Paper long abstract:

The prevailing models of educational stratification in the developing world view education in terms of supply and demand (Buchman and Hannum, 2001). Perhaps this is due to the majority of the research in the area being completed by the World Bank and other international organizations. My work in Tajikistan demonstrates that educational access and attainment may more closely model an environmental and/or nested model. To demonstrate this, I utilize data collected across several years about girls' education in Tajikistan. These demonstrate that there are individual-,household-, community-, and national-level factors that interact in particular ways to affect educational outcomes. Very little data point to outcomes being affected in ways that mirror the traditional model of supply and demand.