Children speak out: Gender and sexuality in treacherous school journey terrains

abstract

This Article provides a critical analysis of the role of gender and sexuality in children's navigation of treacherous school journey terrains in one Lesotho rural primary school. It draws on data generated with 12 children (male = 6; female = 6) who travelled an average distance of 10–15 km to and from school every day. The study employed creative participatory and visual research methodology (for instance, route mapping, diamond ranking and photographic technique) to document the challenges that the children experienced as they traversed the treacherous terrains of their school journey. The findings denote how children resourcefully exploited the dominant discourses of gender and sexuality to mitigate the dangers of passing through dense forests with herd boys, muthi murderers and Basotho traditional circumcision initiates. Children's agency in navigating these obstacles and (albeit life-threatening) challenges included travelling in protective gender-based groupings, getting involved in heterosexual walking relationships and creatively harnessing the dominant homophobic discourses in these contexts in their favour. By foregrounding how gender and sexuality featured as a resource and recourse in how children navigated their school journey, the Article challenges the dominant discourses that view children as immature, sexually innocent (or asexual) and unable to determine their lives. It provides insights into why actively involving children in matters that affect their lives and foregrounding gender and children's sexuality could become a potential catalyst for policy and social action aimed at improving the schooling experiences of rural children.

Keywords:

• Gender
• sexuality
• rurality
• children's school journey
• Lesotho

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pholoho Morojele

PHOLOHO MOROJELE is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Humanities: School of Education. Dr Morojele was awarded Prolific Researcher recognition at University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2012 based on his excellent research publication record. He is a Commonwealth scholar and studied as part of his PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London. He has published both nationally and internationally and has attended many conferences where he presented various papers including keynote addresses. Dr Morojele was born in Lesotho, grew up and schooled in rural Lesotho schools. His research interests and publications are in gender, children's geographies and social justice in education. Email: [email protected]