Photo credits, from left to right: UNICEF State of Palestine, United Nations in Palestine, the Knowledge Hub on Sustainable Development Goal 4
Welcome back! In the previous post, I explored the intersection of food and education in the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This post will build upon that theme by digging deeper into what food and education change efforts look like with the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative in Palestine.
Food and Education
Research has shown that education has a powerful impact on children’s health and nutrition, and vice versa. According to the World Health Organization, child and adolescent nutrition “maximizes intellectual potential and school performance,” while education “secures the health of future generations,” especially through girls’ nutrition (World Health Organization, n.d.). Education provides a framework through which children can learn about healthy eating and sustainability; that framework is powered by free hot meals and health interventions that aim to end malnutrition, stunting, and wasting. Moreover, schools provide a place for parents and community members to engage on health-related issues.
With such profound impacts, it’s no wonder so many organizations worldwide have engaged in school feeding programs and nutrition education. UNICEF, in particular, has partnered with other NGOs to provide region-specific feeding and educational programs for children in areas affected by war, natural disasters, and famine.
UNICEF and the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative
In 2018, UNICEF launched the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative (NFSI), a bundle of interventions aimed at revising school nutrition policies, increasing community awareness and capacity-building, implementing nutrition and health-based curricula, and supporting food-secure school environments (Bajraktarevic, 2021). The initiative was designed to simultaneously foster education and health via policy, communication, and guidelines for schools, teachers, and families. Its goals included community food security, healthy lifestyles, and advocacy through activities such as free meals, sustainable gardening, and workshops on nutrition. In 2018, Palestine was selected as one of six countries to pilot NFSI, following evidence that high percentages of Palestinian youth were suffering from anemia (UNICEF, 2021).
Piloting in Palestine
Palestine is a land torn by the ebbs and flows of a decades-long conflict with Israel. In recent years, the conflict has escalated through increasingly frequent violent clashes, resulting in an unstable, resource-strapped environment where citizens regularly shelter from bombings inside the local schools (Center for Preventative Action, 2023; Jalbout et al, 2014). COVID-19 further destabilized the region with chaotic outbreaks, closures, and destroyed supply routes that prevented treatment and vaccines from reaching many parts of Gaza and the West Bank (Awad, 2021; ANERA, 2022).
Into this setting, enter more than 1.3 million school children, all in need of the basic services every child has the right to: food and education. Yet, according to Jalbout et al, “Poverty and lack of opportunity resulting from the [Israeli] blockade…have devastating impacts on the lives of children and youth and their ability and desire to study” (2014).
Any program that aims to influence food through education or education through food faces challenges, but those challenges are especially prominent in the Palestinian context. Because Palestine was the first country to implement NFSI, many of the initiative’s guidelines were written or adapted with the Palestinian situation in mind. Special attention was given to the importance of girls’ nutrition, interventions appropriate for anemia, and the language of the curriculum. From 2018 through the COVID-19 pandemic, when the program pivoted to a hybrid environment, NFSI delivered quality nutrition and education to primary and secondary school children throughout the region. By September 2021, NFSI had reached nearly 30,000 children, 78% of them girls. In addition to supporting school feeding and curriculum implementation, the initiative helped the State of Palestine develop a national nutrition protocol and clear procedures for screening and treatment of school-aged children (Bajraktarevic et al).
Looking Forward
NFSI, while successful, ultimately ended in 2021, and with its closure comes questions about what’s next. The literature addressing the program’s impacts also leaves something to be desired: How might these nutrition interventions and curricula impact long-term family health and education? How have recent conflicts affected the national health protocol and school food security? How might administrators design a new program to continue promoting community nutrition through culturally sensitive content?
