Negotiating Girls' Empowerment: Models of Assertive and Subversive Resistance in Rwanda's Only Inclusive School

• In Event: International Educational Research

Abstract

This piece explores the models of resistance Rwandan girls with disabilities deploy in classrooms at the nation’s largest and oldest inclusive secondary school. Even with Rwanda’s progressive gender policies and programs, patriarchy circulates consistently through cultural and religious traditions to preserve rigid gender scripts and deference to male authority, even in schools. But Rwandan girls with disabilities are not without agency. They resist through two key strategies: (1) assertive resistance, defined here as negotiating with patriarchy, and (2) subversive resistance, noted as ‘negotiating around patriarchy’. Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews with Rwandan girls and boys with disabilities, the paper utilizes intersectionality to illustrate how Rwandan girls with disabilities practice feminism in school contexts.

Author

• Derron Wallace, Brandeis University