The minimum requirement of democracy is that it should be inclusive of all citizens in society. Many countries are nowadays considering the role of education in the creation of citizens in the twenty-fi rst century (Cogan and Derricot, 2000). What is required at this juncture is the creation of ‘a generation of men and women who believe that violence is unacceptable and who have the skills necessary to build egalitarian relationships’ (Edleson and Eisikovits, 1996, p. 30). Educating the upcoming community could play a crucial part in this regard.
Educa-tion is an arena of hope and struggle – hope for a better life, and struggle over how to understand and enact and achieve that better life (Ayers, 1998, cited in Abowitz and Harnish, 2006). Studies relating to the features characterising women and men often show the existence of gender stereotypes. The process of acquisition of gender stereotype usually begins before the age of fi ve, accelerates during the early school years and is complete by adolescence (Abowitz and Harnish, 2006). The process of socialisation is so powerful that stereo typical restrictive gender norms come as a natural course of action. Based on this stereotype women have traditionally been in situations of subordination and dependency lacking identity and rights (William and Best, 1990 cited in Finnan, Schnepel & Anderson, 2003) 27.
Education here is to present a counter socialisation in the sense that it would open up the avenues of questioning the hitherto existing practices in the societal set up.
Education and consciousness-raising can only achieve the desired purpose when gender-violence becomes an issue of fundamental importance to people’s lives. Mobilisation can only take place when people are willing to act, and people act when they feel the issue to be important and relevant to their lives. The educational process of mak-ing gender violence relevant to people essentially does three thmak-ings:
it challenges people at the individual level to re-examine and change their own views and behaviours;
it builds a larger group of people seeking soluti ons; and
it creates a base of politi cal support that functi ons to create pressure for change at the structural level.
Thus the key to success in any strategy, both short and long term, is making gender violence an issue of critical importance to everyone:
women; men; the public; the institutions; the state (Schuler, 1992).
Need of the hour is to visualize a model of education for both boys and girls where the fi rst and foremost step would consist of a
fi rm commitment to the fact that women have a legitimate place as citizens in a democratic society. In the year 1990 Duncan Graham wrote in his foreword to Education for Citizenship (NCC, 1990, cited in Davies & Reid, 2005): ‘Education for citizenship is essential for every pupil. It helps each of them to understand the duties, responsibilities and rights of every citizen and promotes concern for the values by which a civilised society is identifi ed - justice, democracy, respect for the rule of law’ (NCC, 1990, p. 1 cited in Davies & Reid, 2005).
According to Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 education of the child shall be directed to:
‘…the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin’ (Article 29, the United Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN General Assembly, document A/RES/44/25 12 December 1989) (Arnot, 2004).
In this declaration emphasis has been put in a system of educa-tion which not only highlights the value of citizenship but also of equality of sexes. Through this declaration, education of both male and female citizens is highlighted as being fundamentally linked to the promotion of social justice, social equality and democracy (Arnot, 2004). Educational qualifi cation being a form of social and cultural capital can play a crucial role in the formation of citizens (Bordieu, 1997). Thus the issue of gender equality and the issue of human rights are not separate. At the core of education for citizenship is the assumption that educational experiences will prepare learners for the society which they are to inhabit (Arnot, 2004). This indicates that education shall proceed with the aim of empowering young people leading to empowered adult citizens. In the course of empowering individuals it is to be seen whether boys can be empowered as learner citizens and adult citizens in ways that do not strengthen men’s power over women and add to male subordination of women.
Literacy, for Antonio Gramsci (Freire and Macedo, 1987), is a double-edged sword which could be ‘wielded for the purpose of self and social empowerment or for the perpetuation of relations of repression and domination’ (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p.2). He has termed this conscientization (conscientizacao) or critical consciousness to be understood as something more than a system of oppression characterised by respect for human beings and respect for plurality of voices. Education in this sense would thus help to treat all human beings in an equal capacity. Through this mode of education people will become enabled to bring about a transformation in the society.
Freire (1987) calls for critical thinking, also called ‘pedagogy of knowing’ in education. Literacy, in Freire’s scheme of things, is not to be approached as a mere technical skill to be acquired, but rather as a necessary foundation for cultural action for freedom implying ‘a self and socially constituted agent’ (Freire and Macedo, 1987). It is then to be viewed ‘as one of the major vehicles by which ‘oppressed’
people are able to participate in the socio-historical transformation of their society’ (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p. 157).
Education, in this sense, is not just tied to mechanical learning but to a critical understanding of the norms prevalent in society. This new knowledge can ‘demythologize’ (Freire and Macedo, 1987) the false interpretations seemed to exist in the society. ‘As conscious human beings, we can discover how we are conditioned by the dominant ideology… Therefore, we can learn how to become free through a political struggle in society’ (Shor and Freire, 1987 cited in Watson, 2007, p. 363). Once understood and acknowledged, this inevitably would lead to deconstruction of the traditionally held cultural norms and beliefs. The work of deconstruction or the process of transformation can be done in an effective manner by the schools as they are the direct refl ections of our society. Such an education would consist of going beyond confl ict resolution programme in schools to challenging the very defi nitions of appropriate male and female behaviour and roles.
This would require integration programmes on parenting, gender
socialisation, sexuality and relationships into school curricula and community-based programme for out-of-school youths. Therefore not only the mastery of specifi c skills, education has to become a manifestation of the perfection already in human being in the sense of being a precondition for social and cultural emancipation. This requires a fi rm commitment to establishing meaningful relationship with others, both in the classroom and in the larger school community, dialogue between all involved – students, teachers, support staff, parents and making a genuine effort to listen to and understand others.
The role of the school, the community, the family – all these are evidence of the fact that this is an issue that cannot be addressed by only one segment of society; rather it would require the continuous and constructive effort of all concerned.
Secti on II
Given the signifi cance of education in social and economic development evaluation of the relative successes and challenges of India and Denmark in the fi eld of education and elimination of violence against women have been undertaken to shed light on the effectiveness of different strategies of these two countries not only for their own benefi t but also for the rest of the developing world. What is particularly interesting is that while the Nordic countries have been willing to deal with the structural problems of women’s unequal position in the labour market, they have been much more hesitant and slow to deal with another structural problem and that is the problem of violence against women (Bergman, 2008).