Erin Murphy-Graham “Para Seguir Adelante : Women’s Empowerment and Education in Honduras” September 19 , 2005

Professor Erin Murphy-Graham discusses her research on the effects of educational programs on women in northern Honduras.

Education and Empowerment in Rural Honduras
By Daniel Graham

An innovative secondary-education program on Honduras ’s north coast is aiding the cause of women’s empowerment, according to Berkeley professor of education Erin Murphy-Graham. In geographically isolated fishing villages where formal educational opportunities are scarce, the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, or Tutorial Learning System (SAT), is helping women become active protagonists in their own lives. At the same time, SAT’s success raises the possibility that state-NGO partnerships might provide a smarter and more egalitarian educational product than old-fashioned, state-run schools in rural communities across Latin America .

Such was the case presented by Erin Murphy-Graham during her recent talk “Para Seguir Adelante: Women’s Empowerment and Education in Honduras.” “ Para seguir adelante ” means “to move forward” or, “to get ahead.” It was a phrase Murphy-Graham heard frequently from SAT participants during her six-month study of the program’s effectiveness in promoting women’s empowerment in Honduras .

Numerous studies have linked women’s education to empowerment and a host of beneficial social outcomes, but according to Murphy-Graham, the nature of the relationship between education and women’s empowerment has not been sufficiently explored. Consequently, she set out to learn how education promotes such empowerment. To address the question, she began by defining empowerment in terms borrowed from feminist scholar Naila Kabeer — namely, as a process by which women acquire the ability to make strategic life choices and achieve self-determination in contexts where this ability has previously been denied them. Murphy-Graham explained that empowerment should be understood as a dynamic process that must be actively exercised. She also emphasized the importance of context. “Empowerment will not look the same in, say, New York City, as it will in Garífuna communities on the north coast of Honduras,” she said, making reference to the Afro-Arawak, or Garífuna, villages where she conducted her research.

The Tutorial Learning System was created in the 1970s and 1980s by the Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences­­ ( FUNDAEC), a Colombian non-governmental organization (NGO). SAT was conceived as an education-based, holistic development solution for rural Colombians. It was later expanded to other countries in Latin America and now reaches about 25,000 students.

The Honduran SAT program began in 1996 as a pilot program in a limited number of Garífuna villages where state-run secondary education was not available. Currently about 5,000 students — both women and men — participate in the nation’s SAT program, which operates under the administrative aegis of Bayán, a Honduran NGO, and is partially funded by the Honduran government. Murphy-Graham’s research examined outcomes for the first women participants from three pilot communities; women from a fourth village, where SAT was not available, served as a comparison group.

Women’s life choices in the study villages have largely been shaped by the history and economy of the Garífuna, as has the demographic profile of the SAT participants. The Garífuna first arrived on the Honduran mainland about two hundred years ago, after the British expelled them from the island of Saint Vincent. Since that time, the Garífuna have maintained cultural and economic traditions that tie them to the coast. SAT was intended to be a co-educational program, but because Garífuna men frequently make extended fishing trips that keep them away from the village, SAT enrollment in Garífuna villages during its pilot year was 90 percent female. The same sharp division of labor that made it easier for women to participate in the program has traditionally implied less mobility and fewer economic opportunities for Garífuna women than for men.

Murphy-Graham suggested that the SAT program offered context-sensitive design features that made it a better fit for the Garífuna communities than a traditional, state-run school program likely would have. First, the SAT curriculum emphasized problem solving and critical thinking, “ in contrast to rote learning and memorization which characterizes most educational experiences that students will have” in Honduras. Second, the program insisted on hiring local educators who could speak Garífuna even though SAT texts were only offered in Spanish. Third, the SAT philosophy called for the use of tutors rather than teachers, the difference being an emphasis on a cooperative, rather than authoritative, relationship between educators and students. Finally, the SAT focus on applied learning meant that students were required to master new skills by employing them in real-life community development projects — an element that Murphy-Graham characterized as the “axis” of the SAT program.

According to Murphy-Graham, the study helped confirm her ideas about the mechanisms that connect women’s education to women’s empowerment. First, the SAT program fostered women’s “agency” by increasing their knowledge, particularly in agriculture; by improving their self-confidence; and by expanding their awareness of gender inequality and broadening their sense of appropriate gender roles for women and men. Second, female participants in the SAT program were able to use their increased agency to their advantage. SAT graduates sought out further educational and business opportunities and made important life decisions, sometimes against the wishes of their spouses. One of the research participants said of her experience, “The SAT program has helped me with everything because it has opened my mind.” Another woman mused, “Why does a man have to feel so dominant? He doesn’t have to be the one who has the final say at home.”

Although Murphy-Graham strongly suggested that NGO-sector educational programs like SAT appear to show more promise for improving rural women’s prospects than do government-run programs, she did reserve one legitimate role for the state in these rural education programs: that is, to bankroll them. She praised the “unique partnership” between the Honduran Ministry of Education and Bayán. In this partnership, Bayán provides tutor training, program administration and quality assurance, while the Honduran government pays the tutors’ salaries. This arrangement, says Murphy-Graham, is more conducive to long-term sustainability than is the case for many other development projects.

Because her research and presentation focused closely on gender concerns, Murphy-Graham did not directly address other potential social impacts of the SAT program. The race-infused tension now brewing between the Honduran government and some Garífuna political-movement organizations was one dynamic that remained unexplored by the presenter. Also, while she hinted at government jealousy of SAT, Murphy-Graham did not mention conflicts between alternative educational programs, nor did she offer an analysis of how the proliferation of SAT and other NGO-based educational initiatives might impact the state-run school system for better or worse.

Murphy-Graham concluded by indicating her own future research priorities. She expressed her intent to investigate SAT’s expansion into other parts of Honduras, to carry out longer-term studies and to take boys’ and men’s needs more into account.

Erin Murphy-Graham is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. She spoke at CLAS on September 14, 2005.

Daniel Graham is a Ph.D. candidate in the Geography Department. He is not related to Professor Murphy-Graham.

Professor Murphy-Graham listed several positive results of enhancing women's educational opportunities, including increases in self-confidence and economic independence.