Expressions From the Past: Gender Non-Conformity Within Schools in India

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Building Movements and Elevating Voices: Efforts to Engage Mobilization and Promote Discussion on LGBTQ+ Issues in Education

Proposal

The decriminalization of homosexuality in India has been a landmark judgment enacted by the Supreme Court of India in 2018 (Kidangoor, 2018). The effects of this judgement are yet to take precedence within schools. Research from the United States show that these students faced more bullying experiences and negative attitudes in schools leading to more psychological distress (Goodenow et al., 2016; Hobaica et al., 2021). There is a documented lack of social support, stress, increased suicidal tendencies, and depression among gender-minority youth (McInroy et al., 2022; Simon et al., 2022). The study aims to bridge the gap in evidence on research conducted on the intersection of school psychology and gender in India (Patwa et al., 2019). This research draws from positioning theory that reveals implicit and explicit patterns in how people act towards others due to a certain distribution of rights and duties (Harré et al., 2009). It involves re-positioning self-identity to question the dominant discourses of masculinities in the Indian context. This study follows a qualitative methodology to describe the schooling experiences of LGBTQIA+ community members in India. It uses the oral history technique as the primary data collection method to understand personal experiences in schools. Oral history is a vital form of historical narrative to highlight a story submerged within official narrations (Cliff & Claire, 2018). A comparative analysis will show the schooling experiences in the 2000’s of five narrators in India to understand patterns across geographical regions. The preliminary findings from the analysis of one oral history show challenges in student's lived experiences while navigating gendered identities without support from school authorities or parents. The narrator’s schooling experiences in an urban school have led to childhood trauma and repressed emotions in adulthood (Borgogna et al., 2019; Mayo, 2022). As an education researcher, I focus on how experiences in school can be different and the interventions necessary to reduce discomfort amongst gender non-conforming students. This study is an original contribution to illustrate the school experiences of the LGBTQIA+ individuals (particularly, those who identify as asexual) in the Global South. The study also proves the significance of qualitative methodologies such as oral history to elicit deep, personal responses from the past. The presentation will focus on the experience of conducting an oral history interview and some insights from the process. In this study, I also highlight how a bond with one narrator influenced the data collection through the dialogic oral history technique. Avenues for future research include detailed study of schools to understand the current situation.
References
Cliff, M., & Claire, K. (2018). Say it forward: A guide to social justice storytelling. Haymarket Books.
Harré, R., Moghaddam, F. M., Cairnie, T. P., Rothbart, D., & Sabat, S. R. (2009). Recent advances in positioning theory. Theory & psychology, 19(1), 5-31.

Authors

• Shruti Sheshadri, University of San Francisco

• Agharsh Chandrasekaran