Unveiling gender metaphors in schooling: Narratives from Delhi, India

Gender is a multilayered system of practices and relations that operates at all levels of the social world. Gendered discourses indeed permeate the ways in which women are perceived and evaluated. Family and school systems are the first social institutions where the young children imbibe masculine and feminine qualities and characteristics, traits and expectations. Schooling is essentially embedded in the societal context and ensures the reinforcement of gendered expectations from boys and girls. It ensures conformation of boys and girls in to the stereotyped expectations. It ensures that women remain passive actors in the process of schooling and do not question the patriarchal ideology and do not transgress the social boundaries and work within the accepted societal values. The paper Unveiling Gendered Metaphors in Schooling seeks to divulge and bring into light the reinforcement of masculinity and femininity constructs within a school system. Based on a research by the author in government and private schools of Delhi, it attempts to analyze the contemporary educational scenario from a gender lens. It seeks to present in intersecting ways how teachers and children draw upon and reproduce normative beliefs about gender and how these, in turn, lead to stereotypical notions of gender. Analyzing the research evidence across a wide range of parameters, the paper makes an effort to reveal the opinions of school teachers and students on acceptance or resistance to any form of change in gender relations as the result of continued gender reinforcements.