Swimming Against the Tide:
Educational Problems and Coping Strategies
of Rural Female Students in Ethiopia
Emebet
Mulugeta
Abstract:
Literature on girls'
education in developing countries mostly focuses on identifying and describing
constraints girls encounter in terms of accessing and succeeding in education,
and it is thus problem oriented. What is lacking is the other half of the
picture, that is, stories and coping strategies of successful female students.
With this in mind, the current study attempted to describe some problems of
girls' education, but gave emphasis to the personal and social resources girls
access and utilize in order to succeed. Qualitative data analysis based on
Reinharz's feminist ethnography was used. Some of the constraints identified
include; poverty, school distance and cultural practices, such as early marriage
and marriage by abduction. Regarding coping, though there are several
facilitating factors such as support from parents and teachers, and
models/mentors, many of the girls in the study indicated that in the final
analysis, the student herself would take responsibility for her success or
failure. Her aspiration and faith determines how much work she puts into her
education. The more a girl aspires the harder she works, and the more chance she
will have to succeed. Hard work when combined with success earns the girls
recognition and support both from families and school. These factors, i.e., hard
work, success, recognition and support the girls get from others feed into each
other increasing the likelihood of girls succeeding in their education. As the
findings show there are a lot of constraints that discourage the girls from
attending their classes properly and succeeding in their education. However,
many of the respondents resisted the pressures from different directions in
various ways including; fighting back, ignoring or manipulating. As Reyes put
it, “Their lives, however, were empowered through the will not to give up just
because things do get a little hard,” (1996, 24).