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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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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Thesis outline
This thesis begins with situating myself and the research in specific contexts - such as, gender, intersectionality, teacher education, Sweden, and India. Next, I give a context of the education systems of both countries as they are quite different and having some background would be necessary for a wholesome understanding. After that, I define my theoretical framework to form a lens to read and analyse with. Once I have formed a lens, I discuss the materials that I have used and the methodology I have used to research.
Next is the largest part of the thesis, the Observations and Analysis of the material, done side by side but subdivided for clarity into India’s efforts and Sweden’s efforts. After this, I have added a common analysis of the efforts of both countries and the comparison where I discuss what both can borrow from each other. Lastly, there is the conclusion where I answer all the research connections and identify possible ways of going forward.
Context and positioning myself
My position in this thesis research is that of someone who lives in India, with a background in literature, women’s writing, and gender. I work as an English teacher and wish to work in the field of education to bring about changes related to gender and intersectionality. Change is an overwhelming word to use by itself, but breaking it down to see what can affect more change where and how is what has led me to this research.
Teachers - possibly, the people students spend most active hours with - form a major element of influence in the education system and society as a whole. This also makes
9 them a possible active agent for change. The reasons why I chose to specifically look at India are quite straightforward - I know the education system, I have been a part of it as a student and still continue to be as a teacher. I have felt the gender gap as both too. I have felt helpless - surprisingly in both situations. These form the main reasons for me to look at what India provides its school teachers in terms of gender awareness and sensitivity.
The reason for choosing Sweden is mostly because I am currently obtaining my degree in Gender Studies from there. One of the reasons for choosing this programme and the country that it was a part of was Sweden’s reputation as a pioneer in gender equality - politically, socio-economically, and academically. The same reason holds true for choosing it for this research. This research gives me an opportunity to closely look at and understand the Swedish education system and how it is informing its school teachers about gender awareness and sensitivity.
However, it is not to say that this research is an attempt to learn from Sweden and for India. As a feminist I knew even before I formulated my thesis proposal that a hierarchial approach for this could never work. Any sincere process of sharing or learning cannot happen by having any hierarchies in mind as that makes it more of a power play. So, I follow an approach where this research is simply exploring which kinds of strategies, core concepts, and their execution is like in both countries along with what each informs their teachers about and possibly analyse why. Only later will I come to what one can borrow from the other.
Previous research
All the research I did around this thesis topic never took me to a research that was comparing teacher education regarding gender of two countries located at very far
10 places in the spectrum of socio-economics and politics. The couple of researches I found were always about what the third world countries can learn and adopt from first world ones and so, not very helpful.
While I did not find a research comparing two countries regarding such a topic, I did find a lot of research done within Sweden. Two of those research papers were most helpful as they centred around gender pedagogies in teacher education, one
specifically about the school, Egalia, talked about later in this thesis. I do not use them directly, however, they did help me narrow down my focus and show what kind of research has been done on these topics. I found them both to be analysing the gender pedagogies for room for improvement within a very specific context.
The first one was found in the LiU Diva portal itself, a journal article titled, ‘Improving Pedagogical Practices through Gender Inclusion: Examples from University Programmes for Teachers in Preschools and Extended Education’ Susanne Kreitz-Sandberg. It was not directly related to the topic but it helped to understand the background of teacher education and gender pedagogies. (Kreitz-Sandberg, 2016). The one about Egalia, a gender-neutral preschool in Sweden, analysing the pedagogy as it is practiced in the school and the ideology behind it gave some background about the school. (Cinsiyet et al., 2019)
However, none of these analysed the material for teacher education in terms of strategies through an intersectional gender approach or went into a comparative mode with another country using a decolonial feminist and/or transnational feminist approach.
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Theoretical framework
The framework to be used for this research is complex as it brings in a mix of theories.
The theoretical framework starts off with the foundation of gender theories from Butler’s views on how gender is performative and a repetition of these performances that are clubbed into male/masculine and female/feminine categories. She also says that woman is “a term in process, a becoming, a constructing that cannot rightfully be said to originate or end … it is open to intervention and resignification”. (Butler, 1999, p. 43) This establishes the free and open nature of the identity of a woman. Nina Lykke’s reflection on gender takes it a step further putting the idea of gender as a performance in the way we talk about gender. (Lykke, 2010)
As we are looking at gender and education practices of two countries - we need to look at both of their feminist roots. Both these countries stand at very different stages of feminism and following varied structures and strategies. Indian feminism as I discussed in my first master thesis started off as a response to British colonialism. It bloomed in three waves, and it was only in the third wave that it was structured, strategic, and truly intersectional in the Indian context - involving women of different religions, poor economic backgrounds, and socially threatened castes. Feminism in Sweden also progressed slowly until the 1900s where it finally
accelerated as a social philosophy and is being adopted as a political one as well, as is evident from its feminist government and feminist foreign policy.
(Regeringskansliet, 2015)
An interesting thing to note about gender equality efforts in both these countries is the way they are carried out. In India, these efforts quite often come from
non-12 governmental organisations. While there are many government initiatives and
programmes around increasing female birth rate, providing education to young girls - their execution is often questionable. Also these efforts are never part of a feminist agenda that the government commits to or takes a stance to change.
Where as, in Sweden - the government is socio-politically and quite publicly
committed to gender equality efforts. The government informs and regulates gender reforms in education and has a dedicated minister and a place in their annual budget for gender equality too. All of this obviously weighs in on the seriousness with
which gender equality is taken in Sweden. (Regeringskansliet, 2015)
This is one of my takeaway points and I mention it here in the theoretical framework as it is relevant later too as it shows us the very different approach of Sweden and India when it comes to gender equality efforts. From here on, I want to draw on the context - the geo-political context of these two countries and their feminisms.
