The impact of discriminatory social norms on adolescent girls

Wikigender and Wikichild and partners would like to hear your views, lessons learned and best practices or policies on empowering adolescent girls. From 2-11 April 2013, we invite you to participate in an online discussion on “The impact of discriminatory social norms on adolescent girls” and to be heard at a seminar on “Empowering adolescent girls by tackling social norms” that takes place on 26 April in London!

The event will be co-organised by the OECD Development Centre, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Department for International Development (DFID UK) and The Girl Hub. The inputs from the Wikigender and Wikichild communities in this discussion will be presented via a summary report at the event. 

This online discussion is organised in partnership with the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Research Network (HBSC), the Department for International Development (DFID UK), ASCD – The Whole Child, the Girl Hub, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and Plan (UK).

There is compelling evidence that adolescent girls are an under-invested segment of the society that could significantly help us reach the development goals. Numerous reports and campaigns highlight the link between discriminatory social norms affecting adolescent girls to development outcomes, such as ODI’s background note on “Adolescent girls, capabilities and gender justice: review of theliterature for East Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia”. Many reports point out to the challenges experienced by adolescent girls along with solutions, such as: Plan’s Because I am a Girl 2012 report; "Grow: A Vital Force In Rural Economies - A Girls Count Report On Adolescent Girls” by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Plan’s “Adolescent Girls’ Views on Safety in Cities” report; Plan’s “Adolescent voices: experiences in implementing youth sexual and reproductive health and rightsprogrammes” report; resources by ‘The Girl hub’, a partnership between DFID and the Nike Foundation; and many more. Despite some progress, for example on gender parity in primary education, girls throughout the developing world continue to be constrained by the intergenerational transmission of poverty and gender inequality. The OECD Development Centre’s 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) also finds that discriminatory social norms have significant and enduring consequences for adolescent girls in terms of their health, access to economic resources and opportunities both in and outside the household.

This online discussion will be a unique opportunity to gather your views on:

1. How discriminatory social norms shape the lives of adolescent girls by influencing their access to opportunities, resources and power 
2. Which interventions are the most effective in transforming such discriminatory social norms and practices
   

Participants will be invited to share their examples of successful approaches, recommendations and actions needed with the gender and development community. 

We count on your participation in this important discussion and look forward to reading your comments.

You can post a comment in a few clicks by going to the “Contribute!” section of the online discussion page. The hashtag for Twitter is #adolescentgirls

Free and Appropriate Public Education

Four years ago on the inauguration of the first African American president of the United States, we titled our Whole Child Newsletter "Someday Happens," reflecting a T-shirt I saw at the ceremonies that day. Today, independent of political views, I'm wondering when someday will happen for the millions of kids promised a "free and appropriate public education." Although that phrase was first introduced in reference to children with disabilities, it applies too often to kids from all walks of life in all parts of the United States.

An education based solely on mastery (however that is defined) of English language arts and mathematics is not appropriate.

An education filled with support and care and mastery of nothing is not appropriate.

An education that must be purchased in lieu of free opportunities nearby fails to serve the common good and fulfill the social compact promised by the American Dream.

When will someday happen for each child, in each school, and in each community? It will happen the day we as a society, the grown-ups, decide to make it so.

We know what it takes. Over the nearly six years of the ASCD Whole Child Initiative, we've defined excellence for each child in increasingly descriptive terms. 

• We started with the five tenets of a whole child education, then described each of those tenets with 10 school-level actions that indicate those tenets are being met. 

• We introduced a sixth set of indicators to ensure that such an education, one that meets the requirements of our tenets to ensure that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, is sustainable and not dependent on a single leader, program, funding stream, or flavor-of-the-month goal. 

• And just this summer, we launched the ASCD School Improvement Tool, which cross references those same tenets and indicators to the typical school improvement components of school climate and culture, curriculum and instruction, leadership, assessment, family and community engagement, and staff capacity and professional development to provide both the most thorough definition of a whole child approach to education and an assessment tool that measures progress against such a standard.

In that same time span, 45 states and the District of Columbia adopted a new definition of what the challenged tenet looks like in student learning: the Common Core State Standards. Let us be clear that that'sone tenet out of five, not the whole; not the answer in and of itself. But let us also be clear that the Common Core State Standards do set a new path of excellence in two traditional subject areas. Full, faithful implementation of these standards within a whole child approach has the potential to eliminate birthplace as the most accurate predictor of success.

Full, faithful implementation of the Common Core State Standards within a comprehensive, sustainable whole child approach to education—this is what "someday" looks like. This is what "free and appropriate" looks like. This is what it takes at the school level to prepare each of our young people for postsecondary education, meaningful careers, and active participation in a global society.

By Molly McCloskey

ASCD - The Whole Child is a membership organisation that produces programs products, and services that are essential to the progress of education globally. Education is essential to child development and we at Wikichild work closely with ASCD to enrich our education content, accessible in the Child Articles section on our platform.  

This articles first appeared on the The Whole Child Blog. 

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