Highlights
Contents
Women and education3Impact of education on women3Role of female education in global development and economic growth4The cycle of poverty, health, and education6Critical approaches to education8Feminist theory8Social role theory10Social justice10Bourdieu Theory11Capital and gender12Motivation Theories13Achievement motivation theory13Self-belief, human needs, and societal influences14Self-belief and self-efficacy16Learned helplessness theory1Women's Education in the Muslim World21Gender attitudes and family behaviours22Multiple "Islams" and cross-country variation23Improvements in Saudi female education25Gaps in the Literature26
Research Questions:
What are the enablers and potential barriers to women’s participation in the Afghan tertiary educational system?
This question includes the following sub-questions:
1. Which factors influenced Afghan females to participate in tertiary education in Afghanistan prior to moving to Australia?
2. What types of barriers did female participants experience in relation to participating in tertiary education in Afghanistan?
3. Did the lived experiences of participants differ between urban and regional/rural settings in Afghanistan?
4. What do participants believe to be the current barriers and enablers of female participation in tertiary education in Afghanistan?
Chapter 3Literature review
This literature review focuses on societal influences on women's access to tertiary education in Afghanistan. The study aims to identify key issues and possible solutions associated with access to tertiary education for women. The review is conducted to examine the impact of female education. In the following sections, we have considered female education within the context of global development, economic growth, poverty, health, and education. Also, the review has focused on critical approaches to education, where the review has included several theories, for example, Feminist theory, social role theory, social justice, capital and gender, and Bourdieu theory. Bourdieu theory describes a number of factors, which, when combined, influence how a person conducts their lives in the social and cultural context in which they exist. This study draws on Bourdieu's concepts of ‘habitus’ and ‘cultural capital’ to examine the relevance of life experiences to participating in tertiary education.The literature used in this review was identified through keyword searches of the Federation University Library catalogue, ERIC, APO, ClickView, and A+ Education databases, supported by the use of Google Scholar to search for other sources. Keywords used in the various searches included the following terms: benefit of education, female education, the impact of education, poverty, health, and importance of education. Given that some of the literature relevant to the research questions is only available in grey literature, such as government and NGO reports, these sources were examined via keyword searches in the Google search engine. Limitations on the amount of literature available and the longevity of societal issues in Afghanistan mean that there were no exclusions to the literature searched, and a wide range of research was examined.
This chapter focuses on identifying key issues and possible solutions associated with access to tertiary education for women in Afghanistan. Sustained periods of conflict have negatively impacted Afghanistan’s education system resulting in many children not completing primary school, and an estimated two-thirds of the female population not even attending school (UNICEF, 2019). Yet education is an important building block for the future development of any nation, particularly where ongoing conflict has impacted access to the extent that it has in Afghanistan. The outcomes of these searches, as they relate to the research topic, are discussed in the following sections.Women and educationAccording to former Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Sober (2014), investing in a woman's education feeds her children, community, and country. While women's education contributes to a nation's overall development and progress, this section seeks to identify the role and impact of education on women. It focuses on the role of female education in global development health and education and its place in promoting economic growth and mitigating the cycle of poverty. It explores the cycle of poverty, health and self-belief, human needs, and societal influences on the individual in terms of how this may impact women's education.Impact of education on womenIn many countries, especially in developing nations, many women receive little or no education at all (Krzyzanowsk, 2018). Education is important as it can help women develop a sense of agency and empowerment after completing their education (Mirzada, 2019). Education is also important for human development, and there are many benefits to be gained from educating women, including improved health outcomes, economic development, and empowerment of women (Global Partnership for Education, 2014a). Many issues prevent women from attending universities in developing countries (UNICEF, 2020), including concerns about safety, sanitation, cost, poor educational quality, cultural and religious practices (UNICEF, 2016).
Education is widely acknowledged among scholars to have a profound impact on women's access to human rights and development goals. Tertiary education for women is an internationally agreed universal human right (UNESCO, 2019). Education, as a basic human right, is seen as a bridge to achieving other sustainable development goals (Willems et al., 2018). Education provides a person with knowledge and skills to take advantage of economic and lifelong learning opportunities (Sen, 2003) and is a key factor in increasing human capital (Wantchekon et al., 2015). Human capital is an important asset for society and individuals and can be classified as knowledge, habits, personality, and social attributes embodied in the ability to accomplish tasks to produce economic value (Govdell, 2016).Education has been found to be the main contributor to increasing human capital. There is evidence that developed countries tend to have 30-60% tertiary educational achievement among their 25–34-year-old population (OCED, 2019). According to A. B. Sabawoon (personal communication, May 1, 2020), who is a senior lecturer at Alfalah University and government advisor for higher education, in Afghanistan, this type of data on tertiary participation is not available; however, current educational achievement levels are expected to be a lot lower than in developed countries. To achieve the same levels of tertiary educational achievement and growth of human capital as developed countries, it is expected that a higher level of female education is required in Afghanistan (OECD, 2020). The completion of compulsory education and participation in tertiary education by females is also argued to play a role in the reduction of poverty, economic growth, achieving gender equality, health improvement, and social development (Misango & Ongiti 2013; Klasen, 2004; Mirzada, 2001; Sen, 2003).
While education plays an important role in women's lives in developing countries, Bourdieu (1967) also described how education reinforces society's classes and privileges. Bourdieu (1986) defined cultural capital as providing an individual with the framework to be empowered, achieve goals, and become successful. Cultural capital can exist in three different forms or states, including embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. Of these, the embodied state is the most influential for this study. According to Bourdieu (1991), the embodied state is what the individual has learned by their experience and can be increased by the investment of time into self-improvement, including self-improvement through formal education (Rueden, Lukaszewski, & Gurven, 2015). Objectified cultural capital refers to material objects with cultural meaning, such as books, paintings, and mugs. Institutionalized cultural capital permits social recognition of skills, increases credibility and trustworthiness, and increases social status (Claussen & Osborne, 2013). Therefore, this study will focus on the participants' embodied cultural capital, examining their life experiences, ideas, and circumstances and how these have influenced their participation in tertiary education. This study will explore how the participants' embodied cultural capital influences their engagement with embodied and institutionalised cultural capital, particularly the institutional arrangements of Afghan tertiary educational institutions. The next section explains the link between female tertiary education and economic growth.
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