Historical and Modern Perspectives on Nepalese Women

Chapter One: Introduction of the Study

This chapter defines the context and explains the problem statement. It also covers the objective of the research, its significance and the delimitation and the methods of the study. Moreover, it deals with the current status of women in Nepal including their economic, social and educational condition. It further compares the status of women from past and present and different provisions made for them to uplift their educational and social status.

Defining the Context and the Problem Statement

Nepal is a landlocked country which is surrounded by China in the north and India in the east, south and west. It is a land of diversity in terms of castes, culture, ethnicity, language, religion and geographical structures. Despite the diversity, people live together sharing mutual harmony. There are the Himalayas in the north, hills in the centre and plains in the south. According to the report of the Central Bureau of Statistics (2012), more than 125 ethnic groups are speaking 123 different languages and sharing a different cultural and religious background. In other words, diversity leading factors, in particular, can be said to religion, caste and ethnicity. The major economic occupation of the people is agriculture. Satyal (2010) noted that, about two-thirds of the population (68%) of the people are involved in agriculture. Apart from this, people are also engaged in business and other occupations. Moreover, people have high faith in their beliefs, traditional values and cultural practices. In one hand the diversity in Nepal is celebrated and valued however, several problems are created due to the diversity, which has affected the lives of the people. To be very specific, the impact of geography in rural areas society is more likely to discriminate against females. The study of Neupane (2016) finded that, the stereotyping concept of the people on caste and gender still exist in the Nepalese society which has a direct impact on the educational status of the Nepalese people. In my experience, the case of women comes first. Similarly, the report of the Central Bureau of Statistics (2012) showed the status of women, Dalits, Madheshi and the Indigenous minorities that are highly marginalised and have fewer opportunities and access to education and other economies. Most often, within these groups, the female are also deprived of getting an education and there are still many girls, who have not stepped to schools. Parent’s biased socio-cultural beliefs about their offspring create and flourish gender biases in the context of Nepal. In this regard, the study of Dev (2016) founded that, the stereotypical perception of females and cultural beliefs prevailing over boys and girls are the factors affecting the education of girls. Correspondingly, Neupane (2016) argued that, the girls from poor families and rural areas are highly deprived of mainstream education as well as opportunities to perform better in and out of the school. In order to illustrate this situation, I would like to include my experience related to gender and education.

I was living in my hometown Pharping with my parents. It is 14 km away from the centre of the capital city, Kathmandu. I used to see a group of five girls, from the age group 10-15 years, working as a labourer in a Monastery, which was under construction. I saw them working every day, so one day I decided to talk to them. I was hoping to know whether they used to go to school or not. I went to their workplace and watched them working for a while. I asked them the reason for working as a labourer at that age rather than going to school. One of the girls replied that, her father did not want her to send school, because he believed that girls were someone going to another's house after getting married. In the meantime, another girl shared her story that, she wanted to study but she was not sent to school by her parents. Her parents had to educate their son, so they did not have enough money for daughter. There were very painful feelings following like a river in me with their expression and story. Furthermore, the responses of these girls made me think more about this issue and explore the perception of the parents. In the course of this, I got an opportunity to talk with one mother. She had three daughters and one son. She had sent her son to an expensive private school and one daughter to a cheaper government school. Her two elder daughters worked as housemaids in nearby villages. Her belief was that, to be capable of giving birth, looking after children and working to support the family, does not need to be educated. She was further saying that, she sent her youngest daughter to community school, since she wanted to study, and it was cheap also. The above incident gives a reflection of gender biasness and its impacts on the education of girls. The disparity also causes the hamper to girl’s education resulting in low enrolment of girls and poor academic performance in school. When girls are deprived of their educational rights, it would affect the educational development of the nation since a nation constitutes of both genders. In the case of Nepal, female population is more than male of male. Education and economic development of the nation are inter-related to each other. Investment in education would increase the economy of the nation. In this regard, according to the report of International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity in 2015 as cited in Somani (2017), it is found that, a dollar invested in an additional year of schooling generates $10 in benefits in low-income countries. Nepal is a country with low-income status and if this can be applied to girls’ education and especially those who are excluded it would be a good initiative for economic development. When girls are deprived of mainstream education, the stated aim of inclusive education cannot be achieved. When there is less female participation in the academic sector, women are not supposed to have their academic, economic, socio-political and entrepreneurship development. In addition to this, Singh and Mukherjee (2018) stated that, the girls who are deprived of education are excluded in decision-making and have less control over reproductive health and other choices of life. Along this, it is also a matter of right to get an education and if they are underprivileged of it, it means they are not getting their fundamental rights. And this affects their overall growth as well as the growth of the family, society and the country.

The Objective of the Study and Research Questions

As discussed above, girls are deprived of getting an education in Nepal because of gender disparity. Considering this situation, the main purpose of my study is to examine the role school leadership can play in promoting a learning environment that helps gender disadvantaged girls in school. The study aims to relate leadership and inclusive education concerning gender through the medium of leaders like school principals.

This study intends to answer the following research questions,

What is the current social and academic status of women in Nepal?

What has been done for bringing gender biased girls into mainstream education in the context of Nepal?

How school leaders are responsible for reducing gender disparity in society and create an inclusive and equitable school?

What theories of leadership can be beneficial for reducing gender-disparity in Nepal and increase girls’ attainment in school?

Significance of the Study

This study explores the role of school leaders in bringing the girls, who have been marginalised due to gender. This research would be new literature in the field of educational leadership since school leadership practices have not been examined in relation to create inclusive education especially for underprivileged the girls deprived of mainstream education in the context of Nepal. Furthermore, there has been no research study done on how to increase gender biased girls’ attainment in school from the school leadership perspective. Such a study would create awareness among the school leaders about their leadership qualities and performances in and outside the school premises. Finally, the research would open the door for further research studies that can be carried out covering the issue of inclusive education through leadership practices.

Delimitation of the Study

This research is largely based on a review of related literature and document collection. The main literatures reviewed are those on inclusive education, gender disparity, school leadership and status of women. In addition to this, I have had informal conversations and follow up discussions with my sister, who is working as a school-coordinator and some girls from my hometown in Facebook chats and telephone conversation. This research was conducted within a short period of time without any field visit.

Research Methods

The research employs the review of relevant literature and document collection as a primary method of collecting data required for the study. Primary data related to the study was obtained from the informal discussion with my sister and the girls who suffered from gender discrimination in Pharping. In addition to this, the situation of the girls and their education is analysed with reference to my lived experiences since I was born and grown up in the same community.

Chapter Two: A Review of the Relevant Literature

This chapter reviews the related literature on inclusive practices in education and gender disparity. It also highlights what has not been included in the existing literature regarding inclusive education and leadership practices. Finally, it concludes by indicating a gap in the literature. There are several studies that aim to foster the principles and practices of inclusive education in Nepal and across the globe. These studies are more concerned with the issues of gender and inclusivity in education and do not focus on the role that could be played by school principals to diminish it. The issues of marginalised girls, disability, cross genders attract more discussion in the literature of inclusive education. The following section deals with the discussion of the relevant literature progressing from general consideration to the situation in Nepal.

School Leadership and its Importance in Creating Equity in Education

The literature reviews in this section deals with the roles, which can be played by the school leaders to maintain equity in education by avoiding the inequalities (caste, race and gender) that may be created in the society. It also deals with the leadership approaches, theories and strategies, which can be implemented in the school in order to develop the feeling and the environment of equity among the students, teachers and the school leaders. Niesche and Keddie (2011) in their article ‘Foregrounding issues of equity and diversity in educational leadership’ focused on how the common agenda of school helps in developing social relation among the students, parents and the teachers. It also explores the effects of leadership practices in mobilizing transformative discourse of equity in education. This article has documented the leadership practices of one secondary school of Queensland, Australia that focuses on equity as a main philosophy of the schools. The article focuses that, the school leadership helps in promoting the ways and the strategies to tackle the issues of the fragmentation and the social disharmony. Moreover, school leaders play an essence role in reinforcing the disadvantaged and stereotypical perception and understanding of diversity. The authors believed that, the principals are the one who can influence the marginalised students’ achievement and advocate on inclusive mission with their staffs. The authors suggest the implication of productive leadership would be effective in creating equity in school. They strongly believe that, application of productive leadership would help in collaborative decision-making process in development common objective and the vision of the school. It would also assess the teachers to support the social relationship within the school between staffs and the students. The article also mentioned that, the school principals can motivate the students from disadvantaged community by providing greater material support for the students who are having difficulty in studying because of poverty. Moreover, they can also motivate the students and the teachers to show the respect towards the culture of the students so that they would feel valued and would get reorganisation. This would motivate the disadvantaged students to attend the classes. This article basically focused on the use of productive leadership to create equity in education in the school area. It talks about the marginalised students in general but does not focus particularly on gender disadvantaged students and the ways to bring them to mainstream. However, the strategies and the approaches of productive leadership as suggested by the authors can be applicable in context of bringing gender marginalised girls in schools. Dematthews (2015) in his article, ‘Making sense of social justice leadership: a case study of a principal’s experiences to create a more inclusive school’ presented the case study of an elementary school principal in an urban setting in the USA and also explores the strategies she applied to create the school more inclusive. The author argued that most of the principal made the changes and increases their interest by using various sources, but they lack their past experiences to modify their philosophy and their perception. So, the article strongly agreed that prior knowledge and the experiences play an important role in changing and implementing the leadership strategies and the practices to create inclusion in education. Furthermore, the interaction and the communication between community, parents, teachers, students and the central office would help them to create equitable school environment. The author believed that, designing and implementing the school curriculum that allow the students to reflect themselves, share their experiences and encourage them to make a discussion on equity and social justice would also help in implementing inclusivity in the school. The writer talks about the marginalisation of African American students in urban schools and their failures related to the intersection of class and race-based discrimination. This kind of disparity concludes the students as an inappropriate identity that affects the academic achievement and student placement into special education. The author believes in implementation on of inclusive and social justice leadership strategies by the principals create inclusion in this context. Inclusivity helps in extending all the students of the same classroom as a school community and helps in providing equitable educational, emotional and social opportunities for the students. For this, the author suggested that, the school leaders need to allocate the resources for the development of high-quality teaching learning materials, age appropriate classroom and development of the school premises, which values inclusion and equity to enable all the communities to work together. The author also suggested blending the technical expertise related to school administration and instructional leadership practices with principals of social justice, so that they can solve the problem of educational inequalities within the school and the classroom settings. Most importantly, the principal should be about how the students were marginalised and the reasons for segregation. It would help to create school policies and strategies accordingly.