It’s also difficult to say what’s next for the Palestinian authority. Where agriculture, schools, and shelters are destroyed in ongoing violence, nothing remains stable for long. In this environment, providing children with a sustainable, healthy diet and quality education is no small task. Yet these are the very things children need most in order to grow into skilled individuals with the knowledge and competencies to innovate, create, and build a new reality. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Works Cited
ANERA. (2022, February 17). COVID-19 in Palestine. https://www.anera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Anera-on-the-ground-report-COVID-Palestine-sprds.pdf
Awad, O. (2021, January 11). Education in COVID-19: From disruption to recovery. Palestine Economy Portal. Retrieved March 2, 2023 from https://www.palestineeconomy.ps/en/Article/17670/Education-in-COVID-19-From-disruption-to-recovery
Bajraktarevic, S.; Qadi, K.; Badwan, A.; Awadallah, Y.; & Abueita, R. (2021). Improving the nutritional well-being of school-age children through the Nutrition-Friendly Schools Initiative (NFSI) in the State of Palestine. Emergency Nutrition Network. https://www.ennonline.net/fex/66/nutritionalwellbeingschoolagechildren
Center for Preventative Action. (2023, January 17). Israeli Palestinian Conflict. Council on Foreign Relations Global Conflict Tracker.https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict
Jalbout, M.; Dryden-Peterson, S.; & Watkins, K. (2014, August 4). The Destruction of Gaza’s Schools and the Future of Palestinian Children. Brookings. Retrieved March 2, 2023 from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2014/08/04/the-destruction-of-gazas-schools-and-the-future-of-palestinian-children/
World Health Organization. (n.d.) Nutrition-Friendly Schools Initiative. https://apps.who.int/nutrition/topics/NFSI_Briefing_presentation.pdf?ua=1
UNICEF. (2021, September 28). Schools and Nutrition – better results for children. Retrieved March 2, 2023 from https://www.unicef.org/sop/stories/schools-and-nutrition-better-results-children
When it comes to addressing issues of gender equality in education, one organization that is working to educate, organize and empower their communities is Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). Established in 1971, NBJK aims to create a just society where everyone’s needs are met without discrimination or exploitation (NBJK, n.d. a). NBJK’s programs are implemented throughout India and encompass key development areas like health, education, agriculture, economics, and civil rights (NBJK, n.d. b). NBJK characterizes its approach to development “as a liberating force for achieving social justice, economic growth, and self-reliance” (NBJK, n.d. a). Their diverse portfolio of programs has allowed NBJK to carry out targeted interventions in rural communities that address multi-dimensional national issues locally. One of NBJK’s most successful programs is focused on improving gender equality and girls’ education.
In India, the underperformance of girls in education can be attributed to a number of factors, including social stigma, poverty, safety, cost, distance, and child marriage (NBJK, n.d. c). For example, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, where NBJK is based, an estimated 45% of girls drop out of primary school, and that number is higher in rural areas, where around 85% of girls drop out (NBJK, n.d. c). These competing factors contribute to a vicious generational cycle where young girls drop out of school and fail to reach their full potential. NBJK sees working at the grassroots level as a pathway to transforming gender in education through multi-stakeholder engagement with international organizations, local schools, parents, and students (Gupta et al., 2002, p. 33).
In collaboration with UNICEF, NBJK’s Jaagriti Initiative was launched to change conceptions of gender norms amongst students, parents, and teachers. The Jaagriti Initiative tackles gender equality in education by adopting a transformative approach and adapting it to the individual, family, and community (UNICEF. 2020. p.16). The initiative was administered in 100 schools across India and involved three components:
Transformative gender education:
Integrating gender into the curriculum creates an environment for teachers and students to critically examine and discuss inequalities associated with “gender roles, norms, and dynamics” (Locke et al. 2022. p.2). The curriculum covers “understanding gender, productive and reproductive roles, double work burdens, gender-based discrimination and violence, patriarchy and taking action for change” (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). This broad spectrum of knowledge helps build a foundation of awareness and action.
Gender-focused co-curricular activities:
Biweekly extracurricular activities supplement the material learned in school and reinforce their newly acquired knowledge through various activities that promote community-building and learning (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). By combining education with action, the Jaagriti Initiative helps establish new norms that support gender equality in a positive environment (Locke et al. 2022. p.2).
Family engagement:
Recognizing that families significantly impact the norms students develop, the Jaagriti Initiative engages families through monthly sessions to share the materials students learn in school (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). By sensitizing parents, the Jaagriti Initiative changed parents’ position from observers to participants of change (UNICEF. 2020. p.68). Parental outreach helps “transform the underlying social structures, policies, and broadly held social norms that perpetuate gender inequalities” (Locke et al. 2022. p.2).
The Jaagriti Initiative draws its strength by aligning itself with the transformative gender approach to education. This approach is based on the reshaping of the education system and curriculum to uproot gender inequality by shifting “norms, practices, and structures, which [reproduce] gender” (Locke et al. 2022. p.3). By leveraging the school environment, the Jaagriti Initiative promotes a transformative solution to addressing gender inequalities that engages not only students and teachers but also those outside the walls of a classroom.
