6 Inside Classrooms in Guinea: Girls' Experiences

Abstract

This document the sixth chapter in a book on women and education in sub-Saharan Africa takes the reader inside classrooms in Guinea to reveal the obstacles and encouragement encountered by school girls. The chapter opens by describing the context and presenting the underlying assumptions of the study. A literature review describes the source of expectations for gender patterns and details are given of the qualitative research methods used in the larger 1994 study from which the case studies reported in this chapter were drawn. The chapter continues with an analysis of teachers attitudes and behaviors that considers whether the gender of the teacher matters and also reveals tensions between male and female teachers. The next section explores classroom interaction as evidenced by frequency with which teachers call on girls or on volunteers and star students how teachers divide the students into groups and how teachers single out girls in well-meaning or derogatory ways. After a look at the attitudes and behaviors of students (girls attitudes about boys and girls seating patterns and boys attitudes about boys and girls) the chapter examines the controlling strategies used by boys. Case studies are used to illustrate all of these discussions and the chapter concludes by reviewing the impediments faced by all school children in Guinea and the additional ones faced by girls as well as the way the interplay among teachers girls and boys creates a joint construction of gender stereotypes.

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