Othering in the newly sex-desegregated international schools of Saudi Arabia: identity, gender roles and social engagement

Abstract

Two of the goals of elementary school are to help students to develop a healthy sense of identity and learn social communication skills. However, there are many factors figure into students’ experience during their early years of school. Othering by the other sex is one of these factors, especially in Saudi Arabia, which has just sex-desegregated their elementary schools for the first time. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field observations, the authors explore the role of othering in the experience of students in first to third grade. Open and focused coding of the interviews and structured observations help to identify the mechanisms of othering and resistance, which shape the students’ sense of identity, their understanding of gender roles, and their social interactions with one another.