As a result of their efforts, in 2021, NBJK engaged 10,655 students through their education program (NBJK. 2022. p.3). In evaluating the Jaagriti Initiative’s impact, NGJK found that “65% of girls and 74% of boys reported a greater awareness of gender biases, stereotyping, discrimination, and inequality” (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). Moreover, compared to baseline data, the Jaagriti Initiative saw the most significant changes in attitudes among boys and fathers. Boys and fathers experienced a 16% and 11% shift in attitudes when asked if “boys are naturally better than girls in studies” (UNICEF. 2020. p.25). Additionally, boys and fathers reported a 21% and 8% change in attitudes when asked, “it’s more important to educate boys than girls” (UNICEF. 2020. p.25). By positioning gender equality as a primary education component, NBJK, through its Jaagriti Initiative, has begun laying the groundwork for an “inclusive and socially just education system” (Locke et al. 2022. p.4). Furthermore, by engaging various stakeholders, NBJK has expressed its commitment to achieving gender equality beyond the classroom and into the larger community by shifting “norms, practices, and structures, which reproduced gender-based inequities” (Locke et al. 2022. p.4).
References
Gupta, R. Whelan, D. & Allendorf, K. (2022). Integrating Gender into HIV/AIDS Programmes. Department of Gender and Women’s Health. (pp. 1-53). World Health Organization.
This post will discuss the relationship between early childhood education and expanding access to many more literacy programs. Learning how to read is a critical skill in early childhood development years beginning in preschool to help the child reach their full potential and become more successful in core foundational skills. The definition of phonological awareness is “one’s sensitivity to, or explicit awareness of, the phonological structure of the words in one’s language” (Torgesen, Wagner, and Rashotte, 1994). Phonological awareness is such a crucial stage in literacy development in early childhood education where literacy skills are strongly linked to a child’s future in reading success for a strong foundation of learning (Crim Hawkins, Thornton, Rosof, Copley, Thomas, 2008). Studies have shown that children who have a strong foundation in phonological awareness starting in kindergarten have an easier time reading fluently than children who do not develop this type of proficiency (Crim, Hawkins, Thornton, Rosof, Copley, Thomas, 2008).
Literacy is the foundation for reading, writing, communicating, and socializing. Early literacy is learning about sounds, words, and language (Developing Literacy, Raising Children Network, 2006-2023). Early childhood literacy focuses on the child’s development through knowledge, skills, and attitudes that help promote reading and writing development which includes oral language, to have an expressive receptive vocabulary, listening comprehension skills, the alphabetic principle which includes knowledge of the alphabet, and the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in words as well as print awareness which involves understanding and recognition of environmental print and text features (Jones, 2021). The definition of education is “the action or process of educating or being educated” (Merriam-Webster.com). When it comes to literacy and early childhood education it is essential to start introducing books early on in a child’s life to help them to become better prepared for school and start building foundational skills to succeed in school. Incorporating literacy through play and early reading habits can help the child succeed in school and have more opportunities in adulthood.
The incorporation of early childhood literacy programs in the United States is average compared to other countries specifically low-income countries worldwide. According to UNICEF, of nearly 179 million children worldwide, nearly half are pre-primary-age children not enrolled in a pre-primary education program such as preschool (UNICEF.org). Unfortunately, in “low-income countries, only 1 in 5 children are enrolled in early childhood education programs. Even if these children have access to these early childhood education programs, poorly trained educators, overcrowded and overstimulated environments as well as the unsuitable curriculum can diminish the quality of their experience” (UNICEF.org). It is important for governments to focus on the importance of early childhood education especially among literacy programs to help the children develop their foundational skills such as reading, writing, language, and comprehension in addition to social and emotional skills in order to help them become successful individuals. Early childhood education and literacy programs will also help address Goal 4: Quality Education in the Sustainable Development Goals index. Failing to provide these types of programs to children around the world will limit the opportunities for growing and reaching their full potential.
Literacy rates among countries worldwide
Some things that governments around the world can start incorporating into the education systems are investments in education by supporting primary education programs, providing more training to their educators, having access to books and literacy games, and providing resources in different languages to families and educators for their children and students. Governments also need to provide access to early childhood education and literacy programs to families who are disproportionately excluded from these types of programs because of where they live and what resources they do not have access to in their area. Lastly, and most importantly, they need to commit to a universal primary education and literacy program to help young children build foundational skills that will help them succeed in secondary school and beyond.
I would like to end with two great quotes that would sum up this post, first “Let us remember: One book, One pen, One child, and One teacher can change the world” -Malala Yousafzi and finally, “There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all” -Jacqueline Kennedy.
