THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
教 育 學 院
Wah Ching
Centre of Research on Education in China
cordially invites you to join the seminar on
“Chances and Choices: Adolescent Girls’ Education
in China’s Dongxiong, Salar and Boa’an Community”
GUEST SPEAKER:
Dr. Mary Ann Maslak
Associate Professor of Education, St. John’s University
DATE & TIME:
September 14, 2006 (Thursday), 12:50 pm - 1:50 pm
VENUE:
Room LG02, Lower Ground Floor 1, Hui Oi Chow Science Building, HKU
ABSTRACT:
In the last three decades, a plethora of scholarship has revealed the unquestionable under-
enrollment and under-achievement of primary school-age girls in many parts of the world.
Although there is the obviously right and necessary emphasis on the need for equity
between the sexes, the laudable aim has not been adequately realized by policy initiatives
and programmatic schemes for adolescent girls. The case of China offers a particularly
interesting opportunity to expand our knowledge of Muslim adolescent girls’ educational
participation. Based on the assumption that understanding educational attainment requires
an investigation of the local community, this research explores the conditions and
circumstances of Dongxiong, Salar and Boa’an Muslim adolescent girls’ lives and their
interest in completing a secondary school education.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Mary Ann Maslak is an associate professor of education at St. John’s University in New York,
USA. Her research focuses on girls’ and women’s education in South and East Asia. Dr. Maslak has
served as the chair of the Gender and Education committee for the Comparative and International
Education Society (2001-2004), and is currently on the organization’s Board of Directors. Amongst
other distinctions, she was awarded the Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship (2005-2006) in the
People’s Republic of China for her project entitled “Toward Meeting National and International Goals:
The Study of Gender Inequity in Chinese Ethnic Minor