This work investigates several themes around sense of belonging to school among historically marginalized adolescent girls in rural India. Drawing on belonging theories from psychological and sociological literature, Dr. Tiwari analyzes how school belonging is conceptualized by young girls and influences by structural determinants of gender inequality. Through focus group date with girls across five Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs), special public schools established for the most marginalized girls in India, she finds that high belonging within school settings was deeply enmeshed with low belonging outside of school. By examining both place-belonging and the politics of belonging in the context of school, it is argued that there exists a state of “belonging dissonance” among girls in which a high and a low sense of belonging plays out simultaneously, which speaks to their inclusion and exclusion at the same time. Findings carry important global implications for gender equality discourses and the limitations of human development scholarship.

Dr. Ananya Tiwari is an Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University.