Murphy (2018), in his article, ‘Educational Leaders and Inclusive Special Education: Perceptions, Roles, and Responsibilities’, strongly agreed that, the educational leaders (principal and district leaders) are most responsible to implement inclusive special education program in the public schools successfully. Although they are taken as responsible person to create inclusion in the field of special education, they themselves are deprived of enough knowledge, trainings and the skills to implement the strategies of including special education program in public schools. This research tries to examine the perception, roles and responsibilities of educational leaders towards inclusive education. It also examines the role of the educational leaders who are successful to implement inclusive education program in their institution. The research found that, the role of the educational leaders for the successful application of inclusive education program is to collaborate, solve the problems, professional development and facilitates. The author also argued that, the role of the educational leader is very vital for the implication of inclusive education in American public schools. The author believed that, people with disabilities are facing various forms of discrimination and inequality in the society including America’s public schools. These forms of discrimination have affected the rights of those people. They are fighting for equal protection rights and for access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). However, the public-school system is inconsistence and ineffective in providing inclusive special education to these students with disabilities. The author described that, the students, teachers, parents, community and the educational leaders should work together to create inclusion in education and should be able to implement philosophy of inclusion in the schools. He further mentions that, educational leaders and the teachers still lack the knowledge and the skills to provide quality inclusive special education services. Moreover, the perception and the ideas of school leaders are being neglected. So, it is necessary to hear the voice of the school principal for the effective implementation of inclusive philosophy in schools. Moreover, the principal needs to give training and work on the skill development of the teachers, so that they can cork as a professional to implement inclusive education program in their classroom. Also, the author argued that, the principals are responsible to create vision, culture and community of inclusion with the district leaders. They also should provide instructional leadership training and professional development by collaborating with other stake holders by determining the placement of the students and observing the instruction and the achievements of the students. The research found that considering individual needs, students learning abilities, appreciating and accepting the diversity in the schools can help the school principal to implement the philosophy of inclusion in the school. This article deals with the role of the school principal and their strategies they implement to create special inclusive education program in American public schools. It mostly focuses on special education; however, it does not deal specifically with bringing marginalized girls in school through school leadership.

The literature reviewed in this section is the international research literatures. No research has been done in school leadership and bringing marginalised girls to school attendance in context of Nepal. Beside this, there is no any research done in decreasing disparity in education through school leadership and the roles that can be played by the school principals to eliminate the disparity occurring in Nepalese education.

Addressing Disparity in School and Classroom

This section addresses the disparity that happens with in the school and the classrooms. The literatures described below deals with the issues related to transgender disparity and the strategies to create parity with in the classroom and the school, addressing the inclusivity among the boys and the girls in the classroom by preparing different classroom and teaching strategies through teachers and the intentional or unintentional biasness that may be created in the classroom because of the stereotyping content and the language that may be used in the classroom. These literatures do not deal with the strategies that may be taken by the school principal to avoid these disparities in the classroom. However, they recommended some other effective recommendation to avoid these issues of disparity in education which can be undertaken by the teachers and the principals in context of Nepal. Wight (2010) had her project in a primary school “Maple Leaf Primary School” that lies in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The major purpose of this project was to investigate how Australian primary school teachers integrate and manage gender in their classroom. The author also investigated the gender and inclusive practices of the teacher, the use of the language and their behaviour that can be utilised in teaching. The research found that, the role of teacher is very influential towards students and their understanding of gender through the learning environment they created. Also, the research found that, the teachers can restructure their teaching plans and the practices so that they can create an impact on gendered learning behaviour and outcomes in schools. The researcher and her participants applied different kinds of teaching learning strategies in the classroom. They designed the female focused research session by incorporating more languages into learning experiences and task focused writing. Second step was designing male focused research session. It focuses on being visual during lesson introduction, use of concrete materials and incorporating humour during learning and teaching process. Thirdly, inclusive gender focus session was conducted. Learning based upon need of the individuals, discussing gender issues and the language and including all the students in classroom discussion was the approaches used in this session. After the incorporation of these sessions, the researcher finds that, the teachers need to be informed about the gender and understand their physical, cognitive and behavioural differences in the classroom. She concludes that these kinds of issues need to be acknowledged, prioritized and integrated into the school curriculum and teaching philosophy. The author focuses on the role of the teachers to create gender inclusive practices in the primary schools of Australia. She also includes the perception of the teachers and the steps and the strategies they can use in the classroom to create gendered friendly environment. On the contrary, the research project does not talk about the strategies and the policies that can be implemented by school principal to create inclusion in the classroom and in the school. Correspondingly, Frawley (2012) in his article “Gender bias in the classroom: Current controversies and implications for teachers” by discusses the prevailing differences that is affecting the learning outcomes of the students in the schools of United Nations. The writer argues that the biased activities of the teachers (intentional or unintentional) may convey the harmful messages to the students and can influence the children’s beliefs in accordance with their ability. The beliefs and the perception about the gender can be constructed if the students are told what they can do or cannot do. In another words, the hidden curriculum that creates a stereotypical concept about the girls and the boys can affect the school attainment of the students and may hinder the educational outcomes of the children. According to the author, “hidden curriculum is the subtle lessons that children encounter every day through teachers’ behaviours, feedback, classroom segregation, and instructional materials” (p. 221). In this regard, the writer suggests some of the strategies that can be followed by the teachers to create equitable classroom environment. He mentions teacher-student strategies, getting sensitive and aware in course of providing feedback to the students and analysing the effects of the instructional and classroom materials can help in discouraging gender disparity in the classroom. This article discusses the strategies teacher can apply to avoid the biasness among the learners but does not lay emphasis on the role of the school leadership and the school principal to create gender equitable school learning environment.

Goehiring and Whittington (2017) discussed the essence of including transgender students in the classroom. The major purpose of this study is to help the students, who experience a transgender identity and to help the educators and the students to begin the process of communicating and interacting in the ways that will make other students comfortable with their own identities and with the alternative understanding of gender. The authors provide some of the solutions, which can help to create inclusiveness among those students in the classroom and in the school premises. Firstly, they suggest that, the trend of accepting gender identities, following the lead of the children in their gender identity and expression and conducting the activities what is best for them is the best approach, which can be offered in the classroom by the educator to increase friendly involvement of those transgender students. Secondly, training should be provided to the teachers on how to communicate and interact with the students in a kind manner. The article suggested that, the teachers to get concerned about how these children themselves like to choose their own name and the pronoun for them. Allowing them to choose pronoun themselves would help the students feel comfortable in front of their friends in the classroom. The authors strongly believed on the shifting of the language teacher’s use in the classroom and also agree that working against sexual harassment and bullying, creating safe toilet environment for them, and handling their behaviour with care, carefully selected languages would be the best approach to develop their active participation in the classroom. The article basically talks about the role of the teachers in including transgender students in the classroom and focuses on the strategies that can be helpful for transgender friendly classroom and school. It shortly discusses the role of the school administration to make gender friendly toilets and the policies that can be made by school administration to support these children. It does not deal specifically with the role of the school leadership to create awareness among the teachers about these issues. Moreover, it does not explore steps that can be undertaken by the school principal to create harmonious environment in the school so that these children would feel free in the school.

