Title: Education in Latin America - Wikipedia
Headings: Education in Latin America
Education in Latin America
Contents
Retention and completion
Education inputs
Learning
PISA
School bullying
Central America
South America
Education and growth
Primary and secondary education
Higher education
Overview
History
Women and men led quite different lives in 19th century Latin America. Virtually every aspect of their lives were determined by the gender they were assigned at birth, based on sex. This began at infancy, and carried on through education, marriage, and old age. Beginning in childhood boys and girls would have been encouraged to partake in very different activities. In education boys would have been taught reading, writing, mathematics, as well as religious subjects. Young girls, however, were rarely enrolled in education to begin with, this was reserved for the daughters of the elite. In these cases girls' education was centered around homemaking, though they dabbled in reading. Home making was a vital aspect of their education after all they would grow to be responsible for the next generation, specifically the next generation of young men. It was important that these boys grew up in the “ideal” family setting and were taken care of by their mothers before this became their wives role.
This not only had a large impact on how they were raised and what roles they came to expect of themselves in the future, but also affected what they were able to do, regardless of their perceived role. Limiting education in this way by gendered circumstances actively limited womens abilities to be independent in any way, or to take an active role in financially supporting themselves or their families. This left women susceptible to harmful home lives. It left them vulnerable to abuse and forced early marriage. Without marriage from a young age women grew to be less likely to get married with every passing year and more likely to become a burden on her parents long term. This motivated parents to educate their daughters on how to be good homemakers and wives as it was perceived that this was the only way to allow them to have a future outside of their immediate family. There were, of course, exceptions to this that will be explored below.
Further into adulthood, careers and societal roles were limited by gender. Men went on to participate in education, politics, religion, medicine etc. as well as physical labor. Women, on the other hand, were limited to house work and occasionally merchant work. Merchant work became one of the only ways women, particularly women of color, had an opportunity to care after themselves. Some slave women were even able to participate in this and earn their own freedom, One's role within society was determined just as much by race or ethnicity as it was gender. Slavery was still widespread in Latin America throughout the 19th century. Enslaved women had particular hardships compared to others. Their bodies were susceptible to the whims of those that believed they owned them. It was common for enslaved women to be tasked with raising, breastfeeding, and caring after the children of the head family. Breastfeeding was a particularly traumatic experience for these women, particularly those who had lost their own children and were still forced to breastfeed someone else's as described in “Black Nurse, White Milk: Wet Nursing and Slavery in Brazil” by Cassia Roth.
Gender roles influencing one's role in society can be seen in Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Latin America Since Independence by William French and Katherine Bliss with "gender performance is not an act of the individual but rather a negotiation between the individual and his or her society" (pg 60). It was common that presenting oneself with more masculine traits, though generally frowned upon, had its benefits. In the case of Madame Durocher, for example, she was a woman in the medical field that chose to present herself with masculine traits, giving her a certain level of authority and credibility. She recognized this connection between masculinity and power with " emphasi [ing] that her decision to dress in masculine attire... for practice reasons... She describes herself against the backdrop of other women... whose frivolous nature prevents them from being respected as midwives" (pg 60). Madame Durocher is a prime example of both the idea that men and women experienced "gendered spheres" but also that it was possible to live outside these boundaries, though it would require taking on a gender performance that may not align with how one would actually identify. This was not only unique to the 19th century, however. As the Poem Queer Theory: According to My Grandmother by Richard Blanco describes, what is and is not allowed of each gender seems incredibly clear in the minds of many people to this day. Things like showing affection, even for family, is firmly distasteful behavior of men to the author's grandmother. Even the use of everyday items like shampoo and conditioner are off limits to men and reserved for women. Gendered spheres, though perhaps less strict and with more wiggle room, are still a defined aspect of many individuals lives.
Institutions in Latin American higher education
Higher education funding
Student opportunities and future challenges
Gender Gap
Migration
Educational Labor Unions in Latin America
Effects of Labor Union on Latin American education
Effects of Labor Unions
Professionalization of Teachers in Unions
Addition of Incentives
Bolivia
Peru
Violence Against Labor Unions
Difficulty in Assessing Effect of Labor Union on Education
See also
Sources
References
External links

Content: On average, a child who attends 7.2 years of school completes only 6 years of education (primary), while a person attending 12 years of school only completes 9 years of education (high school). By the age of 18, only 1 in every 6 rural men and women are still in school. Therefore, only a small number or poor rural youth have the chance to attend a university. A study published by the Inter-American Development Bank also revealed that school dropout rates in Latin America can be significantly reduced by improving the quality of school's infrastructure, such as access to clean water and electricity. The study shows that, in Brazil, a universalization program focused on providing electricity to rural and indigenous schools ( Light for All ), reduced 27% the dropout rates of schools treated by the program when compared to schools without electricity. In El Salvador, a reform known as the EDUCO (Educación y Cooperación Para el Desarrollo) system has been implemented by the El Salvadorian government with the support of the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This system was put in place to improve retention rates and student outcomes. EDUCO is a form of community-managed schools, in which the community is in charge of school administration, including the hiring and firing of teachers and decisions such as how long the students go to school for and for how many days. A study conducted from 1996 to 1998 found that students in EDUCO schools were 5% more likely to continue their education than those in traditional schools and that weekly visits by the community and parent organizations that run the schools increased probability of school retention by 19%. Education inputs
The 2007 Teacher Evaluation Census in Peru and Chilean Teacher Evaluation System (DocenteMás), indicated that teacher quality in the region is very low.