Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction. "Girls are the most powerful force of change on the planet": Situating Schoolgirlhood; Chapter 1. "Now is not like before. The world has changed": Maasai Education in Cultural and Historical Context; Chapter 2. "I see that when I am in school, I will have a good life": Producing and Performing Schoolgirlhood; Chapter 3. "The medicine for fire is fire": Negotiating Schoolgirlhood; Chapter 4. "We are not enkanyakuai. ... We are just girls": Embodying Schoolgirlhood; Conclusion. Becoming "People Who Use Both Hands"; Notes
Summary
A host of international organizations promotes the belief that education will empower Kenya's Maasai girls. Yet the ideas that animate their campaigns often arise from presumptions that reduce the girls themselves to helpless victims of gender-related forms of oppression. Heather D. Switzer's interviews with over 100 Kenyan Maasai schoolgirls challenge the widespread view of education as a silver bullet solution to global poverty. In their own voices, the girls offer incisive insights into their commitments, aspirations, and desires. Switzer weaves this ethnographic material into an astute analysis of historical literature, education and development documents, and theoretical literature
