Literacy, Power and Feminism

The politics of literacy and education has thus far remained a marginal concern for the women's movement in India with little effort made to address power issues that form part of the education process. Concerns over ensuring quality in education that are limited to skill improvement and enhancing the learning environment all too easily overlook that educational arenas create boundaries that limit possibilities and reinforce stereotypes, especially long-standing patriarchal constructs. This paper describes three diverse teaching/learning environments that formed part of a women's empowerment programme in a UP district in a bid to examine the way power relations reproduce and transform themselves in literacy programmes, which consciously attempt an empowering and participatory pedagogy.