Female and its Exclusion

The literature discussed below talks about the impacts of gender inequalities in social and the educational exclusion of the girls. It also highlights the educational exclusion, which happens within the girls with disability. Moreover, the literatures also recommended some of the educational strategies that can be followed to bring these children to mainstream so that parity in education can be maintained. But the literatures do not talk about the roles that can be played by the school leaders to bring these social and educational girls in bringing schools. Dhillon (2011) in his article, “Social exclusion, gender and access to education in Canada: Narrative accounts from girls on street”, focused on the social and cultural dimensions of schooling of the young girls in Canada who have become the victims of poverty and are facing the problem of homelessness. The author mentions that, the reforms in pedagogical innovation along with the critique in social and the cultural practices and the reconstruction of the Canadian public schools needs to consider and maintain that are recreating the social inequalities in the schools and in the society. This project focused on the experiences of the young women who are living on the poverty line and are victimized through vulnerability, who came across different challenges in their social life including education, employment, healthcare and housing. Moreover, the experiences of sexism and sexual harassment are the social and the cultural practices towards the female are embedded in the school and create disparity in learning settings. Moreover, the interactions between the girls and the boys are another challenge that creates inequality in the classroom. By instructing the importance of establishing new research agendas that help in placing the girls from the poverty and homelessness at the centre of research, those girls could be accessed to education. The research focuses on professional development, new charter schools, conferences international forums, advocacy meetings can help to bring reform in educational system and would help in bringing these girls to mainstream education. The writer believes that knowledge about the pedagogy, criminal justice, curriculum development, and teacher training, anti-violence, and counselling can help in avoiding exclusion and motivating inclusion in schools. The writer in this article does not analyse the school leadership practices in Canada and the roles that can be played by the school leaders to form equitable environment for those homeless girls in Canada. Moving on, Diamond and Winfield (2018) in their blog post discuss the inclusion of girls with disabilities in education in many countries. It deals with the factors that shape the educational pathways of girls with disabilities and the steps that can be taken to help them to ensure their access their education in safe and supportive learning environments. Poverty, ethnic and linguistic minorities and the disabilities are the major barriers towards girl’s inclusion in schools. Although many educational programs are conducted related to inclusive education of the girls, these programs often exclude girls with disabilities. In this case, the authors agreed that insufficient targeting policies, a focus on enrolment rather than participation and lack of teacher training are the major barriers that left these kinds of girls far behind in education. Although the girls and the boys with disabilities experience similar types of social exclusion at school, the writers strongly believe that, the girls are more hampered because of the socio-cultural perception of their learning and employment abilities and opportunities, sexual abuse and the availability of water, sanitation, health care waste management, hygiene and environmental cleaning infrastructure, and services facilities (WASH) during their menstruation. Because of the lack of education, girls with disabilities are not aware about their own rights and their abilities to speak against those abuses and harassment. Still the gap between inclusive education program and disable girls can be observed that left these girls far behind. The authors agreed that, many programs by the national and international organisation need to be organized so that the policies of inclusive education can be implemented for them. Similarly, it is necessary to conduct the research about those girls and their learning environments, teachers and their teaching strategies. They also suggest conducting different awareness-raising projects so that they would be able to tackle with those gender perceptions and the barriers to their education. However, this literature does not deal with the strategies that can be made my school leaders, school management committee to bring these girls to mainstream education.

Causes and Effects of Gender Disparity in Nepal

In context of Nepal, many researchers have looked out in the area of gender but in regard with education these are the available works which deal with educational disparity among girls and boys in context of Nepal. The literatures describe below explores how patriarchal society, cultural and social norms, economic and geographical situation creates inequality in between girls and boys, male and female and sons and daughters and create disparity in education. They also talk about the status of women empowerment and the perceptions of the women about empowerment, education and employment. These literatures also suggested some steps that can be undertaken to overcome the problem of gender disparity in economy, educational and social status of girls. However, these literatures do not deal specifically with leadership as a factor in improving gender disparity. Rothchild (2007), in the book, ‘Gender Troublemakers Education and Empowerment in Nepal’ highlighted the ongoing inequalities between girls and boys among the villages of Nepal. The book gives the insights related to educational realities of an indigenous people of Eastern Nepal. He highlighted that, the school and the families are the component that practices and maintains the old patterns of inequalities. The book has suggested some of the changes that can help the people, community, educational organizations, different national and international organisations to decrease the prevailing social and the cultural practices of inequalities in relation with gender. Moreover, the writer has tried to create a deeper understanding of gender barriers that harm and affects the dreams and the potentialities of Nepalese girls. In another words, the struggles faced by the girls in Nepal due to gender inequalities can be clearly seen through this book. Although the government agencies, international organizations, researchers and international organisations are concentrating their efforts to increase the enrolments of girls in school, the author argued that, there is a strong need of analysing how gender is constructed and maintained in schools and homes. He agreed that, the perception and the beliefs of gender differences impact girls and boy’s potential to succeed in school and affect their ability to improve their living standard and the opportunities they are supposed to get. Also, he strongly believes that teachers, parents and schools should clearly understand the social construction of gender and its effects on educational achievements of girls. The author examined the socially constructed process of gender within the institution of family and school through interviews to identify the attitude and behaviours of the community members, parents, school principals and teachers. Likewise, the writer explored the consequences of socially constructed gender restrictions in school and home settings. The author found that lack of government support to provide the facilities and initiatives for the gender disadvantaged girls is one of the major problems to maintain gender equality in the society. Similarly, parents’ socio-economic status, religion, distance to school, cultural attitudes, poverty, availability of schools, parents ‘education and unsuitable curriculum are the major factors that affect the learning of the girls and create gender disparity in learning settings. The author agreed that, the school can play a vital role to discourage disparity among girls and boys and can create equity in education. The book basically deals with the causes and the consequences of the gender disparities in the educational achievement of the girls. It also mainly focuses on how gender is socially constructed and the perceptions of communities, parents, teachers and head teachers (principal) about the consequences of this social construction in the educational development of the female students. However, it does not deal with the role of the school leadership in minimising these disparities in school and classroom settings. Likewise, Hatlebakk (2012) in his work, ‘Son-preference, number of children, education and occupational choice in rural Nepal’, has explored how the son preferences in rural part of Nepal help in increasing the number of family members in the family and its effects on daughters’ education. The writer argues that the increasing number of children in a family has positive effects in boys’ education of having first born sister. The author mentions that the first-born daughter would take care of the household work and the responsibilities, which help the boys to focus on their education and their career. But these household responsibilities and the preferences to son would hamper the education of the daughter. In most of the case, parents do not allow their daughter to go to the school, if they allow, she can go to the schools only after completing all the household works and taking care of her younger brothers and the sisters. This would directly affect the education of the girls. The study found that having first-born sister is the best predictor for the level of education but especially for their male siblings. This is the primary reason for son preferences in context of Nepal. Preferences to son help in increasing more family members in the family. The author argues that, if the mother gives birth to the daughter as a first child, she keeps on bearing the children until the family does not get the son who is supposed to take care of them in their old age. The research found that, the boys get more years of schooling in comparison with girls. This affects the educational outcomes of the girls. As the daughters are responsible for household responsibilities and are deprived of getting education, the study found that, first born girl has major direct effect on education of later born children specially boys. This research paper examines the benefits of having first-born daughter to the later born sons to achieve their education. Moreover, the writer also explains the reasons for preferring sons rather than daughter in the rural part of Nepal. However, the paper also does not discuss any portion of leadership and its effects in changing these concepts among family members in Nepal.

Correspondingly, Adhikari (2013) mentioned that, the influences of patriarchal socio-economic practices on girls’ attendance and the reason for not completing their education is not being concentrated by the government, parents and the teachers. Through this research, the author has tried her best to explore the girls’ experiences and their perception that affect their schooling and tried to reflect the views of parents and the teachers about the current issue of gender disparity and its causes and consequences in girl’s education. The author found that, the parents as the key factor to determine the education of girls. Their behaviour towards their daughter helps in motivating the girls to study. But in context of Nepal, their higher preferences to the sons are one of the reasons that increase the dropout rates of the girls from the school. The culture among the parents of perceiving sons as a supporter of old age and daughters as children who go to others’ house after getting married has entailed gender disparity in education and everyday life in Nepalese society. The author strongly beliefs that gender discriminating culture are the core reason that creates a gap in education in the context of Nepal. Moreover, she also illustrated that the attitudes of the parents are very much necessary to enable their daughter to continue their education as the parents often pull their daughter out of the school for household and agricultural work in the villages of Nepal. Likewise, early marriage is another reason that creates disparity in education. As parents assume their daughter will get married and go to other house, they consider girls ‘education as additional cost for them. Because of these reasons, many girls are deprived of getting education. The author does not talk about the role of school principal and school leadership in minimizing gender disparity and creating inclusivity in school and in classroom settings. Bishwakarma (2015) argued that, the social exclusion based on caste, gender, class, race and other disabilities are one the major problems in education system of Nepal. This article attempts to show the challenges and the prospects for inclusive education adopted by Nepalese government to include those socially excluded communities such as Dalit, Muslim, Madhesi. He argued that there lacks the inclusion in education from historical periods. The children from different religions, caste, race, geography, gender and economic background are excluded from getting education. He further mentions that still girls, lower caste children and minorities are excluded from receiving their basic education, especially in rural areas. He remarks that teachers need to be well trained for the implementation of inclusive approaches to education and bring those children to mainstream education. He believes that the inclusive education approach can assist Nepal in creating an all-inclusive education system for all. The challenges of creating this system within Nepalese schools must first be approached and understood before progress can be assessed. Similarly, he argues that teachers need to understand the educational and cultural needs of the child, so that they can work together to motivate those children to learn and bring in the school. The accessibility of the needed materials is another important factor to form inclusive environment in the classroom. The author talks about the need and the essence of inclusive education in this research. He shows the importance of educating all the children including gender, caste, geography, culture and backgrounds. He does not talk the need of inclusion for only girls. He strongly believes that without the strong support of school system, the students would not be able to develop the sense of community development within their classmates from different backgrounds. The research concluded that Students, teachers, and the school system can eventually learn how to accommodate those with disabilities and disadvantages, so they too can gain the same education that allows students to learn one of the most important basic lessons of life; having strength because of diversity. Although the author talks about school system, he does not clearly talk about the roles that can be played by school principals, administrators and leaders to create inclusive school environment. To say further, the role and the strategies that can be implemented to minimize these problems is not being discussed in this article. Nowack (2015) mentioned that, the patriarchal society in Nepal is the basic reason to create inequality in the sector of legal issues, property issues and in educational sector too. The expenses for girls ‘education is much less in comparison with boys. The writer believed that this inequality is created because of unequal work opportunities by girls in service sector. More likely to this, in Nepalese context, boys are expected to look after their parents and family when they grew old. This trend has created disparity among the sons and daughters in the family in relation with education, health and many other facilities. To be very specific, this research paper has explored the discrimination among school-going boys and girls by examining the expenses separation of their parents. The paper concluded that high number of boys is represented in private and expensive schools for their education, whereas high ratio of girls is reflected in public schools. This indication shows that still there is discrimination between girls and boys in Nepal.

