Turkey has a particular set of education challenges for girls. While most girls in Turkey are in school, there remains a significant gender gap in the rural areas of the country, especially the South-East. Most initiatives... [ view full abstract ]
Turkey has a particular set of education challenges for girls. While most girls in Turkey are in school, there remains a significant gender gap in the rural areas of the country, especially the South-East. Most initiatives have focused on increasing enrolment using distributional interventions such as scholarships, cash transfers and boarding schools. There has been limited attention paid to gendered structures inside and outside the school, pedagogy, curriculum and textbook content, making ‘breaking the cycle’ of girls’ marginalisation difficult.
This paper examines an attempt to develop schools’ capacity to challenge gender norms via the ‘ETCEP’ (Technical Assistance for Promoting Gender Equality in Education) project, a pilot which ran from 2014-16 in 10 provinces of Turkey, funded by the European Union. ETCEP piloted an approach that adopted a capability-based framework at multiple levels to tackle girls’ marginalisation, with a focus on gender justice. This included work at national and policy level via analysis and planning of curricula and textbooks; within schools through a bespoke tool, GEATS (which intended to enable school leaders to analyse how well their schools promote gender equality and to develop corresponding strategies); and a public campaign on television and social media. The pilot also supported teachers to identify and challenge gender norms directly through a certification programme for teachers, school leaders and the inspectorate.
This paper shares lessons, challenges and media content from the pilot and makes recommendations for policymakers wishing to enact a similar programme of transformation, especially focusing on how tools and processes can support a systemic change and integration into regional and national education planning.
