Education Commons^™

Engendering Agency: The Differentiated Impact Of Educational Initiatives In Zambia And India, Monisha Bajaj, M Pathmarajah

School of Education Faculty Research

Efforts to interrupt the reproduction of unequal gender relations in schools involve alternative practices and pedagogies intended to transform students’ notions of gender and gender relations. Beyond the protective environments where such educational initiatives take shape, however, students must rely on their own sense of agency to reenact newly developed gender roles, behaviors, and understandings. This article examines how human agency is differentially experienced and acted upon by boy and girl students responding to educational nongovernmental initiatives in Zambia and India. Two case studies are reviewed, offering evidence from participants in educational programs that seek to deliberately disrupt gender inequality, …