Whereas learning is defined as a process of cognitive change through experience, education takes on a more formal and structured approach to acquiring “knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values” (Wagner, 2017, p.55). Education is designed to promote learning in a formal environment, the classroom, to fulfill the learning standards established by local, national, and international education authorities while being implemented by teachers. The resulting educational curriculums are the foundation for standardizing learning practices focusing on subjects like language arts, history, and mathematics (Wagner, 2017, p.58).  The goal of creating quality and accessible education is to support the “basic learning needs of every person” (Wagner, 2017, p.63). Thus, education aims to instill a particular type of understanding, capacity, and beliefs to cultivate individuals, of various ages, with a shared comprehension of the world around them.

Primary education is one of the first opportunities for young children, ages 5 to 11, to start building vital skills which influence learning practices that guide them for the rest of their academic and personal lives. At this level of education, young school-aged children learn life skills that include reading, writing, communication, and relationship-building through various teacher-led activities and subjects (UNESCO, 2011, p.30). Curriculum-based learning is the primary method for young students to acquire these skills within the formal classroom environment, where students construct, test, and refine different learning practices with their peers (Bakken et al., 2017, p.267). The purpose of primary education is to harness the developing minds of young students, engage with others, and develop positive learning experiences.

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) identified achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls as one of its seventeen sustainable development goals for 2030 (McGrath, 2018, p.198). Known as Goal 5, achieving gender equality is focused on addressing deeply-rooted gender disparities that prevent women and girls from reaching their full potential. Barriers like employment, wage gaps, access to social services, violence, and discrimination all shape how this goal is achieved and what tools are leveraged to do so (UNDESA, n.d.). Furthermore, the UN sees men and women as partners in creating an environment where everyone can benefit from the outcomes that development and furthering human rights produce (UNDESA, n.d.). One method that can be used to accomplish Goal 5 is education.

Educational settings are prime locations where ideas around gender are often reproduced and reinforced through “classroom practices, teachers’ attitudes and expectations,” and interactions with fellow peers (Stromquist, 2007, p.30). Thus, administering gender equality efforts at the primary school level has the potential to transform and interrupt gender “roles, behaviors, and expectations” that can go beyond the walls of a classroom and influence society (Bajaj & Pathmarajah, 2011, p.52). The phenomenon this effort seeks to leverage is gender socialization. At the primary school level, gender socialization is a process of internalization through which young students learn “what norms are, understand why they are of value …, and [accept] the norms as [their] own” (George et al., 2020, p.7). 

Now by understanding the role of gender socialization in a primary school environment, educational stakeholders, like schools and teachers, can employ gender-responsive pedagogies to influence how norms shape identity and value development for boys and girls while providing them with the tools “to start thinking critically about socially ascribed gender roles and stereotypes” (UNESCO, n.d.) Gender-responsive pedagogies leverages the “specific learning needs of girls and boys” to interrupt the production of detrimental gender norms through the delivery of gender-aware activities like “role-playing, group discussions, case studies, skits” and experiential learning (FAWE, 2006, p.9). From this pedagogy, teachers can foster empowering “social interactions [that] allow children to develop relationships with other children and, as children grow, these relationships develop from friendships based on shared activities to relationships based on shared ideas and shared thinking (Bakken et al., 2017, p.266). The construction of shared ideas through activities creates an alternative understanding of gender norms which critically positions primary schools to offer alternative gender understandings that can go beyond the school environment and impact students’ communities on a larger scale.

References

Bajaj, M., & Pathmarajah, M. (2011). Engendering Agency: The Differentiated Impact of Educational Initiatives in Zambia and India. Feminist Formations. 23:3. (pp. 48-67). The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Bakken, L., Brown, N., & Downing, B. (2017). Early Childhood Education: The Long-Term Benefits, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 31:2. (pp. 255-269). Taylor & Francis.

George, R. Marcus, R. & Samman E. (2020). Advancing Positive Gender Norms and Socialization through UNICEF Programmes: Monitoring and Documenting Change. (pp. 1-70). UNICEF.  

McGrath, S. (2018). Ch 8 Education and sustainable development – a new development agenda. Education and Development. (pp. 196-219). Taylor & Francis.

Stromquist, N.P. (2007). The Gender Socialization Process in Schools: A Cross-National Comparison. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008, Education for All by 2015: will we make it?. (pp. 1-40). UNESCO.

The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). (2006). Gender Responsive Pedagogy. Biennale Meeting on Education in Africa. (pp. 1-23). Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

UNDESA. (n.d.). Description. Gender equality and women’s empowerment. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://sdgs.un.org/topics/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment 

UNESCO. (n.d.). SDG Resources for Educators – Gender Equality.  Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://en.unesco.org/themes/education/sdgs/material/05

UNESCO. (2011). International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED 2011. International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). (pp. 1-84). UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Wagner, D.A. (2017). Ch 3 Learning as Development. Learning as Development: Rethinking International Education in a Changing World. (pp. 54-77). Taylor & Francis. 

Wicks, B. (2018). Playing in mud and streams is the best thing [Photograph]. Unsplash. United Kingdom. https://unsplash.com/photos/iDCtsz-INHI