Abstract
This article seeks to understand the processes of gender socialisation in schools. The article endeavours to analyse the construction of normative femininity in the strict contours of schooling and to capture the response of students to it. The context of this article is the critique of the celebrated Kerala development model, suggesting that a better status for women continues to be a challenging process. The research was carried out on adolescents in two all-girls schools in Kerala, a convent private school and a government school. Qualitative research methods were used for the study. The research foregrounds how schooling continues to perpetuate the social control of girls that undercuts the efforts and aims of the curriculum. The article presents key aspects of the socialisation of female sexuality that spawns a stereotypical and rigid femininity.
Introduction
The importance of education for the liberation of marginalised groups is widely acknowledged by social reformers such as Ayyankali, Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, Dr B. R. Ambedkar and many more. At the same time, education can be used to reinforce and reproduce existing social norms, dominant codes of behaviour, economic hierarchies and power structures (Bourdieu, 1998). Since education has this dual potential, there is a need to analyse the educational system, with the aim of achieving the empowerment of all.
Women’s empowerment seeks to transform patriarchal structures that subordinate women. It is done through consciousness-raising or conscientisation that helps women to understand ways in which patriarchal domination operates in our society. Patel (1998) in her article states that the meaning of empowerment has been broadened from enabling people to receive basic services such as health care, education, etc., given to them by the state, to fighting for equality and social justice. Women’s empowerment is essentially about changing the power dynamics within the family and society that subordinate women. ‘It is an enabling process that seeks to redistribute power between genders and involves resistance, conflict and accommodation’ (Patel, 1998, p. 167). For that, human capabilities should be developed through material and institutional arrangements (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005). A critical understanding of how women’s empowerment and equality are promoted through educational institutions would be beneficial to further broaden and propagate it.
Dr B. R. Ambedkar saw the link between the movement for equality and education. Education could enable the oppressed to challenge dominant ideologies and structures. He thought of education as an instrument with which the Hindu caste patriarchy could be removed. However, he felt that if education does not go hand in hand with morality and the ideals of democracy, then it could turn into another oppressive structure (Velaskar, 2012).
Therefore, education can be a site of reinforcement and contestation of established gender codes. New struggles and resistance of women emerge while negotiating with traditional and modern gender roles and the school system is a perfect site for playing out this tension (Ray, 1997). The research seeks to understand the processes that go into making schools a key site of gender socialisation and a resource for the reproduction of social control of girls.
Conceptual Framework
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (2005) is a document that is brought out by the National Council of Educational Research and Training under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. It lays out the framework for the development of syllabi, textbooks and pedagogy within the school education programmes in India. According to National Council of Educational Research and Training (2005), a curriculum is a set of planned activities to achieve a particular educational aim. It includes the content to be taught, skill set and attitudes to be fostered, choices in methods, materials and evaluation. The aim of the NCF is to find the best way to facilitate an education process that is ‘…stimulating and leads to development of rational, responsible and caring human beings working towards a society which values equality, justice, democracy and plurality’ (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005, p. 3).
However, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (2005) position article on gender issues points out that education can redress the inequalities of gender. Additionally, education for women has traditionally meant a lower fertility rate, supplementary income, better mothers and spiritual values. Moreover, disciplinary knowledge is gender biased as opposed to the common understanding that it is objective, value-neutral and scientific. To change this notion, a mechanical inclusion of women’s names is not sufficient, rather, gender equality should be a framework within which all disciplinary knowledge is taught. Further, there is a suggestion to ensure curricula include themes that are related to body, sexuality, family, marriage (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005).
While the curricula set out to achieve these goals, the school practices remain embedded in the power disparity of genders. ‘Schooling reinforces the gendered inequality of socialisation across all divides’ (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005, p. 2). Even though it is important to understand ideologies that underlie textbooks, it is equally important to examine everyday school practices and experiences, which is the hidden curriculum (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005). According to National Council of Educational Research and Training (2005), hidden curriculum contributes to the child’s understanding of the world and of gender.
Research on gender in schools has found out the effects of the hidden curriculum, and its relationship to reproducing the social status quo. The hidden curriculum of schooling encompasses institutional regularities, rituals and routines, as well as the teaching process (Apple, 1979). The function of this hidden curriculum is the inculcation of values, political socialisation, obedience and docility that is generally characterised as social control and these practices of social control of schools go unacknowledged in the rationales for public education (Vallance, 1973).
