scholarly journals On being a space invader and the thing around my neck

Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-83
Author(s):  
Naasiha Abrahams
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
South African ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
The Body ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Psychological Burden ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Class Background ◽  
White Gaze

This article presents itself as an autoethnographic reflection on my positionality as a veiled, South African Muslim of Cape Malay descent and lower middle class background, attempting to navigate access to white educational space, as part of my doctoral research in Flemish primary schools. I explore what it means to be racialized as ‘other’ whilst also assuming a position of ‘authority’ as researcher, and occupying a particular space (positioned as neutral and secular) as a ‘body out of place’ (Puwar, 2004), in which a symmetry can be seen between myself and those categorised as ‘other’. The aim of this article is to reflect on how this occurs through certain processes, namely: (in)visibilisation; reprimanding; compartmentalisation; and, interpellation. I also reflect on the body of the anthropologist and the idea of the ‘objective researcher’ in order to illuminate how the mechanisms of racialization work. I engage the ensuing psychological burden brought about by the encounter with the ‘white gaze’ (Fanon, 2008). As a complement to the autoethnography, I make use of literary fiction as a method of analysis, in order to highlight the way in which literature can stimulate the formation of analytical insights (see Craith & Kockel, 2014) and, I draw on film.  

New Bodies in Cities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachana Johri
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Caste System ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Contested Spaces ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The City

Globalizing cities in India offer the promise of escape from caste- and gender-based identities, but those who make the journey often encounter difficulties, including the fragmentation of their home experience, and even violence once they get to the city. Lower-middle-class girls are seen as a challenge to ideals of chaste Indian womanhood, while Dalit boys and girls are challenging dominant ideals in Brahmanical India by questioning the nation state and its inherited ideals, including the caste system. This paper draws on cinematic and lived narratives to argue that cities in India are characterized by highly contested spaces, bodily practices, and technologies of the self, where the body of the city, and bodies in the city, are the lived realities of these tense negotiations.

Contextual variations in children’s perceptions of their peers as gender typical

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-313
Author(s):  
William M. Bukowski ◽  
Melisa Castellanos ◽  
Melissa Commisso ◽  
Ryan Persram ◽  
Luz Stella Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Socioeconomic Differences ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Gender Typicality ◽  
Children's Perceptions ◽  
Children’S Perceptions

Cultural and socioeconomic differences in children’s perceptions of their peers as being typical members of the cis gender group were examined in a cross-sectional sample of 351 girls ( N = 164) and boys from 19 fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms (M age = 11.5) in three primary schools in Montréal ( N = 156) and two schools in Barranquilla. Multilevel modeling indicated that: (a) the overall level of perceived typicality was low; (b) boys perceived other boys to be more typical than girls, whereas girls perceived girls and boys to have the same level of typicality; (c) in Barranquilla perceptions of gender typicality were higher among upper-middle-class children than among lower-middle-class children, whereas no difference was observed with the children from Montréal.

Effects of the Stimulus Variable on Matrix Classification Responses of 12-Year-Old Children

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 101-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rusthum Davrajh Ramkissoon ◽  
Kastoor Bhana
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
South African ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Rate Of Success ◽  
The Relationship

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between stimulus dimensionality (2-D and 3-D) and matrix classification responses of 12-year-old South African Indian children. Sixty 12-year-old subjects (30 males and 30 females), from a middle-class background were selected. The two sets of stimuli were drawn from the same conceptual domain, namely, geometric shapes and forms. The traditional Piagetian assessment technique of completion was employed. The results revealed that subjects showed a higher rate of success, in terms of both behavioural responses and verbal explanations, with 3-D stimuli than with 2-D stimuli. The results are discussed in relation to (a) the need for standardization of stimuli and assessment techniques to enable a greater degree of generality, and (b) the applicability of the present stimuli across a variety of cultures.

Neutralization of gender distinctions in Modern Hebrew numerals

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorit Ravid
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Fourth Graders ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Seventh Graders ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Modern Hebrew

ABSTRACTGender distinctions constitute one of the central grammatical categories in Hebrew grammar and are closely related to number distinctions. Both are acquired early on, since they apply to almost every morphological category: three major classes of content words, as well as two classes of function words. Feminine words are marked by Suffixal -α and -t, while masculine words carry either a zero or -e suffix. A small class of what might be termed “numeral nounclassifiers” are supposed to agree in gender with their head nouns, but carry a mirror-image gender marking, resulting in rule opacity. The subjects, 40 children (20 fourth graders, 20 seventh graders) from a lower middle-class background, were tested on gender markings of numerals in two situations involving monitored and unmonitored situations. The results indicate the disappearance of gender agreement in Modern Hebrew numerals and a reanalysis of numeral suffixes by speakers.

Reading for pleasure : the influence of reading clubs in selected Bahananwa Limpopo primary schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
Kgomotlokoa Linda Thaba-Nkadimene ◽  
Maletšema Ruth Emsley
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Reading For Pleasure ◽  
Theory Of Reading ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
African Youth ◽  
Reading Clubs

The challenges of reading experienced by learners exerts a negative impact on reading for pleasure, and learners' outcomes. In an attempt to address such reading challenges, Reading Clubs were launched to promote reading for pleasure among South African youth. This study examines the influence of Reading Clubs on learners' attitudes to Reading for Pleasure and the outcomes thereof. The study was informed by the Top-Down Model of Reading and the Cultural Theory of reading for pleasure. Interviews were conducted in five purposively selected schools with five Sparker coaches and five teachers. The research findings reveal a positive influence of Reading Clubs on reading for pleasure and learners' outcomes. This is reflected through improved levels of reading for pleasure. This study ultimately recommends that schools learn from best practices of Reading Clubs, and that government strive to make Reading Clubs a sustainable project.

Privilege Accumulation Among Upper Middle-Class Youth in Mexico

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minor Mora-Salas ◽  
Orlandina de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Mexican Families ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Upper Middle Class ◽  
Class Youth

This chapter demonstrates how upper middle-class Mexican families mobilize a vast array of social, cultural, and economic resources to expand their children’s opportunities in life and ensure the intergenerational transmission of their social position. The authors analyze salient characteristics of families’ socioeconomic and demographics in the life histories of a group of young Mexicans from an upper middle-class background. Many believe that micro-social processes, especially surrounding education, are key to understanding how upper-class families mobilize their various resources to shape their children’s life trajectories. These families accumulate social advantages over time that accrue to their progeny and benefit them upon their entrance to the labor market.

scholarly journals Between field and home: notes from the balcony

2021 ◽  
pp. 147447402110205
Author(s):  
Shruti Ragavan
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
The Past ◽  
Urban Village ◽  
The City

Balconies, windows and terraces have come to be identified as spaces with newfound meaning over the past year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and concomitant lockdowns. There was not only a marked increase in the use of these spaces, but more importantly a difference in the very nature of this use since March 2020. It is keeping this latter point in mind, that I make an attempt to understand the spatial mobilities afforded by the balcony in the area of ethnographic research. The street overlooking my balcony, situated amidst an urban village in the city of Delhi – one of my field sites, is composed of middle and lower-middle class residents, dairy farms and farmers, bovines and other nonhumans. In this note, through ethnographic observations, I reflect upon the balcony as constituting that liminal space between ‘field’ and ‘home’, as well as, as a spatial framing device which conditions and affects our observations and interactions. This is explored by examining two elements – the gendered nature of the space, and the notion of ‘distance and proximity’, through personal narratives of engaging-with the field, and subjects-objects of study in the city.

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