Rationalizing seclusion
A preliminary analysis of a residential schooling scheme for poor girls in India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4367156 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Balagopalan (0000-0002-6102-7085, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, corresponding author), Sarada Balagopalan |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 295-308 |
| Publication date | 2010-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1464700110376280 |
| OpenAlex | W2001025551 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 6 |
The increased focus on issues of gender and schooling in India over the last decade has produced several gains that include more incentive schemes to make girls attend school, greater employment of women teachers and improved efforts to incorporate female protagonists in textbooks. However, a closer reading of this 'gender' focus reveals an inordinate concern with numbers, i.e. enrolment. The instrumentalism that underlies these efforts is revealed through a double-move effected by existing discourses. The first is to locate the reasons why girls are out of school strictly within a reading of cultural and familial practices and (secondly) to therefore fail to recognize normative practices of schooling and State policies as already deeply 'gendered'. This double-move is epitomized in the Indian State's more recent efforts to set up residential elementary schools for girls (Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalayas) in each district of the country; an effort that has been publicly lauded as the most effective way to overcome cultural barriers to girls' schooling. Through a focus on policy documents that discuss this scheme, the article will interrogate the existing conflation of 'gender' with a biological/culturalist reading of the 'girl child'. In what ways does this narrow focus naturalize a binary frame of reference around the traditional family/community and the empowered girl child? Why have State efforts around educating the 'girl child' not been subject to greater critical analysis amongst feminist scholars in India
Developmental psychology · Girl · Instrumentalism · Normative · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology
Old concerns, renewed focus and novel problems
Equitable, Quality Education for Ethnic Minority Students? A Case of “Positive Deviance” in Vietnam
Childhoods in India
Residential Education for Disadvantaged Girls
Education and the global rural
Understanding school attendance
Partnerships and appropriation
Beyond Enrolment and Appropriation Politics in Dalit Girls’ Education
Afterschool and during vacations’
Introduction
The (im)possibilities of dialogue across feminism and childhood scholarship and activism
Theorising gendered childhoods and girls' schooling
In/secure childhoods
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,08 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |