The Interaction of Economic Livelihood Strategies and Literacy and Numeracy Practices of Urban Gambian Women with Low Educational Attainments

Haddy Njie

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.4n.3p.73

Abstract

This paper is based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in the periphery of Banjul, the capital of The Gambia. It explores relations between the gender roles of women with modest educational achievement and their uses of literacy and numeracy. The paper applied New Literacy Studies theoretical framework of literacy as a ‘social practice’. Data was collected from 120 women with low and no educational qualifications in the urban Gambia who participated in the three different stages of the study, namely: survey, focus group discussions and individual interviews along with participant observations. The study data was analyzed through the use of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. The survey data was analyzed and presented in the form of descriptive statistics for illuminating the demographic characteristics of the study participants. The analysis of the qualitative data was done through the use of both inductive and deductive coding strategies for identifying common themes and patterns across the different data sources. In this paper, a detailed ethnographic account of four cases of women who participated in the study is provided for illuminating the literacy environment as well as the circumstances subsumed within it that induce or suppress literacy practices among women of limited educational qualifications in The Gambia. The study uncovers instances where women’s uses of literacy and numeracy added greater efficiency in their economic activities and highlight other scenarios where literate women did not rely on those skills in the exercise of their economic activities. Findings confirm New Literacy Studies (NLS) theoretical claim that literacy skills do not automatically create their uses. Rather, literacy uses are a product of their socio-cultural context of their application. From the four cases reported here, this paper substantially illuminates women’s economic livelihood strategies, the contextual barriers they encounter in performing their economic roles and their opportunities and limitations for using and sharpening their written numeracy and literacy skills. Knowledge concerning the interaction of women's economic livelihoods and literacy uses constitutes critical information that could inform adult education and economic policy development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords: Gender and development; Informal economy & Women’s economic livelihoods; Women’s literacy; The Gambia

Highlights

Traditional patterns of inquiry into women’s literacy (Burchfield, Hua, Baral, & Rocha, 2002; Hill & King, 1993; Kagitcibasi, Goksen, & Gulgoz, 2005) have focused their analysis on its putative impact on a variety of development proxies like empowerment, health status and material well-being, while mostly ignoring the critical question of how such results are produced and/or why they are not
The present study is designed to help fill the gap in the study of women’s literacy practices just highlighted, and to do so by illuminating the actual ways in which women with limited educational qualifications in urban settings of developing countries such as The Gambia apply literacy skills to their daily activities within the informal economy as well as the constraints that weigh on their use of these skills
Women in urban Gambia, results of this study reveal, have a high level of participation in remunerative work, mainly through self-employment in small businesses with the informal economy – both in the market and in local neighborhoods -- that generate very low profits

Summary

Introduction

Traditional patterns of inquiry into women’s literacy (Burchfield, Hua, Baral, & Rocha, 2002; Hill & King, 1993; Kagitcibasi, Goksen, & Gulgoz, 2005) have focused their analysis on its putative impact on a variety of development proxies like empowerment, health status and material well-being, while mostly ignoring the critical question of how such results are produced and/or why they are not This myopia parallels similar failings in general attempts to address the linkage between literacy and development, illustrated in the works of researchers such as Goody (1986, 1987) and Ong (1982), who consider literacy per se as the prime factor responsible for developing human rationality and the ability to think in decontextualized ways (Purcell-Gates, 2007), and so ipso facto the key to explaining socio-economic change. There has been very little research on this topic conducted on women of the global south- and of Africa in particular– where international agency literacy programs are predominantly located

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