The effectiveness of educational policy in promoting equality of access to, and participation in, education and employment for girls and women in rural Nepal is investigated. Education in formal or non-formal sectors is considered necessary for the development of a country as people can learn skills which may contribute to social and economic development. The question of gender awareness in planning and implementing development programmes is raised. Through field work carried out in the five districts of Karnali (Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, and Mugu) between May 1988 and December 1990, the status of girls and women in rural areas and the effects of educational policy on them are identified. Questions concern the: " adequacy of steps towards equality of access and participation in education. " effects of the status of women on girls' and women's opportunities in education and employment. " impact of central decisions on girls' education in a remote area. " qualifications and training for teachers of formal and nonformal education. " awareness of gender in education planning. The research is focussed on 44 women trained as girls' nonformal education teachers, 29 of whom were also trained primary school teachers. Also participants in girls' nonformal classes are researched. Due to insufficient qualifications, trained women teachers were made redundant from their full-time posts and school leavers were unable to pursue primary teacher training courses. Traditional attitudes restricted women's access to tuition for the appropriate qualifications. Participation in part-time girls' non-formal classes was greater than in full-time formal school as the latter conflicted with girls' and women's economic roles in the home. Redundancies amongst women teachers raised questions amongst local people regarding the purpose of female education. Recommendations for girls' equal access to education and women's access to teaching posts or other employment are made. Empowerment of women is suggested as a means towards active involvement in the decisions which influence development in Nepal.

Widening or increasing participation within Further Education. A case study of a group of women returnees and the barriers they faced on their journey to move on. The 1990's were a period of significant change within Further Education (FE), as portrayed by the Kennedy Report (1997) with its agenda to widen participation. Government policy was directed at developing the skills of an untapped workforce by creating a 'learning society'. Production of this 'telling' case study enabled an investigation into whether the strategies employed actually brought different recruits into FE or supported those already within the system. The study was based within a European Social Fund (ESp) partnership, Breaking Through The Barriers (BTTB), between Suffolk, Greece, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Scotland. Suffolk was divided into six groups, providing access to the whole rural region, the Ipswich cohort being the focus of my research. This group of women participated in piloting an Accreditation of Prior Experimental Learning (APEL) package, which enabled the recognition of transferable skills that were identified and developed within their home environment. I adapted an evaluative framework to explore the intentions and outcomes of planners, providers and participants. The diverse evidence provided is used to produce a qualitative study from a predominantly 'learner voices' perspective. The thesis uses written programme feedback in addition to data collected specifically for this research, including a videoed focus group, observations, interviews and group discussions. My findings revealed that the beneficiaries actually recruited onto BTTB differed from those originally targeted and this impacted upon the implementation of the programme. Uniting the learners was a lack of self-belief, a search for personal growth, and the ultimate aim of moving on into employment. The women's dependence upon ESF support systems was highlighted by their feedback i.e. creche, transport costs and free entry. Such equality of opportunity issues affected many of the women's chances to progress into a mainstream environment. What emerged was the women's tendency to stay in 'comfort zones' that met their social needs and created reliance upon peer support. These learners revisited the same type of provision, a phenomenon referred to as the 'revolving door' syndrome. The dilemma is whether to try and change the participants or the system. In this case study the policies employed reflected the popular short-term view of individual development rather than structural change.

This doctoral thesis examines the ways young women experience media education in sixth form, with particular emphasis on their experience of gender representation lessons. Secondary research objectives include an examination of how young women regard the development of their own critical media literacy and how they conceive of the effects of media education on their self-esteem. Through classroom observations and interviews with A-level Media Studies teachers and female students, this research explores three key areas of focus in understanding young women’s experiences: media representations of feminine aesthetics and the sexualisation of feminine appearance, the negotiation between course material and students’ personal engagement with media, and lastly reflections on how critical media literacy is defined and developed within the Media Studies course. The thesis discusses ways in which content both constrains and enables students’ development of critical media literacy. The role of chosen exam boards, teaching styles, and forms (i.e. upper sixth form versus lower sixth form) are examined as influencing factors. Specific lessons from observations, which students reflected upon during interviews, are also discussed in order to understand the process of teaching and learning about gender representation. A feminist discourse is at times present though mostly in covert ways. A greater consideration for contemporary feminist work would resolve some of the current difficulties faced by educators in their efforts to develop students’ critical awareness, specifically when teaching about the representation of women. Female students often reflect what Gill has termed a ‘postfeminist sensibility’ (2007: 254); however, this exists in varying degrees. In certain contexts students tend to articulate more ‘traditional’ feminist values. In relation to one of the secondary research objectives, students find that A-level Media Studies improves the self-esteem of their physical appearance; however, other findings reveal that the extensive focus on textual analysis of sexualised and idealised representations of women can sometimes counter-act the aspects which students referenced as beneficial to their self-esteem. Despite many recommendations for improving the teaching of gender representation that are offered here, it is evident that some solutions are dependent on broader shifts occurring at the level of the education system.