Although this literature deals with the disparity among boys and the girls in sector of education (selection of schools, parents preferences and separation of education expenses for son and daughter), this paper does not analyse the roles that can be played by school leaders (principals) and the strategies that can be implemented by them to create equality in girls and boys education. Khanal (2018) in his article, “Gender discrimination in education expenditure in Nepal: Evidence from living standards survey” focuses on the role of parent and their preferences in determining the education expenditure for their children in relation with their children. He explores how the parents determine the education of their children in accordance with their gender (son and daughter) and has investigated the effects of those preferences on the parent’s expenditure for schooling in context of Nepal. The author found that, parents basically spend more money for their sons’ education in comparison with their daughters in both the villages and the town and also found that the discrimination of the parents on the basis of their spending for education has directly affected the enrolment of the girls and has increased the amount of boys getting enrolled in private schools than girls. The author focuses that gender inequality in education sector is a current issue in context of Nepal. Various forms of gender inequity can be observed in this community. Creation of discriminatory norms in the process of socialization, inequalities in the class in the name of gender, selection of traditional curriculum that follows traditional gender roles, traditional course selection, discriminating behaviour by teachers between girls and boys has hampered the educational attainment and the achievements of the girls in the schools of Nepal. Moreover, daughters are expected to spend their more time in household activities rather than in education. In conclusion, the literature looked in this chapter, describes the educational and the social status of women in Nepalese and the international context. It addresses the disparity that is created in the classroom based on gender, disabilities, and other forms of discriminations. Moreover, it further explores the reason for social and educational exclusion of the girls and the strategies that can be implemented to eliminate these problems and motivate girls in bringing to mainstream education. This chapter has also analysed the issues of gender in report to education in Nepal. The literature discussed the works that are available in context of Nepal. However, no research has been conducted in relation with school leadership and inclusive education and in the sector of creating educational inclusion for gendered marginalised girls in Nepal.

The Gap in the Literature

The available literature on school leadership examines factors behind gender inequality in education, including the differences in male and female leadership styles in the international arena. These studies show that different attempts and strategies have been employed to foster inclusive education and reduce gender disparity throughout the world. There is little available literature on gender disadvantaged children and the role of school principals in bringing them to mainstream education research. Moreover, there has been no research or systematic study on school leadership as a promoter of strategies for gender inclusion in schools in context of Nepal. It is this gap that my thesis intends to address.

Chapter Three: Leadership Theories and their Relevancy in Inclusive Education

Different theories of educational leadership advocate the inclusion of gender disadvantaged girls in mainstream education directly or indirectly. Social justice educational leadership, inclusive leadership and culturally responsive school leadership theories focus on the inclusion of marginalised groups in school through the practices of different school leadership theories. They also emphasise adopting equitable philosophy of education to exclude gender biasness in school and the classroom settings. Here, in this chapter, I shall explain these theories of leadership and the ways they can address gender disparity. I would also explain how relevant they are in context of Nepal. Moreover, this chapter will present which of these leadership theories can be applied by the school principals of the Nepal, so that they would be able to create gender inclusion in schools and can create inclusive environments using different leadership practices. This section aims to merge inclusive leadership theory, social justice leadership theory and culturally responsive school leadership theory together by identifying the role of the school principal in creating inclusion in school and classroom settings so that they would be able to bring those gender disadvantaged girls in mainstream education/school.

Implications of Inclusive Theory of Leadership

The basic premise of the researchers of inclusive education is that students can be excluded from the mainstream education because of their different ability, age, race, class gender and the sexuality. Hemmingsand Woodcock (2011) elaborated that, the disadvantaged must be empowered by developing their confidence level and their ability of participation through inclusion and the school leaders should give attention to exclusion and inclusion in education and help to identify the ways, through which the students are being excluded from the main stream education and the benefits of creating inclusion among them. There are many girls in Nepal who excluded in education, because of the cultural beliefs, economic condition of the family, geographic situation and political barriers. In this scenario, adopting inclusive leadership theory would help the principals to include them in educational as well as social participation, motivate them to show their involvement in learning by developing various inclusive strategies. In this regard, Quinn (2010) mentioned that, inclusive leadership helps the leaders to recognize various learning abilities of the students and the barriers, which are depriving them to attend schooling and help those disadvantaged children in going schools by developing different inclusive leadership strategies. Likewise, inclusive leaders appreciate everybody’s contribution; inspire innovations by involving people at risk of being excluded. Ryan (2006) believed that, the inclusive leadership is mostly concern with inclusion and provide lens to access the people who are related with social justice and helps to identify social injustice in communities and schools. In this context, the issues of gender disparities are basically considered through the lens of inclusive leadership. There are different problems girls faced during their schools well as non-schooling period. Basically, the disadvantaged girls faced different kinds of problems as they are deprived of education. He explains in his study that, the leaders who believe in inclusion can provide social justice to the marginalized children if they continuously include themselves in creating and innovating the new and the updated forms of institutional practices addressing inclusion and keep their efforts to use inclusion/exclusion as the way to create social justice in education and attempts to understand the need of those students. Stein (2002) pointed that, girls and women and the students with different other sexual orientation face the problems of harassment, sexism, racism in the schools that do not let them to use their own advantages and rights. He further suggested that the inclusion of inclusive curriculum, pedagogies and learning materials would help them to work against these problems and help in bringing them in mainstream education. In this context, the school principal can create inclusion in the school by creating awareness, sharing the common vision of inclusion, building a relationship with one another and creating a change by valuing everyone’s opinion and the thoughts. Likely, the major role of the inclusive leaders is to create a space for others to lead by following them. In this case, they motivate the girls to create self-leadership among themselves. It mostly focuses on providing social justice to those disadvantaged students who are deprived of getting education. Swaffield and Major (2019) believe in creating an inclusive cluster among the school principals so that schools can work together to avoid exclusion and disparities that is occurring in educational sector. They further mention that, inclusive leadership can help in operating with the challenges that arise in the process of establishing inclusive cluster collaboration. The role of the leaders is very much essential to bring change in the concepts held by their employees. It is not possible until the leaders (school principal) create innovation, creativity and motivate the employee (teachers) to work and made their teaching strategies so that they could bring inclusion in their classroom and work inclusively to bring those excluded girls in mainstream education. Nembhard and Edmondson (2006) in their study focused on the role the leaders’ behaviour to create inclusiveness among the employees and motivate them for adopting inclusion in their activities is important so that it would help to shape the beliefs and the perception of the staffs in an organisation.

Highlighting the importance of inclusive leadership, Javed et al., (2018) explained that, the inclusive leadership emphases on the feelings of the followers about whether the leaders are available to them, whether they listen to them or are paying attention to them or not. In order to state further, the behaviour of the leaders towards the staffs, their attention towards them help in creating safe organisational environment to the employees and motivate them to work and implement the strategies of inclusiveness in their working activities too. For saying further, the inclusive nature of the school leaders helps in creating psychological safety among the teachers and the students too. In this case, Hoppey and McLeskey (2013) argued that, inclusive leaders provide support for the teachers, so that they can do better and make different strategies that are effective to create inclusive classroom environment. Kugelmass and Ainscow (2004) explained that, in inclusive education, teacher support one another through instructional teams helps in achieving the goals of inclusive education through planning, discussion and problem solving. They further described that, to create inclusion in school settings; school leaders need to have inclusive mentality and should be able to develop inclusive mentality among the schoolteachers too. The authors also agree that inclusion is a management and organizational structure that focuses the holistic development of the schools and the group of the people through inclusion. In this aspect, the collaborative aspects of inclusive school and the inclusive leaders help in the implication of inclusive decision making through inclusive leaders. Besides, inclusive leadership helps in developing good professional development of the teachers, creating good school environment and collaborate the teachers, parents, students and the communities to decrease educational disparity among the girls and the boys and create equity in education. In respect with this, Furney, Hasazi and Keefe (2005) explained that, the principal with high leadership quality understand the need of adopting inclusive school and practice of inclusive leadership and they keep on engaging themselves in nurturing a shared vision of the schools, generating collaborating and encouraging teacher’s professional development so that inclusion in education can be maintained.

