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Teaching Meets Gender by Manushi Desai

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Teaching Meets Gender by Manushi Desai Teaching Meets Gender An Exploration and Comparison of India and Sweden’s Efforts into Teaching their Teachers about Gender Equality. Manushi Desai Supervisor's name: Edyta Just, Gender Studies, LiU Master’s Programme Gender Studies – Intersectionality and Change Master’s thesis 15 ECTS credits ISRN: LIU-TEMA G/GSIC3-A—20/001-SE Abstract When it comes to gender equality and education, teachers become the influential element of change as their proximity and classroom interactions with students can facilitate more gender sensitive teaching. This thesis aims to investigate the efforts made by India and Sweden to teach their teachers about gender and intersectional practices and sensitivity training and then analyse what one system can borrow from the other, while investigating the role of geo-politics in all of these. The thesis looks at efforts in forms of guidelines, strategies, and manuals that come from each country. The material is read closely, analysed, and then compared to determine what can be borrowed for both. The thesis presents its analysis from the theoretical lens of gender and intersectionality, transnational feminism, and decolonial feminism. The implications of this thesis are tangible as well as intangible, however - the biggest one is building a bridge between two countries to share knowledge and strategies in order to bring about a change in education systems which will ultimately create a ripple effect of gender awareness. Keywords: gender awareness, intersectionality, teacher education, gender education, Sweden, India, Egalia, NCERT, gender equality. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis guide, Prof. Edyta Just, for the continuous effort that she put in helping me be more critical and be more aware of the gaps I left while writing. That habit will help me beyond thesis work. She has been a comforting and motivating presence throughout the writing of this thesis. Whenever I would feel demotivated or close to giving up, I would remember her encouraging words and her faith in me. Thank you for that. I pursued gender equality as a personal and professional goal all because of my faculty at St. Xavier’s College - Cathy, Susan, and Sarvar ma’am, thank you for awakening the feminist in me. A special mention to my classmates, especially, the ‘Angry Snowflakes’ - it has been a delight to do co-tutor meetings with you all since two years and you all remind me to be proud of the angry snowflake in me. I would like to thank all my friends - my everyday support system that is digital at the moment. Heer, for setting up study dates on Zoom and Purva for keeping up with our weekly calls. Kanchi and Yatri, for checking in from time to time and not letting me distract myself. I would also like to thank my other friends for regular social interactions that kept me sane during these lonely lockdown days. I would like to thank my partner, Kurven, for being supportive and strict about distractions, daily routines, and pushing me to research regularly; reminding me of my goals whenever I was lazy or unmotivated. I am deeply grateful to my parents for providing the physical and mental support that they give in the form of food, comfort, affection, or staying up to keep me company. Also, Priyank bhai and Kinjal didi for the innumerable times they ask about my thesis and guide me when I lose perspective. Special mention to my father who proofread this thesis and left appreciative comments throughout. This one is for all of you and also, because of you. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 5 Aim and Research Questions 7 Thesis Outline 8 Context and positioning myself 8 Previous research 9 Theoretical Framework 11 Context of India and Sweden and their education systems 14 Materials and Methodology 17 Observations and Analysis 19 - India’s efforts 19 - Sweden’s efforts 31 Common Analysis and Comparison of both countires 40 Conclusion 47 Reference List 50 4 Introduction As I sit here recalling my school days and what it felt like to be a little girl in a classroom, I recall running around the whole school in stiff white shorts and a t-shirt that I wore for my morning karate class. Why was I running? Turned out, I was late for my karate class and our instructor would punish all the late people by making us stand facing the wall with our hands holding our ears in a gesture of apology. We were to stand like this throughout the class. The current me would guess it was to teach us discipline and patience. The 8-year-old me found it futile (I was here to learn karate, so what if I was 8 minutes late!?) and so if I was late, I wouldn’t go to karate class. Where would I go instead? There were teachers everywhere - any student found outside of the class would be punished. Again, punishments were futile. So I found somewhere to go where all the girls went and I would be undetected. Dance class. Me in my stiff white t-shirt and shorts standing in the back of the class behind about 30 girls in their salwaar-kameez, learning the mudras for Bharatanatyam style of dance. There in the last line, I realised how much I hated Bharatnatyam and also, that I was hardly undetected. The teacher would find me eventually, bare legs peeking from between rows of other girls. Ideally, I would assume this teacher would kick me out - right? I was in the wrong class and definitely wearing the wrong attire. However, every time she found me, she would try to convince me - why don’t you join this class, this class is for girls, what you are doing outside is for boys. Have you ever seen a girl with you in that class? This is just one of the many instances where me wearing shorts was a problem, me not “fasting for getting a good husband” along with the other girls was looked down upon, me having male friends was looked at with judgement. As an 8-year-old who was lucky to be stubborn and have her parents on her side, it was easy to not hold on to that. As an adult, when I look back, I wonder how different things would be if I had the teachers on my side too. 5 Fast forward to 15 years later where I stand in a class in front of about 40 students as a Teaching Associate for writing skills to architecture and design students. Once while discussing the gendered change in the workforce during World War II, the fact that women took over the workforce in major parts of the world, I asked my class what that meant for society as a whole. An eager male student turned to me and said, “because the women went to work, the families were broken.” I stood there frozen - it was a moment which I could turn into a teachable one. What do I say? How do I say it? Is anger the right way, or lecturing him would help more? While how I dealt with it is another story, these panicky questions are my constant companions in every class. This last semester, most of the girls in my class were silent, non- responsive and I kept wondering how to get them to participate, talk more, talk confidently. While talking to a friend about this, I realised most teachers would never even notice it. Even if they did, they would be as lost as I was. How do you instill that confidence in a semester? How do you make them participate? Even after years of studying gender and women’s history and writing - my first responses to these situations often lack strategy. So I wondered some more - what are the school teachers taught? This research finds its motivation in the very core of myself. As much as we might not carry with us what exactly our school teachers taught - their behaviour, their words, their actions speak to us at a level that stays with us and shapes our personality. So, I beg to question, what are they teaching us? And more importantly, what is being taught to them? 6 Aim and research questions The aim of this thesis is to explore the current efforts of India and Sweden in school teachers’ education regarding gender and intersectional awareness and their geo- political relevance, if any. The teachers I refer to throughout the thesis are all kinds of school teachers - spanning across all kinds of subjects and childrens’ age groups, from preschools to high schools. The research will also focus on what India and Sweden’s teacher education initiatives regarding gender can borrow from each other to make their existing efforts well-rounded, inclusive, and effective. The research questions are: 1. What are the current efforts being made by India and Sweden in educating their school teachers about gender and intersectional awareness? 2. What can both countries learn and borrow from each other’s efforts? 3. Do such efforts towards gender equality have to be rooted in geo-politics or can they be common for all? What are the pros and cons of that? A large part of the analysis will be focused on gender. In terms of intersectional awareness, I will be keeping it open in terms of looking at any kind of intersectional efforts that the initiatives are bringing in for the school teachers, not any specific kind of intersection. The larger aim of this thesis is to build a bridge between two countries that may not have many links but can definitely learn from each other.
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