Why Emotions Matter: Developing Peaceful and Gender-Equitable Community Schools in Nepal through Nonviolent Communication

Abstract

In community schools in Nepal, female teachers are expected to provide emotional labor with little to no institutional recognition and support. Without the language, tools and institutional space for acknowledging and supporting emotions, female teachers unfairly carry an invisible burden of emotional labor like managing stress, miscommunication and conflicts for nurturing a positive environment in the schools. On the other hand, male teachers are expected to be tough by focusing on discipline and emotionally distant. In essence, female teachers are overburdened and male teachers are restricted. This reinforces gendered patriarchal notions of emotions and contributes to inequity not just inside the schools but also in society as students learn about social dynamics from the behaviors of teachers.

Building on the experience of leading in-person emotional literacy workshops for educators in 10 community schools in Nepal, this proposed project aims at a novel digital approach to institutionalize emotional literacy through Nonviolent Communication (NVC) for educators. NVC is useful for gender transformation because it transcends the patriarchal notion that emotions and relational work are “naturally feminine” responsibilities. By equipping educators to recognize emotions as indicators of universal human needs like clarity, respect, care and meaningful contribution rather than personal weaknesses, NVC reframes emotional awareness as a professional competency expected of all teachers and administrators in the school regardless of gender. In doing so, the approach helps redistribute emotional labor within schools and opens space for male educators to engage in relational care practices that the dominant culture often implicitly assigns to women.

Contextualized specifically for the cultural and geographical realities of Nepal, this gender transformative digital approach empowers teachers in 10 community schools in Bagmati province who have little to no prior exposure to emotional literacy skills in three ways. Firstly they will learn NVC concepts and skills to build their self compassion capacity by learning to identify and relate with their emotions compassionately instead of habitual ways of suppressing them or being aggressive as learnt from the dominant culture. Secondly, they will access virtual reflective spaces to build relational reciprocity among peers by giving and receiving empathy. Thirdly, they will be equipped with a needs inventory toolkit that will help them identify and communicate their needs to school leadership for influencing positive changes in the schools.

Using the NVC approach of valuing emotions as important indicators of human needs, the project transforms the staffroom dynamic from ‘Power-Over’ (hierarchical control) to ‘Power-With’ (collaborative needs-recognition). In doing so, it targets three crucial outcomes. Firstly, teachers experience less burnout and higher professional capacity and agency. Secondly, schools become sites that promote positive peace by incorporating NVC skills into measurable school improvement plans that are informed by needs recognition. Thirdly, the digital modules ensure that high quality emotional literacy tools and practices can reach non-urban areas that don’t have access to in person emotional literacy workshops like urban schools do.

By piloting this first-ever digital emotional literacy curriculum in Nepal, this initiative is designed for long-term sustainability through partnerships with local government education offices and the Center for Education and Human Resource Development1 to recognize and institutionalize emotional labor. The long-term vision is to eventually mainstream emotional literacy into the national teaching curriculum for gender transformative impact.