Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: School Girls and Modern Women: Education and Gender in Contemporary Bhutan

博士生Dolma Choden罗德（亚利桑那州立大学）将在James Eder博士的指导下，就学校教育如何影响性别关系和经验进行研究。这项研究将在不丹进行，那里的大多数妇女获得正规教育和识字的机会相对较晚，因为非寺院的男女同校教育机构是从1960年代才建立的。 长期以来，人们一直声称不丹社会的特点是性别平等，这使该国有别于南亚大部分地区。然而，很少有研究对这些说法进行检验，也很少有研究确定公平对妇女生活的实际意义。研究人员将调查学校教育的三个关键特征，因为它们影响妇女：1）获得正规教育，2）学校教育的经验，和3）学校教育的成果，特别是与个人愿望和感知进入劳动力市场。 研究将在谢鲁茨学院进行，这是该国最古老的学院，多年来也是该国唯一的学院。 作为一个国家机构，它吸引了来自全国各地的学生，因此有望揭示不丹教育的国家经验。 研究人员将采用各种社会科学方法，包括半结构化访谈，焦点小组，视频启发，课堂观察和档案研究。在发展中国家，这些相对较新的外国机构可以产生重大的政治、文化和社会影响。因此，学校是进行前后研究的丰富场所，这些研究将阐明社会变革的根本原因，包括性别关系。这项研究也有可能为决策者和教育工作者提供有用和及时的数据，并将有助于研究生的教育。

Doctoral student, Dolma Choden Roder (Arizona State University), under the guidance of Dr. James Eder, will undertake research on how schooling affects gender relations and experiences. The research will be carried out in Bhutan where access to formal education and literacy are comparatively recent for most women because non-monastic, co-educational institutions have been available only since the 1960s. It has long been claimed that Bhutanese society is characterized by gender equity, which differentiates the country from much of South Asia. However, little research has tested these claims or determined what equity actually means for women's lives. The researcher will investigate three key features of schooling as they affect women: 1) access to formal education, 2) the experience of schooling, and 3) the outcomes of schooling, particularly in relation to individual aspirations and perceived access to the labor market. Research will take place at Sherubtse College, the oldest and for many years the country's only college. As a national institution, it draws students from all over the country and therefore promises to reveal much about the national experience of Bhutanese schooling. The researcher will employ a variety of social science methods including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, video elicitation, classroom observations, and archival research.Formal education is increasingly a universal contemporary experience. In developing nations, these relatively new and foreign institutions can have significant political, cultural, and social effects. Schools therefore are rich sites for before-and-after studies that will elucidate the underlying causes of social change, including gender relations. This study also has the potential to provide useful and timely data to policy makers and educators, and it will contribute to the education of a graduate student.