The western ideal of feminism is often cited as being the end goal of third world feminisms. While that may be one of the agendas, that is not all. The scale we use to measure the progress of gender equality in western countries is also often a western scale to measure it. Cutting across these different geo-politics of feminism is
transnational feminism. It looks at the major concerns that are common across the globe - here, in these two countries and brings in the intersectionality of being at two opposite ends of colonialism its after-effects. Theories emerging from transnational feminism argue against the idea that all women across the world suffer the same types of oppression. Specifically looking at how gender inequalities faced by third world women are multifold and intersectional and are often contrived with first world feminism itself. (Grewal and Kaplan, 2002)
13 The scale then that we use to measure the progress of gender equality then would be quite different. Especially if we consider colonialism as a significant influencer in this equation. Decolonial feminism, especially concentrating on Maria Lugones’ (2010) work around the Colonial/Modern gender system and how it intertwines with the transnational feminist approach and ultimately fuses itself with intersectional feminism, especially in the context of India.
Intersectional feminism is something I am looking at two levels - one from
Crenshaw’s (1989) perspective, where it originated. The intersectional lens looks at gender in relation with other layered identities like religion, race, class, caste, and many more. Crenshaw’s argument focuses on not looking at oppressions of different identity markers as separate, rather look at them all together in an intricately wound intersection where there is no way to separate them out. Nina Lykke (2013) discusses intersectionality along similar lines wherein she gives an example of multiple paint colours being mixed and there being no way to separate them into the individual colours that were thrown in. Lykke’s example does give us a simple idea of the word. However, her views on intersectional gender pedagogy are what really come into play here. The two key points that will help us analyse the efforts later on are: not viewing the students as a homogenous group and instead making differences visible so as to critique them and work against inequality. The overall aim of an intersectional gender pedagogy is to “make students and teachers more conscious about power relations, excluding norms and differences in the classroom”. (Lykke, 2013, p. 14)
Indian feminism by default is intersectional in nature and it will be especially
interesting to look at how the nature/culture binary works in the context of India and Sweden as the binary works differently in both these countries’ feminisms. While Sweden aligns with the western feminist approach of arguing against the patriarchal coupling of women-identities with nature, Indian patriarchy, thanks to its colonial
14 era, functions in the opposite way. Instead of being equated to nature, women
become the site or even a pawn to prove cultural superiority. (Niranjana, 2007) Lugones’ (2010) argument that colonialism often used gender to further its
oppression becomes quite apparent here. A transnational and decolonial approach proves this to be exactly in line with Lugones’ views and the need for a “decolonial” approach which actively works towards dismantling colonial systems.
This is also one of the reasons for me to choose decolonial feminism. Although postcolonial feminism finds many roots in Indian feminism, decolonial feminism gives me an opportunity to break free from keeping eurocentric standards, and move ahead instead of going back. It is also apt to address the contradictory use of transnational feminism and decolonial feminism together in a framework - however, in this thesis, I believe transnational feminism will problematize and help us identify the “why” behind certain issues and gaps, where as decolonial feminism will be the start of dismantling and making way forward - perhaps, a base for a possible change later.
Transnational feminism, decolonial feminism, and intersectional feminism - all of these different kinds of feminisms ultimately come together on the built base of gender theories which finds its context in the gender equality efforts in India and Sweden.
Context of India and Sweden and their education systems:
Before we set out to make observations and do an analysis of the materials, it is vital to have an understanding of both the countries and their education systems.
15 India has schools offering private education and public education. India’s public schools teach about 65% of the total students in India. A survey by Hindustan Times (2017) talks about the falling numbers in public schools, “Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, student enrolment in government schools across 20 Indian states fell by 13 million, while private schools acquired 17.5 million new students”. In urban areas, the middle class prefer private school education as well and since there is a range of private schools - some quite affordable, people are choosing private school education more and more. This is mostly because the quality of teaching at public schools is quite bad and so, the students at public schools come from sections of society that either do not have geographical access or financial capabilities to choose private school education. This could also be the reason why the state of public schools hasn’t improved much but that is a point of discussion for another time.
This kind of an economic divide being translated into private vs public education - also puts efforts of improvements in jeopardy. The type of improvement also gets affected. The nation-wide standard test is also conducted independently by each education board, as India has 3-4 national education boards and each state having their own. For public schools, it is mandatory to be affiliated to the state education board, however, private schools can choose to affiliate to any. While we debate about the material being taught to be universally accessible or locally accessible - in India, the material might need to be tailored to fit the starkly different contexts of students.
Sweden, largely has public school education, although the numbers of charter schools are growing. The contrast comes here. According to the sweden.se website, providing official information about Sweden, “charter schools must be approved by the Schools Inspectorate and follow the national curricula and sylla-buses, just like regular municipal schools” and “the amount of municipal subsidy for preschool depends on the child’s age and whether the parents work, study, are unemployed or on parental leave for other children”. (sweden.se, 2015)
16 Both of the above statements show us that Sweden’s education, chartered or public, follows the same basic guidelines and standards as they come from a national source. The frequency of standardized testing is also higher as it happens in classes 3, 6, and 9 and all the schools follow the same. Sweden’s system facilitates a common context and a common system to be accountable to and hence, the material used to teach or train its school teachers can be common across the country. Even then, Sweden allows for a more customised approach. I will elaborate more on that in the ‘Materials and Methodology’ section.
To put this section into easy perspective, I present a table here that compares some of the factors that affect the education systems in both countries, especially teacher education and gender education.
