The impact of western schools on girls' expectations: a Togolese case.

Abstract

This in-depth study of a government secondary school located in the capital of Togo focuses on whether students internalize teachers' attitudes, classroom interaction messages, and the messages implicit in the school's authority structure. The study was conducted in order to obtain a clearer understanding of the school's ability to affect female role expectations. Data from a sample population of elementary school girls were also analyzed to determine how increased exposure to Western schools affects attitudes and expectations. The secondary school under consideration had failed to fully meet the government's guidelines for sexual equality in education, but girls did make up a significant part of the school population (44% of the student body). In both the school's administrative structure and its actual teacher assignment roster there appeared to be definite patterns of sex-role stereotyping with men holding most positions of responsibility and authority in the teaching staff and school administration. The staffing pattern of the school meant that students had less contact with female teachers. A questionnaire was administered to determine whether teachers' and student/teacher interactions were consistent with the staffing pattern. The teaching staff was found to have little regard for the ability, character, or potential of their female students. These images appeared not to have been shaped by the actual academic performance or behavior of the students. Teachers' expectations of their female students projected careers were appreciably different from those they held for thier male students. A series of classroom observations over several months revealed the following: 1) the degree to which the teacher can effectively transmit values and expectations is severely hampered by the formal classroom procedure which limits teacher/student interactions of any kind; and 2) although the girls interacted to a lesser degree than the boys, the quality of the interactions appeared equal, if not better, than that of the male students. Interviews with students suggested 2 factors that might be directly affecting the discrepancy between teacher and student expectations: a declining respect for the role of teacher as exposure to school increases; and a high degree of awareness of and interest in careers outside the school environment.