Crim, C., Hawkins, J., Thornton, J., Copley, J., & Thomas, E. (2008). Early Childhood Educators’ Knowledge of Early Literacy Development 1. 17 (1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ816593.pdf
How nonformal learning experiences are uniquely equipped to move communities closer to gender equity, through their foundation on the examination of assumptions and absorbed value systems which create the learner-led shifts in cultural norms necessary to end deeply embedded practices such as female genital mutilation.
I first began hearing people talk about Nietzsche in high school: mostly teenage boys pontificating in basements full of smoke on “how cool he was, man”, and how he taught them that “nothing matters”. I now find myself wondering if those boys had ever actually read Nietzsche. Things very much mattered to him. One of his chief concerns was his realization that humans have a propensity to absorb and accept as their own value systems, those which were created by the powerful to act as invisible yokes of control. In essence, our ideas today about what is “natural” or “unchangeable” have been handed down to us through the generations, having been created by other humans to serve their own interests. He beseeched us to find the courage to question our reality and placed the highest value upon creative action: for one to separate what is nature from what is construct, to then discard the imposed ideas which do not serve us, and ultimately to build a value system reflective of who we are, not how others perceive us. For Nietzsche, a teacher’s role in this process was to unlock your ability to think for yourself, to ask critical questions, and to unleash the creative ability to not only imagine a new reality for yourself, but the agency to go forth and create it. And all this he was writing back in the 1870s and 1880s. Those boys were right about one thing, he was cool, man.
I wasn’t expecting Nietzsche to come to mind as I sat contemplating what levers of power needed prodding to bring an end to harmful practices like female genital mutilation. Yet he did. His ideas, which predate terms like “cultural hegemony” and “social constructs” by a hundred years, point to the heart of the matter. Human beings must be given the space and tools to deconstruct their cultural norms, taking with them what works, casting off all else. Teachers should act as facilitators in this transformation of consciousness, unleashing the critical examination skills which underpin the formation of just societies and remain inadequately addressed within the structure of formal education.
The institution of formal education is inarguably an integral avenue for development. Access to quality education is a key path along which women around the planet have been progressing as they step ever closer to gender equity. Yet, for as much as we have worked at moving the bar, some practices and behaviors seem firmly entrenched, perhaps even unchangeable. Female genital mutilation, sometimes referred to as cutting (FGM/C), is one such practice.
The UNFPA defines FGM/C as “a practice that involves altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons”. FGM/C is classified into four forms “ranging from partial or total removal of the clitoris, the outer or inner vaginal lips, to narrowing the vaginal opening by partially sealing it up”. Lifelong complications are many and can include painful menstrual periods, painful urination, painful intercourse, dangerous infections, and increased rate of newborn deaths, not to mention psychological trauma.
The persistence of FGM/C is reflective of gender inequalities and the power of social norms. Separated from homes of origin by over 6,000 miles and an entire ocean, the rate of FGM/C in immigrant communities within the United States remains high. In 2013 alone, the PRB estimates there were up to 507,000 women and girls within the US who had either undergone FGM/C or were expected to.
And despite growing global outrage, FGM/C not only continues to be practiced, but is happening to younger and younger girls, and is now being provided as a service by some health-trained practitioners. This encroachment into the officially sanctioned health sector is concerning as it increases the perception of normalcy and acceptableness.
So how can nonformal learning programs counter these practices which have persisted despite countless efforts to teach and regulate individuals into stopping? Where the student participating in the formal institution of education focuses primarily on the acquisition of new information and skills with the explicit end-goal of entering the ranks of the gainfully employed, nonformal learning opportunities are able to focus on awakening critical consciousness. As Nietzsche might have explained it, had he been alive in the 21st century: creating the framework and opening the space for individuals to recognize that their assumptions of what is natural and unchangeable are in fact human constructs, is the first step in moving people towards emancipation.
Further, learner-led critical examination will reveal those assumptions and values which are neither healthy for the individual nor the community, and in fact hinder their journey towards equity. Once learners are able to separate nature from human constructed practices and ideas, they are able to understand that, as other human beings before them created these expectations, so too can they create their own. Armed with this revelation, they can then begin the work of removing from their reality those practices which do not serve them. A practice such as FGM/C is a prime example. But this transformation of consciousness is not arrived at through traditional education institutions. This is about opening the safe space for dialogue and the critical self-examination of assumptions, not treating individuals as passive vessels into which information can be poured.
In my next post we’ll look at Tostan, an organization in Senegal helping communities across Africa begin their transformative journey, with teachers as facilitators, there to unlock the innate human capacity to examine and create. The results are more than promising.
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