Factor India Sweden
Population as of 2020 1,378,566,974 (Worldometers.info, 2020) 10,092,714 (Worldometers.info, 2020) Geographical area 2,973,190 km2 (Worldometers.info, 2020) 450,295 km2 (Worldometers.info, 2020)
Gini index as of 2011 (to measure income
inequality)
37.8 (Worldbank.org, 2011) 27.6 (Worldbank.org, 2011)
Literacy rate, as of 2018 74.4% (Statista, 2018) 99% (Macrotrends.net, 2020)
Education system Public schools affiliated to state education boards. Private schools affiliated to state or national education boards. No national
curricula as such.
Public, private, and charter schools - all follow the national curricula and overall guidelines set by the Swedish National Agency for Education.
17 (sweden.se, 2015) Medium of instruction (language) English, Hindi, + regional/state languages of each state.
Swedish and English (sweden.se, 2015)
Primary school teacher: pupil ratio, as of 2017.
32.75 (Worldbank.org, 2019)
12.23 (Worldbank.org, 2019)
Table 1: Summarizing the differences in certain factors that affect teacher education indirectly.
Materials and Methodology
The material that will be used in this research is a different type for both countries. However, the materials are for all kinds of school teachers.
For India, the choice of material is quite straightforward, the National Council of Education, Research, and Training (NCERT) has 3 volumes of training material for school teachers on gender equality. For this thesis, I plan to do a textual analysis of the second volume, that focuses on ‘Gender and Schooling Processes’ as this volume is the one that has strategies and activities for the school teachers to apply in their classrooms. It is important to note that there are many training materials and toolkits available for gender awareness and sensitivity - a lot of them made by organisations in affiliation with state governments of India, often funded by Commonwealth countries fund or the UK Aid. However, I choose the NCERT version as this council runs the central board of education in India which also means that it’s the most widespread across schools here. The material does not explicitly target any
particular kind of teachers - any teacher teaching any subject from preschool to high school could use it for their learning, awareness, and application in classrooms. Of course, some strategies are simplistic while some of the more complex ones can only
18 be used for older students - however, the manual itself can be used by all school teachers.
For Sweden, the choice of material is different and hence a combination. The government itself mandates gender awareness and sensitivity as a part of Swedish education. On the website of the Swedish National Agency for Education, each level of schooling has a section for how children should be treated without discrimination and gender sensitivity should be a priority. The actual strategies and practices are taught to the teachers while they get their degree in their university curriculum or when they join a particular school to teach. Since the schools and teachers follow the general guidelines put out by government agencies and apply what is taught in teaching degree courses in the university, the need for a manual may not be there.
While I was hoping to obtain a straightforward manual or a toolkit for school teachers in Sweden, I also realise that learning gender inclusiveness and awareness in their teaching degree curriculum itself is more integrated and gives importance to it too. My approach to the material had to change then and so this research will rely on the guidelines laid down by Swedish National Agency for Education in its
revised form, in a book titled, ‘Curriculum for the compulsory school, pre-school, and school-age educare’, two web articles, and a TEDx video. The curriculum encompasses guidelines or requirements of the schools across subjects, and gender-education is a part of several parts, ranging from subjects to level of schooling.
While India has a teacher training manual, essentially a resource that is prescribed, for Sweden I am looking at the guidelines that are prescribed and the strategies that are then practiced to get an idea of the exact strategies that are prescribed. It is slightly a roundabout way of starting the research and the difference in type of materials does make the grounds for comparing tricky. However, I see the difference
19 in material itself as a site for analysis and comparison. I will elaborate this further in the analysis section.
For all the material, I will be using the methodology of close reading and textual analysis.
Observations and Analysis
In this section, I will be looking at India’s and Sweden’s efforts in making their school teachers aware about gender and intersectionality using the theoretical framework crafted earlier. I will make individual observations and analysis for both countries separately first and then do a comparative analysis of both in relation with each other; the ultimate goal being to identify what one can borrow from another. It is important to keep in mind that the materials found for both countries are quite different in their nature.
For India, we have a very straightforward teacher (all levels) training manual to look at and that is what I will look at first.
India’s efforts:
The ‘Training Material for Teacher Educators on Gender Equality and
Empowerment’ is widely available on the NCERT website itself. There are three volumes, we will be looking at ‘Volume II - Gender and Schooling Processes’ as that is the one meant for practical application. The manual does not restrict itself to particular type or level of teachers - in its foreword it mentions that any and all teacher educators can use the material and so, it is not limited to pre-school, primary or secondary school teachers. Some of the strategies might be too advanced for
20 preschool students and so, it seems that the manual leaves it up to the teachers to figure out what is relevant to their students. This is a good thing as it is difficult to fit different kinds and levels of context for students and so, the teachers who are
familiar with their context can make that decision.
The first module of this volume focuses on textbooks, pedagogy, and gender concerns. The first half of that module looks at textbooks, their role in building a positive image, the factors of gender bias and linguistic bias in them, stereotypical imagery, etc. It goes quite in-depth in each of these, explaining the most basic of terms like what stereotypes are, what a gender bias is and so on. This means that this manual is meant for any teacher who might not have any idea of what these terms mean - therefore being accessible to many.
The part I will focus on now is 1.15 and 1.16: ‘How Education through Curriculum, Textbooks and Pedagogy can Address Inequities of Gender?’ and ‘What a gender Sensitive Education should Focus on?’ respectively.
From pages 15-20, the module turns the attention of its intended readers to what it calls a “hidden curriculum” which covers many things, such as: everyday school practices and rituals, logistical practices like segregated seating, lines, teams, tasks, etc. It also includes classroom practices, what kind of errands, if at all, are students sent for. For example, handing over chalk, going to the administrative office to fetch a missing classroom element, shifting benches, comforting a fellow classmate, etc. (Shrivastava et al., 2013)
The “hidden curriculum” then refers to everything that goes on in a school and its classrooms and the fact that this module stressed on it is a very positive point to look at.