Connell argues that gender is visibly played out in the education system. Boys and girls are deeply enmeshed in gender processes in schools (Connell, 2010). Bhattacharjee showed how within the cultural context of a particular school, everyday practices define the child’s gendering and how children accommodate their membership in these gender categories (Bhattacharjee, 1999). Thorne (1993), in her ethnography, points out that for a long time the concept of socialisation was considered unidirectional. The more powerful socialises the less powerful, for instance, teachers socialise with students. Power indeed is central to all these relationships. But children or students are not without agency. Children act to resist and rework the adult influence and in turn influence the adult as well (Thorne, 1993).
Gender socialisation cannot be thought of as passive imprinting of accepted gender norms on the subjects, but rather, occurs through the active engagement of children with the gender code of the school (Bhattacharjee, 1999). Furthermore, Sancho (2018) in his thesis on education and social class argues that even schools are not monolithic socialising institutions, but sites within which young people create cultural forms that may contest or accelerate the reproduction of the established norms.
Similarly, Ray (1997) in her research proved that students engage with school’s socialisation and sometimes resist it. She examines conformity and resistance in two all-girls schools in Calcutta: an elite private school and a government-aided school. She found that the students did not meekly accept the ideologies taught to them. They challenge and resist the school’s impositions consciously and unconsciously. However, most of the actions of the girls cannot be counted as resistance that can threaten the system. Instead, they can be considered as coping or survival mechanisms within it (Ray, 1997).
Education in Contemporary Kerala
The Kerala Curriculum Framework (KCF) was conceptualised in 2007 based on the National Council of Educational Research and Training (2005). It was the first time that the State endeavoured to create a framework that would strengthen primary, secondary and higher secondary school education. The new curriculum is process-oriented and learner-centric, keeping in mind the rights of the learners. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (2007) states that it intends to address the issues that are created by globalisation such as privatisation of education, indifference towards the democratic process, increasing inequalities, growing violence and deteriorating gender relations. The educational reforms in State Council of Educational Research and Training (2007) aim at building a society that fights against discrimination of marginalised sections and gives equal status to both men and women.
Furthermore, it aims at realising and creating awareness of the constitutional rights of every individual, the UN conventions on children’s rights (Convention on the Rights of Children), women’s rights (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and human rights (United Nations Commission on Human Rights) (State Council of Educational Research and Training, 2007). State Council of Educational Research and Training emphasises the importance of the ‘strength to resist’ the undesired outcomes of globalisation, and that the students should be able to ‘view their experiences in a critical manner and should question all social evils’ (State Council of Educational Research and Training, 2007, p. 18). They must be able to analyse ideas at social, political and cultural levels and ‘…take positions by responding to them’ (State Council of Educational Research and Training, 2007, p. 18).
State Council of Educational Research and Training (2007) claims that the developmental index in Kerala indicates a higher status of women than the national average and a high number of enrolment of girls in school and higher education. However, it acknowledges that women’s involvement in the public sphere in Kerala is not adequate when compared to other Indian states. Some of the current gender issues, according to State Council of Educational Research and Training (2007) are the imposition of stereotypical roles on the girl child by society, gender discrimination inside the classroom, dowry system, ‘…lack of opportunity for girls to grow and develop with self-esteem’ and more importantly, ‘lack of awareness about such discrimination’ (State Council of Educational Research and Training, 2007, p. 20). Therefore, it demands that the curriculum should ensure gender justice and gender equality.
The approach to development in Kerala, known as the ‘Kerala Model’, has glorified education in Kerala as inclusive and liberating. However, education in Kerala has been a site for the production of deeper inequality among marginalised sections (Babu, 2011; Deshpande, 2000). In Kerala, women’s literacy is higher than in any other Indian state and the rate of women’s participation in higher education outnumbers that of men. However, Devika (2014) points out that the Kerala model of social development was exclusionary in nature in terms of gender although there is an increase in the visibility of women in the public sphere.
In addition, Eapen and Kodoth (2003) critique Kerala’s social development that is linked to the increase in atrocities against women, and of dowry-related crimes. They argue that ‘…women’s education and employment have not played the transformative role so generally expected of them’ (Eapen & Kodoth, 2003, p. 8). The high rate of literacy in Kerala has not translated into better status for women. In this context, analysing how young women are socialised in schools becomes a relevant study. Moreover, Sancho (2018) highlights that the ethnographic study on the students’ opinions and experiences in schools is not well researched, and more so in the context of Kerala.
