AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF

Eak Prasad Duwadi for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Education presented on July 28,

2009. Title: Female Teachers at Schools in Nepal: Cats on the Hot Tin Roof.

Abstract Approved: ……………………

Prof. Shreeram Lamichhane, PhD

Dissertation Supervisor

Comparing the female teachers’ quandaries with cats’ uneasiness while sitting on the hot tin roof

might sound a crazy analogy. It is just a metaphor. Female teachers are as capable as males. It is

also true that they are shouldering dual responsibilities of both women and teachers'. So the

question I explored using "case study premise" within a qualitative research design was “How do

the female teachers at school in Nepal face/confront the reality of life while discharging their

duties as teachers?” This study was an investigation of first person accounts of ten purposive

research informants who were either female teachers or persons who have been observing female

teachers for years.

The purpose of the study was to analyze and discuss triangulation of the perceptions on

female teachers at schools in Nepal exploring their dilemmas that they faced while working as

teacher. For the same I reviewed prior researches, different scriptures and triangulated different

theoretical perspectives and also interlinked the research participants’ experiences and feelings

and my own observations (sometimes).

I claim the study’s distinctiveness in its first person detailed accounts of both female teachers

and social workers and School Management Committee Members in one study and its
clarification of the essence of the female teachers’ difficulties through the generation of personal

recollections, narratives, documents and informants’ own words and expressions.

I analyzed the acquired information using phenomenology, conservatism, humanism,

feminism, modernism, constructivism, Marxism, critical theory, deconstruction, post-

structuralism, psychoanalytic theory and postmodernism. Therefore, I produced one primary

theme related to the difficulties of Nepali female teachers working at schools: female teachers

are having tremendous struggles to manage their home, fulfil social obligations and developing

their careers.

I found that female teachers are still ignored (mostly), harassed, and overloaded not only with

teaching but also with household chores. Simultaneously, they have been running both home and

school although they get credit nowhere. Moreover, still their presence in decision making

bodies is still very insignificant either at their home or office.

Revealing what difficulties female school teachers in Nepal are having from purposive case

studies, I drew implications for further research and implications to the government. Because the

government has adopted policies to recruit more and more female teachers but has not given

appropriate attention to the existing female teachers’ problems, I think that mobilizing the males

to end inequality can stop bias against females in family, creating gender-friendly environment

and punishing the exploiters, and abolishing all laws which are not female friendly; it is possible

only when there will be more females at each department at schools in Nepal.

…………………

Eak Prasad Duwadi

Degree Candidate