Gendered Experiences of Schooling of Adolescents from Poor Migrant Bihari Families in Kolkata

Abstract

This dissertation is a feminist ethnographic study of gendered experiences of schooling of newline adolescents from poor, rural, migrant, Bihari families in Kolkata. It attempts to capture the newline ways in which structures (family, school) intersect with processes (identity, individual newline agency, gender socialisation) to shape the schooling experiences of migrant boys and girls in newline the larger context of ethnosexual discrimination that the community of migrant Biharis face newline in Kolkata. newline Schooling in this research, is conceptualised as an interface of family, school and public newline space distinct from school per se. Attention to this interface is considered relevant to be able newline to capture the complex gendered socialisation processes of the home, the school and the newline public space that adolescent Bihari girls and boys struggling to be educated have to negotiate newline every day. newline The theoretical framework of this study is drawn from two main oppositional epistemologies newline in contemporary educational thought, namely a) education as an instrument for reproduction newline of inequalities and b) education as a liberating force (Majumdar and Mooij, 2001). Drawing newline from both these epistemic locations makes it possible to understand and capture the ways in newline which school authorities replicate entrenched inequalities on the one hand, while enabling newline students on the other, to contest unequal structures of gender and ethnicity to pursue their newline educational aspirations. Literature in this field shows (a) how stereotyped constructions of newline gender inform the perspectives of families and communities regarding the schooling of newline young people and (b) how a range of gendered injunctions are imposed by the school. A newline critical gap however is that while caste and religion as social stratifiers have been widelyx newline researched in studies on gendered schooling , ethnicity and migration have not been similarly newline studied. newline This research draws on feminist ethnography for its methodological framework using newline qualitative data gathering techniques such as observations, semi structured interviews and newline focus group discussions. newline The primary participants of this research are students, both boys and girls in the age group of newline 17-18 years in classes XI and XII at a government sponsored school in southern Kolkata, newline where Hindi and Bengali are the mediums of instruction. Apart from observations and newline informal conversations, interviews of 18 girls and 14 boys, 8 teachers, and 3 administrative newline and other staff, 8 focus group discussions with girls and 4 with boys were conducted. newline Analysis of the data yielded the following themes: newline and#61607; Home and its implications for the schooling experience newline and#61607; Constructions of ethnic masculinity and femininity in the environment of the school: newline The Bihari/Bhadralok divide newline and#61607; School as a site for counter socialisation newline and#61607; Public spaces as empowering /disempowering sites in the context of schooling. newline This research makes it possible to engage with the expansive terrain of gendered schooling newline against the grain of the almost linear rhetoric of dismal experiences of young people in newline government schools in India. It emphasises the need for government schools that address the newline educational requirements of young people from pejorative ethnosexual contexts, to be newline particularly conscious of the life circumstances that such adolescents have to negotiate every newline day, to be able to reach school. While the school in this research also exercises counterxi newline socialisation to attend to the particularities of students cultural and economic contexts, such newline attempts are not embedded in the structure and organisation of the government school newline system. Rather, such efforts remain the individual endeavours of a few teachers and are newline hence of a non permanent nature. In the contemporary social and economic milieu in the newline country, as groups draw on primordial definitions of ethnicity to assert legitimate contours newline against ethnic others , schools have a significant role in empowering students from newline pejorative migrant lineage to ensure their continued access to education. newline Key words: Gendered Schooling, Ethnosexual constructions, Counter socialisation, newline Adolescent, Bhadralok, Bihari newline