En el Código de la Niñez y la Adolescencia

were asked a series of questions about attitudes to gendered roles, rights and violence. in order to examine these attitudinal trends in more depth, responses were combined into a composite ‘challenging violence and gender equality attitudes index’. overall attitudes across the three countries as measured by the index may be seen below in figure 11. they highlight fairly similar levels of attitudes for girls and boys across the three countries. in all countries teachers demonstrate attitudes more challenging of gender inequalities and violence than children, but with a greater difference in kenya and Mozambique than in Ghana. Male and female teachers had similar attitudes, and teachers in Ghana had somewhat less equitable attitudes than those in kenya and Mozambique.

We anticipated that more qualified, experienced teachers may have more gender equitable attitudes (unterhalter, north et al. 2013), but our findings were mixed. in none of the countries did attitudes vary by years of experience. in kenya and Mozambique, attitudes did not vary significantly between teachers with different types of qualification, or permanence of position. however, as shown in table 9, in Ghana teachers who are trained are significantly more likely to have attitudes that challenge gender violence and inequalities than those who are untrained, and there is an even greater difference in attitudes between permanent and temporary teachers.

these varying findings are difficult to explain, but may relate to broader issues around teacher status and training in the three countries. For example, the policy in Ghana of bringing in untrained teachers to meet demand in rural areas may be the reason why 30% of our teacher sample were untrained in Ghana compared to 6% each in kenya and Mozambique. in kenya too trained teachers had somewhat more equitable attitudes, but the small numbers of untrained teachers meant this did not reach statistical significance. the high staff turnover in the project schools in Ghana could perhaps account for

1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0

Boys Girls Male teachers Female teachers

GHANA KENyA MOzAMBIQuE

the difference in attitudes between permanent and temporary teachers, since many of the temporary teachers would not have experienced the SVAGS training workshops. But we cannot assume a causal relationship, and it may be that teachers who enter training or get permanent positions come from different backgrounds and already have more pro-rights

attitudes than those who are untrained or temporary. Some attitudes appear to have changed more since 2009 than others. teachers’ attitudes to gender norms, including who should help with housework, farmwork or school chores, for example, have not changed very much, and still in 2013 teachers in Mozambique have the most gender-equitable attitudes in these areas. For example, more than 80% of male and female teachers in Mozambique in 2013 believe that housework should be shared between girls and boys, compared with 60% in kenya and fewer than 50% in Ghana. teachers’ attitudes to rights have changed more markedly, with more teachers in all three countries in 2013 disagreeing with teacher practices such as corporal punishment, or asking girls or boys to do personal errands. While in kenya and Mozambique, teachers in 2013 are more likely than they were in 2009 to support teacher dismissal for sexual relationships with pupils and girls returning to school after giving birth, and to disagree that sexual harassment is a girl’s own fault, findings are mixed in Ghana. For example, while 93% of Ghanaian teachers in 2009 agreed that girls should be allowed to return to school after giving birth, this figure unexpectedly dropped to 57% in 2013.

the varying findings between countries may indicate that the training on some issues has been less

effective in Ghana, where high teacher turnover may also limit its effectiveness. it may also be that more conservative views on gender in this context mean that teachers are more resistant to rights based interventions. however, in Ghana as well as kenya and Mozambique, teachers reflected on how their own classrooms had become more gender-equitable:

“Formerly I used to focus only on the fast learners who are usually boys, but now I focus on all students in the class, that is both boys and girls. It is because I want the girls too to catch up. It’s good they also catch up so we have gender equality in the class and also we have been hearing of gender equality and so that is what I also practice in my class. (Where have you been hearing of gender equality?) On the radio, in school and on TV. (How did you get it from the school?) The head teacher has mentioned the issues of gender equality to me before. Like this prefectship in school, we have both boys and girls as prefects and not only one sex”

(female teacher, Ghana).

“Teachers now create a conducive environment for both pupils. They were using an unfavourable methodology. They were throwing questions to just boys but now whoever is ready to answer answers. This is all due to training. Now, both sexes are more active in class”

(headteacher, kenya).

“Now, in the organization of the students in the classroom, boys and girls are mixed and everyone is treated equally without prioritising one gender”

(male teacher, Mozambique).

Changes in schools Table 9: Teacher attitude index according to teacher status in Ghana

Attitude Index Significance

Permanent/temporary teacher 0.002 ** Permanent 0.71 Temporary 0.44 Professional grade 0.046 * Untrained teacher 0.62 Trained teacher 0.73 indicating significance: *p<0.05; **p<0.01

5.8 Girls’ perceptions of educational equity