21 While it explains what “hidden curriculum” is very well, it doesn’t seem to give any proper strategies in terms of how to make it better. It ends with a generic note on how teachers should be aware of it and avoid teaching the students a stereotypical role in everyday school practices.
The next part, 1.16 focuses on ‘What a gender inclusive education should focus on?’ and proceeds to give 3-4 activities for the teachers - strategic activities that they can have the students do.
The activities are not as important as the methods or rather the way of doing them are. Most of the activities involve girls and boys pairing up which at first involves them to be separated into boys and girls, thereby, defeating the whole purpose of refraining from segregating by gender. It is also important to note that the students are referred to as boys and girls, he and she - rather than taking on a more gender-neutral approach.
Looking at the first module only, it seems like the manual has a one-point focus on gender roles and how to teach the teachers to not facilitate traditional gender roles by teaching them to encourage possible swapping of gender roles, in words of encouragement to students, or activities that they take part in. However, a single-point focus creates or at the very least continues to facilitate more problems than solving one. Problems like delineating queer identities, making other genders, especially the third gender which the Constitution of India recognises as valid, feel like they don’t belong is facilitating heteronormativity.
Funnily enough, the second module of this volume is ‘Gender and Language’ and focuses on teaching the teachers gender-neutral language, what it is, and how to use it. The module encourages the teachers to use ‘he/she’ instead of ‘he’ for certain stereotypically male things and ‘she’ for female ones. It also has an activity for the
22 teachers to practice using gender neutral words for words that are male centric, like “policeman, mankind, chairman, mailman, etc.” (Shrivastava et al., 2013)
The lack of an intersectional approach or even a true gender-neutral approach is quite apparent in this module. Their version of a gender-neutral language is using “he/she” instead of a universal “he” shows just how limited the idea of “gender inclusivity” is in this attempt at making teachers gender-aware. There seems to be a refusal to recommend the use of the true gender-neutral pronoun, “they” instead of suggesting that the teachers use “he/she”.
Module 3, ‘Gender Sensitivity and Additional Reading Material’ is written in Hindi to make it more accessible and as an attempt to make the language more gender inclusive. The module discusses the need for additional reading materials by teachers in their classrooms to support the student learning as the prescribed material or the material being used currently might not be gender inclusive. It also highlights the role of teachers as facilitators in building gender sensitivity among children.
This module is quite relevant and offers suggestions that are significant as the existing material might be discriminatory and hence there is a need for more gender inclusive material.
The suggestions are based on an attempt to free gender roles - the modules give tips on how to pick the right kind of additional reading material. For example, some of the suggestions are to pick stories that are about girls being adventurous, boys doing household chores that are typically associated with cooking and many more that blur the boundary between stereotypical and conservative gender roles.
23 Module 4, ‘Creating gender-friendly classrooms’ gives strategic suggestions to the teachers on how their classrooms are gender-sensitive and friendly. In this, part 4.5 is on ‘Classroom interactions’ between teachers and students and how to make sure to increase participation of girls in classroom activities and discussions - in all subjects and activities rather than encouraging them to speak in stereotypically assigned subjects like art and not mathematics. This part does a good job of explaining to the teachers why participation of girls should be encouraged and particularly in what kind of subjects or activities. For example, here are a few suggestions it gives:
- “She/he should encourage a mixed seating arrangement. It can if wished be based on the alphabetical list in the class attendance register.
- Boys and girls should be taught to listen to and respect each others’ opinions. - The teacher should avoid projection of stereotypical language and attitudes
through the usage of epithets such as “naughty boy”, “cute girl”, etc.
- All students should be expected to and encouraged towards showing caring behavior towards each other. The teacher can herself model an attitude of empathy.” (Shrivastava et al., 2013, p. 43-44)
These suggestions are helpful and do not have an approach or too much focus on girls - instead they are focusing on teaching all students all kinds of behaviours. One thing to point out here is the discrepancy between the first example where in the manual refers to the teacher as “he/she” (still no “they”) and then in the last
example, “the teacher can herself” which I believe might have been an overlooked mistake.
In part 4.6, ‘Transaction of the curriculum in specific subject areas’ focuses on specific subjects like languages, mathematics and how these classrooms can be turned into gender-friendly ones.
24 In the suggestions for the language classroom, we finally see the manual suggest to use “they” as a gender neutral word and “adjectives that reinforce and encourage the perpetuation of traits of masculinity and femininity should be avoided. Gender complementarity and androgyny should instead be promoted”. (Shrivastava et al., 2013, p. 44)
This was extremely interesting to come across as till now the manual seemed to be stuck on avoiding traditional gender roles without going to a way of looking at identities that does not define any particular task or behaviour to a particular gender. However, gender complementarity is at its very best a tricky concept to introduce without any explanation - in fact, it is odd that they would encourage the use of such a conflicted and problematic concept at all, especially with its roots in monolithic religions, like Christianity which uses this concept to justify stereotyping and assigning gender roles. Additionally, it is also strange the manual asks the teachers to promote “androgyny,” assuming they mean it as an identity and not an abstract loose version of the concept.
For mathematics, the manual suggests the teachers to integrate family welfare and contributions of men and women in society as examples to be used. Statistics, which is often a part of mathematics, can also cover the more quantitative side of
contributions.
For their social studies classrooms, the manual asks the teachers to promote research and discussion groups as a way to find out more about women’s roles in history, women-led organisations and their contribution to social welfare, etc. This is quite an interesting approach to take as often history classrooms and textbooks are devoid of women’s stories, of women’s participation in historical events.