In this article, I propose to address the question of normative femininity in the process of socialisation of girls in schools. Schooling, in many ways, reinforces the social control of girls. The social control of female sexuality remains predominant in schools’ socialisation (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005). This article makes a small contribution towards capturing the ways in which schooling socialises girls in this direction.
Methods
The research that this article draws on aims to address the following questions:
How do a government school and a private school in Kerala socialise girls in terms of their gender identity? How do these girls respond to their school’s academic and non-academic activities, rules and values?
The research was carried out in two schools in Trivandrum: Karikulam government school and St Tracy convent private school. Both the schools are all-girls schools and are located adjacent to each other. They follow the same syllabus, Kerala State Board. Qualitative research methods were used to get a deeper sense of the girls’ schooling and their experiences. Qualitative research methodologies are inductive and are oriented towards discovery and process (Tuli, 2011). This method gives more freedom and a greater role to the participants in the study (Casey, 1993). Consent of the schools and participants were taken for the study. Further, the anonymity of the schools and participants was ensured in the research. All the names used in the article are pseudonyms. The profile of respondents are given in Tables 1, 2 and 3. Permission was taken from the Block Development Officer and school principals for conducting the research. The consent of the parents was taken for the students who were interviewed. Tools of data collection include focus group discussion, observation and interviews. All the interviews and interactions were held within the schools. The interviews were held in Malayalam, which was later translated and transcribed into English.
Profile of Teachers and Headmistress.
Profile of Students at St Tracy School.
Profile of Students at Karikulam School.
Throughout the research, I draw on the fieldwork that I have done for three months from 12 June 2018 to 31 August 2018 and an additional two weeks in November 2018 on both the schools. The core of the fieldwork is observation, and it is recorded in field notes. It is further supplemented by: (a) interviews with students, teachers and headmistress; (b) focused group discussions with students; (c) informal conversations with teachers, parents and students during short breaks, lunch breaks, PT periods and after school hours; (d) secondary data sources such as school magazine, school diary, newspaper reports, school website and school Facebook page.
Delamon (2014) argues that in school ethnography, observational data are preferred to interview data wherever possible. Observation enables the researcher to understand the context, to take note of things that otherwise escape the researcher’s attention, to discover things that participants might be reluctant to talk about in an interview and to gather data beyond the perception of the interviewee (Louis et al., 2005). I conducted a semi-structured observation. ‘A semi-structured observation will have an agenda of issues but will gather data to illuminate these issues in a far less pre-determined or systematic manner’ (Louis et al., 2005, p. 305).
The observations made in both the schools are recorded in field notes. I have reconstructed the conversations of students and have written down the details of the structure and locality of the schools. The events such as school assemblies, quiz competitions, dance practice for inter-school competition, NCC training sessions, PT sessions, awareness programme by Kerala railway police and other such events were also described in the field notes.
There were many ethical concerns while doing observations of minor girls, especially while listening to their private conversations. Some of the dilemmas were the tension between the right to privacy of the students and the researcher’s right to know, ‘…between informed consent and its violation in the interests of a wider public’ (Louis et al., 2005, p. 315). The dilemma between the personal curiosity of the researcher on matters that are highly confidential for the school as it could tarnish the image of the school and it as an important aspect of research. Out of all the things that were observed and heard, choosing what to put in writing and what to leave due to the promises made to teachers to not include in the research was challenging. Further, as a researcher, how much of my personal life I was willing to share in return for the ‘secrets’ that the girls wanted to share about themselves was a concern.
I used semi-structured interviews for students, teachers and the headmistress. Alongside this, I used focus group discussions of students. I have interviewed 10 students of class nine from the St Tracy convent school, seven students from the Karikulam government school and conducted one FGD of five students in the Karikulam school. These numbers were chosen based on the number of students and parents who consented for the student interview. Apart from that, I have interviewed three teachers of Karikulam school, two teachers at St Tracy school and the headmistress of the Karikulam school. In addition to interviews, I have had innumerable informal conversations with students, teachers and parents of the students I have interviewed.
Translating the interviews and conversations from Malayalam to English was at times problematic. Some meanings are better understood colloquially than their translation. For instance, ‘poultry van’, ‘koozhi’ (hen), ‘nadan marupadi’ (desi response), chaadi (jumped) have double meanings. Besides, interviewing minor girls was also challenging. The girls from more senior classes would have been more aware of the kind of issues addressed in the article, however, getting access to senior students during school hours or even after that is difficult due to their hectic schedule. Even Class X students were not included in the research as the schools did not want to interfere with their demanding academic schedule. I was feared to be a distraction for the students by the school authorities. The caste, class and other social identities shape the gender experiences of girls in schools. Taking these factors into account would have enriched the study. However, limited time and resources prevented such an exercise.
