Creating a Gender Responsive Learning Environment

Abstract

Gender as a concept refers to the socially constructed roles allocated to women, men, girls and boys in specific cultural contexts -formal or informal. As a social construction, gender also reflects the norms and values that dictate the ways in which women, men, boys and girls should relate to people of the same or opposite sex. The organisation of gender relations in society determines who among the female and male members, gets access to various resources at family, community and even national level and also who controls the various resources. Even in the smallest community, people are generally aware of the different roles assigned to the women and men, the behaviour expected of them, and the judgment of their actions using a culturally sanctioned but nevertheless gendered yardstick The nature of gender has elicited serious debates and discussions in East Africa since the 1980s, particularly after the International Women's Conference (IWC) held in Nairobi, in 1985. While the IWC agenda was steered by a concern for women's rights and position in development sectors, including education, its outcomes entailed an unprecedented level of awareness among many groups other than African women. These included men, critiques and scholars who engaged in research, policy debates, and advocacy work on the role that gender plays in directing the nature and form of women's oppression that is based on their sex, rather than their abilities or capabilities. While gender awareness has been an ongoing endeavour even in the field of education, the need to locate it at the centre of teacher capacity development is relatively novel. Teachers in African educational institutions are being mandated to participate in the development of gender equitable, gender sensitive and gender responsive societies. This makes the school a key site for spearheading positive transformations in gender relations that would reverse the momentum of gender-based barriers to process and outcome of school learning.