Gender and Other Inequalities in Secondary Education in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone: Exploring the Experiences and Outcomes of Girls in Schools

Abstract

This study extends limited research on understanding gender and education in post-conflict contexts. The study goes beyond the descriptive analysis of equality in terms of numbers but rather focuses on the gendered processes and conditions of learning (i.e., The content of what girls learn and how they learn). It gives an account of how schooling experiences produce and reproduce inequalities in secondary education. This critical analysis utilizes the intersectionality framework to illustrate how the intersection of multiple identities such as gender, social class, sexuality, culture, and location influences girls' learning experiences and outcomes in secondary school in post-conflict Sierra Leone. I particularly draw on girls’ explanations of these issues as they negotiate and are affected by them. Therefore, a detailed qualitative ethnographic study was conducted in a secondary school from the south region of Sierra Leone to explore gendered experiences and their intersecting inequalities in everyday schooling. This is to understand the gendered institutional life of the school and as far as possible do this through the voices and perspectives of those within the school, especially the girls. What this research does is to broaden the in-school research knowledge by focusing on investigating the gendered process of learning, everyday formal and informal in-school interactions, cultures and practices and the intersection of gender with other social identities like sexuality, Socioeconomic status (SES), Location and Traditions. I also tracked how these new directions of knowledge influence girls' performance, retention, and attainment. This study adopted a qualitative research method using an ethnographic approach to examine the pupils’ and teachers' detailed secondary schooling experiences. This was achieved by using in-depth interviews to explore students’ individual personal experiences of secondary schooling. The studied participants were purposively selected based on the established parameters for this study. The findings of this study revealed a highly gendered school environment, and that the intersection of multiple identities, such as gender, social class, sexuality, culture, and location, exacerbates inequalities in secondary education and influences girls' learning experiences. Additionally, the study highlighted the impact of societal factors, such as early marriage and teenage pregnancy, on girls' educational outcomes, especially in a post-conflict context like Sierra Leone.