DDP 710. Caroline E. Parker. "La Calidad de la Educación y un Enfoque de Género: Hacia una Pedagogía Global." (Quality of Education and a Focus on Gender: toward a Global Pedagogy) June 1999. 24 pp. Central America Project Series

This paper investigates the subject of gender and formal education. A review of current literature demonstrates that guaranteeing girls’ access to basic education is only the first step in guaranteeing full participation in adequate and quality education. As traditional pedagogy is modified to offer higher quality and to reach more children, learning theories focusing on each student’s ability to build knowledge must also encompass a gender perspective. There is also a need to examine the ways in which formal education reinforces social order systems that maintain women in subordinate positions and make it more difficult for girls to take advantage of education. Finally, in this context there is a need to develop viable programs that address gender in the lives of girls and boys in the Central American context.

Keywords: Gender / género; quality / calidad; pedagogy / pedagogia; teacher training / capacitación de profesores

JEL codes: I20, I21, J16, N36

Caroline E. Parker is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has lived in Nicaragua for 13 years.