A Hermeneutical Exploration of Gender Perceptions Inherent in Some Selected ChiShona Poetry Texts Prescribed for Ordinary-Level Secondary School Learners in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Barton and Sakwa (2012) articulate the role of texts in socializing learners. They identify textbooks as one of the major agents for transmitting social values and attitudes within the school setting. In relation to this, they argue that ‘curriculum design and the textbooks are the most overt areas where gender bias can be detected and where schools tend to present students with masculine and feminine roles that reflect the past rather than the present or the future’ (Barton and Sakwa, 2012:175). This resonates with Bourdieu in Haralambos and Holborn (1995:757) who proffers that ‘[t]he major role of education is cultural reproduction where the dominant group imposes meanings and imposes them as legitimate.’ Thus, the patriarchal perceptions on gender are imposed and made legitimate through educational materials such as the prescribed poetry texts which are the focus of discussion in this chapter. Barton and Sakwa (2012) also draw attention to the authoritative status that schools accord to textbooks. They aver that ‘textbooks in particular which are presented to students as preferred and authoritative source of knowledge play a key role in shaping the students’ images of the social world and its actors’ (Barton and Sakwa, 2012:175). They are also very particular regarding the role of textbooks in gender socialization. Drawing insights from the social learning theory, this chapter focuses on exploring the future gender status through the kind of gender messages that the ChiShona poetry genre presents to the secondary school learners. The present chapter explores how poetry which is studied at secondary school in Zimbabwe plays a pivotal role in shaping gender relations among the learners. This is informed by the inalienable fact that educational institutions and the content covered in the curriculum are an influential medium of socialization. As such, this chapter seeks to respond to two major questions: How is gender represented in the selected poetry anthologies? And what is the resultant effect of the gender representation with regard to the future of gender relations among the Shona people? The analysis presented in this chapter is based on purposively sampled eight poems from the two poetry anthologies, namely: Masocha (1996) Nhaka Yenhetembo (Poetry Heritage) and College Press (1994) Tipeiwo Dariro: Mazwi Matsva Munhetembo (Give us a Platform: The new Voices). In terms of the methodology, the chapter employed qualitative content and discourse analysis.