25 The next part in this module, 4.8 deals with ‘Allocation of duties and
responsibilities,’ and asks the teachers to make sure “both, boys and girls” get all kinds of tasks and not stereotypically gendered ones. “Both, boys and girls” should be made class monitors. Both should be expected to be tidy and organised, involved in decorative activities as well as logistical ones. The approach to these activities is quite equal and as it involves all students, it is promoting harmony.
Module number 5 is ‘Mental Health of Adolescent Girls: Concepts, Concerns, Strategies’ and it gives an in-depth explanation of the various mental health issues and complexes that develop in adolescent girls. I do not plan to get into the details of mental health of young girls, as that is not the point of this research. However, a glaring gap in this module is the absence of other genders, even the one they were including in everything till now - men. Young men need as much help and support with their mental health as women do. In fact, with the right kind of guidance from a very young age - boys could learn to manage their emotions better.
Modele number 6, is ‘Teacher as a Counsellor’ also surrounds mental health but also focuses on advising teachers to conduct group discussions involving all the students to discuss bigger gender issues in the country, a list that they should come up with. The rest of the module gives some basic tools and strategies in ways that teachers can double up as counsellors, if there is ever a need to. Apart from the pressure it creates on the teachers, I would say that if as a whole the system would change to accommodate this sort of a change in roles (if and when required) this would be a good move for Indian schools. Often, schools in rural sectors, or low income municipalities don’t have enough funds to hire a counsellor. In India, only urban well-developed cities with fancy schools affiliated to certain kinds of education boards have a mandatory counsellor in the school. Giving teachers a basic idea of counselling, some strategies and tools to at least identify students who might be
26 facing severe mental health issues - would go a long way in creating a healthy school environment.
However, the continued absence of LGBT identities and other gender remains an issue even in this - when they could be the most vulnerable of the lot. Mental health across lower economic groups and caste is also not addressed.
Module 7 focuses on ‘Life Skills Education in Schools’ and provides the perfect platform for teachers to integrate gender awareness into activities and skills that they need to learn about in daily life. These life skills refer to personal life skills like self awareness, problem-solving, coping with stress and emotions, decision-making, empathy, and many more.
The first activity asks the teachers to conduct a discussion on self-awareness and then to involve discussions on “media portrayals of men and women and themes such as adolescent love, heterosexual attraction, etc.” (Shrivastava et al., 2013, p. 82) It is interesting to note that the manual specifies heterosexual attraction. While they are keeping it heteronormative, this could at least be a start for a child who might question whether there are different kinds of attraction, other than heterosexual. More aware teachers could attempt to branch out and include a discussion on different kinds of attraction.
The third activity surrounds discussions on different kinds of violence - focusing on violence carried out by men on women. I believe this activity would have been a great opportunity to try and include different intersectional identities. While violence on women is a huge deal across the nation, not mentioning what kinds of women are more vulnerable leaves the students with a sense that all women have it hard. While all women do face difficulties, some face a particular kind of difficulty
27 or a more complex difficulty - some of whose children might be in these classrooms trying to find some representation.
The second activity is where this manual seems to really branch out into socially vulnerable identities by asking the teachers to conduct group discussions on social sensitivity involving them to “brainstorm on issues reported in the newspaper
related to children, women, Dalits and communal rights”. (Shrivastava et al., 2013, p. 83) Of course, these discussions would happen within higher secondary standards as those students would be equipped to participate in such activities. The fact that it mentions Dalits and communal rights is a tiny step into the intersections of caste and religion that are important for children to have. However, it still needs to be more articulate - at least in the way teachers address that in class.
Module 8 is an interesting one as it focuses on ‘Leadership qualities in girls’ and in that it finally addresses different intersections of gender and how all women have different experiences. It refers to “causes of women’s subjugation and exploitation to factors of caste, class, religion and region,” thereby adding much more dynamism to the idea of “women”.
One of the activities discussed in this module involves making the students work on a chore list and write who performs these household chores at their house and then have a discussion on it the next day so as to facilitate dialogue about the role of family members in a household. The other activity is even more basic - it asks the students to write down the number of children in a house, divide them by gender and write down who goes to school and who doesn’t. While usually, I would not prefer calling gender out - this kind of an activity could be done with much younger children who live in joint families and probably help them articulate which one of their siblings or cousins do not get the same access they do and open up a discussion or at least a thinking process on why.
28 The module then goes on to suggest strategies to make the girls in a classroom feel like they have a safe space, providing them with female representation in the form of their life itself, or suggesting stories and films that might help them gain a
perspective. One of the goals of this module is to also help girls develop “a sense of inquiry” and teach them how to question norms and make decisions effectively.
Throughout this manual, I have been averse to things being divided based on boys and girls, and the mental health module where they completely ignore the boys. However, in this module the focus on how the teachers should focus on girls and developing their abilities to lead, decide, question, opiniate, feel represented - are important things that are usually lacking from a girl’s life, especially if they belong to smaller towns, with little access to media, or belong to lower income households and often lower castes as well. Most girls have no access to role models that will inspire them to do these things, even if they do find those - it will be much later in life.
The 9th module focuses on ‘Nurturing Sports and Physical Education among Girls and Women’ - an important aspect as sports as a hobby or a career is never
encouraged for a woman despite many governmental efforts, initiatives, and even perks being offered to sportswomen who compete at a national level. This module also tries to cover an intersectional perspective as it suggests the teacher to promote “equal access and equal participation of girls from different socio-economic
backgrounds in sports and physical education activities in schools''. (Shrivastava et al., 2013, p. 108)
29 Overall analysis of India’s efforts:
As a whole the manual is well-structured and covers various aspects that should be taught to teachers, making this a good starting point. In terms of Butler’s view on gender being performative - the manual largely follows the same views of gender. As it asks the teachers to not divide tasks, instructions, and activities based on
gender and to blur the lines between what is okay for girls and what is okay for boys - it does do well on the gender theory front and in fact increases interaction between the children.
