Women, education, and violence: How women displaced into camps in north-east Nigeria take up education

Motivation

The Boko Haram insurgency has ravaged north-east Nigeria since 2002. The killing, kidnapping, and burning of homes have left millions homeless in its wake. The insurgency has especially affected women. Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a school in one instance; abducted partly for ransom and partly because Boko Haram resents Western education, especially for girls and women. Boko Haram has the dubious distinction of deploying the highest number of women as suicide bombers in history.

Purpose

How has displacement by the insurgency affected women's learning and education? How do women affected by Boko Haram experience self-regulated learning? These questions shed light on how individual resilience manifests itself in women affected by violence and how learning opportunities can be taken up.

Methods and approach

Over two years, I repeatedly interviewed, using Skype, 10 women aged 18 years or more living in a camp for displaced persons in north-east Nigeria owing to the violence of the insurgency. I analysed the themes raised in interview using Bandura's self-efficacy and sensemaking theory as a conceptual framework.

Findings

The interviews revealed three main themes with six subthemes. One theme was the suffering of the women expressed as unquantifiable loss and worries about physical sustenance. A second was support by talking with family and friends, expressed as giving them a compass to guide their lives and encouragement to take advantage of opportunities like education in IDP camps. A third theme was tomorrow and hopes, expressed as dreams of a profession or career, and as desired education and marriage. Social relations helped the women to hope and to aspire. The bonds they built with each other to survive in their new circumstances helped them thrive, therefore developing self-efficacy. The camp had schools, to which they were able to send their daughters. Many women and girls who previously had no access to Western education in their former lives in deprived villages now had such access.

Policy implications

The study shows how violence, displacement, and social relations, allied to the concrete opportunity of schooling, allow women to access formal education and create new visions. Policy-makers should recognize the agency of women in camps, and make sure that schools and other means of education are provided.