Hierarchy, Stigma and Construction of Marginal Citizenship in Everyday Schooling

Schools are considered a liberation and social mobility tool in our public imagination. However, many critical studies point out that schools are reproducing the existing inequalities in many ways. In a multicultural society like India, the sensitivity of the school to the differences and its strategies to address the multiplicity of the social and economic backgrounds of the students will have a lasting impact on the academic and personal development of the children. In a historically stratified society, it is significant to see what role schools play irrespective of the policies or curriculum frameworks. This study is the product of 1 year of ethnographic fieldwork in a government higher secondary school in Kerala during 2013–2014 and a revisit in 2018–2019. It employs a critical ethnographic method to understand how hierarchy and stigma are constructed in the everyday classroom in the context of Adivasi students. The idea of citizenship is employed to understand this context. It is a modern imagination of being a nation-state member with some bestowed rights. If we follow the idea that schooling is a preparation for life, it prepares students to be citizens of our society. This paper explores how the citizenship experience of the Adivasi children is being shaped in our schools. A government school in Kerala where all sections of the society are studying is taken for the study. How is the learning context organised in the school? How are Adivasis’s social identity, knowledge and experiences placed in the school? How these things shape the citizenship experience of Adivasi children are some of the questions this paper attempts to explore.