ABSTRACT
As the new millennium dawned a chorus of voices asserted that linking policy and practice on gender, education and poverty might be, if not easy, largely a matter of political will and efficient planning. The analysis of practice indicates the frailty of this simple assertion. This chapter examines some of the complex relationships entailed in the translation of global policy frameworks concerned with gender equality to national and local contexts, and whether, and on what terms, any authority is given to local actors. It focuses on practices in what Chege and Arnot have called a gender, education and poverty nexus. Their framing joins sites of economic and gender inequalities with attempts to address these through education. The chapter discusses institutional, professional and ideational settings of a middle space as situated in locales between the global gatherings that decide on policy, like the MDGs and EFA, and the places where policy is implemented in schools.