Background of the Schools
St Tracy School
The St Tracy girls’ school was founded by the Sisters of St Teresa. The school is known for its excellence in academic and extracurricular activities. Academic merit and religious faith are the two fundamental goals of the school. The mission of the school is to provide an exceptional all-round education and to promote faith formation that integrates faith with life, through a value-oriented education. 1
The school engages with societal issues in a humanitarian manner, for instance, engaging in activities such as charity and social work. It upholds and nurtures charity as a value among its students. The school sees to it that it raises enough funds and materials for charity. Since the school is owned and run by Catholic Christians their religious doctrine informs the school practices. It means that the school raises educated girls who also have strong faith in the ‘Fatherhood of God’. 2
The school offers a subject called Value Education as part of the curriculum. The course has got two textbooks: Personality Development Through Value Education (2017); Light Years (2013). It socialises the students into having good morals and values. For example, there is a chapter on the way to accept suffering that teaches students about how one should embrace suffering for a fulfilling life in the future and sacrifice one’s life for others like Mother Teresa, Gandhiji or Sr. Alphonsa (Kuriapilly, 2017). St Tracy school inculcates qualities of endurance and care among the students. Girls are well educated with employable skills, and at the same time taught to be family oriented. ‘Sarah’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, student, 18 June 2018) in the interview, said that ‘it is what makes this school different from the rest of the schools’. She compares her school with her brother’s school which is a co-ed private school.
Here they teach us lots of values like why we have some feelings at this age, etc., like why we feel angry at our parents or teachers. Therefore, to an extend we can control it. In my brother’s school they give importance to only studies. Students are rich but have no values.
Seven out of 10 students who were interviewed confirmed and appreciate the school’s ideology. Bourdieu argued that the culture of the dominant is constantly produced and disseminated. It is made into a common sense through the ‘…labour of symbolic inculcation’ (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 29). He refers to it as doxa. Hence, arguably, the feminine values that the school upholds are in tandem with the dominant values of society.
Karikulam Government School
The Karikulam government school is a popular all-girls school in the city. It is located at the heart of the city and is known to have a good academic and co-curricular record. Almost everything new in the school has the name of a political minister on it, who has donated money. These include the school buses, new academic building, auditorium, etc. There is a banner near the music park in front of the school with the chief minister’s photo in it which says ‘the saviour of public education, Sree Pinarayi Vijayan. Greetings from the Music club’.
It was observed that on 26 November 2018, the school celebrated Constitutional day by putting up photos of the preamble of the constitution, Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Sree Narayana Guru, information on temple entry movements and reformatory movements in Kerala, constitutional rights, etc. It was celebrated in a context where the whole state of Kerala was immersed in the debate on women entering the Sabarimala temple after the Supreme Court verdict. 3 Thus, the students are socialised into politics through various ways and thereby socialised into the world beyond the school.
The government school prepares its girls for a wide range of future employment options keeping in mind the diverse socio-economic background of its students. Apart from mainstream courses, work education is given to the girls as part of the curriculum which trains girls in entrepreneurial courses such as cookery, handicraft, etc. The students are taught craft making such as chains with beads, hair clips with coconut shells, eatables such as jam making and squash and how to advertise these products. According to ‘Rekha’ (32 years old, female, Karikulam school, teacher, 26 November 2018)
Not everybody can excel in all spheres, for them art, or any other platform will give opportunity to excel.… It is not fair on us to push them into something, they should go ahead with what they are good at and succeed in their field. Some of the parents do not have the time and knowledge to guide their children. So, the school finds the talent and encourages them.
The girls are trained in a variety of skills that can fetch them a much needed income. This may involve both academic and non-academic skills. Although they are taught to make a variety of useful products, work education involves activities that are considered ‘suited for girls’. Manjrekar (2003) warns that such courses for girls are highly gendered. They only allow girls to enter low-paying jobs in the unorganised sector.
One can see that State politics is very much part of the everyday life of students. Politics therefore is very much part of the school culture as it comes under the management of different political parties and their ideologies. Different political parties have different ideologies on gender. Government activities and policies are informed by the ideology of the political party in power, and it is reflected in the government’s education system as well.
