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COMPLICATIONS AND COMPLEXITIES IN THE SCHOOLING EXPERIENCES OF YOUNG NORTHERN NIGERIAN WOMEN LIVING IN ZARIA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY PHEBE VERONICA JATAU IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Timothy J. Lensmire, Adviser July 2010 © PHEBE VERONICA JATAU 2010 Acknowledgements Studying abroad was a lonesome experience for me but every time I made phone calls home I felt comforted and strengthened to run an extra mile even if the news I heard troubled rather than comforted me. That was complicating but it was within that maze of complexity that I found resilience and faith to go on. I want to thank members of my immediate family – Mao, Pastor Apollos, Mrs. E. Hassan, Nereus, and Tessy; my children –Yohane and Mercy; my little nieces – Sarah, Sharon, Safiya, Stephanie, Laura, and Shanon; my older nieces and nephews, and my in-laws for all their unflinching support. I want to thank my community of supporters and encouragers who made sure they prompted me to go on because they believed in me. From Nigeria, I thank Prof. I. Olaofe, Prof. J. S. Aliyu, Dr. O. Omoniwa, Prof. Bolaji, Dr. M. I. Maccido, Dr. Matemilola, Prof. (Mrs) Gani, Anti Rifkatu, Mr. Areo, Mrs. Agnes Okpe, Mrs. Mbakese Suemo, Rev. and Mrs. Sule, Rev. Moses Sule, Peter Maji, Dr. Victoria Isiramen, Barrister Christine Essien, Mrs. A. Dikko, Mary Jatau, Nneka Agwuegbo, Jonah Amodu, Pastor Roland Amaruo, William Alao, and Jacob. I also want to thank my US friends for their tremendous support and for being my “host” family in various ways – Jessie Docter, Candance Doerr, Beth Brendler, Brad Biggs, Kristen Nochols-Besel, Silvy Un, Ava Herring, Fatina Swinney, Venoreen Boatswain, Jeri and Gary, and all my Fasika friends. Thank you, Prof. Martha Bigelow, Dr. Audrey Appelsies, Dr. Bhaskar Upadhyay, Dr. Rebecca Rapport, Dr. Patsy Mogush, and Prof. David O‟Brien and Prof. Deborah Dillion. My list is endless. i Three people played very significant roles in dimensions that were very different and peculiar – Pastor David Abah, Pastor Sola and Pastor (Mrs.) Jummy Olowokere. Others include Uncle Joseph and Anti Larai Dahip, the Olayiwolas both senior and junior, Jide Falaki, the Daramolas, Kemi, Femi, Beyan, Dr. Pero Okulaja, and Agnes Malika. Thanks to members of my committee: Prof. Timothy Lensmire, Prof. Cynthia Lewis, Prof. Bic Ngo, and Dr. Lori Helman. You are simply incredible. I want to thank Prof. Timothy Lensmire in very special ways – for allowing me to be me and for painstakingly mentoring me as my adviser. Thank you for such tremendous help and support especially in practically helping me to understand what ethnographers do in order to deepen understanding on the phenomenon they study. Thank you Prof. Cynthia Lewis for working with me as if I was one of your advisees. Jessie Eastman knew everything and I would stop to ask her for information on any and everything. Thanks, Jessie! Cathy, Di, and Rockie deserve my thanks as well. As an international student, I can not imagine how I would have coped without the support of the International Students and Scholars Services and your astonishing support, Gabriele Schmiegel. Thank you so much. When it became difficult to write, Katie Levin, you came to my rescue. I am grateful for your help and support. Without funding I would never have dreamt of studying abroad. I thank Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (IFP) and Tammy Langan and Dr. Abah Nwachukwu particularly. Even though I know you were doing your job, I appreciate the roles you played for setting the ball rolling. I also thank Prof. Lee Galda for allowing me ii to work at the Curriculum & Instruction Library over two summers, University of Minnesota Graduate School for the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) and the International Research Grants I enjoyed, University of Minnesota Curriculum and Instruction Department, and University of Minnesota International Students and Scholars Services for your additional financial support. Thank you for not allowing me to get stranded. Thank you too Diane Tedick and Cynthia Lewis for all your help and support for the DDF I got. And for my photo on the U page I thank Deane Morrison and Elizabeth Giorgi. I also thank Alison Skoberg for planning the DDF poster showcase from where I and my work got picked for “stardom”. My profound thanks go to my research participants and my research guide, Sani. Without you I would have had no dissertation because there would have been no story to tell. I know that we have established a relationship that will last for a long time to come. Thank you so very much. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Felicia Salome Jatau alias Mao for the many sacrifices she made to ensure that I went to school, to my children Yohane and Mercy, to my family members, and to the women whose stories I tell. iv Abstract The purpose of this research was to share and interpret the stories of young women in Zaria, an urban city in northern Nigeria, in order to illustrate how their unique positions framed their identity and their attitude toward schooling. There has been a huge concern about the increasing school dropout rate among women in the country, particularly in northern Nigeria. The gender gap and inequities that pervade the educational system have remained daunting challenges. Many stories have been told and are still being told about these women and their ability or inability to access formal education. Most of the literature that examines this phenomenon comes at the problem from a quantitative research approach which beclouds important nuances. As such, a one- size-fits-all approach has been used to promote women‟s education in Nigeria without recognizing difference. In my research, the complexities and complications involved in the schooling process of these women were uncovered in order to deepen understanding about the issues that they grappled with as they went to school. Qualitative research methods, particularly interviews and deep conversations, were used to elicit the seventeen young women‟s (between the ages of 18 and 30) experiences. I chose these women purposively using criterion sampling and snowballing. Some women self-selected themselves to participate. Postmodernism, postcolonial feminism, socio-cultural perspectives on literacy, and funds of knowledge were theoretical frameworks that helped me to understand the forces at work in these women‟s schooling. These forces included v poverty, ethnicity, religion, and lack of proficiency in English language, which together informed their identity construction and in the end complicated their schooling processes. vi Table of Contents Introduction ………………………………………………………………………. 1 Literature Review ………………………………………………………………… 19 Methodology ……………………………………………………………………… 61 The Impact of Poverty on Schooling …………………………………………….. 113 Trade by Barter: The Issue of Child-Trafficking and Implications for School …... 148 The intersections between Islamic Education and Western Education: The Case of Divided Loyalty …………………………………………………………………… 183 Sitauting Women Who Attended Only Islamiyya Schools within Global Contexts: Revealing the Inherent Limitations ……………………………………………….. 218 vii Marriage and Schooling: Which Way to Go ……………………………………… 253 Illiteracy versus Literacy: The Case of Women Who Drop Out of School ……….. 288 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 317 References ………………………………………………………………………… 337 Appendix …………………………………………………………………………… 347 viii Chapter One Introduction What nutrition and reproduction are to physiological life, education is to social life. This education consists primarily in transmission through communication. Communication is a process of sharing experience till it becomes a common possession. John Dewey, Democracy and education. When I got to the field and the women began to share their stories the link between education and social life became more real to me. As they narrated their stories about the struggles they had been having with schooling, and in spite of all the theories I had learned and formulated as I took my courses, wrote my final papers, passed my comprehensive examination, and defended by proposal, it came as a shock to me to discover the great emphasis that these women placed on how their social life impacted their schooling. They talked little about classroom experiences. I worried about this and went back to my proposal to find out if I was asking relevant questions. I was genuinely puzzled. This puzzle, however, joggled up memories in my head about my own schooling experiences, all the more so when most of the stories these women told me resonated with me in interesting ways. The Nigerian educational system, just like those operated in other parts of the world, has been preparing students as a work force for her economy, but in this age of capitalism and globalization, I am continually bothered about whether that is the kind of education we need. Although the National Policy on Education (2004) says that “the country‟s educational goal shall be clearly set out in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individual and those of the society, in consonance with the realities of our environment and the modern world” (p. 4), in practice, this reference to the society, 1 the environment, and the modern world is catered for by a curriculum that is geared towards preparing the populace for economic survival and not necessarily for the recognition of their sense of being as humans. This kind of education which prepares people as a workforce depends on what Freire (2000) describes as the “banking method”, where certification – the passport for white-collar jobs - is emphasized; an education which is characterized by rote-learning and memorization. In this day and age, students need to be able to think for themselves, to make decisions on their own, to discover knowledge by seeing with the inner eye and then applying facts to reality and reasoning productively.