This thesis describes a qualitative, interview-based case study of the experiences of adult female learners accessing/reaccessing Higher Education following a Widening Participation (WP) route on a part-time Physiotherapy undergraduate course and an accelerated Masters course in Occupational Therapy at a single HEI. The research questioned student and staff perceptions of and attitudes to study, and to what extent the HEI had adapted its pedagogic approaches to accommodate student learning preferences. Data are drawn from discussions with sixteen participants, comprising four students and four tutors on each course. The research outcomes revealed a tension between the tutors' theoretically and ideologically driven views on teaching and learning, which included responding to diverse student needs, and the more pragmatic orientations of the students and their tutors. These were underpinned in the students' case by the financial need to gain a qualification in spite of the constraints of time and family life, and on the tutors' and institution's part by the need to attract student numbers and to meet completion targets in spite of shortages of time, staffing and space. Analysis of the responses of students and tutors draws on Bernstein's theory of recontextualisation, in which ideas such as WP undergo significant transformations first in the official policy process then when they are put into practice. The study also draws on Bernstein's account of pedagogic identities, which describe how teachers and institutions negotiate teaching and learning processes within the competing demands of market forces, mandated policy and their own local ideologies and circumstances. In its exploration of the meaning of WP and its underpinning rationales, the research suggests that the pragmatic approach of the institution has the effect of widening access in terms of course eligibility but failing to offer correspondingly inclusive pedagogies, more flexible curricula, or adequate student support services.

This thesis examines the interaction of class and gender in nineteenth-century Scottish education by means of a focus on the schooling of working-class girls and its relationship to the national educational tradition, with particular reference to the period 1872-1900. The first chapter considers general issues of national identity, education and gender, and the place of women in Scottish educational history. The second chapter investigates the state of female education in Scotland before 1872, focusing on the Argyll Commission (1864-1868). It shows that girls were less likely to be sent to school than boys; that girls stayed at school for a shorter time than boys; and that many girls were taught outside the parochial system. The 1872 Act tackled these inequalities, but reinforced the gendering of education, notably in the curriculum. The third and fourth chapters consider respectively the industrial Lowlands and the areas outwith the central belt (the Borders, and the Highlands and Islands) after the 1872 Education Act, with Glasgow and Dundee as major urban case studies for the former, and Edinburgh and Aberdeen for the latter. Each chapter shows the importance of the regional economy for working-class girls' education, in addition to the expectation of domestic duties. The detailed case study of school log books reveals a continuing, though ameliorated, gender inequality, which was mitigated by opposition from both parents and teachers to any dilution of the academic content of girls' schooling by the emphasis, placed by both government policies and feminist campaigns, on practical domestic skills at the expense of book-learning. However, Catholic schools welcomed domestic subjects, for the good of the family and the Catholic community's standing within the wider national community. The fifth chapter examines the position of the schoolmistress, who, although in a subordinate position within the profession, still considered herself a partner, albeit junior, in preserving the traditional educational ideal of universality and meritocracy. The final chapter concludes that there were sites of conflict (religious, ethnic, national), all of which concurred on the expectations and assumptions regarding gender roles, and especially women's place in the home and within the national community. Nevertheless, the conclusion is that women could play a part in the educational tradition, though not one of equality with men.

The main purpose of the thesis is to examine the way that a socialist society, the GDR, which is committed to ensuring the equality of men and women in society, uses education to provide equal opportunities for girls and boys and carry out its cultural revolution. For the purposes of the thesis , education is used in its narrow and its broad sense, i.e the formal education system and socialisation in society as a whole. The Marxist theories of the liberation of women and of education, mainly in the form of the work of Engels and Rebel, and the development and application of these theories by members of the Social Democratic Party in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, are examined first. The impact of the Weimar Republic and of the Third Reich are then looked at in relation to the legacy facing the new post-1945 government. A detailed description of the rhetoric of the GDR concerning women's equality is given, and most of the legislation concerning women is examined. In chapter 5 the education system of the GDR is laid out with particular reference to the education of girls. In the following two chapters there is a statistical analysis of the actual position of women in the GDR in terms of their education, employment and social and political standing in society. An analysis of the discrep2ncies between theory and practice is undertaken, with reference to research done within and outside the GDR. In conclusion, the success of the GDR in achieving women's equality is measured in their own terms and is examined within the framework of a socialist-feminist critique.

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This thesis addresses the influence of Twitter on the development of female individualism in Saudi Arabia in relation to the religious curriculum. It reveals the process of this development through two different environments, the physical environment in religious education and the virtual environment in the form of Twitter. The thesis is based on a combination of methods (largely qualitative data obtained from observations, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires). It develops a theoretical framework based on gendered identity as the central concept of this research. the framework positions this concept within two fields of research : feminist approaches to gender and psychological approaches to identity. This thesis presents and innovative approach to the analysis of female individuality. Methodologically, the thesis establishes a position that informs the overall analysis between two different settings, i.e., the physical environment of Saudi schools, which illustrates long-established definitions of the Saudi female as the foundational unit of the analysis. It then moves to an analysis of these definitions in the virtual environment of Twitter, revealing how the different characteristics of the virtual environment influences definitions of identity, the formation of perceptions and the relationships between authorities. In conclusion, the thesis presents significant findings and recommendations.