Relevance of Inclusive Leadership Theory in Nepal

Inclusive leadership theory is the foundation to bring a change in school settings, so that those disadvantaged girls can be brought in school. Principals are the ones, who can work as the agent to bring change in educational settings of the school and motivate the teachers to create inclusion in their classroom. Reviewing the status of women and girls in Nepal, the use of inclusive leadership theory seems advantages to the school leaders of Nepal, because it would help to involve the individuals in social participation and motivate the leaders and the teachers to work against exclusion. In this case inclusive leadership focuses on the inclusion of everyone in a similar school setting including the children from different physical abilities, various cultural backgrounds, experience and the way of working, ages, sexual orientation and gender. Quinn (2010) stated that, the school principal is the agent to build a school environment where everybody is included and work together for the betterment of the students. Similarly, Ryan (2006) described inclusive leadership as the process of understanding and utilising the foundation and the basis for forming inclusive schools and learning. Additionally, it also helps to develop and nurture the inclusive education concept in an effective way. In relation to this, school principals in Nepal can be the basic source to create inclusion in education by advantaging those marginalised girls to education. Following inclusive leadership framework, principal can work to include the girls from different context and help to develop and nurture their career so that their right to education can be ensured in Nepal. Quinn (2008) justifies “justice, ethics of care, moral imperative and trust” as the key features that help the leaders to address the various needs of the students. He further agreed that, these characteristics help to provide foundation to for the leaders so that they can develop inclusive leadership strategies in the classroom. Correspondingly, Ryan (2006) listed influence, process and purpose as the three significant terms of inclusive leadership that helps the leaders to structure inclusive strategies and can bring reform in inclusive school structure that can be easily understood and attainable. By implementing the fey features mentioned by Quinn (2008) and important term listed by Ryan (2006), school leaders in Nepal can bring change in school strategies and the structure towards inclusion by discouraging exclusion. In another words, the application of these key features can help the school leaders in following inclusive leadership strategies and help in minimising the gender inequality prevailing in educational arena. Besides, Quinn (2010) concluded that, adopting the common features embracing the issues of social justice and enhancing school leadership helps the leaders to establish the foundation by allowing all the students an equal opportunity to learn inclusively. He highlighted that it is a good characteristic of an inclusive leader. In context of Nepal, there may arise some challenges in school leadership because of the different variations and the factors hampering the schooling of the young girls. Impact of poverty and social exclusion is still creating a problem in the educational performance and the involvement of the girls. In this context, inclusive leadership develops an encouragement of free expression, self-expression, and improvisation, exploring unknown outcomes, problem solving and critical thinking ability to the girls by including them in mainstream education. Moreover, inclusive leaders’ common values and vision towards inclusion equitable education would help in providing education to those gender disadvantaged girls. In this context, Michalak (2012) agreed that, inclusive leadership needs to give emphasis on teacher leadership, social capital, local circumstances and needs and blending the policy environment of their own values and educational imperatives. In order to sum up, analysing the status of girls and their educational level education in Nepal, inclusive leadership can be one of the best approach of leadership theory as it helps in creating equality among the school learners and helps in creating inclusion in the school as well as classroom settings. Moreover, it helps in developing holistic development of the school staffs and motivates them to create the classroom and teaching strategies so that they can encourage inclusion among the students as well. Moreover, inclusive leaders would help the disadvantaged girls who are excluded by increasing their feelings of being valued and empowered so that they would be able to attain their potentialities.

Implication of Social Justice Theory of Leadership in Mainstreaming Gendered-biased Girls in Nepal

Another theory of leadership that advocates inclusivity is the social justice leadership theory can also be relevant in context of Nepal to bring equity in education and bring those disadvantaged girls in schools. Acquiring education is the right of all the people. In this aspect, providing inclusive education to those marginalized girls because of gender disparity helps in ensuring social justice in education. In this reference, social justice leadership can be an appropriate theory, which can be adopted by the school principals in Nepalese educational context. Social justice educational leadership believes that all students can and will reach proficiency without expectations and excuses. It believes that, schools need to be organised to create advancement in equitable learning of all the students. Social justice leaders address the needs of all students. This theory examines gender, culture, economic and other various diversities and helps to create inclusion in the school classroom. Moreover, it also focuses on the influence of race, income, language, ability gender and sexual orientation variation in the learning design and the environment. Besides, many researchers believe that leadership for social justice involves identifying and undoing the oppressive and unfair practices and replacing them with more equitable culturally appropriate one. In this context, Dantely and Tillman (2010) argued that leadership for social justice helps to investigate the possible solutions for some issues that help to generate and reproduce social justice. They further add that the role of the principal in this context is to find the major components that assist to create inequitable environment in the school as well as in classroom settings. Understanding the essence of it, school principals can identify the unfair and unjustifiable practices happening on the school premises and replace them with equitable and appropriate cultural integrating approaches, so that inclusion and social justice in education can be maintained in the schools of Nepal. Likewise, Dematthews (2015) mentioned the use of the social justice leadership may vary across the schools because there are various individual, social, political and organisational components that may impact schools and the communities. In this case, principals may use various forms and application of social justice leadership approach to create gender equality in education by recognizing the needs and the essence of those disregarded female students of Nepal. Theoharis (2008) defined social justice leadership as the process of making an issue of social inclusion and multiculturalism. He further explained it as an approach that is directed towards the ways to create equity in education and ensure social justice for all the students. Moreover, the principals need to design and implement the curriculum that helps those children to reflect themselves, analyses the differences they feel after going to the schools. Furman (2012) observed that, the school principal in social justice approach should be action oriented and transformative, committed and persistent, inclusive and democratic, recreational and caring, reflective, oriented towards socially just pedagogy and should be able to develop tool boxes so that inclusion and social integration can be maintained in classroom and school settings. Likely, Dutro (2010) remarked that, social justice leaders should design and implement the curriculum that permits the children to access different experiences and foster a discussion and their views on equity in classroom and school settings. Also, they can help those disadvantaged children to get their identity among the group and help them to be recognised and valued who are neglected by poverty, gender inequalities, caste and other cultural barriers. This would also help in accessing those disadvantaged girls in mainstream education and create inclusive learning environment for them. Moreover, the role of social justice leaders is to advocate for inclusion, educating participants, developing consciousness, making inclusive decision and policy making decisions. This would help to address the causes, consequences and the impacts of gender inequalities and help the leaders to make the leadership strategies accordingly. Niesche and Keddie (2011) mentioned that, the school leadership is the key in providing wider economic/material support for those students who are victimised by economic injustice and by helping them to be recognized and valued among others, who are being marginalised on the basis of gender, caste and race. Similarly, Dematthews (2015) also strongly agreed that, inclusive education is the fundamental element of social justice leadership because it helps to counter the existence of an inescapable system of discrimination that produces an unequal outcome. Social justice leaders can understand the causes and the consequences of gender disparity that exists in the society and help them to implement an inclusive strategy to minimise them. This would help in creating an equitable learning in the classroom and impartial school environment. Wasonga (2009) explored interrogating school policies, cultures and community expectation, oppressive and injustice practices and employing democratic processes to engage those marginalised communities as the key elements of social justice leadership. By following those characteristics, school principals can work to find out the root causes of gender disparity, consequences created by them in the community and in the life of girls and make the equitable school and leadership strategies to provide education to them, so that they can advocate ensuring social justice for them by providing basic education. For this, social justice leadership emphasise in the capability of the school leaders to use their knowledge, expertise, experience and the resources to minimise the inequalities prevailing in societies.

Besides, there are different social, political and economic factors, which influence the social organisation and the structure of the schools. In this case, Zembylas and Iasonas (2017) indicated that, social justice leadership aids to enable the school leaders to implement the strategies for successful school and help the leaders to achieve more equitable outcomes for all the children and made them ready to face those challenges. The characteristics of inclusive education and inclusive leadership are led by social justice leadership. Bogotch and Shields (2014) as cited in Zembylas and Iasonas (2017) stated that, the values and the perception of the school principal are leaded by social justice and helps to create multicultural schools through the transformation of the culture; pedagogies practices and they prioritized the school organisation to benefit those marginalized students. Lastly, Theoharis (2010) claimed that: training staffs for addressing issues of race, gender, culture and the economic background; providing ongoing staff development focused on building equity; hiring and supervising capable staff who can undertake the issues related to social justice in education; empowering the staff; creating a welcoming school climate for marginalised family and community; incorporating social responsibility into school curriculum are the primary role of the school principal in implanting social justice in the school and classroom settings. For summing up, Social justice educational leadership can be a great approach to create inclusion in education and ensure the right to education to girls who are deprived of education in Nepalese context. By following the strategies and the implication of this leadership theory, school leaders can work and motivate the teachers to bring those disadvantaged girls in school and can help to create effective learning environments as the main focus of social justice leadership is to address disadvantage in the classrooms and other suitable places rather than special support in special classrooms.

Implication of Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) in Creating Gender-Friendly Education in Nepal

Cultural responsiveness is about the capacity to understand how different experiences affect students and their learning. It focuses on the ability of accepting diversity that exists in the classroom and the schools and about the ways to foster the connection between the school staff and the diverse population they serve in the schools. To say further, culturally responsive leadership occurs when the school principal merges the curriculum innovation with social activism. Johnson (2006) believed that, the school principal is supposed to understand the assumptions, beliefs and the values of people and their cultures that vary with their own so that they can assess them to create effective school settings with diversified background of the student. Moreover, the theory of culturally responsive school leadership help to address the inherent barriers faced by learners and helps them in their academic progress. It focuses on developing and designing a culturally responsive pedagogy and the curriculum so that the leader can create a culturally responsive environment and help in creating social justice in education. In reference to this, Khalfia, Gooden and Davis (2016) explained the need to adopt culturally responsive school leadership practices in school settings to encourage diversity and inclusion in school settings. They found that, culturally responsive school leadership can be a good approach for creating culturally responsive education, reforms, inclusion and social justice in education. The writer concluded that the relation between CRSL and teacher preparation, presentation, school environment, community advocacy are the major focuses on education that must be adopted by the school principal. CRSL theory mostly focuses on developing a critical consciousness to challenge the inequalities in the larger societies. It suggests creating organisational structure at the school to empower those students from diverse backgrounds. In this respect, culturally responsive school leadership practice can be an effective model to create equality in relation with the gender. The use of CRSL would help in bringing transformation in school settings and the climate that would help in creating inclusion of that gender marginalised children and ensure their social justice to education. Mayfield and Wade (2015) point out that CRSL helps in cultivating the cultural competency of staff, generating consistent critical examination of personal beliefs and assumptions. They argue that, culturally responsive leaders help in promoting equality and access to meet the necessities of anti-gender biased education to stop prevailing gender and racial bias existing in the society. Bank (2006) as cited in (Mayfield and Wade, 2015) strongly agreed that the implementation of CRSL can alleviate historically derived socioeconomic and educational disparities by empowering the female students rather than repressing the voice of stakeholders. CRSL can thus motivate principals and teachers to increase awareness about the existing gender disparity and its consequences on the educational attainment of the disadvantaged girls. Gay (2010) in his study explained that, culturally responsive teachers are not enough to solve the challenges faced by disadvantaged girls and other students. The reformation and the transformation in all educational enterprises is necessary which can be introduced only through culturally responsive school leaders. He further added that, insightful transformation helps to bring appropriate outcomes in learners, their culture and help to fulfil their needs in the school. This approach would help in bringing girls into mainstream education and increase the teacher’s awareness of the importance of designing the curriculum, teaching materials and the classroom setting according to the needs of those students. Thus, CRSL can play a major role to promote inclusion, equity, advocacy and social justice for those girls who are deprived of schooling because of cultural, geographical, political and economic factors. To sum up, the application of CRSL is very crucial to bring equitable and inclusion in education that helps in creating social responsiveness in education in the school settings. To be very specific, CRSL can be the best technique to address the causes and the consequences of gender inequality and can help in bringing gender disadvantaged girls in mainstream education. To be very specific, it is another relevant leadership approach, which can help in creating equity among girls and boy’s education in Nepalese context. Following the strategies and the policies of CRSL school principals can encourage the girls from culture, economic status, geography and society to get involved in education. Furthermore, CRSL can work as an effective tool to create equity in Nepalese education and can provide equality among the students from different background, culture, language, gender and society.

