Declared ‘literate’: Subjectivation through decontextualised literacy practices

Abstract

The concepts of adult literacy and adult education have been predominantly framed by the discourse of development in Nepal whereby literacy programmes are designed to combat illiteracy with the purpose of promoting the socio-economic and human development in the country. In this effort, certain groups of women and ethnic minorities have been homogenously categorised as ‘illiterate’ and constituted as target groups for such basic and functional literacy programmes. This process of subjectivation through literacy programme works to impose feelings of inadequacy among the participants of the literacy programme, which further invalidates their own experience and situated knowledge. This article illustrates this process of subjectivation and resistance to it while challenging the idea of a homogenous ‘Thakali women’ through the personal narratives of Thakali women and their experiences of engaging with the discursive practices of literacy. In doing so, the article argues that the decontextualised approach to literacy further erases the socio-cultural, economic and historical context within which the individuals form their experiences and knowledge and hence, the need for culturally contextualised literacy practices that account for lived experiences and knowledge.