ABSTRACT
Taking the exploration on gender and education forward, this chapter analyses the policies and practices related to gender and schooling in the country to understand how the prevalent notions of childhood get reflected and influence both gender images and expectations and education-related policies and practices. Much has been written on school and gender in India, both from policy and practice perspectives. It is well established that schooling practices, including curricular approaches and contents, often reinforce rather than question prevalent societal and familial level stereotypes. Gender analyses of varied quality and kinds have been undertaken and have offered critical insights into schooling practices vis-à-vis gender. However, these have rarely been informed by or connected to the notions and understanding of childhood that exist in the Indian society. This understanding is important for informing the efforts to make the schooling a more effective process for countering the unequal gender relations and unjust gender prescriptions. The chapter uses the existing academic evidence to explore and explain the issues around and interactions between the themes of childhood, gender and schooling.
