Int Rev Educ (2015) 61:857–859 DOI 10.1007/s11159-015-9515-8 BOOK REVIEW

Education and gender By Debotri Dhar (ed). Bloomsbury Academic, London/New York, 2014, 178 pp. Education as a Humanitarian Response series. ISBN 978-1-47250834-8 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-4725-0908-6 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-4725-0953-6 (e-PDF), ISBN 978-1-4725-0595-8 (e-PUB)

Stephanie Bengtsson1

Published online: 12 October 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning 2015

In the preface, Colin Brock, the editor of the series from which this book is taken, recalls the oft-cited words of pioneering gender and education scholar, Professor Lalage Bown (1985): ‘‘Without women, no development’’. Since Bown delivered those words, policy and programming around the topic of women, girls and education development have grown exponentially, as governments and other stakeholders began to see women’s and girls’ education as ‘‘the key to improving lives of poor families’’ around the world (Robinson-Pant 2004, p. 1). While research from the early 1990s in this field tended to focus on quantitative indicators (enrolment rates, child mortality rates, fertility rates, educational attainment levels, etc.), statistical relationships between these indicators, and comparisons between males and females, the late 1990s witnessed the emergence of more qualitative research, theoretical discussions and debates about the complexity of gender and sexuality as social constructs, and interrogation of the very notion of development itself (Robinson-Pant 2004). This volume, expertly edited by Debotri Dhar, presents a remarkable range of current scholarship within the field of education development and gender given its relative brevity, diverse not only in terms of geographical region, but also in terms of methodological and theoretical approach. With chapters on promoting girls’ education through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Kenya, the relationship between gender, race, class, and achievement in the Caribbean, women’s advancement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in graduate education in the United States, a historical analysis of gender politics and the current Indian education system, the consequences of UK education policies targeting girls and boys respectively, and the work carried out by Lesbian, Gay, & Stephanie Bengtsson [email protected] 1

Health & Education Advice & Resource Team (HEART), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

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Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, and Transvestite (LGBTTT) organisations in Mexico, this book is a must-read for anyone wishing to engage meaningfully with the concept of gender and its relationship to education as discussed from a range of perspectives. Indeed, as Dhar points out in her introduction to the volume: While questions pertaining to gender and education often tend to devolve into questions about boys and girls, [. . .] this book’s definition of gender is, in most instances, broader and multi-layered; eschewing essentialist definitions of ‘male’ and ‘female’, it examines the cultural construction of gender and sexualities in specific geographical contexts and interrogates issues of both male and female disadvantage in education (p. 9). Edited volumes which draw from such a wide range of research risk sounding disconnected and unfocused. In fact, if these chapters were read separately, the reader is unlikely to assume that they were from the same book. However, Dhar demonstrates her skill as an editor with insightful introductory and concluding chapters which provide a global historical and conceptual frame for the six cases, thus ensuring that the book is best read in its entirety, that it is greater than the sum of its parts. In her introduction, Dhar provides a useful, concise history of the field of gender and education development, and succinctly captures the transition from a dominant discourse focused on the instrumentality of girls’ and women’s education to a plurality of discourses based on a ‘‘nuanced understanding of education as a deeply marked yet potentially transformative field of endeavor’’ (p. 12). Thanks to this introduction, the six cases that follow can then be read as a representative sample of this plurality of voices, ideas and disciplines, and compared and contrasted with each other by the reader. In the concluding chapter, ‘‘Teaching for the Future: Feminist Pedagogy and Humanitarian Education’’, Dhar draws on Kimberle´ Crenshaw’s notion of intersectionality (attempts to understand how different systems of oppression based on class, race, gender, sexuality, etc., intersect and impact each other) and critical and feminist pedagogy to explore how educators can ‘‘create genuine equal opportunities for those we teach’’ (p. 157). It is interesting to note that while she discusses gender inequity in her introduction, Dhar does not discuss feminism in depth until the conclusion of the volume. It seems likely that Dhar is well aware of the many negative associations potential readers have with the word feminism and so chooses to present a nuanced, well-argued and well-informed discussion of gender inequity to get the reader ‘onside’ before demonstrating how critical and feminist pedagogies can help address that inequity. My one criticism of this otherwise excellent book relates to the ‘‘Questions for reflection’’ at the end of each chapter, which are a hallmark of the Education as a Humanitarian Response series and are ostensibly there to help readers to critically engage with the reading process and research. I felt that bar very few exceptions, the questions were simply ‘comprehension questions’ which would test how well readers had understood the readings, rather than questions which invited critical

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thought and active engagement. Overall, though, this book is well-researched, wellwritten, and well-framed, and makes a great addition to the series as a whole.

References Bown, L. (1985). Without women, no development: The role of non-formal education for women in African development. In K. Lillis (Ed.), School and community in less developed areas. London: Croom Helm. Robinson-Pant, A. (2004). Introduction. In A. Robinson-Pant (Ed.), Women, literacy and development: Alternative perspectives (pp. 1–9). London, New York: Routledge.

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