Educating Girls: Complexities of Informing Meaningful Social Change

Abstract

Jackie Kirk devoted her career to trying to bridge the relationships among research, policy and practice for the purpose of making the world a better place for children, teachers, and communities. Reflecting her priorities, we examine herein how research, policy and practice interact to enable a robust and dynamic program that educates girls for purposes far beyond typical policy priorities of access and parity. To do so, we rely on interviews and focus group discussions that involved over 130 individuals who were involved with one girls’ education program in a remote region of a Southeast Asian country. Their narratives reveal that the program was flexible and responsive, yet guided by clear ideas about gender equity. This work is not prescriptive or predictable; it evolves through dynamic interactions. Global policy priorities of access and parity became means toward more important goals including community sustainability in the face of environmental and economic challenges. Structures that enabled this robust program included space, time, funding, and a dynamic conceptual lens.