The Role of Literacy in Enhancing Women's Agency and Well-being

ISBN-13: 9783639154559 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 252 str.

Maimouna Barro

Opis

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are oftenviewed as the indisputable new actors in providingeducational programs for women in developingcountries. However, there is a paucity of researchshowing how successful these programs prove to be incatering to womens needs and in bringing aboutmeaningful changes in their lives. More importantly,there is paucity of field-based research using thevoices of women as prime data to explore the extentto which these literacy programs have effects ontheir lives. This study examines the effects of theNGO Tostans educational program on the lives ofwomen in a rural community in Senegal, and ways inwhich it affects their agency and well-being.Thestudy progressed on the assumption that any literacyprogram that seeks to be successful in improvingpeoples lives should develop greater sensitivity tolocal kinds of knowledge and culture. The findingssuggest that it is not literacy per se, but theoverall empowering education process in which womengained access to skills, knowledge, and greaterawareness, that allowed them to critically reflect ontheir social reality and take collective action totransform it.

O autorze

Dr. Maimouna Barro is Associate Director at the Center for
African Studies at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests cover various areas such
as language and literacy; women, education, and development in
Africa. Her current research focuses on the role of crossborder
languages in the African integration process.