In a nutshell, inclusive leadership theory, social justice leadership theory and culturally responsive theory can be the best approaches of the leadership theory that can be implemented to create equity in education. Basically, these approaches can be helpful and effective to encourage the gender disadvantaged girls to go to school and will help the school principal to develop the school strategies and policies by considering the need of those girls who varies according to their culture, background, geography and languages in context of Nepal. To be very specific, girls are getting disregarded not only because gender issues in Nepal but cultural norms and traditions, economic status, various languages, geographic structure of Nepal, educational status of the parents and the limitations of the societies are other reasons for girls’ marginalisation in education. In this context, these three theories advocate on creating equitable learning environment and ensuring social justice of education for those disadvantaged girls in Nepal.

Chapter Four: Status of Women in Nepal

The status of women in Nepal is comparatively lower than men in every aspect of their lives. Though there are some women who are socially, politically and economically and academically powerful than men, they are very few. Most of the women living in Nepal are limited to household works, less educated and have low access to rights and opportunities. In this regard, Gurung (2016) remarked that, the status of women is poor in comparison with male due to the socio-economic, cultural and religious factors that are embedded in Nepalese society. In addition to this, Bhattarai (2014) stated that, the status of the women in Nepal was mostly based on the social, political and the economic position of the husband and the father. There was a demarcating line. They are disadvantaged from economic and social opportunities because of poverty, illiteracy and cultural taboos. The male dominated societies of Nepal have provided much less scope for women to assert their identity and development. In recent days, women are more aware about the need and the essence of education in most of the parts of the country. Some of the women are well-educated and are involved in different sectors. They are involved in service, business, trade, and different kinds of jobs. The changes and the influence of education have motivated many women to work outside home and earn for their family. According to Shrestha (2014), only 45.2% of women compared to 68.2% of men are identified as actively participated in economy generation. Still, the women in rural areas are limited to planting, weeding and harvesting. Very few women work in professional level. Their representation in bureaucracy is very low. Similarly, the women of developed can be found economically as well as socially powerful and are well-educated. But most of the women living in rural areas are limited towards households and are not getting an opportunity of education. Shrestha (2014) mentioned that, the role of the women in most of the parts of Nepal has been limited to nurture, care and take the responsibility of the household works and are still not getting an access to education. Economy, geography, education of the parents, political instability, social and cultural norms and beliefs are the factors that are hindering their empowerment and education. UNICEF (2016) stated that, poverty plays a key factor to keep the children out of schools and push the children into labour and being trafficked. The report further shows that 25% of the children drop-out from the schools because of their poor economic condition, 22% dropouts because they must help their family, 17% get married in their early age. The result shows that along with the problem of dropouts of the children from the schools, the problem of early marriage of the girls is also increasing day by day. Similarly, the existing illegal and the harmful practices including Badi (Caste-based sex work), chhaupadi (menstrual seclusion), Kamlari (bonded labour of daughters) and deuki (selling daughters to temples as a child goddess) are creating gender disparities and are depriving girls to go to the schools. To sum up, the status of women in Nepal does not seem too much satisfactory. There are both the women who are socially, economically and educationally powerful, but the ratio differs vastly.

Status of Women until 1990 in Nepal

Before 1990, the status of women was not good. There was no democracy in the country. There was a panchayat system of government of Nepal between 1960 and 1990, in Nepal. The panchayat system was a party less system in Nepal established by King Mahendra in 1960 and remained till 1990s. In this system King was the supreme commander of the armed forced. He had the power to appoint and remove the Supreme Court judge and appoint the public service members too. It was based on supreme power of the monarchy with king. King was the sole authority over all government institutions. Women were deprived of freedom to speak, read and write. Moreover, people and the women themselves were not concern about the rights of the women. Besides, they were not aware about the political participation and were not taking part in different political activities because of the ignorance, cultural and the familial boundaries. In this context, United Nation Development Programme (2014) mentioned that, although the women have had the right to vote and stand for election since 1951, they were never comprised more than 6% of Nepal’s parliaments and were not taking part in political issues because of ignorance, cultural and social line marked for them. Also, Tamang (2009) discussed that, the women movement and many other political activities was suppressed under the panchayat system between 1961 and 1991. Women were completely dependent on men. In another words, the patriarchal system of Nepalese society had maintained the subordination of women to men. Men were considered as the leader of the family and women were supposed to work in accordance with the instructions of the men. Drucza (2016) added that, the women are still excluded in the society and in the developmental sectors because of the political and the traditional social system of Nepalese society. Men were expected to work and go outside for earning, whereas the women were limited towards household works. Sons were given more priorities in the family as well as in society while unfortunately daughters were discriminated from birth. They did not have the equal opportunities to achieve all the aspects of their development. Rather they were deprived of their rights, lagging from education, healthcare to parental property. Acharya, Mathema, and Acharya (1999) also indicated that cultural beliefs regarding sons have directly influenced the status of daughters and their involvement in-house decision-making process. The women’s movement started in 1950. Its principal objective was to end the prevailing gender discrimination and gender inequality, injustice, oppression, social beliefs and behaviour towards female. In 1990, after the introduction of democracy in Nepal, many changes took place. The 1990’s constitution granted fundamental rights to all citizens regardless of caste, religion and the sex (gender). To be very specific, the 1990’s constitution guaranteed equal rights for male and female in Part 3, Article 11 stated that, there shall be not any discrimination against any citizen in the application of the laws or on the ground of religion caste, race or sex. It also mentioned that, equal wages should be paid for both the male and the female and should have equal access to property. It also focused on education for women. The 1990 constitution in article 114 mentioned that at least 5% of the total number of candidates consisting of an election from any organisation must be women candidates for the purpose of elections of the House of Representative. It shows that the constitution was concern about the women’s involvement in political matters too. After the 1990 constitution women started to be aware about the essence of education and many organisations were formed to work for women, rights, education, freedom and justice. Because of these reasons, 1990 can be taken as a milestone for introducing the rights of the women and ensuring justice, education and freedom for them.

Provision of women rights in the present constitution of Nepal

The present Constitution of Nepal (2015) is more women centred. In Article 38 of the constitution, there is the provision of women rights like right to equal lineage of rights without gender discrimination, safe motherhood and reproductive health, no discrimination on the grounds of religion, social and cultural practices, participate in all bodies of the state, obtain special opportunity in education, health and employment etc. Similarly, Article 525 of the same constitution has announced National Women Commission for the welfare of Nepalese women. The current constitution of Nepal has prioritised women’s rights to education, property and empowerment. After the declaration of the recent constitution, we can see the transformation of women in Nepal. They have started to take position in leadership roles and participate in decision making levels. Likewise, the involvement of government in increasing accountability and the ministering the gender equality helps in empowering women in Nepal.

Educational Projects for Women Development

Many changes have occurred in the role and the status of the women in Nepal in the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Government with the support of UNICEF and UNESCO launched a project “Equal Access of Girls and Women to Education” in 1971. Similarly, several projects like Education for Rural Development, SETI Project, and Basic Primary Education Project were organized by the government of Nepal to flourish educational accessibility of females. The fifth five-year plan of Nepal (1975-80), sixth five-year plan (1980-85), seventh five-year plan (1985-90) worked together and emphasized on educational participation of women. They formulated the policies related to female school enrolment in local schools, train women teachers; provide educational support to those girls who failed their primary level. In 1990, Nepal took a part in a conference of Education for All held in Thailand. The declaration of the conference related to ensuring education for women and girls, quality of their education and remove obstacles that hamper their participation. In this respect Ministry of Education (2004) mentioned that, the 1990’s constitution has recognised the girls right to education as the way to promote female participation in national level. These statements of the constitution help in flourishing gender equality and promote in providing education to the girls inclusively. Responding to the illiteracy problem, the Government of Nepal formulated a special education policy for women in 1992. The main purpose of that program was to increase female literacy and educational levels through different formal and informal education programs. These programs focused on granting scholarship to girls from primary to higher education level. It also aimed to encourage educated women to work as a teacher and develop female teacher as an agent for community change. In the year 1991/92, the ministry of education established separate women’s education section along with the initiation of the basic and primary education program. The Basic and Primary Education Master Plan (BPEP, 1991-2001) of Nepal adopted the declaration of Education for All and implemented policies to give more priority to increase girls’ and women’s involvement in education. The country program of UNICEF (1992-1996) made their policy to expand the outreach program to educationally disadvantaged population, especially girls and women in order to reduce gender disparity. Additionally, the eight-year plan (1992-97) made the policies including all the possible measures to increase girls’ participation in education. This program distributed school uniforms, made the provision of scholarships and managed to award to school-going girls so that female would be encouraged to go to the schools. During the same program, the government of Nepal, set up ‘Ministry for Women and Social Welfare’ to promote Nepalese girls’ and women’s participation in education. To sum up, Nepal government has conducted many educational projects in order to develop women’s educational development. These projects advocated on women’s rights, education and their empowerment in social, economic, political and educational sectors. Moreover, they also advocated female education and opened the door for many organisations so that they can conduct many awareness programmes for the upliftment of girls and women. However, still the status of Nepal I s not satisfactory although many programs are launched in relation to this. Today many national and international organisations are working for the growth and the development of women.

