Knowledge and Attitudes amongst Teacher-Students in Senegal regarding Girls’ Right to Education : A qualitative study concerning the disparity in school attendance due to gender

Sammanfattning: Despite Senegal’s ratifications of the UN Conventions CRC and the CEDAW, a noticeable discrepancy regarding secondary school attendance due to the pupil’s sex has been recognized in enrolment and fulfilment ratios. (www.unicef.org, 2011a) The main issue to be examined in this thesis was the teacher-students’ knowledge of girls’ right to education and their attitudes concerning the difference in pupils participating in secondary schools based on the pupil’s sex and how the matter is being addressed amongst teachers. Qualitative interviews were carried out amongst teacher-students at University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar. We reflected upon the collected material mainly through theories of feminism and social constructivism, and moreover briefly through post-colonialism and structural functionalism, as well as in relation to previous research. We found that the respondents lacked deeper juridical knowledge concerning right to education. Overall the respondents expressed an ambiguity in their gender awareness, and their perception of girls’ education in relation to cultural traditions. The main obstacles for girls schooling were gender cultural traditions and socio-economic factors.