Abstract
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted school closures, which affected nearly 1.5 billion learners globally. Girls are likely to have experienced learning losses during the pandemic to a greater extent, as there are multiple barriers that influence gender disparities in accessing and benefiting from EdTech, including social inequalities or norms and technological constraints. Equity needs to be foregrounded when EdTech interventions are implemented, by considering disparities emerging from digital access, freedom, literacy, pedagogies, and design. This working paper presents a rapid inquiry into the barriers to use of EdTech for girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) during the Covid-19 pandemic to date, and emerging practices and strategies to mitigate this. While disparities in education according to gender are a global issue, the primary focus of this inquiry was on LMICs. However, evidence from LMICs may be limited, so examples and literature relating to girls’ engagement with EdTech in other contexts are drawn upon where appropriate.
The study was guided by the following research questions:
- What are the factors in relation to social inequalities and technological constraints that have likely contributed to intensifying learning loss for girls during the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular for those in LMICs?
- Through the use of EdTech during Covid-19, to what extent were learning losses unequally experienced for girls?
Authors and contributors
- Helen Crompton (Author)
- Agnes Chigona (Author)
- Katy Jordan (Author)
- Christina Myers (Author)
Citation
Crompton, H., Chigona, A., Jordan, Katy, J., & Myers, C. (2021). Inequalities in Girls’ Learning Opportunities via EdTech: Addressing the Challenge of Covid-19 (No. 31). EdTech Hub. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4917252
Link to this record
https://docs.edtechhub.org/lib/D6PWMC4I
Key themes
- Girls education
- Covid-19
- Evidence Review
Type
- Working paper
