Breaking Silence and Opening Windows: Insider Stories of South Asian Canadian Women

Abstract

 As a series of backdrops, this paper draws on important works of Megan Boler (1999), as well as critical feminist studies (Baszile, 2008; Delpit, 1988; Mogadime, 2008. It explores how understanding the roles and functions of emotions (positive and negative) provides valuable insights into identifying forms of social control. It further explains some key strategies of enforcement of dominant discourses in public educational institutions. As importantly, it identifies minority women teachers’ responses to the socio-economic and cultural work environments in which minorities are seldom welcome. The discussion will include a few findings from my far larger study about the experiences of South Asian women teachers in a western Canadian, prairie city (Aujla-Bhullar, 2012) as a window revealing insights concerning emotions previously silenced.