Doing the ‘work of hearing’: girls’ voices in transnational educational development campaigns

Abstract

There is an increasing focus in transnational campaigns for girls’ education and empowerment on highlighting the voices of girls from the global south. These moves are made in response to feminist critiques of said campaigns for not attending to the diverse, multiple and complex lived experiences of girls. This article engages in theorising these present encounters and suggests alternate methodologies for engaging with girls. It argues that eliciting/granting voice to marginalised groups (such as girls from the global south, in this case) involves doing the ‘work of hearing’; devoid of this, the voices become a mere add-on. Focusing on an engagement with girls in Pakistan, the author theorises that the practice of hearing entails attending to the seepages and excesses of girls’ voices – or, that which exceeds dominant codes – that point to the multiplicity of their investments, commitments and visions of good life; being open to new terms of development that are identified by the participants themselves, terms that may not align with prevalent ‘best practices’; and being cognisant of the weight that Eurocentric knowledges carry, which often makes the work of hearing indigenous knowledges difficult.

Keywords:

• girls’ education
• girls’ empowerment
• development practice
• Pakistan
• human rights

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Translation into Urdu by the author.

2. These include the journal Girlhood Studies; books such as The Modern Girl around the World; Girlhood: A Global History; The Future Girl; and Young Femininity, Girlhood, Power, and Social Change, among others; and the establishment of a Girlhood Studies Special Interest Group at the National Women’s Studies Association.

3. My colleague did not read Urdu and Sindhi compositions.