‘Doing identity’ in the Botswana classroom: negotiating gendered institutional identities

Humphreys, Sara

doi:10.1080/01596306.2013.728369

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Consequently, girls may be viewed as especially passive in the classroom, thereby reinforcing the gender stereotype identified in Botswana that 'good girls' do not talk back (Humphreys 2013). This possibility sits well with traditional and gendered approaches to silence as discussed in Section 4.…”

Section: Concealing Bodiesmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…This is particularly relevant in the school context, which relies upon the hierarchical difference between pupils and the teacher, reproducing dynamics associated with seniority. This difference also plays out through gender differences (Salvi 2016), a practice that has also been identified by Humphreys (2013) in the context of Botswana. Here, being invisible and silent is a feminine quality, one that can be inscribed within broader social and cultural norms.…”

Section: Silence and Invisibility: A Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Yet, their silence indicates that they are still subject and subordinated to the power regimes of the institution (Kabeer 2010). I believe, with Humphreys (2013), that identities are not 'free-floating', but constrained by social structures.…”

Section: Silencing Voicementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Silence, invisibility and agency: concealing pregnancies at school in Mozambique

Salvi

2019

Gender, Place & Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Silence and invisibility have received relatively little scholarly attention. When they have, they have been mostly considered in deficit: something to avoid and walk away from. In this article, I depart from that mainstream position to contribute to the growing literature around how silence and invisibility may be positively associated with power.I do this by considering the case of Mozambique, in relation to the management of pregnancies in the school setting. Here, national policy 39/GM/2003 indicates that girls that get pregnant while in education should be transferred to night classes. This measure responds to wider imperatives to bridge the gender gap in education by attempting to limit the occurrence of pregnancies in mainstream education. Yet, the policy is met with resistances, as young women in education enact a number of strategies to conceal their pregnancies and, thereby, the transfer to night course.Against this backdrop, I ask: what do silence and invisibility tell us about agency and identity? I engage with this question by weaving the voices and experiences of research participants within theories of development, feminist theories and local discourses of gender. By doing this, I argue that silence and invisibility may be powerful tools for agency, which denote an understanding of the main discourses of gender on the girls' part, but also the capability to use such discourses to one's advantage.

show abstract

Section: Concealing Bodiesmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Silence and Invisibility: A Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 94%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Silence, invisibility and agency: concealing pregnancies at school in Mozambique

Salvi

2019

Gender, Place & Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The notion of honour and responsibility also meant though, that these teachers were highly vulnerable to criticism voiced by the community. Finally, teacher relationships within the school and community can be influenced by gender and power hierarchies (Connell 2012;Unterhalter and North 2017), especially in the case of enacting controversial policies related to gender and sexuality, such as CSE (Humphreys 2013;Vanner 2017).…”

Section: Teacher Enactment and Policy Re-contextualisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moulding the teacher: factors shaping teacher enactment of comprehensive sexuality education policy in Ethiopia

Mat

Miedema

Amentie

et al. 2019

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is promoted around the world to improve young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to address gender-based violence. Teachers play crucial roles in enacting CSE, yet only few studies have placed them centrally to understand CSE re-contextualisation in schools. Hence, drawing on interviews, focus group discussions, and classroom observations with 56 participants, this paper presents how CSE teachers enact CSE policy and which factors affect their enactments at schools in Ethiopia. The paper highlights that while CSE teachers were typically conceptualised as 'facilitators' of the CSE initiative presented here, in practice teachers seemed to perform what might be understood as 'activist' roles within and beyond the classroom and school. Despite this activism, teachers' possibilities to address gender-based violence still seemed limited, in part due to lack of guidance from policy and programme designers, lack of support from community and school management, and socioeconomic factors.

show abstract

“…Much research highlighting the ways in which schools function as critical sites for social reproduction, including along gendered lines (Arnot 2006;Valentin 2011;Humphreys 2013;Miedema and Millei 2015). Scholars have detailed the pivotal role served by schools in colonial enterprises, and the colonial vestiges of current education systems and curricula in countries such as Mozambique (Crossley and Tikly 2004;Vavrus 2006;Unterhalter 2009;Meneses 2012).…”

Section: Conceptual Premisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Culturespeak’ is everywhere: an analysis of culturalist narratives in approaches to sexuality education in Mozambique

Miedema

2018

Comparative Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Building on postcolonial feminist scholars and critical anthropological work, this paper analyses the frequent deployment of the notion of 'culture' by decision-makers, educators, international agency staff and young people in the design, delivery and uptake of sexuality and HIV prevention education in Mozambique. The paper presents qualitative data gathered in Maputo, Mozambique to highlight the essentialising nature of culturalist assumptions underpinning inschool sexuality education. I argue that conceptions of 'traditional' and 'modern' culture are deployed to explain the epidemic, both of which spectacularise and decontextualise phenomena and practices, and perpetuate the western trope of the Third World Woman. The paper concludes by arguing that a singular emphasis on 'culture'in its various guisesdiverts attention from structural causes of young Mozambican women and men's vulnerability to HIV and AIDS, and crucially, rather than problematise gender relationships, reifies and solidifies these. Thus, while sexuality and HIV prevention education cannot be understood or delivered independently of the cultural context in which it is situated, a more nuanced conception of culture is requiredthat is, one that is attentive to questions of power and specifically, who is in a position to make meanings 'stick'.

show abstract

‘Doing identity’ in the Botswana classroom: negotiating gendered institutional identities

Cited by 9 publications

References 24 publications

Silence, invisibility and agency: concealing pregnancies at school in Mozambique

Silence, invisibility and agency: concealing pregnancies at school in Mozambique

Moulding the teacher: factors shaping teacher enactment of comprehensive sexuality education policy in Ethiopia

‘Culturespeak’ is everywhere: an analysis of culturalist narratives in approaches to sexuality education in Mozambique

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About