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Based on in-depth interviews with Nigerien women, this article demonstrates that while they value formal schooling for their girls, they are discouraged by the incompatibility between boko (formal schooling) and the important values transmitted by tarbiyya (education in the home) and mahamadiya (Islamic education). I argue that these tensions arise from a system of education that is not rooted in context. In the colonial era, education was a means of assimilation to the colonizer's values. More recently, neocolonial education projects serve the development theory of the moment and they tend to emphasize increased enrollment for girls without focusing on quality and content of that education. While the system imparts important skills such as literacy and numeracy, the more intrinsic goals of education such as empowerment and identity formation are not emphasized because, I argue, formal education does not reflect the social, cultural, religious and material context of most Nigeriens' everyday lives. The ideas about educational reform, in Niger and in other Muslim countries, show that boko is not inherently incompatible with tarbiyya and mahamadiya, and that intrinsic goals of education can be met only by reconciling them.S'appuyant sur des entretiens approfondis avec des femmes nige´riennes, cet article montre que ces dernie`res attachent bien de l'importance a`l'e´ducation formelle de leur filles, mais qu'elles sont de´courage´es par l'incompatibilite´entre boko (l'instruction formelle), et les valeurs importantes transmises par tarbiyya (l'e´ducation familiale) et mahamadiya (l'e´ducation islamique). Je soutiens que ces tensions sont dues au fait que le syste`me d'e´ducation est trop peu contextualise´. Pendant la pe´riode coloniale l'e´ducation e´tait un outil d'assimilation des valeurs colonisatrices. De nos jours, les projets e´ducationnels ne´o-coloniaux sont mis au service de la the´orie du de´veloppement du moment et tendent a`mettre l'accent sur la scolarisation des filles sans se pre´occuper de la qualite´et du contenu de l'enseignement dispense´. Si le syste`me permet de transmettre des compe´tences importantes telles que la lecture, l'e´criture et le calcul, il met peu l'accent sur les buts intrinse`ques de l'e´ducation tels que l'autonomisation et la construction identitaire. Ceci est duˆau fait que l'e´ducation formelle ne refle`te pas le contexte social, culturel, religieux et mate´riel de la vie quotidienne de la plupart des Nige´riens. Les re´flexions courantes a`propos de la re´forme e´ducationnelle, tant au Niger que dans d'autres pays musulmans, sugge`rent que boko n'est pas en soi incompatible avec tarbiyya et mahamadiya et que les buts intrinse`ques de l'e´ducation ne peuvent eˆtre atteints qu'en conciliant ces trois formes.

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Neoliberalism is one of the most pervasive and contested concepts of our contemporary era. Thus, it is essential for students to gain an understanding of its history, meaning, assumptions, and policy prescriptions. In addition to recognizing the importance of neoliberalism in the current political discourse, I argue that the polarized responses to the concept provide opportunities for teaching about critical topics in political science. This article provides suggestions for teaching about six such topics through the lens of neoliberal policies such as free trade, structural adjustment, and privatization.