Engendering Education—Envisioning Education As A Transformative Tool

By Joshika Saraf

In the last 25 years, Breakthrough has worked towards shifting social norms that enable and promote gender-based violence and discrimination while working with adolescents and youth in schools and in communities.?

Breakthrough believes in the transformative power of education, with a Gender Transformative Education System (GTES) that moves beyond access to education and rethinks gender norms and binaries. This system allows space for critical consciousness about inequalities, biases, and stereotypes amongst students, teachers, school administrators, parents, and other stakeholders.?

In keeping with Breakthrough’s belief in shifting gender norms, Engendering Education is a first-of-its-kind pedagogical intervention, an e-magazine with the potential to be a transformational tool to bring together sectoral experts, practitioners, and thought leaders to share their insights and experiences on the intricate dynamics of gender and education.?

Through this initiative, we aim to facilitate a larger dialogue among leaders in the education ecosystem while highlighting actionable and scalable solutions for governments and other stakeholders.?

The magazine Engendering Education was launched at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on August 21, 2023, where we had the privilege of welcoming over 100 participants, including esteemed journalists, experts, and gender advocates, to this event. The event featured an insightful panel discussion exploring the linkages between the education system (Goal 4) and gender equality, with Pooja Sharma Goyal (CEO, The Udaiti Foundation), Dr. Rukmini Banerji (CEO, Pratham Education Foundation), Namita Bhandare (Independent Journalist), and Sohini Bhattacharya (CEO, Breakthrough Trust) as panellists, and Pallavi Pundir (Senior Journalist, Vice - South Asia) as the moderator.?

Key Issues Explored

Ever since its inception in 2023, three issues have been published with a focus around different thematics of the education system.?

The first issue of Engendering Education is about how schools act as transformative spaces while taking into consideration the existing educational and training interventions, both from a global and local perspective. It highlighted voices from the Global South, including Dipak Naker of Uganda's Raising Voices, advocating for schools to empower children as future leaders. We also explored the work of Sangeeta Saksena of Enfold Proactive Health Trust, an NGO that imparts life skills based on sexuality education and child sexual abuse awareness and prevention programmes. Our changemaker for the inaugural issue was Praveen Vempadapu of Kidpower India, who offers safety training to vulnerable children in India.?

The second issue of Engendering Education celebrates and explores Savitribai Phule’s legacy and her vision for equitable education. She challenged the gender bias that is deeply rooted in the education system and worked towards creating empowered citizens for the future. The cover story by Adhishree Parasnis of Global School Leaders highlighted key examples of gender-transformative leadership across the world and its intersection with caste. We also explored the impactful work of Ritwik Chakravarty (Ritu) as a community leader and trainer,who shed light on their experiences of collaborating with and learning from underserved communities while actively challenging ingrained gender biases prevalent in educational materials and textbooks. Anita Bharti, an educator and a prominent Dalit activist, was featured in the changemaker column, where she addressed the intricate intersectionality of caste and gender in classrooms.

The third issue of the Engendering Education e-magazine focuses on equity and inclusion in education, fostering dialogue to build opinions, strategies, and critiques on integrating a gender lens into the education system from the perspectives of diverse stakeholders. Prof. Poonam Batra’s cover story provided a comprehensive view of equity in education, highlighting persistent gaps and the deepening inequities caused by exclusionary curricular frameworks. She emphasized the need for collaboration among stakeholders to build inclusive education systems. We also explored Jeevan Shiksha Pahal, a Muskan-run school in Bhopal, dedicated to children from Denotified Tribes, particularly the Pardhi and Gond communities. The profile demonstrated how thoughtful pedagogies and dedicated teachers can bridge educational gaps. Our changemaker for this issue was Annie Namala of the Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion (CSEI), who reflected on the Right to Education movement and the importance of amplifying Dalit and Muslim voices in education policy.

Upcoming Issue?

In the upcoming issue of Engendering Education, we dive deep into the intersection of STEM and Gender, exploring the systemic barriers that hinder girls and women from thriving in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. From grassroots efforts to policy insights, this issue will highlight changemakers driving a quiet revolution in STEM.

Why Does En-gendering Education Matter??

In India, while many girls enroll in public schools, a significant number drop out by age 15. Beyond poverty, stringent gender norms contribute to dropouts in the secondary or higher education level. Parents often believe that private schools offer a better education as well as career opportunities, therefore prioritize their sons’ education over their daughters'. This polarisation of schooling deepens gender imbalances, affecting girls’ self-esteem, identity, and future prospects in education and employment. Gender-equitable behaviors need to be internationalised by school leaders and teachers to achieve gender equality as well as to carve out aspirational futures. Since schools are major sites for gender socialisation, they can reduce gender differences by encouraging equity, curiosity, and healthy intergender relationships. However, few education programmes are gender intentional in addressing these systemic needs.?

To achieve gender equality, India must prioritize education as a key driver of change and recognise the importance of a Gender Transformative Education System (GTES), which seeks to provide equal access to high-quality education for all individuals, regardless of their gender identity, expression, or social background. This requires a collective action—a movement driven by educators, policymakers, parents, and communities—in terms of integrating gender equality principles into educational policies, training and supporting teachers, and collaborating.?

This is exactly what the Engendering Education e-magazine intends to do. We aim to build knowledge on gender with a special focus on education and create a robust platform for various stakeholders towards developing thought leadership at the National and South Asian levels.

This is exactly what the Engendering Education e-magazine intends to do. We aim to build knowledge on gender with a special focus on education and create a robust platform for various stakeholders towards developing thought leadership at the National and South Asian levels. It will enable the co-creation of knowledge, which will be fed back into the gender-transformative education movement across the globe—preparing schools to challenge discriminatory practices and advance equality. It is an invitation to envision education as a transformative tool—one that transcends traditional gender barriers and empowers individuals to build a more inclusive and equitable future.?