Bridging the transition, negotiating identities and reshaping roles: Mbororo-Fulani Girls in an Islamic High School in Cameroon

To understand how the school setting shapes the experiences of girls from the Mbororo minority group in the North West Region of Cameroon, I carried out a qualitative case study at an Islamic High School that stands at the crossroads of identity, culture, religion, language and gender.;My findings underscore the importance of schooling as an identity formation activity that shapes people for the future within the postcolonial state that has to constantly mediate the legacy of colonization (Hall, 1996; Mbembe, 2003). The school struggles with multiple identities as an Islamic, ethnic and a regular high secondary school each vying for dominance. As an Islamic school, it is nurturing and supportive, the practical application of which is a sense of the Muslim solidarity. However, the supportive environment does not match outcomes in which the centrality of gender leads to institutional practices that disproportionately impact the participation of girls. As an ethnic school, it is discriminatory and condescending in which Mbororo girls as the cultural 'other' have to negotiate belonging on the basis of their fit within the dominant ethnic culture. The lack of fit posits them as winners and losers in academics such that high achieving Mbororo girls are perceived as exceptional. As a regular secondary school, it is characteristically bureaucratic in the set up and chaotic due to the tensions within and pressures from the outside. Mbororo girls resist the marginal identities imposed on them by projecting themselves into their future roles as educated women despite such challenges as resistance from the larger Mbororo community. As a community resource center, the school has become the locus for formulating a moderate version of Islam for the entire region. My findings also stress the importance of context in education policy analysis as decisions and contestations within the school are part of the global context in education as privatization, expansion and girls' education as rights-based.