Current Socio-cultural, Economic and Educational Status of Women

Although a transformation in the role of the women can be seen and the constitution has ensured their roles and rights in many professional, political and development sectors, some aspects of the laws have not yet been implemented. Moreover, women find it difficult to achieve the equal roles and the rights they are supposed to have. Females are still facing several challenges although many women were elected during the local, federal and provincial elections. They are still not able to use their rights in relation with political and leadership participation. They further agreed that, our social norms and harmful practices are responsible factors to limit women’s voice and their activities. The prevailing social values and the norms, their educational status and their dependency level towards the male member of their family are the reasons for it. The cultural values and the norms that have been prevailing from the past are deeply rooted in the society, which is creating the social inequality among the girls and the boys. There are many girls in Nepal who have become victims of trafficking. In this regard, Woods (2017) claims that, more than 7,000 Nepalese women and girls were trafficked to India in 2014. The provision of women rights has changed the status of many women in Nepal however, there are number of women and girls in Nepal who are deprived of their rights and access to opportunities. In the following section, I discuss the socio-cultural, economic and educational status of women living in Nepal, whose lives and situations remain constant even after the declaration of number of women rights in the constitutions, projects administered for their education and opportunities made for them in different sectors including education, employment and politics.

Socio-cultural Status of Women in Nepal

The prevailing patriarchal society has deprived women of their own voice. They are born as a secondary citizen who is supposed to serve their husband and depend on the male members of the family. A lot of women have been abused from the dawn of history in the name of culture and social norms. Cain and Harrison (2001) as cited in Fiese and Tomcho (2001) stated that the practices of serving husband as god and being dependent towards them is the product of blind beliefs towards rituals and religions. In order to explore further, people follow the cultures and the tradition without analysing its effects and relevancy. In this context, Das (2007) explored the continuing impact of the Sati custom which forced women to burn themselves alive after the death of their husband although this practice was abolished by Rana prime-minister Chandra Shamsher Rana in 1920. Today the women are supposed to live without re-marrying after the death of their husbands. The social beliefs and the culture restrict women from wearing different bright and colourful clothes and limit their remarriage. Although, in some of the developed cities of the country, widows can wear the colourful clothes, their remarriage is not accepted in most of the families and societies and they cannot work and wear as their wish. In this reference, Catherine (1999) mentioned that, the condition of the man is contradictory to women. She further explains that men are free to marry whoever they like in whatever age after the death of the wife. This example shows the poor cultural and social life of the women in Nepal. Similarly, Acharya, Mathema, and Acharya (1999) in her study claimed that, child marriage, a restriction on widows’ marriage and arranged marriages is the product of the cultural norms and the values that restrict women to move forward and limit them towards their husbands or father. In some parts of Nepal, women are forced to marry at a young age which increases the high rates of mother and infant mortality rate even today. Although government has made a law to avoid this trend of early marriage, parents marry their daughter in early age believing that they will go to heaven after death if they conduct the marriage ceremony of their daughter on their own. Adhikari (2013) furthermore indicated that, early marriage is the product of cultural obligation and giving a birth to a son is related to women’s security as son is considered to continue the hierarchy of the family. Additionally, education for daughters is traditionally forbidden in Hindu society of Nepal. Gadtaula and Chung (2017) in her study noted that, daughters/ female is believed to have been born to serve her husband and work in accordance with his decision. Moreover, still the women are not supposed to eat before or with the male members of the family. Similarly, Sommer and Sahin (2013) mentioned that, social beliefs and the practices among the parents about the menstruation restricted girls to attend the school and increases the drop out of the students. To sum up, the situation of women and girls in Nepal is still dire and the provision of some rights in the constitution cannot bring transformations to their lives and promote women’s development in the context of Nepal.

Economic Status of Women in Nepal

The main economy of the country is male dependent. Male are taken as the main source of income in the family. Regarding the economic status of women, the economic development of women is not satisfactory in context of Nepal. They are marginalized from different economic opportunities because of illiteracy, poverty and many other cultural limitations. According to the report of the Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs' Associations of Nepal (FWEAN) (2012), women are still deprived of getting their familial property, access to education and lead role in the society. The women who take their decision are very few in Nepalese society. Most of the female population is dependent on the male member of the family. The limited access to information, availability and the utilisation of the resources and inadequate support for women are other factors hindering the economic development of women. Shrestha (2014) mentioned that, the role of the women has been limited to nurture and caring for family members. According to him, only 45.2% of women while 68.2% of men are identified as actively participating in economy generation of Nepal. Most of the women in developed cities are involved in job, trade and business. In this regard, Bradley and Bindlos (2009) found that the women from Newar, Sherpa, Gurung and Thakali ethnic community are involved in a small traditional business from long time ago. To sum up, women in Nepal are engaged like men in income generation activities but on the other side, most of the women in villages and different parts of Nepal are limited to only household works. There are few women in Nepal who can establish in the society. Thus, women are domesticated too much extent which does not give them access to the economic aspect of their life.

Educational Status of Women in Nepal

The census report (2011) stated that, 51.5% of total population of Nepal are women. However, only 48.8% of girls are literate and 52.4% of girls are not attending the schools and are gender disadvantaged. Geographical complexities, poor economic status of the family, superstitious beliefs are depriving girls to mainstream education. The report further indicates that out of schoolgirls are more in comparison with boys in context of Nepal. Census report (2011) reflects that 51.2% female children from primary school age are out of school and 56.1% of lower secondary age is not attending to school. In most of the parts of the country, although the girls are sent to the schools, they are bound with different household responsibilities that are hampering their education. According to the DOE Flash Report (2017/18) and MOFALD (2017), there are altogether 29,035 community schools and 6,566 institutional schools in Nepal. The share of the girls in institutional school is 42.5% and 52.1% in community school in primary level. Likewise, 52% of girls are enrolled in community school and 42% is in institutional schools in lower-secondary level. This report shows that still the girls are lagging far behind in education. According to Flash report (2015-016), community aided schools are fully supported by government for teachers salary and other expenses, community-managed schools are supported by the government for teachers, salary and other funds but the responsibilities of school management lies with the community whereas community unaided schools either get the partial support or no support from the government. On the other hand, parents and the trusts support the institutional schools. However, they are required to follow the government rules and regulations. Also, they are supposed to follow the government prescribed curriculum and textbooks and the students in these schools must appear in Secondary Education Examination (SEE) at the end of grade ten. Similarly, the study of Sekine and Hodgkin (2017) remarked that, because of household chores, early marriage practices and social rituals, girls are at high risk of dropping out of school without completing their primary education. Also, Bhattarai (2014) mentioned that, early marriage and its ill effects, psychological and sexual violence, less opportunities in the workshops to superstitions and societal traditions are hampering the educational development of the women. In this reference, NLSS report (2011) showed that, marriage is one of the major factors that leads to children aged 10–16 being out of school. Higher level of education is correlated with low rates of child marriage. According to the report of NLSS (2011), women aged between 20 and 49 are rates of marriage before the age of 18 drops from 62.7% among women with no education to 16.9% of those with higher education. Also, it is hampering the literacy rate of the country. In a same family, daughters are sent to the community schools whereas sons are sent to the institutional schools with high investment. To sum up, the economic, social, cultural and economic condition is still not satisfactory. Different projects like Education for Rural Development, SETI Project, Basic Primary Education Project, and Education for All and many more for the development of women status in Nepal. Moreover, the constitution 1990 and 2015 also ensure the rights of women, their freedom, education and their political involvement in Nepal. Moreover, many national and international like UN, UNESCO, UNICEF, Read to Ream, Chori Nepal, Maiti Nepal are working together for the educational, economic and social growth of the women. But still, they are not being able to achieve the complete outcomes. Although there is the accessibility of educational institutions in Nepal, many girls are deprived of getting education because of different factors.

Chapter Five: Recommendations, Findings and the Conclusion of the Study

This chapter discusses the basic recommendations, major findings of the study. Finally, it ends with a conclusion and the proposal for further research.

Recommended Strategies for the Inclusion of Gender Discriminated Girls

The following strategies that could help in the inclusion of gender biased girls into mainstream education are suggested;

School leaders’ participation in reducing disparity

In the context of Nepal, school leadership can play a significant role in creating equitable learning environment. Principals and teachers are often considered as the head of the schools and department. They deserve good respect in the society elsewhere. Teachers are perceived as god in Hindu culture of Nepal. They do not omit the advice of the principals and seek help from them if any problems arise in society. Because of their position and their interaction with the society, they can easily influence the opinion and the perception of the parents and can help in bringing more female children into schools. In this context, Northouse (2013) as cited in Herjres, Bragonza and Aldabi (2017) leadership is the process of influencing a group of people for to achieve a common goal through one individual of an organization. The role of school principal can play a dominant role in influencing a group of people in Nepal who are knowingly or unknowingly supporting gender disparity. Moreover, Munir and Aboidullah (2018) equally believe that the application in of change, innovation, transformation, direction and planning can create quality in their leadership practices in the school and can help them to develop their own leadership approaches and implement them to create an equitable learning atmosphere in school context. Shields (2012) strongly correlated the relation between school leadership and its role in addressing the issues of diversity and equity. He advocates that school leadership need to work towards equity agenda as central to the school’s purpose to avoid the significant gap in students’ achievement based on student marginality.