When looking at the manual through the lens of the intersectional theoretical framework discussed earlier - the gaps in the manual are extremely apparent.
The gaps we see are as follows:
1. Heteronormativity - there is no mention of a third gender, or even more than two genders, or different sexualities.
2. There is very little intersectionality being addressed - most of the modules focus on hegemonic identities and fail to do justice addressing minority identities and the dynamics their presence brings into the classroom.
Although there are a couple of instances where some activities suggest talking about diverse identities and experiences, largely an intersectional gender approach is missing. If the teachers are not sensitive to these identities, what kind of “sensitive” classroom would they really be providing?
3. The constant use of the words, boys and girls, “he/she” kept reiterating
binaries rather than using a straightforward “they” which would facilitate the inclusion of so many different identities and break away from binary usage which ultimately results in unnecessary power plays.
4. The main issue I had while reading this manual closely is that it doesn’t always practice what it preaches - in its theory it stands gender-neutral and
30 inclusive. However, when it comes to strategies, it says contradictory things like divide the class into boys and girls and pair them up. In the manual, they clarify once that neutral is not supposed to be confused with gender-less approach and while that approach is fine to take, using the same
hegemonic methods that conventional teaching does, defeats the purpose as the “how” remains the same. As long as the “how” does not change, the system barely changes.
Applying the transnational feminist approach here, where we look at the specific feminist context of each country, rather than analysing it through a western feminist lens, would give us a sense of why this is. What might be considered as good social progress in terms of gender equality in one country might be something too basic or already existing in another. As I discussed earlier in this thesis, the scale being used to measure gender equality in the western world, would not work for countries like India as the socio-cultural dynamics are completely different in India and hence the struggles are different. While most countries deal with a more or less homogenous population, India’s massive diversity makes it impossible to apply the same kind of learning across the country, much less, expect to apply western-grade feminist strategies everywhere here.
India is a boiling pot of different social, economic, religious, and geo-political
identities. This manual is an honest attempt at covering various aspects however, its outcome or rather focus is still pretty basic - seemingly, because across India the problems being dealt with range from extremely problematic to less problematic. In a country where female infanticide is still one of the highest in the world, the
struggle is to convince the larger public of basic human rights - that of not being killed, being allowed to live, to exist, to be born. At the same time, another corner in India has to fight for their legal right to exist as one of the LGBT+ identities, some girls are fighting for their right to education, while some areas might be fighting for
31 equal pay. This is not to say that some problems are more valid than the others, however, to create a manual that would help all kinds of communities and sections of society is difficult - especially because this manual is giving extremely generic guidelines possibly in order to cater to a larger mass.
Based on this analysis, I will answer a part of my first research question here:
In terms of India’s efforts in educating its teachers about gender and intersectional awareness - this manual is a great starting point. It addresses the issue of gender stereotypes and the many number of problems that come after that. Although the manual lacks in some areas as discussed above, it functions well as starting various dialogues and discussions, spreading awareness amongst the teaching community. It also does a good job of giving teachers access to language and terminology around gender equality which they might not have uptill now and were not sure where to start. It also gives them a structured way of going about this in case the vastness of gender equality is overwhelming.
Sweden’s efforts:
As mentioned earlier, for Sweden, I will be looking at multiple materials, a general guideline-like curriculum set by the Swedish National Agency for Education for schools, two web-articles, and a TEDx video. There was no straightforward manual or toolkit that was available widely. Some of the toolkits that were available were for workplaces, businesses, and government offices. So, for what is being taught to teacher education, I have relied on curriculum advised by the government education agencies, a Tedx video, and web articles. All the government websites commit to gender equality as a common goal, especially in education sectors including schools and higher education institutes.
32 A government-driven effort, this text is titled, ‘Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare’. As it points out, the curriculum is for multiple levels of teachers across different levels of schooling and does not limit itself to a particular group of teachers. The curriculum is a set of generic guidelines for schools as a whole and its teachers.
The first chapter, ‘Fundamental values and tasks of the school’ discusses gender equality as an ideal to achieve through education. As this is not focused on gender, but gender awareness is a part of the curriculum, there are a few instances only. Some of the suggestions or pointers repeat across the chapter, so I have tried to group them so that it is easier to understand them.
The first guideline is that the school (the teachers, staff, headteacher) should promote gender equality and equal opportunities while actively dealing with “gender
patterns” that might be limiting the child development and learning. It then goes into specific ways in which the school can ensure this happens - by how they treat the children in terms of demands and expectations as that teaches the children what is expected of their gender. The suggestion it makes to make sure this is a sensitive process and gender equal is that the school should encourage students working together, develop their skills and provide opportunities that are the same, “regardless of gender”.
The next two sections are divided into preschool and compulsory school and suggestions of the agency for each level of learning.
For preschool, the suggestions are quite generic, but finally show some attempt at an intersectional understanding as the guidelines suggest that the “programme should take advantage of diversity and differences, and use them to give pupils the
33 opportunity to deepen their understanding of different ways of thinking and being”. (Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare REVISED 2018 COMPULSORY SCHOOL, 2011, p. 19)
There are specific suggestions of teaching and allowing the students to talk in Swedish as well as their mother tongue to keep classrooms diverse and allow for cross-cultural learning. This is one of the only times in this curriculum that I see specific strategies being suggested. However, the opportunity to delve into intersectionality doesn’t happen here as it does not combine multiple layers of identities.
For compulsory school, the curriculum elaborates on specific goals within the broad goal of gender equality. Things like how the students should be taught the reality of today’s discriminatory world and opportunities for females and males are not
always offered on equal terms and basis and how people perceive the idea of what is female and male can affect their lifestyle, availability of choices and the choices itself. This part focuses on making the students aware of gender and how it affects them and their classmates.
