Paper short abstract:

This paper offers a tool that aids Gender Equality and Social Inclusion diagnosis which contributes to strengthening public schools by addressing the demand side problem based on children's valued educational capabilities. This evaluation framework is derived from Capability Approach and ensures the well-being of children in the realm of gender equality, equity, and social inclusion.

Paper long abstract:

A well-functioning school is generally assumed to bear the characteristics of institutional- well-being, by which we mean the institution’s contribution to the holistic well-being of its students and staff (teaching and non-teaching) while also cultivating a stimulating learning environment. This paper offers a helpful tool that aids Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) diagnosis which can potentially contribute to strengthening public schools by addressing the demand side problem based on the performance evaluation and ensuring the needs, the well-being of children in the realm of gender equality, equity, and social inclusion. Subsequently, evaluations based on this tool can be used as policy instruments to make decisions on supporting the demand side needs of public schools at the institutional level and harness GESI transformative programs and practices that cater to the individual needs of children.

This promising/ proven innovation, is a framework, and a diagnosis tool; an output of the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) funded project titled “Effectiveness and Scalability of Programs for Children who are out of School and at Risk of Dropping Out in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal”. The innovation aimed to scale/promote children’s valued educational capabilities for GESI and harness safer schooling environments. This framework had four dimensions a) gender equality, b) equality, equity and d) social exclusion. In order to gain insights into the daily experiences of children in school life, this framework was adopted as a survey tool to better understand the children’s experiences in relation to gendered practices and socially inclusive practices.

This tool was operationalized to explore children’s valued educational capabilities, needs, and wants, which plays a crucial role in shaping their experiences of gender equality, equity, social inclusion, safety, and support within school settings. In the context of this research, the capability approach was employed as a theoretical framework that focused on children’s capabilities and freedoms within the public school environment. This approach is different from solely focusing on evaluative measures on children’s well-being based on resources or expenditures allocated to their access to public education. Instead, it takes into consideration what individual children are effectively able to do and become within a school environment. It emphasizes the importance of providing children with the opportunities and resources necessary to lead a life they value in schools. While policy, programs, projects, and activities are fundamentally rooted in various already tested approaches such as human capital, human rights, and basic needs approaches towards strengthening the education system for children’s well-being, our team reasoned to choose the ‘capability approach’ to gender-responsive and social inclusive education and safe schooling experiences for all children. The rationale behind our choice of the capability approach rests on the extensive literature and applications available from the works of Biggeri’s (2007) Children’s valued capabilities, Terzi (2007), and Crespo (2007) situating education in the human capabilities approach, Unterhalter (2007) work on gender equality, education, and the capability approach, and Walker's (2007) capability list for examining gender equality in education. The capability approach is an alternative but potential approach for action research work in education (Walker & Unterhalter, 2007) in contrast to human capital, human rights, and social exclusion approaches. Based on these literatures, this paper conceptualizes already existing concepts from the children’s capability list such as time autonomy, respect, play, emotions, sense, imagination and thought, participation, bodily integrity, mental and physical health, and relationships. In summary, we term it as indicators of ‘children flourishing.’ A GESI diagnosis tool derived from these concepts valued by children in their own voices and context is a more convincing evaluation tool of children’s well-being at individual and institutional levels. These concepts offer evaluative space for examining individuals and institutions. In our case, the focus is on children and their schools.

The diagnosis was conducted in 8 public schools, where 315 students of grades 3-8 participated in the survey. Based on this GESI survey, and the subsequent GESI analysis, instruments such as pamphlets, posters, and training sessions for female teachers were conducted to promote GESI and a supportive environment for students in 25 schools of two municipalities that covered 4000 students. This innovation represents a departure from the existing solutions, as it places a strong emphasis on the children themselves. It allows them to examine their own experiences and perspectives on GESI practices. The pamphlets and posters serve as valuable tools for sharing information on positive aspects of GESI through visual representations of the issues, while also being a cost-effective option. In fact, it only requires a quarter dollar to disseminate information for one year, per student. The figure clearly depicts the cost-effectiveness of this intervention as well.

In the process, the girls and boys were first made aware of their educational capabilities through the GESI campaign; secondly, the researchers diagnosed GESI in the selected schools to generate quality data. Thirdly, based on the diagnosis, the researchers focused on implementing in-school activities, programs, and policies to support GESI. Fourthly, the team worked on building the capacity of students and teachers to create teaching and learning environments for transformative GESI practices based on their valued educational capabilities. Throughout this process the researchers assessed the potential for scalability and identified the pathways to scale by mapping the scaling system, operationalizing the institution and adaptation tracker, and evaluating its optimality, sustainability, magnitude, and equity dimensions. This innovation provided support and enhanced gender-transformative and socially inclusive education, as well as safe, inclusive, and supportive schooling to the children attending the selected schools enabling them to access and develop their valued educational capabilities.

Keywords: Educational Capabilities, Gender Equality, Social Inclusion, Capability list, Well-being