Improving Gender Equity in Distance Learning: Our Journey to Increase Access and Impact
In August of last year we wrote a blog detailing our experience designing Educate!’s first-ever distance learning model. We’ve learned a lot since then, and we’re excited to share how our solutions have improved over the last few months, especially in regards to gender equity!
As a quick refresher: when schools closed, we quickly pivoted our operations to create a new remote learning experience outside the classroom—delivering the core components of our flagship in-school model to youth via low-tech mediums like radio and mobile phone. Although Educate!’s pathways for reaching youth have changed, the outcomes and impact we are targeting remain the same.
Promoting gender equity is core to Educate!’s mission. For over ten years, we’ve implemented an evidence-based gender equity and inclusivity strategy within our in-school model, with real and measurable results.
Like all of Educate!’s solutions, our new distance learning model is built for cost-efficient impact and scale—with gender equity is front of mind. This means we make an intentional effort to learn about how our model supports and uplifts girls, and this has been particularly critical within our pivot to distance learning. Leading this charge is Educate!’s Deputy M&E Manager, Aloysie Niyoyita.
Aloysie has played a key role in the research and development of Educate!’s remote gender equity strategy, and we recently sat down with her to discuss how Educate! is targeting increased gender equity and accessibility of learning during the pandemic.
Q: How has Educate! integrated gender-sensitivity and gender-responsiveness into its distance learning model curriculum?
A: We ensure our content is gender responsive with a variety of strategies, including representation. For example, a female secondary student is the lead character in the majority of our radio lessons and lesson illustrations.
Many female characters in our curriculum are young entrepreneurs, and they serve as positive role models that debunk stereotypes that girls cannot fill specific roles and have limited opportunities. We also promote girls’ development of transferable skills, like independence or grit, by having characters in the curriculum set a positive example of putting these skills to use.
Additionally, within our VIP bootcamp—the intensive mentorship component of Educate!’s distance learning model—we also hold gender-responsive sessions, where topics focused on gender inequalities within entrepreneurship and the family. All of Educate!’s youth mentors receive training on gender session facilitation, ensuring that they are intentional about promoting gender equity within the Bootcamp’s sessions. We hope that all of these strategies will reinforce the message that girls can and should forge their own paths, and that this will ultimately lead to similar gender-barrier-challenging impacts we’ve seen in our in-person model.
Q: What have you learned so far about the differences in youth engagement and participation between young men and women in Educate!’s distance learning model?
A: So far, participation seems to be equal between boys and girls when it comes to listenership of Educate!’s radio lessons. However, we learned from SMS (text) surveys with youth and from our Bootcamp pilot evaluation that boys participating in our distance learning model were more likely to own their own phones, while girls were more often using borrowed phones. As a result, we see boys participating more actively than girls in SMS (text) assessments, including sending in feedback and calling in with questions during radio show broadcasts.
Q: What specific steps is Educate! taking to ensure it reaches girls? Has anything you’ve implemented so far been particularly successful in increasing girls’ participation?
A: We are currently piloting and testing multiple strategies for this purpose. First, we experimented with listener groups, which bring together 5-10 young people via conference calls for 30-minute discussion sessions run by Educate! Mentors. We are now monitoring both mixed-gender and all-girl listener groups to determine whether an all-girl environment facilitates a safer space for female participants, allowing them to speak more freely or engage more actively. In addition, we are also experimenting with making phone calls to female learners’ parents or guardians to tell them about our distance learning curriculum and explain what the radio and phone-based content can offer to young people. Already, this strategy has increased participation by 29%.
Next, we conducted recruitment campaigns for Educate!’s VIP Bootcamp, targeting girls through ‘girl ambassadors’, whose jobs were to recruit girls into Educate!’s activities. During this time, we also ran social media campaigns targeted at girls and used gender-responsive messaging during radio lessons. When young women expressed that the rigid radio lesson schedule was difficult to participate in because of their responsibilities at home, we added a second set of radio and SMS (text) lessons later in the day—adding more flexibility to facilitate girls’ participation—and youth mentors scheduled sessions when their female mentees would be most available.
Q: Can an emphasis on gender equity lead to any other outcomes for girls? Have you learned anything from previous crises and long-term school closures?
A: In addition to the significance of skill-building, we are also emphasizing the importance of girls’ participation in distance learning as a pathway back to the classroom. According to UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank, “Girls who were able to participate in an empowerment program in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak were more likely to re-enroll in school after the outbreak and had more educated and supportive partners 5 years later.” This pathway to increased education and its social spillovers, such as life-partnership dynamics, are similar to Educate!’s impact results in 2019. Looking ahead, we aim to continue exploring the most effective ways to equip girls with the tools to pursue their goals, and we are eager to leverage lessons learned in 2020 to test new and creative strategies for advancing gender equity.