In theory a bibliography on the interconnected issues of gender, education and
development could embrace a massive temporal and spatial scale: millennial and
global. In practice there has to be selection, and this publication resides
within a range of parameters that determines its rationale.
The initial step in this rationale is the motivation for its compilation, which is to follow up the ODA Research Report of 1991 on Factors Affecting Female Participation in Education in Six Developing Countries. (That report has been revised, updated and reissued at the same time as this study.). Such a description immediately limits the range of nation states involved but also introduces problems of definition. Conventions such as 'Third World', 'Developing Countries' and 'The South' are all imperfect as the extremely disparate rates of development both between and within countries that tend to fall within such categories continue to deepen and diverge. Rather than seek to resolve this problem, we have decided to rest with traditional regional groupings as listed on the contents page above. All could be contentious, but are at least easily recognised, with real problems existing only on the margins and interfaces, where we have made arbitrary decisions as to inclusion or exclusion. In areas where in recent decades there has been massive economic growth in some countries, for example the Middle East and South East Asia, we have decided to include all component states despite the fact that there are levels of development in such places that exceed those of most parts of the traditionally perceived 'industrialised world'.
Consequently the main frame structure of the bibliography is that of single traditional regional groupings of nation states, before which there is a section comprising selected publications that seek to address one or more of the related issues on a global scale. Within each regional grouping we begin with items that operate at that scale, for example 'Latin America' or 'Sub-Saharan' Africa, before proceeding with the component nation-states in alphabetical order. No significance at all is ascribed to the order in which regions, and therefore countries, appear in this bibliography.
Within this broad geographical framework we have then operated a number of criteria in the selection of items to be included. This is in no respect an exhaustive list and does not pretend to be so. A key plank in the rationale is that it should be useful, therefore useable, within the limited time frame within which it may expect to be a 'contemporary resource'. We have therefore placed severe limitations in respect of language, periodisation and availability, again using arbitrary parameters for clear and practical reasons.
The vast majority of items are in English, though where, on occasions, what we reckon to be a key source is published in either French or Spanish, we have included them.
In general we have included only selected items published since 1975. The mid 1970s saw the emergence of a significant body of literature on gender, especially in the USA and then Europe, but it was in the 1980's that the connection with development becomes more apparent, with a surge of activity in respect of gender issues in developing countries.
The issue of availability, admittedly a relative concept, has also informed our selection and inevitably reflects the target audience. While it is hoped that this bibliography will be of interest to academics from a variety of disciplines it is, like the report from which it has grown, also intended for a wider professional readership. Especially in mind are those who are charged with the formation and operation of policy in respect of the issue of gender in educational provision, and also those in the service of governments or NGOs who work in this field. So most entries are published by well known companies or institutions and should not be too difficult to trace. They range from books and reports through journal articles and, occasionally, to pamphlets. We are aware that a vast range of additional material has been produced during the two decades in question, often by active groups within particular countries, but we have had to be deliberately highly selective on grounds of wider accessibility. Consequently locally produced publications in developing countries, probably numbered in the thousands in global terms and of obvious significance in particular situations, have not in general been included.
There are considerable differences in the amount of material available from zone to zone and country to country. In some cases it has been necessary to cull severely, but where few items appeared to be available selection has been less stringent. Some countries have been omitted entirely because no easily accessible material appeared to be available, although in such cases some significant documentation almost certainly exists.
The selection of some publications for annotation has also been based on the same range of criteria as described above in respect of the bibliographical list. It was thought most useful to the reader to locate the annotations at the end of each regional grouping rather than as a completely separate section of the publication, as many readers will have region-specific interests. Here again, selection has been made largely on the issue of the items being informative and capable of practical interpretation and therefore import. Obscure discourses have been excluded, and the treatment of all items selected for annotation has been such as to render information to the reader rather than deep criticism. Given the vast range of locations and cultures involved it would have been improper to do otherwise.
While taking full responsibility for the selection, we have been significantly constrained by the nature of the literature that is readily available in the sense described above. The global and regional material, as well as a fair proportion of the country specific items, focus on gender or gender and development. Publications that focus on education in relation to issues of gender constitute a minority, albeit for us a significant one. This is an interesting issue in itself. Does the virtual absence of educational discourse in relation to gender and development books and articles represent a calculated decision on the part of the authors, editors and publishers involved, or is it simply a function of intellectual and academic specialisation? Most such publications are edited, and contributed to, by social scientists of one hue or another. Perhaps their analysis of the situation includes the realisation that the role of formal education in the development process is a second order issue, following the satisfaction of certain cultural and infrastructural imperatives? This may well be a fair position to take in respect of the formal mode, but while non-formal dimensions of education and training are more visible in the global and regional literature especially, they are still at the margins of the discussion. It would seem that international and comparative educators still have a great deal to do to effect interaction and dialogue with their social science counterparts involved in issues of gender and development.
Be that as it may, the outcome in respect of this bibliography is that we have decided to divide the lists relating to global regional and national categories into two sections: gender, and gender and education. The relative incidence of each in terms of individual cases varies considerably, but as this would appear to reflect current and recent attitudes and approaches we have not attempted to adjust this imbalance to any significant degree. Rather, we hope that inter alia this will interest the social scientists and the educationists in each other's literature on an important issue of mutual concern that is central to. the development process.
