Gendered Schooling: A Case from Northern Pakistan
This paper is based on the findings of my doctoral research that examined women teachers' experiences in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Life history research was used to establish links between women teachers' (five women participants) experiences and their social, historical and social contexts. The study attempted to understand how women teachers manage their familial traditional role and their professional commitment -- a comparative recent addition to their traditional role. Life history interviews and observations were main source of data generation.
This paper will specifically discuss findings of my observations of five teachers' role they play inside and outside the classroom. Teachers unanimously agreed that teaching was the most appropriate profession due to schools' ability to accommodate women's other role as primary care givers of their families. Interestingly, the dominant gender division of labour also found an expression in schools' every day routines in terms of delegation of task to different teachers. Most of the time, female teachers enacted their 'traditional' role inside the schools and the classrooms. Classroom observations also identified female teachers' gendered teaching practices, eg, making gender segregated groups, reminding girls of their 'familial and care giving' responsibilities and specific seating arrangements.
The paper discusses these nuances from teachers' classroom practices and school experiences to demonstrate its impact on quality of teaching and learning in the classroom and therefore the need to integrate gender as crosscutting theme in teachers' professional development programmes.