Becoming ‘Good’ Women: Schooling, Aspirations and Imagining the Future Among Sinhalese Youth Submitted for Doctor of Philosophy Laura Batatota Brunel University February 2020 Abstract This thesis explores the ways in which female Sinhalese youth form ideas of who they want to become. I examine processes of becoming as interlinked to young people’s aspirations and visions of the future, which are formed within two educational sites: the school and private tuition. Drawing from the narratives of female students who attend a national school in Kandy, located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, this thesis analyses everyday experiences of schooling and the production of identities, aspirations and futures. My focus of study is a cohort of 18-year-old students in Grade 13, in their final year of schooling. The students share many social characteristics; they are largely Sinhalese Buddhist, come from middle class backgrounds and live in the outskirts of Kandy. They also share similar aspirations, dreams and visions of the future. Situating my research within two educational sites, I conceptualise the process of ‘becoming’ amongst this group of youths within complex social and local landscapes. Anthropology as a discipline has offered much insight into formal schooling and youth experiences of such across the Global South. Social reproduction (Rival, 2002), cultural transmission and production of citizens (Levinson et al., 1996; Froerer, 2007) have been important contributions towards understanding the function of schooling. Despite this, tuition - and young people’s engagement with formalised tuition spaces - remains an unobserved field which offers valuable insight into how youth engage in formal education. Framing my thesis on theories of social reproduction (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990), I present the school and private tuition as important sites of influence on how young people come to form ideas about their identity, aspirations and future. My findings reveal that the school serves as a significant base for cultural production, particularly in reproducing ethno-religious hegemony under the guise of ‘good’ Buddhist children. In contrast, the tuition space allows young people to play out their own cosmopolitan aspirations, by granting them freedoms away from the school and home. Through my thesis, I demonstrate the important interplay between the school and tuition in how youths engage in the intricacy of ‘figuring out’ who they want to become. Contents Contents ................................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 3 Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Principal Argument ............................................................................................... 8 1.2 The Need for This Line of Enquiry ....................................................................... 9 1.3 Thesis Structure ................................................................................................... 12 Chapter Two: Theorising Aspirations, Youth Transition and Processes of Becoming .. 16 2.1 Theorising Youth in an Age of Globalisation ..................................................... 17 2.2 Youth Transition and the Future ......................................................................... 19 2.3 Theorising Youth Aspirations ............................................................................. 25 2.4 Exploring Youth ‘Becomings’ ............................................................................ 30 2.5 Schooling and Social Reproduction .................................................................... 33 2.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 41 Chapter Three: The Sri Lankan Context and Research Methodology ............................ 42 3.1 The Sri Lankan Context ...................................................................................... 43 3.2 Research Interest and Positionality ..................................................................... 49 3.3 Finding a Field Site: Challenges and Opportunities ............................................ 52 3.4 The Main Field Site: Mayadevi Balika Vidyalaya .............................................. 55 3.5 Methodological Approaches ............................................................................... 56 3.6 Outside of the Schooling Space .......................................................................... 59 3.7 Methodological Barriers and Research Limitations ............................................ 60 3.8 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 61 Chapter Four: Schooling, Nation-Building and the Construction of a National Identity ................................................................................................................................................. 62 4.1 Introducing Mayadevi Balika Vidyalaya ............................................................ 64 4.2 Schooling Structure ............................................................................................. 67 4.3 Extra-Curricular Activities .................................................................................. 69 4.4 School Functions ................................................................................................. 73 4.5 Education and Producing Citizens ...................................................................... 78 4.6 School Curriculum and Nation-Building ............................................................ 83 4.7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 90 Chapter Five: Becoming and Ways of Aspiring Among Female Sinhalese Youth.......... 93 5.1 Situating Aspirations as a Process of Becoming ................................................. 94 5.2 Schooling and Ways of Becoming ...................................................................... 98 5.3 Becoming Honde Lamai ................................................................................... 103 1 5.4 Ways of Aspiring Among Young People in 13B .............................................. 111 5.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 119 Chapter Six: School Is Where You Should Be Learning; Tuition Is Something Extra 121 6.1 Introducing the Tuition Space ........................................................................... 123 6.2 Insights Into Tuition in Kandy .......................................................................... 127 6.3 Tuition as Tradition: The Need for Supplementary Education ......................... 135 6.4 Decision Making and Parental Investment in Private Tuition .......................... 140 6.5 The ‘Symbolic’ Value of Tuition ...................................................................... 144 6.6 Navigating Tensions Between Tuition and Schooling ...................................... 148 6.7 Schooled Behaviour and Tuition as a Site of Freedom ..................................... 156 6.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 160 Chapter Seven: Interrogating Ideas of Freedom and Becoming Within the Tuition Space ..................................................................................................................................... 163 7.1 Tuition as a Youth-Centred Space .................................................................... 164 7.2 Exploring Youth-Centred Spaces ...................................................................... 167 7.3 Tuition: A Safe Space ....................................................................................... 171 7.4 Interrogating Ideas of Freedom Within the Tuition Site ................................... 173 7.5 Tuition as a Site of Symbolic Freedom ............................................................. 179 7.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 188 Chapter Eight: Future Imaginings, Social Possibilities and Becoming Someone ......... 190 8.1 Future Orientations and Attempting to Achieve Upward Social Mobility........ 192 8.2 Post-Schooling Routes: Expectations and Realities .......................................... 198 8.3 Social Stratification and Positionality ............................................................... 209 8.4 Prospects of Becoming Someone: A Landscape of Social Possibilities ........... 214 8.5 Tensions in Aspiring and Becoming ................................................................. 219 8.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 224 Chapter Nine: Conclusion .................................................................................................. 226 Appendix 1 ........................................................................................................................... 231 Appendix 2 ..........................................................................................................................