Construction of Girls’ Educational Projects in Kyrgyzstan from the Intergenerational Perspective

Abstract

The present paper considers the main constraints and opportunities in the construction of girls’ educational projects in Kyrgyzstan in relation to their subjective well-being from the intergenerational perspective.Today children have got new educational opportunities brought by various social transformations; at the same time, they come across new challenges which are often related to social inequality and economic problems on the local level. Especially female educational trajectories seem to experience noticeable effects of these transformations.The author uses the theoretical concept of social capital to observe the role of the family in the construction of girls’ educational projects. In addition to this, the applied intergenerational approach allows to observe the changes and continuities in parent-child relations.The findings show that in Kyrgyzstan “being well-educated” continues to be an essential element, the foundation of girls’ educational projects, similar to how it was for girls’ mothers in the same age. In the context of a strong hierarchical family structure and low level of state opportunities, today girls tend to rely only on family social and cultural capital for the realisation of educational projects. However, families’ actions are often aimed at the future prosperity, neglecting children’s interests at the present time. Besides, girls face gender-specific limitations related to the perception of women’s roles in the society. The frames within which girls can take decisions regarding educational trajectories are strongly defined by their families. This often leads to the feeling of uncertainty among girls and ambivalence between global promises and the “actual” local opportunity structures.