This Thursday, Dr. Erin Murphy-Graham, assistant professor of international education at New York University, will visit Mount Holyoke to speak about the effects of education on women’s personal relationships.
Her lecture, titled “And When She Comes Home? Education and Women’s Empowerment in Educational Relationships,” scheduled at 4:15 p.m. in room 305 in Kendade Hall, draws on her research on secondary education, which she conducted in rural Honduras last January.
Murphy-Graham said that she is interested in the role of education in helping women to empower themselves. Her lecture will focus on the SAT program Sistema de Aprendizaje, or Tutorial Learning System. The program serves as an alternative to secondary school in Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. She will also discuss how the program demonstrates progress in gender equality in Latin America.
The program is not without challenges, she added. Through previous research, Murphy-Graham found that the “household is a domain that is particularly challenging.” In addition, she recognizes that “education can reproduce gender norms that have caused inequality in the first place.” Both she and African Studies Professor Holly Hanson insist that to avoid conditions that would simply “reproduce the status quo,” access to education must improve for both boys and girls.
Murphy-Graham cites one of the best elements of the SAT program as its simultaneous “universality” and “regional specificity.”
“[The program is] definitely applicable elsewhere,” she said, explaining that for it to be successful in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras, its “ideas and materials were adapted to incorporate local context,” or to make the curriculum relevant to its students.
The most recent implementation of the program has been in Eastern Africa, the region of Hanson’s expertise. The program in Eastern Africa is called “Preparation for Social Action,” but it is not equivalent to secondary school. Instead, the students, who come from all age groups and educational backgrounds, attend three-hour sessions four days a week. This demonstrates, according to Hanson, that each student is “extremely motivated and dedicated to being there.”
The SAT program encourages collaborative effort and gives students multiple chances to succeed, according to Hanson. “Students work in groups and help each other until everyone succeeds,” creating a work ethic that is based on mutual understanding, she said.
Both Hanson and Murphy-Graham offered suggestions for students who want to get involved.
“Depending on the skills a person might bring to the table,” there are many ways to volunteer in Honduras, said Murphy-Graham. Hanson suggested ways to get involved both abroad and in western Massachusetts, including community-based learning classes, study abroad programs, the Nexus program in sustainable development, student initiatives and student organizations.
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