In both the schools, girls are encouraged to learn skills and values according to their gender role and social life. Both the schools have a different set of school activities with varied goals. However, both schools prepare girls to live and participate in a gender-stratified society. Some of the aspects of gender socialisation pertaining to sexuality in both the schools can be broadly put into three categories. They are discussed below.
Adolescence: A ‘Problematic’ Age
Adolescence is a transitional stage of development from childhood to adulthood. It is characterised by psychosocial development (Aparna & Raakhee, 2011). It is an impressionable stage, where young people extend their relationships beyond family and are influenced by the outside world. It is also a period of experimentation and risk-taking, especially relating to their bodies and sexuality (Srivastava, 2015). Life skills are recognised as a tool to empower adolescents to act responsibly.
Life skills have been defined as ‘…the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life’ (World Health Organization [WHO], 1996). They are considered the twenty-first-century skills that help young people to manage their lives more productively, that include ‘…psychosocial resources, including knowledge and skills, motivation, attitudes and other social and behavioural components’ (Schleicher, 2007, p. 349).
Both the schools conduct many seminars on adolescence for the teenage students. These seminars aim at sensitising the students about the physical, mental and emotional changes in the adolescent age in a scientific way. It aims to help the students deal with the challenges and problems faced by teenagers. It is being offered to students from class VIII to class X. The seminar is conducted by experts such as doctors, psychologists, etc. In government school, adolescent seminars are about health and hygiene. ‘Anu’ (14 years old, Karikulam school, student, 10 August 2018) explained that:
These talks are about us (girls), our bodies. It discusses personal hygiene like how to keep ourselves clean, the nutrition we should have. Sometimes after the talk they distribute iron tablets in the school.
The general attitude of teachers in St Tracy convent school is that adolescence is a ‘…problematic age’, students do not listen, they get into wrong things, etc. To address this, the seminar on self-awareness, self-motivation, and how to behave responsibly in society is held. ‘Mary’ (30 years old, female, St Tracy school, teacher, 19 November 2018) said:
Adolescent students face a lot of challenges. They need awareness about their age. Seminars are held every year to give students some guidance. And we class teachers are advised (by the school management) to discuss these issues in the class as well and talk to students privately if they have any personal issues.
‘Anna’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, student, 18 June 2018) said that:
The seminar is on the adolescent age. The transition from childhood to adolescence. The changes that happen to us. They tell us how we should behave with our parents, etc. What are the bad uses of mobile phones and so on (reluctant to say). Even our teachers also teach us in this psychology mode. They give tips on how our character should be, how to behave with others, what all we have to conduct in society.
‘Sarah’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, Student, 19 June 2018) said that these seminars are very ‘motivating’ and ‘useful’. They get to understand a lot about what is happening to them and the change in behaviour.
The seminars discuss the problems we face in school, family and outside. Why we become intolerant to elders, why we get angry so fast. It reminds us that we are going through a phase and things will change. We should remember our parents, the hard work that they do.
These seminars teach girls to manage their anger and other negative feelings. Eder and Parker (1987), point out that girls, through school activities, receive early training in emotional management which is important for traditional female occupations such as secretary, nurse, etc., whereas, boys, through extracurricular activities, receive training for the competitive labour market. A lot of students appreciate such seminars and lectures. However, some students have an ambivalent feeling towards these seminars. According to ‘Naziha’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, student, 25 June 2018)
They tell us, since we are 14 years old, we are on the adolescent path. They tell us that everything looks colourful at this age, but we should have parents’ supervision. We should share everything with them or teachers because they have crossed this age. Teachers also give such lectures in class and half of the period will go in such things (smirk on the face). Teachers say that we need advice at this age because it is a jolly age. Sometimes we may be wrong. So, in order to not fall into such traps.
Appearance: Disciplining of the Body
‘Discipline is, in one sense, a measure of a school’s soul’ (Cookson & Persell, 1985, p. 480). Disciplinary rules reflect the core values of the community, and it set the ‘…tone, provides standards, and defines relationships among students, teachers and heads’ (Cookson & Persell, 1985, p. 480). A major form of discipline is centred around attire (Graham, 2004). The uniforms of both the schools are such that the entire body is covered except the hands. Graham in his article argues that dress codes are established to not only diminish class-based distinctions in school but to ‘…prevent middle-class students from adopting the sartorial styles of the rough kids from across the track’, moreover, schools follow dress codes ‘…hoping that conformity in a dress could contain student behaviour’ and control juvenile delinquency (Graham, 2004, p. 526).
