Girls鈥� Access to Education in China: Actors, Cultures and the Windmill of Development Management
Abstract
皇冠体育app world has a mixed record towards achieving EFA and the MDGs in relation to the targets on gender equity in basic education. For researchers and practitioners, this raises the question of which factors influence the processes leading to the improvement of access and quality of girls鈥� education and how. This case study from China examines the human and cultural dimensions of project management in determining the planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions designed to improve gender equity.
皇冠体育app monograph combines concepts from the actor-oriented approach of development studies, with theories of culture and development management. It generates an analytical framework composed of two super ordinate 鈥榗ultural landscapes鈥�. One is the 鈥榬elational鈥� landscape with its dimensions of power distance, masculinity-femininity, and collectivism-individualism. 皇冠体育app other is the 鈥榯ime-orientation鈥� landscape with its dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and universalism-particularism. 皇冠体育app 鈥榗ultural landscapes鈥� and dimensions provide a powerful description of how the perceptions and strategies of interaction vary and change between and within individual actors.
皇冠体育app monograph illustrates how managers act as innovators with varied perceptions and interaction strategies influenced by multiple levels of culture, social and political contexts. Using the metaphor of a windmill, the monograph suggests that project management moves beyond the linear cyclical logic presented in many of the planning texts and manuals of development agencies. 皇冠体育app steps and stages of development management are the windmill鈥檚 blades. 皇冠体育app cultural interactions between actors form the wind that gives the blades energy and speed. 皇冠体育app blades run both synchronically and sequentially depending on the wind strength.
皇冠体育app monograph recommends that development managers should move beyond superficial concerns for outputs and products to a deeper concern for human and cultural processes that lead to results for achieving EFA and the MDGs.
Citation
Xiaojun Grace Wang. Girls鈥� Access to Education in China: Actors, Cultures and the Windmill of Development Management. In: CREATE Pathways to Access Series, Research Monograph Number 39. (2010) ISBN 0-901881-46-5
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