Community awareness to increase gender biased girls’ enrolment in schools

The need of awareness programs seems to be very vital in creating cognizance among the parents, teachers and students. Different awareness programs are being conducted by different organizations (Room to Read, UNO, UNICF, Chori Nepal, NyanoSparsha, Maiti Nepal and Rural Women Network) in Nepal to counter the inequalities that are prevailing based on gender. Somani (2007) indicated that educating girls have vital impact on overall development of society, so it is necessary to develop various strategies to increase awareness and reduce gender disparity in education. Likely, conducting girls education programs helps to foster girls’ educational success and broaden their growth and development through different activities like girls-only life skills classes, careful monitoring of girls at risk status, group monitoring for girls, different education session aimed at caregivers and need-based material support for the poorest girls. These organisations and the launched programs help in developing girls’ capabilities including girl’s retention in school, their progress and performance, like skills development and their voice. Moreover, conducting awareness program helps to motivate the marginalised girls to come In front and study and aware the parents about the abilities and the development of their daughters after acquiring education. UNICEF report (2015) noted that, launching awareness programs among the parents, community, school and the girls help to bring disadvantaged girls in mainstream education and help them to be aware about the essence of education. Apart from this, school principals need to make teachers aware of the importance of inclusive education. This awareness would help the teachers to be conscious about the issues related to gender inequalities in education. As a school consists of many teachers from diversified communities, they can share these issues in their own community. It would help to create social awareness about inclusive education and its need towards the people and help in increasing the number school going girls in Nepal. Research central for educational innovation and development (2006) recommended that, the teachers learn about inclusive education, so that they would be able to develop their capabilities and make the parents aware about sending their children to school. Similarly, recruiting female teachers would also help increase the enrolment of girls in school. The presence of women teachers in schools has several positive impacts on promotion of girls’ education such as enhanced intake, retention, regularity, and reduced dropouts, sexual abuses and exploitation against girls in schools (UNESCO, 2013). Similarly, Chege and Sifuna (2006) agreed that, the involvement of female teachers is recommended as a best strategy to increase girls’ achievement and attainment in the schools. Next to this, the report of CERID (2000) noted that, the presence of female teachers seems very crucial to retain the girls in school as female teachers can give motherly affection to their students.

Knowledge about leadership theories and strategies to create inclusive education

Knowing the approaches and the theories of leadership is very crucial for the principals. It is important to get up to date with the theories, approaches and the strategies, so that gender inclusion in education can be developed in the schools. In case of Nepal, most of the principals of Nepal are not aware and know to these theories because they are from a different background. They lack the professional knowledge and the approaches, which are necessary to be good educational leaders. Furthermore, they lack adequate training about the implementation of these theories and approaches in the school including all the students from diversified background. In this case, the provision of monthly/ yearly training facilities about the need, essence and the implementation of the theories of inclusive leadership like culturally responsive school leadership, inclusive leadership, social justice leadership, transformational leadership, productive leadership and many other relatable theories would help the leaders to understand the issues related to the inclusion and they would understand it. Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololubel (2015) also believed that, the effective application and implementation of leadership theories, styles and approaches would help to bring success in school management process. Moreover, DeMatthews (2015) stated that knowledge of leadership theories and approaches helps in developing teacher leaders, gives orientation of social justice, engage them to make decision democratically, minimise the conflicts that arise in schools and classroom settings. Correspondingly, Zembylas and Iasonos (2017) also argued that, school leaders should get the space and insights from the researches that is done in the similar setting, so that they would be able to integrate the multicultural approaches with different other leadership theories that advocate on inclusive education.

Findings of the Study

Although many policies have been developed and implemented for the purpose of girls’ education and their empowerment, the status of women and girls is not satisfactory till today. Although some of the women are well educated and are engaged in different economic generating sectors like business, trade, jobs and politics, still many women in different parts of the country are only limited to their house and household responsibilities. Their main role in their family is to take care of their family members and their children. Only, 45.2% of women are identified as actively involved in income generating activities. Women residing in developed cities are found economically, educationally and socially powerful in comparison with women residing in rural areas of Nepal. The diversified culture, tradition, language and the geography of Nepal is one of the reasons that are creating a gap among girls and the boys. To be very specific, the research found that socio-cultural belief of the parents about their offspring is creating gender discrimination in Nepal. Secondly, the economic and the educational status of the parents are hampering the education of girls in Nepal. Apart from this, even the educational status of the parents determines the educational achievement of the daughters in most of the areas of Nepal. Most importantly, the status of women from Dalits, Madheshi and the indigenous minorities are more disadvantaged and are getting less opportunities of education. Only 48.8% of the girls are literate and 52.4% of them are not attending the schools. The provision of gender equality and right to education in the constitution 1990 and 2015 has somehow helped in increasing the involvement of girls in school but still many girls are disadvantaged to education because of gender, access to school, geography and poverty. In this context, the role of school principal seems very vital to bring these children in mainstream education and create equity in school settings. Many researches are conducted in the area of girls’ education, causes and consequences of gender disparity in providing inclusive education in context of Nepal. But the research found that no researches has been conducted in relation with inclusive education and school leadership, role of school principal to bring gender disadvantaged girls in school in context of Nepal. Moreover, the literature does not discuss in particular regarding the need and essence of bringing gender disadvantaged girls in mainstream education in Nepalese context. From the analysis and the gap in literature, I think culturally responsive school leadership theory; inclusive leadership theory and social justice leadership theory are the best approaches to address the issues related to girl’s education. These all theories focus on creating equity in the school and the classroom settings through the help of school leadership. Moreover, they also motivate the school principals to adopt equity as the primary philosophy of the school so that they would be able to create equity in education. Relating the status of girls’ education and the role of school principal in Nepal, these theories seem to be applicable to be implemented in Nepalese school of Nepal.

Proposal for further Research and Methodology

From the above discussion, analysis and the findings of available literature, I intend to investigate further in the related issue and conduct further research on “School Leadership for Inclusive Education: Advocacy for Educating Homeless Girls of Nepal”. I aim to conduct qualitative research using open-ended questionnaire for the school principal of Nepal. For this, I will use observation and interview as my principal tools of data collections. Beside this, documents, research projects, books and other available literatures on the related issues will be my supporting sources of data collection. My participants will be school principals from private schools of Kathmandu districts. The sample of my semi-structure questionnaire I am aiming to ask my participants are as below:

Sample Questions

What is the proportion of girls and boys and girls are there in your school?

In your view, does gender inequality exit in your school?

Does your school follow the philosophy of equity in education?

Are there any school going aged girls who are forced work instead of going school near your locality?

If yes, have you tried to talk with them?

Does your school aim to bring those girls in mainstream? If no, why not?

What are the policies that can be implemented to bring these girls in school? Are you implementing any of these policies? If not, why not?

What are the difficulties you may face during implementing these policies to bring these girls in the school?

Are you aware about the leadership theories advocates on girl’s education and upliftment? If yes, in your view which one is the suitable one to bring those girls in mainstream? If not, what do you think would be the suitable approach?

What would be the role of the school principal to make teachers aware about this issue and make them ready to accept the change in their teaching technique after bringing those girls in the school?

What would be the role of the parents and the community to bring these children in school? In your view, how would you be able to convince and make parents aware about this issue and the need of including these girls in school?

Is there any role that can be played by government for creating inclusivity in education? What are the policies that can be implemented by the government for the educational attainment of these girls?

How would the other students help those girls in their educational achievement? What would be your role to make students aware about their role and participation in creating equity in the classroom and school environment?

Conclusion of the Study

This thesis has reviewed the literature on inclusive education and the status of girls’ education in context of Nepal. The status of women is not satisfactory in Nepal. Although many projects, policies and organizations are advocating on the essence of girls ‘education and their empowerment, still there are many girls who are gender disadvantaged in schooling because of many factors. Social and cultural norms and beliefs, language and religious variations, economy, geography and political instability are the major factors that are hindering their education. The cultural variations made by the parents about the sons and the daughter are the one of the reasons behind shortcomings in female education. Girls are still marginalized in educational, social, economic and political context. Besides, the disadvantage of gender disparity and the cultural variations are the factors causing poor educational attainments and increasing the high rates of dropouts of the girls. In another words, this trend of disparity between sons and daughters is impacting the equitable education. In this context, the role of school principals seems crucial to bring these girls in mainstream education by creating different inclusive strategies in school settings, so that they can bring gendered-disadvantaged girls in mainstream education.

Much research has been carried out on the issues of girls’ education and inclusive education on national and international aspects. The research is mainly based on inclusive education and girls’ education but there is a lack of the research based on role of school principal to bring gender disadvantaged girls into mainstream education, particularly in developing countries. School leadership can be a best tool to bring these girls in education and create inclusive school environment. Moreover, many leadership theories advocates on creating equity in school and classroom settings. Among them, culturally responsive school leadership, inclusive leadership theory and leadership for social justice are the effective and relevant theories that can be applied by the school principal to create inclusion in education and motivate the marginalised girls to go to the schools in context of Nepal. These all approaches advocate on creating inclusion in education and focuses on philosophy of equity. In this case, applying these theories, their strategies and their philosophy would help the school principal to bring gendered disadvantaged girls to mainstream and help in promoting social justice in education in Nepal. Because of these reasons, I choose these theories for my research.

In a nutshell, school principal needs to be well trained, knowledgeable and responsible for increasing parity in education and encourage those marginalized girls in attending schools. Moreover, they need to create an effective and equitable school and learning environment for them, so that they would enjoy learning. Also, they are supposed to work as a guide and instruct the teachers to create equitable education and environment in the school.

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