St Tracy school leaves very little individual choice when it comes to dressing. The students have to look ‘neat and clean’.
4
Students must tie their hair neatly and tightly. Hair styling is not allowed in the school such as French braids, bangs, hair puffs, etc. There is checking in the school for all of these. Students are not allowed to leave their hair open. Graham (2004) points out that theorists posited a connection between hair and sexual behaviour that long flowing hair corresponds to unrestrained sexuality. Therefore, schools demand tying of the hair. The convent school further insists that the hair be oiled so that it looks limp and neat. ‘Naziha’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, student, 25 June 2018) sounded annoyed when she said that:
Here Sister Reni (director) makes all the rules but sometimes we do not like it. For example, here we have to put a lot of oil on our hair. Even after shampooing we have to put on oil. Some of us do not like oily hair. But they (school authorities) do not take the opinion of the students. Moreover, we cannot tie French braids. They check all these.
In addition, indulgences and materialism are not encouraged in students. Students cannot put mehndi on their hands, second stud on ears, bangles or bracelets, chains, big bindi or big earrings, etc. 5 Graham (2004), speaking in an American context, suggests that these rules that control students’ hair and body are tantamount to controlling their minds.
The students of the Karikulam school try out various hairstyles, unlike in the St Tracy school. They can decorate their hair with jasmine or rose flowers. Some of them had curls on either side of the face to accentuate their features. It is consciously put for style. Some of them wore big-dial boyish watches with colourful straps. This styling is opposed to the general norm of the image of a schoolgirl.
Hence the ‘body’ is relatively freer in the Karikulam school. It can be talked about, touched, and styled to some extent. School rules, that are found in the school diary as well as from the interviews, concerning apparel and hair suggest that children had no right to choose how to present themselves physically to the world. However, the government school students do test their boundaries by occasionally styling their hair and wearing accessories. During the focus group discussion, students narrated an incident of collective objection. In Kerala, a government order has stated that schools should not compel girls to plate their hair on both sides as part of the uniform. This order was the result of an intervention by a female student (Mathrubhumi, 2016). However, around that time, some teachers in the Karikulam school had insisted on plating both sides despite the government order. The girls came together and protested collectively by not plating hair on both sides quoting the government ruling. ‘Bindu’ (28 years old, female, Karikulam school, teacher, 28 November 2018) said that:
The difference between a private school and a government school is that in private school, the management has the power. If they have a problem with any student, the management will ask the student to leave the school. However, in government schools, the students have the power. If a student complains, then the Human Rights Commission, Child Rights Commission and many others will interfere.
On the Karikulam school radio station, 6 the radio jockeys apart from talking about the thought of the day or the weather, sometimes give beauty tips such as homemade face packs, beauty hacks and remedies. These beauty tips are related to the construction of the bodily identity of girls. This contrasts with the convent school where the body is more disciplined and silent.
It was observed that the convent school goes by this notion that the body, especially of young girls, should be controlled and conditioned in a certain way, for instance how to stand (body postures) while talking to teachers or Sisters, what and what not to wear, etc. Therefore, the school controls it through dress codes, restricting touch and mobility. Girls who violate these rules may challenge the boundary between an adult, who claims individual autonomy, and a child, who can be trained or socialised (Prout, 2005). Although both the schools have rules related to dress code, accessories and hair, the Karikulam school students have more scope to refute these rules in a small way.
Attitude: Disciplining of Behaviour
Politics of Touch
According to the WHO, sexuality includes sex, gender identities and roles, eroticism, pleasure, sexual orientation, intimacy and reproduction (WHO, 2002). It is regulated by sociocultural norms, morals and beliefs. During adolescence, multiple agents such as parents, peers, schools, religion and the media play a role in shaping one’s sexuality. The acceptable, unacceptable, ‘good’ or ‘bad’ sexuality is shaped by their social context. The internalised gender socialisation of females into ‘appropriate’ behaviour has a lifelong impact that can act as a barrier to gender equality. ‘In this way female sexuality, in particular female sexual assertiveness and pleasure, is repressed and stigmatised’ (Macintyre et al., 2015, p. 91).
