Teacher identities and empowerment of girls against sexual violence

How can teachers help to empower girls against sexual violence?: experiences from eastern and southern Africa

By: Chege F
Published by: United Nations [UN] Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) , 2006
Via: Eldis

To understand how teachers can contribute to empowering students – especially girls – to build positive gender identities and violence-free relationships, it is important to understand the way that teachers’ own gender identities are created and acted out in both their personal lives and at work. There has been little examination of this question in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper describes the qualitative research undertaken by the author in countries of the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR). Drawing heavily on direct quotes from teachers and students, the author describes the way that teachers’ behaviour towards students helps to recreate negative gender relationships. In particular, male teachers are found to behave violently towards boys, and to sexualise and sexually harass girls – while school leaders often condone this behaviour when the girls complain. This, the author argues, creates negative role models for boys and disempowers the girls. To encourage teachers to recognise the effects of their own behaviour, the author offers the experience of using memory therapy with graduate student-teachers in Kenya. This approach encourages teachers and student-teachers to think about violence in their own childhoods through using a diary and engaging in discussions about their own experiences. The paper concludes that engaging teachers as well as trainee teachers in activities of self-reflexivity of sexual violence is a potentially effective way to raise understanding of the effects on students. This, the author argues, is the first step in engaging them in empowering girls and boys to prevent gendered and sexual violence.
(http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/elim-disc-viol-girlchild/ExpertPapers/EP.13%20chege.pdf)