However, as this is a curriculum it does not give any specific strategies or ways on how to do that at different levels like preschool and compulsory school. The use of “regardless of gender” is a good way to avoid getting caught in binaries of men and women, boys and girls. While there is one mention of transgender identities - so far the curriculum seems to lack an intersectional approach of looking at different genders, ethnicities, and religions together and addressing those.
A section called ‘Core Content’ emphasizes on what the schools should cover in their courses. Some points which were related to gender were:
34 - “Vital questions and their significance to the pupils, such as friendship, justice
and gender roles.
- Ethnicity, gender roles, body image and consumption as well as critical examination of how these phenomena are presented in the media and pop-culture.” (Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare, 2011, p. 22-25)
The curriculum then goes into aims for specific subject courses and involves gender awareness as a part of particular ones like ‘Home and Consumer Studies’ where it focuses on distribution of work in homes and cultural variations in different homes. In ‘Physical Education and Health’ specifically for the ages 7-9 the guidelines ask the schools to focus on making students aware of how gender perceptions play a role in their choice of engaging in sports and which type. For biology, the curriculum emphasises on sexual and reproductive health and hence encouraging questions on gender equality, relationships, etc. As a part of the subject ‘History,’ the curriculum takes an interesting turn as it turns to awareness of Swedish history, along with universal suffrage movements, women’s movements and shift in perceptions of the concept of gender equality.
Throughout this curriculum, I wondered why it never talked about religion, however, there is a whole subject dedicated to that. The section discusses how teachers can guide students on learning about what different religions have to say about gender equality and whether they define gender roles - therefore bringing in one element along with gender. Finally, in ‘Civics’ we come across the beginnings of an intersectional approach, for classes 7 to 9, wherein it asks the schools to focus on “youth identity, lifestyles and well-being and how this is affected by such factors as socio-economic background, gender and sexual orientation” and “differences between people’s financial resources, power and influence related to gender,
35 background, education, housing and welfare”. (Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare, 2011, p. 231-232)
So as we see, many subject courses, the curriculum gives guidelines for what should be encouraged and discussed by the teachers. As we define the intersectional
approach of the theoretical framework, we realise that the guidelines are a hit and miss in that department - while there were 1-2 instances where an attempt to include intersectional identities has been made, most focus is only on gender equality
without gender being discussed in related to other identity markers like religion, class, race, and more. It should also be noted that there is no use of the word,
“intersectionality” anywhere in the curriculum, thereby, not introducing the term or the words as a formal concept to be learnt for the teachers. Hence, the guidelines do not open up a dialogue on intersectionality with the schools even though a couple of guidelines do adopt an intersectional approach, as mentioned above.
Next, we discuss TEDx video and web-articles on Swedish gender-neutral
preschools. Till now we were looking at a curriculum that was designed for all kinds of schooling including preschools. Since the Swedish system leaves the specific strategies on incorporating gender education in classrooms to municipalities and schools, I thought analysing the strategies of a particular set of schools would help to get a more specific idea of what is being taught to the school teachers. As it would be quite difficult to analyse strategies adopted by different schools (classified by level and geography), I sought to focus my analysis on the approach taken by a specific set of preschools
The web articles and the TEDx video, together, talk about two of the five preschools, Egalia and Nicolaigarden, teaching children from 1 to 6 year olds, that have adopted a gender-neutral approach to teaching. Lotta Rajalin, the director of these 5
36 the school’s ideology and their strategies. Two web-articles, one by The Guardian (Leach, 2016) and the second one by The New York Times (Tagliabue, 2012) discuss the various practices adopted by the schools and focus on gender-sensitive
pedagogy of the same pre-schools that Lotta Rajalin talks about in the video that are advocating and practicing gender awareness and inclusive approaches to their teaching.
In the video, Lotta Rajalin, goes into details of gender as a social construct touching upon things like colours that we as a society assign to boys and girls, the kind of clothes we make for girls vs boys - pocket sizes are vastly different, comfort levels are different, and the way they are made encourage or in case of women, discourage physical activity. She also touches upon the emotions we “allow” boys to express and the ones we “allow” girls to express. She explains the consequences of these kinds of gender roles and stereotypes. (TEDx Talks, 2020)
Around halfway through the video, she comes to character adjectives that teachers use to describe students and how certain adjectives like “cute,” “helpful,” and “caring” are used much more for girls than for boys. At the same time, adjectives like “strong,” “naughty,” “brave” are often used for boys. Lotta Rajalin then theorizes that these adjectives that we might be using to give a compliment or describe the student ends up being conveyed as an expectation too. Being rewarded or complimented for a certain aspect of one’s personality can make us feel like that’s what we need to be. Ultimately, for the students, it means only feeling comfortable to feel a certain way. (TEDx Talks, 2020)
As a part of the schools’ initiative to create a more gender equal environment - they employ certain strategies in their teaching and behaviour around students. For example, in the above example, they avoid using compliments stereotypical for girls or boys.