In the schools, there is paranoia about girls becoming too close or becoming a couple. It was found from the interviews that both the schools have unofficial rules like do not hold hands between two girls, do not hug, etc. All students in the schools knew these rules. In the interview, students from both the schools said that ‘girls should not hug and walk’, ‘to walk as a couple is not allowed’. When I asked why, they said, ‘I don’t know’. The interviewees were reluctant to talk about it. They did not elaborate on it. Therefore, the linkages between adolescence sexuality and schooling remained minimally explored in the study.
It was found from the interviews that the school already teaches them what kind of relationship is acceptable and what is not. The kind of friendship that these girls can have among themselves and with the opposite gender is already defined by the school. ‘Naziha’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, student, 25 June 2018) shared the advice her class teacher has given about the romantic desires girls can have at that age. She said that:
The teachers told us that if a boy ‘proposes’ us we should say no. And we should immediately share it with parents or teachers. In this age everything looks colourful. Don’t fall into such traps. With boys, we should only have friendship, we should be within limits because we are girls.
Teachers would say that girls and boys should stay friends. Although friendship is a cultural message for equality, it is a message to not indulge in a romantic, physical relationship with each other. The advice from teachers suggests that the gender separation between boys and girls is related to adolescence. Thorne (1993) emphasises that gender separation is related to age. She argues that many researchers have found that as children grow older, they tend to separate more by gender, and the amount of gender separation is highest in early adolescence. Furthermore, girls and boys who are closer in age are more likely to be seen as potential romantic partners (Thorne, 1993).
It was found from informal conversations and interviews that a lot of girls do not have a high opinion of boys in both the schools, a boyfriend is a bad thing to talk about and to have. During the focus group discussion, ‘Athira’ (14 years old, Karikulam school, student, 10 August 2018) said very passionately that:
Boys in other schools do not like us (the government school girls), they call our school bus ‘poultry van’(a sexualised word colloquially). They will never call such names to the convent girls. I do not know why. They will only give names to us.
‘Lekshmi’ (13 years old, Karikulam school, student, 10 August 2018), jokingly said that she knows the reason behind it. She gave her perspective that:
I know why they (boys) do not like us. When these boys pass comments on us, we fight back. We give back in the same way. Whereas, the convent girls only smile back, they do not fight like we do. That is why the boys do not like us.
A student from St Tracy school said in an informal conversation that she only meets boys from other schools in tuition class. She said:
Even in tuition class the teacher won’t allow us to talk to boys. Boys won’t obey elders no matter how much they (elders) tell them. Like they have decided not to be good, therefore nobody even tries to make them good.
In the interviews, it was found that the St Tracy school warns the students about the negative effects of social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook, where the girls can get in touch with unknown men and women and have relationships that are detrimental to the girls. Studies have found that the internet provides a platform where adolescents can observe and learn the attitudes and behaviours of people across the globe. Their consumption of the internet promotes active socialisation processes (Lee & Conroy, 2005). Hence the school discourages students from socialising through mobile phones, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. Along with this, exposure to mass media such as TV 7 is also discouraged as it has the potential to corrupt young minds by showing alternate value systems and pleasures.
These rules and practices are followed in both the schools to varying degrees. However, in the Karikulam school, one can see students expressing their closeness through touch. I could see students holding hands, hugging, etc. Some of the girls I interviewed hugged me the next time they saw me. They touched my lips to see if I was wearing lip gloss. There were continual engagements with others’ bodies. They are more sensuous.
Mobility
There is a relationship between gender and space (Phadke, 2013). Phadke (2013) analysed that middle-class women must be protected from spaces that lower-caste men and lower-caste women access. Similarly, in the interviews, it was found in both the schools that girls were not allowed to loiter inside or outside the school but to only be in their classrooms. Both the schools prevent the girls from moving around the campus. They are socialised in a way that they should avoid spaces that are outside the control of adult supervision.
The Parent Teacher Association of the Karikulam school decided to install CCTV cameras on the premises. The headmistress of that school said that the PTA believed that it would stop boys from hanging around certain spots near the school. The cameras were installed to help in bringing more discipline and prevent girls from wandering around the premises of the school. Thefts would also be prevented. ‘Sarita’ (14 years old, Karikulam school, student, 10 August 2018) said that:
Boys (in other schools) can do as they like, there is no restriction in schools or on the roads but for girls, it is not the same. We are told don’t look here, don’t stand there for too long, don’t call out anybody from the road, etc. But generally, I think teachers do not say these things to boys.
