Research on women’s literacy, dominated by a quantitative paradigm and focusing on the impact of planned educational interventions, has led to a narrow policy emphasis on functional literacy as a vehicle for imparting modern... [ view full abstract ]
Research on women’s literacy, dominated by a quantitative paradigm and focusing on the impact of planned educational interventions, has led to a narrow policy emphasis on functional literacy as a vehicle for imparting modern health knowledge, particularly on reproductive health. Proposing an alternative theoretical framework, based on a broader conceptualisation of literacy as a social practice and health as connected with social justice, this paper draws on policy analysis and the authors’ ethnographic research in Nepal over thirty years to re-examine the relationship between gender, literacy and health.
Influenced by a strong international policy discourse that literate women have smaller and healthier families, adult literacy programmes in Nepal have incorporated learning about maternal and child health, family planning, nutrition and sanitation into their curriculum. Neither health nor literacy programmes have engaged with indigenous beliefs, except from a deficit perspective that women lacked modern health knowledge. Although both sectors have made a policy shift from ‘women-only’ initiatives to ‘gender equality’, programmes have not changed in their pedagogical approach – tending to disseminate health and gender messages rather than facilitate critical dialogue.
Both Government and NGO providers have evaluated the impact of such programmes in terms of how many women gained literacy skills and new health knowledge through adult literacy classes. However, these studies have revealed little about the processes of social change and informal learning that influence health and literacy learning within the wider community and in everyday life. By taking account of informal learning taking place in communities and comparing health and literacy approaches used within the education and health sectors, the paper explores ways of investigating and building on the complex interaction of factors that influence inequalities in gender and health at community level.
