VersionsGender, education and mother tongue [English, İstanbul, 2012]
Models for the schooling of Kurdish students in Turkey [English, İstanbul, 2012]
Gender, education and mother tongue
M. Şerif Derince
Disa
This report suggests that when we reflect on the education of Kurdish girls in Turkey and the inequalities that they encounter, we should take into consideration the issue of mother tongue and of official language policies as well. Efforts in this area are of great importance in terms of understanding the educational experiences and needs of Kurdish children, especially girls. As shown by the research, understanding the experiences that discriminated communities are facing constitutes one of the main steps towards demanding and developing an educational system that will be to the advantage of the communities that experience discrimination. Unless this is done, suggestions and changes generally do nothing more than result in more inequality and the reproduction of standards that only elite groups are able to meet.
From such a starting point, this report first explains the links between gender, education and mother tongue in terms of nation-state policies. Then it provides a brief overview of different approaches to gender and education. Subsequently, it examines campaigns and projects pertaining to gender and education carried out in Turkey. Finally, this report evaluates the situation from a Kurdish perspective and makes a number of recommendations.
This report advocates that the implementation of a gender conscious, mother tongue-based multilingual education is key to achieving an all-inclusive educational system and eliminating gender-based inequalities and discrimination.
M. Şerif Derince teaches Kurdish at Sabanci University and Boğaziçi University and continues his PHD in sociology at Mimar Sinan University. He is one of the three authors of the scar of tongue report published by DISA and wrote the field work section of the book. He is also coordinating the “raising awareness on mother tongue and bilingualism in education” which this paper is a part of. Within the scope of “raising awareness on mother tongue and bilingualism in education” he has organized the preparation of six bilingual leaflets in Kurdish and Turkish and has writ ten a report on Multilingual education models entitled “mother tongue based Multilingual and multi-dialectal dynamic education,” Suggesting possible mother-tongue based education models to be used in the education of Kurdish students in turkey with different characteristics and needs. Completing his undergraduate and graduate studies in the language education department of Boğaziçi University, Derince has writ ten papers on issues related to Kurdish language, mother tongue, education and literacy for various journals and newspapers.
Contents
15 - Introduction
16 - Gender inequality in education
18 - Nation-states building and education of women in nationalist projects
20 - Nation-states and internationally supported campaigns
21 - Gender and mother tongue
23 - Theoretical approaches to gender inequality in education
25 - Approaches to Girls' education in turkey
A) Come on girls, let's go to school, but to which school?
B) The schooling of girls and their mother tongue
32 - Kurdish and gender
36 - Mother tongue-based multilingualism to prevent gender discrimination
37 - Suggestions n lieu of a conclusion
42 - Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The gender, education and mother tongue report was prepared with the contributions of many people. I am very grateful to all the teachers who participated in the teacher workshops organized by disa and who shared their invaluable time, thoughts, and experiences with us; to all the members of DISA, notably Şemsa Özar, Dilan Bozgan and Atalay Göçer, who read the first draft of the paper and provided inspiring views, suggestions, and critiques; to Handan Çağlayan, who examined the first draft of this paper in detail, suggested critical revisions and thus made a significant contribution towards its final version. I would also like to thank Beril Eyüboğlu, who was the paper’s final proofreader. I would also like to thank the Netherlands Embassy for the significant financial support it has provided.
This study would not have been writ ten without support from these individuals and organizations.
IntroductionGirls and women whose mother tongue is different from the medium of instruction are subject to more severe discrimination.
In a report entitled “Girls, Educational Equity and Mother Tongue-Based Teaching” prepared for UNESCO, Carol Benson states that language, and especially the language used for educational instruction, constitutes one of the main mechanisms in the continuous reproduction of inequality. According to this report, in communities that are subject to the type of inequality where language is a factor in reproducing inequalities, girls and women whose mother tongue is different from the medium of instruction are subject to more severe discrimination.1 Similarly, Stromquist says that even in regions where a relative degree of gender equality is achieved in education, a significant amount of inequality exists from the point of view of different ethnic groups and the poor who live in these regions.2 As indicated by this research, in many parts of the world people in the lowest socioeconomic strata generally belong to minority ethnic groups and their mother tongue language that is different from the dominant language spoken in that region or country. Moreover, the ethnic groups that these people are members of are generally unable to benefit equally from the social, political, medical and educational opportunities provided by the state, which is founded on the dominant community’s criteria. Although many different methods of exclusion exist, one of the most prominent strategies used to marginalize groups is to institute policies banning the use of the communities’ mother tongues. Since the social, political and economic environment does not permit multilingualism and since the language of the environment is dominated by the language of the dominant group, many people who do not speak the dominant language are unable to make their presence felt in such environments. Even in cases where people do speak the language of the dominant group, they generally speak it with a different accent and may still therefore be subject to discrimination and exclusion. For a variety of reasons, in terms of using the dominant language in their social, political and economic lives, women have even less opportunities than men.3
The observations and experiences recounted by teachers who participated in the teacher workshops organized by the Diyarbakır Institute for Political and Social Research (DISA) organized in 2011 indicated that the effect of official language policies on Kurdish students varies according to students’ gender. The first of these workshops took place on May 7, 2011 in Diyarbakır, with the participation of Kurdish teachers working in Diyarbakır, as well as teachers working in cities such as Şırnak, Bingöl, Hakkari, Van, Urfa and Batman; the second was realized from July 4-5, 2011, again in Diyarbakır but this time with the participation of teachers working in parts of cities like Ankara, Istanbul, Mersin and Izmir where Kurds have immigrated for various political and economic reasons. The issues covered in these workshops consisted of the linguistic, psychological, political and social factors that determine the scholastic and educational experiences of Kurdish students. The schooling ...
M. Şerif Derince
Gender, education and mother tongue
Mother tongue first analysis reports 2
Disa
Disa publications
Gender, education and mother tongue
Mother tongue first analysis reports 2
M. Şerif Derince
English translation: Leyla Tonguç Basmaci
Copyright © september 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced electronically or
mechanically (photocopy, storage of records
or information, etc.) Without the permission
of diyarbakir institute for political and social
research (disa).
The viewpoints in this report belong to the author,
and they may not necessarily concur partially or
wholly with disa’s viewpoints as an institute.
ISBN: 978-605-5458-09-6
Disa publications
Author: M. Şerif Derince
English translation: Leyla Tonguç Basmacı
English language editing: Sarah Fischer
Design: Emre Senan
Photography: Veysel Aydeniz
Supervisor: Atalay Göçer, Disa
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Note
This paper has been prepared by the Diyarbakir institute for political and social research
(Diyarbakir Siyasal ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Enstitüsü – DISA)
within the scope of the “raising awareness on mother
tongue and bilingualism in education” realized
with the financial support of the Netherlands embassy ’s Matra fund.
The views expressed in this paper belong to the author and
may not correspond to the views of the
Netherlands embassy or DISA.