Comparatively, the Karikulam school provides a lot of space for the girls to come together, to sit and talk. The Music park, which is a small park in the school, is one of the spaces favoured by the girls. It is in an elevated place, from where the girls have clear visibility of a shopping complex opposite the school. They sit there to discuss matters privately. It was observed that more students from the Karikulam school take public transport where they get an opportunity to meet friends and outsiders as opposed to the students in St Tracy school who take the school bus or private school van.
While I was in the Music park, I overheard a group of girls who sat down next to me. They were discussing the ‘line’(affair) matters of themselves and their friends. They were talking about a conductor on the Soorya bus (public transport), which they take after school back to their homes. They were discussing how he looked at one of their friends.
Student 1 (S1): When I got into the Soorya bus I noticed that the conductor was staring at her (a friend).
Student 2 (S2): Is he a ‘kozhi’ (hen/flirt)?
S1: He is a middle-aged man. He might have daughters of our age,
S2: Then he would have looked at her in order to see if she is his daughter (everybody laugh).
S1: No…
S2: How can you tell that the look is not a father’s look towards his daughter?
S3: That we can tell by where he looked. Did he look at her face or …? (Everybody laugh)
(Field note dated 16 August 2018)
On the other hand, the St Tracy school students have very few places to hang out within the campus. It was observed that they mostly meet each other in the wash area or on the ground, where there are only a few benches to sit on. No one from inside the school can see the outside area. The school has high walls on all sides. Moreover, there are women security guards both inside and outside the school for the students’ safety and to keep an eye on their movements.
An outside hang-out place for the students of St Tracy school is a popular bakery. After the Suryanelli case and the ice cream parlour case
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leisure places such as ice cream parlours and bakeries were looked at with suspicion. Therefore, girls were discouraged from going to these public places because it was often a meeting place for boys and girls without any moral policing. ‘Mary’ (30 years old, female, St Tracy school, teacher, 19 November 2018) said that the proximity of the bakery to the school is a problem for the school officials. When the school gets over in the evening, the guards stand near the bakery and on the road for ‘protecting’ the students. In an interview, ‘Anna’ (14 years old, St Tracy school, student, 18 June 2018) said that:
We go to the bakery, I am not saying we never go there, to be honest, we go after the exams and all. Guards are very protective here, they are there on all gates. Guards check where we are going, whom we are talking to. They are very strict.
Both the schools do not allow girls to loiter in and around the school premises. As much as the mobility of the girls is controlled, the schools also have surveillance to stop outsiders from getting in touch with the girls. The girls are protected and controlled by CCTV cameras and guards.
Conclusion
The primary aim of the school is to promote knowledge or curriculum. However, schools can also reproduce class, gender and other inequalities. The habitus 9 is produced through dressings, language, discipline and activities. In both the schools, girls try to adapt, engage, cope, and sometimes creatively resist, the socialising influence and gender ideologies of the schools. Ray (1997) in her study concluded that the girls in the government-aided school where she conducted her research, resorted to passive resistance as they were aware of the lower social standing and the importance of the school as opposed to the private school. She argued that the capacity to resist depends on the material condition of the girls. In my research, this particular urban government school in Kerala showed that girls are aware of what they can do based on the government rules and hence there is a scope for them to negotiate with authorities, sometimes even oppose them collectively, much more than the convent private school students.
Since both the schools are all-girls schools, the construction and reproduction of femininity are not juxtaposed with that of masculinity in the school. However, a closer look at these schools reveals that although girls are educated in the basic skills, their roles in the schools and the expected behaviour from them are based on the dominant social structure. The surveillance, discipline, etc. of schools construct a rigidly defined gender ideology and it creates normative, acceptable female sexuality and gender roles.
National Council of Educational Research and Training (2005) has pointed out curricula, content, and the gendered construction of knowledge as critical areas of inquiry and assessment for addressing the issues of gender. It has further argued that so far there is a substantial change in the gender representations in school syllabus, however, schooling still remains embedded in the societal context and perpetuates the social control of girls through formal and informal socialisation (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2005). This determines the quality and duration of education girls receive and influences the personal and career choices girls make in their later years. There is, therefore, a need to bring to light the non-academic, socialisation function of schools and critically analyse the effects they have on the students.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The article is based on my MPhil research under the guidance of Professor Nandini Manjrekar (School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai). I am thankful to my research supervisor for her valuable insights. I am grateful to Sreejith Murali for sharing relevant academic resources.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
There is no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received the UGC-JRF scholarship for the research.