Sharkey : Contradictions in girls’ education

The idea of resilience really stood out to me in Sharkey’s article. It was great to see that despite their bad circumstances, the girls were able to make the best of their situation and establish strong support networks with their friends at school. Being able to be around other girls their own age was very empowering to them and something they would not have had access to if they were deprived of schooling. Sharkey says of the schools, “it is here that the girls’ coping strategies through their collective sustaining narratives are most strongly constructed. By constructing bonds of solidarity and covert resistance, this space, although tightly bound both spatially and temporally, just may contain seeds for social change beneficial to girls.” On the playground the girls are able to talk and share ideas, giving them the opportunity to have more of a voice than they ever have. Having friends to rely on and discuss issues with is something we in the United States take for granted. If these girls were not attending school they would have only their families to turn to and would most likely not know any girls their own age. Although violence and general structure of the schools need to be reformed, it’s refreshing to see the positive aspects of girls’ education in Sierra Leone today.

Also, my project is going to be on mother tongue education in South Africa and Tanzania