No longer in the dark

Sammanfattning: Purpose and questionsOur purpose with this project is to explore the knowledge about the effects of education on society and theindividual (in our case illiterate women). With this we also want to increase the understanding for the teacherprofession and our important mission.We will fulfil this purpose through investigating what previous research has said about the importance ofeducation in general and what education does for a woman's life in Nigeria in particular. We will explore theeffects of education for women in their cultural context.·What has been said about the importance of education for the development of the society and the individual?·How does education affect a Nigerian woman's view of herself?·What happens in a woman's life and mind when she goes from being an illiterate person to a reading and writing person?MethodWe have made six qualitative interviews with Nigerian women who did not get the opportunity to a basiceducation as children. They are now attending a Christian adult school in Jos, Nigeria to learn how to read andwrite.FindingsThe women feel that the education has changed their view of themselves in many aspects. They have developeda higher confidence and are more independent than before. They feel more included in society when they havebecome literate. They have also got a more significant female consciousness through the education. The school'sChristian approach permeates all the education and the students' subjective identity strengthens in accordancewith the Christian values. We have noticed a difference in how long the women have attended the school andhow much they have strengthen their identity through their way of answering our questions.Even though the women have increased their confidence, independence and female consciousness we have alsoseen a limit for how far this development can proceed. Their view of womanhood is within the frames ofpatriarchy and therefore the effects of education for these women are also within patriarchy.A conclusion we can draw is that education and the effects of education are highly connected to the context andthe culture where it operates. Education's role in society becomes clearer when investigating it in a societywhere it is not obvious for all. This has given us a new perspective on education's role in a society. We have aclearer image about how a society's values are related to education and reproduced in school. Our expectationsare that this essay will make the reader reflect about these processes as well. We believe that the outcome of thisessay will help us remember how important our tasks as teachers are.