New Research: How Learner Guides are shifting gender social norms

NewsPublished on: Apr 12 2024

Young women are changing the wider context within which disadvantaged girls go to school and learn

New research shows that CAMFED’s Learner Guides have become “agents of change” in challenging harmful gender social norms in their communities.

The study was conducted in partnership with the University of Cambridge’s Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. It evidences for the first time that, over and above the impact they are having in improving education for under-privileged girls, Learner Guides are changing the wider context in which girls go to school.

Within schools and the community, Learner Guides clearly play an important support role in shifting wider attitudes towards women and girls. As well as acting as mentors, they have become advocates for girls’ education, actors who challenge harmful practices, and role models who embody a more positive future for women.
Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the REAL Centre and the study’s Principal Investigator in the REAL Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Read the full news piece released by the REAL Centre and discover more at our research event on May 29, 2024 – online or in person – organized by the REAL Centre, CAMFED, and the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:

HYBRID EVENT: Transformative Education - Shifting gender social norms in and through education

This event will highlight new research on interventions in education that have the potential to shift harmful gender social norms and catalyze wider systems transformation. An expert panel, bringing together researchers and government representatives, will explore the contribution of CAMFED’s Learner Guide model to improving outcomes for marginalized girls in Tanzania (Learner Guides are young women, often CAMFED education graduates, who mentor students in their communities). The panel will also discuss the prospects for scaling such an intervention in national school systems in Tanzania and across the region.

Opening Keynote on Global Education by Alicia Herbert OBE, Director of Education, Gender and Equality and the UK’s Special Envoy for Gender Equality, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Remarks by the Hon Julia Gillard AC, former Prime Minister of Australia and Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.

Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Location: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge and online

Time: 11:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BST | 12:00 – 4:30 p.m. CAT | 6 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EDT (lunch for in-house guests will be provided)

Learn more and register to attend (free)

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