37 An interesting note that she touches upon is that oftentimes, it is no longer about whether a boy or girl can do this or not. In a lot of social situations across the world, as a society we are more tolerant and open and allow for girls to be strong and wild, or a boy to wear pink, cry and be helpful but now we have attached levels to it. The example she gives is that of colours - a boy can wear a pink shirt now, or pink shorts, anything more than that and he will be called out on it in some way or the other. Whereas, a girl can have everything pink from top to bottom, including their bedroom designs. The same way, we allow girls to be angry or wild but there is a limit to how angry or how wild. (TEDx Talks, 2020)
Their teaching approach takes away these distinctions. They change their speech and behaviour to not reiterate these biases. Some of the ways they are doing this are:
- Not refer to students as “boys” and “girls” - instead use gender neutral pronouns, or “friends”. (TEDx Talks, 2020)
- The toys are all jumbled up, there are no different sections for certain kinds of toys. (TEDx Talks, 2020)
- The school teachers also intervene if/when a student says something like “you can’t play this, it’s a boy’s game” and have a discussion about why they feel so. (Leach, 2016)
- They teachers train the children to use the Swedish gender-neutral pronoun “hen” to use when they have to assume a pronoun. (TEDx Talks, 2020) - They avoid using sentences like “Mohammed is so wild and tough”. (TEDx
Talks, 2020)
- The library of these schools have stories about single parents, same-sex couples, apart from the classic children’s books like ‘Snow White’ or ‘Cindrella’ which are laden with gender stereotypes. (Tagliabue, 2012)
38 - The school teachers are also asked to provide as much comfort to a male
student as they would to a female student if they are hurt or upset. (Tagliabue, 2012)
The video and the web-articles give a pretty good understanding of what those teachers must be taught in terms of being made aware and given strategies. In terms of gender and intersectionality, the strategies seem to be going along
gender-inclusive lines, not alienating any particular aspect. Referring to religious and ethnic names, like Mohammed also means that they are intentionally trying to diversify their approach. However, it being a preschool and the children being way too young - it is difficult to address multiple genders and explain them. At the same time, often young children tend to be more open to fluidity between genders and hence accept multiple genders as an idea by themselves. (Leach, 2016)
With the books mentioned in one of the articles (Tagliabue, 2012), what I see is that even though the guidelines only rarely brought in an intersectional approach, some of the strategies being applied can manage to address intersectional gender in subtle ways like these.
The rest of the curriculum makes no specific mention of gender awareness or inclusiveness. However, its approach in setting goals and roles for its teachers uses language that is gender-neutral and at each point, there is an emphasis on “each” student.
Overall analysis of Sweden’s efforts:
Sweden’s efforts are divided into guidelines that are prescribed and strategies that are applied. The guidelines take a more generic approach of what is expected from the government - making the schools accountable to deliver. The schools then form
39 their own strategies and these strategies are then more specific in terms of training the teachers who in turn pass on the right education. The materials together cover a wide range of aspects, going into each subject and then giving general strategies that can be adopted in classrooms. The idea is to offer the children all sides of the coins creating an environment that facilitates equality - an effort that Butler asked to be made in her book, ‘Gender Trouble’. The performativity of gender and treating it like that is definitely taken care of in the strategies formulated by the schools.
When looking at the materials through the lens of the intersectional theoretical framework discussed earlier, the guidelines seem to do pretty well regarding gender theory but average on the intersectional theory front.
The gaps I see are as follows:
1. The guidelines or the strategies hardly, if ever, address intersectionality directly. I understand the strategies being simple as they are made to be accessible to be used in classrooms. However, the guidelines (and the strategies too to some extent) address teachers and intersectionality would have been a great tool and understanding to provide to the teachers as Sweden does deal with multicultural classrooms, at least in bigger cities.
2. The guidelines do talk about looking at multiple identity layers and markers instead of simply gender in a vacuum, however they are made a part of a specific subject and not a concept that could cut across disciplines and be a new way to look at gender.
The strategies from preschool only show some strategies however from the guidelines we get the sense that older children are introduced to more complex
40 concepts, maybe through more strategies and discussions. The preschools do set a good foundation for more open discussions to take place later.
The approach that Sweden has taken in its effort is very simple, generic and can be applied to everywhere in the country, informed by a fairly homogenous geo-political nature of the country.
Based on this analysis, I will answer a part of my first research question here:
In terms of Sweden’s efforts in educating its teachers about gender and intersectional awareness - the guidelines serve as a good starting point which can then be
enhanced or customised to fit different school settings. Gender stereotyping and how to move away from that is addressed very well and its approach to sensitize and facilitate discussions come through.
Common Analysis and comparison of both countries:
#1
In Sweden, we see an education system that is directly informed by a government agency and its agencies are accountable to it too. So, while schools and
municipalities have the freedom to decide their own strategies and execute them, the core guidelines are common for all in the public school sector. This results in a
homogenous outcome for the most part, or at least the same starting point. In
contrast, India functions without any predefined starting point or even an end goal, in terms of gender equality. This kind of a structured system is what India can
definitely borrow from Sweden as it adds a level of seriousness and accountability to the process. Of course, there are challenges to that and would require the Indian
41 education system to undergo a massive change, the starting point is necessary and perhaps revising the manual to that tone would help.
#2
India’s approach to material, or rather the NCERT material was extremely detail oriented, explaining all kinds of details and structurally dividing it into volumes and then modules. The modules that we looked at give pinpoint strategic activities to do in class with students and as a part of teacher’s education too - and it covers many different types of interventions like mental health and life skills in relation with gender.
This was an important step as it added organisation and structure to an otherwise vague attempt of teacher education in India. Sweden could borrow this, especially with having such a structured approach - a common toolkit, a manual or just specific strategies which could still later be customised by each school.
At the same time, it seems that Sweden teaches its teachers gender inclusivity and awareness as a part of their university education which is great as it is not something separate they have to seek out and hence remains separate in their mind, but seen and experienced as a vital part of their education itself. For India, there is a lot to learn from Sweden in terms of consistently using gender-neutral language and make sure that the manual itself is in line with its theories. For Sweden, this seems to be quite sorted.
In terms of the intersectional gender pedagogy suggested by Nina Lykke, which was earlier discussed, these two materials provide a lot to unpack. Lykke says in her chapter, “Rather than viewing the students in the classroom as a homogenous group, an intersectional gender pedagogy focuses on critically making differences
