Authors:

Pratheesh P

Abstract:

Classrooms in higher education function as everyday social spaces where gender relations are continuously produced, negotiated, and normalised through routine interactions, pedagogical practices, and institutional cultures. While policy frameworks increasingly emphasise gender equality, less attention has been paid to how gendered meanings are enacted within ordinary classroom life. Drawing on qualitative insights from existing studies on gender bias, educational inequality, masculinity, and youth perceptions of gender norms, this study examines how everyday classroom practices shape gender relations in higher education settings. The analysis foregrounds subtle forms of differentiation—such as participation patterns, authority relations, disciplinary expectations, and silences—that reproduce gendered hierarchies even in formally egalitarian environments. The study situates these dynamics within broader socio-cultural structures, highlighting how historically embedded norms, institutional routines, and implicit expectations influence teaching–learning processes. Rather than approaching gender inequality as a purely structural or policy-level problem, the article demonstrates how it is sustained through mundane, taken-for-granted practices within classrooms. By focusing on lived experiences and interactional processes, the study contributes to a more grounded understanding of gender relations in higher education and underscores the need to address the gap between gender-equity policies and everyday pedagogical realities.

Keywords:

Gender Relations, Higher Education Classrooms, Classroom Interaction, Institutional Culture, Pedagogical Practices, Lived Experience, Gender Equality, Socio-Cultural Norms.

Vol & Issue:

VOL.18, ISSUE No.1, March 2026