Fibian Kavulani Lukalo

Mothering, Poverty, and Educational Decisions for Daughters in Kenya

This project focuses on the relationship between mothering practices and the schooling of girls in poor rural communities in Kenya. Poverty is central to the educational decisions arrived at for girls by their mothers and key to the socialization process and decision-making “space” that mothers tap into. The ripple effects of this complex socio-cultural environment—in which educational decisions for girls challenge, interrupt, mediate, transform, and reproduce gender inequity in schools—is explored.

The research aims to open up new perspectives on gender, mothers’ voices, and decision-making. Furthermore, it develops a typology that combines the role of poverty, mothering daughters, and schooling decisions. The typology provides a frame of reference that combines gender and mothering dynamics as influential to gender inequity in schools. The goal of the project is to develop new perspectives on current educational policy in Kenya and issues central to recent work on African feminism, gender inequity, and educational practice.

Photograph by Jason S. Ordaz.