Kenya, this point is beyond the scope of this paper.

7. Kanga is a type of cotton wrap worn by many women across East Africa. They typically contain messages, usually proverbs or riddles, in Swahili.

8. Buibui is the Swahili term for abaya.

9. This photograph is also used in Unit 9: The Government of Kenya to illustrate ‘The Process of National Elections’ (Omwoyo 2006, 193).

10. Students who observed criminal activities were not asked ‘who does this in your family?’

11. The use of mzee (pl: wazee) is reserved exclusively for elderly men. Although its literal translation is gender-neutral (elder/elders) and can refer to any elderly person, it is only used for men in practice. An elderly woman will typically be referred to as Mama regardless of whether or not she has children. An adult man is a Baba.