Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The improvement of female education is a top priority for educational policy-makers and for the development community. This book grounds the education of women and girls in the realities of their lives and experiences in diverse areas of the developing world. The chapters all draw on substantial experience in the field, giving a voice to groups of girls and women hitherto invisible. Many present new perspectives on previously ignored problems and social groups by policy-makers, aid agencies and academics. They move beyond the previous emphasis on access to problematize the content of education and the way it is experienced. The case studies range from the Arakambut of Peruan indigenous group whose knowledge of biodiversity is being threatened by formal education - to the changing experience of racialized education in South Africa."--BOOK JACKET. "The book also presents a critical theoretical analysis of the World Bank's view of women's education."--BOOK JACKET. "It will be necessary reading for students, academics and practitioners in education, development studies and women's studies."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents:

Introduction: the new discourses of gender, education and development / Christine Heward --The impact of structural adjustment programmes in Africa and Latin America / Nelly P. Stromquist --Girls and women in education and training in Papua New Guinea / Christine Fox --The schooling of South African girls / Elaine Unterhalter --Schooling and development: eroding Amazon women's knowledge and diversity / Sheila Aikman --Girls and schooling in Ethiopia / Pauline Rose, Mercy Tembon --Education, schooling and fertility in Niger / Shona Wynd --Promoting education for girls in Tanzania / Stella Bendera --Gender inequality: the Mauritian experience / Sheila Bunwaree --Gender inequality in educational attainment in peninsular Malaysia / Suet-ling Pong --Gender, education, development: Sri Lanka / Swarna Jayaweera --From WID to GAD: experiences of education in Nepal / Mo Sibbons --Closing the gender gap? The informal sector in Pakistan / Christine Heward.