Teaching toolkit
The Teaching Tool is an interactive pedagogical resource that is organized thematically into modules accessible to teachers and students of gender studies, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, South Asian studies, film studies, narratology, socio- and ethno-linguistics and community studies. It incorporates materials from both the film and the story archive.
The Teaching Tool also functions as a resource for community engagement and community and women’s/girls’ empowerment within the South Asian context.
Each module includes
a) clearly laid out learning objectives;
b) discussion questions, writing prompts and additional individual and interactive learning activities;
c) video clips from the story archive, film clips, other footage of interviews with community members, scenes of ritual and everyday life in Mithila; and
d) stills of relevantly themed Mithila art.
The modules are
1) gender orders and gender dynamics;
2) caste/class orders and dynamics;
3) cultural stories;
4) storytelling modalities: oral/painterly/performative/filmic;
5) alternative words/alternative worlds (resistance);
6) community-building — workshopping stories;
7) social change/cultural dissensus;
8) economy, technology and social change;
9) cross-cultural connections/implications.
Maithil women’s stories provide an entry point to each of these themes.