A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Learning Marriage Ideals and Gendered Citizenship in “God-Fearing” Uganda (2022)

Alava, H., Amito, J., & Lawrence, R. (2022). Learning Marriage Ideals and Gendered Citizenship in “God-Fearing” Uganda. In K. Holma, & T. Kontinen (Eds.), Learning, Philosophy, and African Citizenship (pp. 177-196). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94882-5_10

JYU authors or editors

Alava, Henni

Publication details

All authors or editors: Alava, Henni; Amito, Janet; Lawrence, Rom

Parent publication: Learning, Philosophy, and African Citizenship

Parent publication editors: Holma, Katariina; Kontinen, Tiina

ISBN: 978-3-030-94881-8

eISBN: 978-3-030-94882-5

Publication year: 2022

Pages range: 177-196

Number of pages in the book: 221

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Place of Publication: Cham

Publication country: Switzerland

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94882-5_10

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/80935

Abstract

This chapter contributes to understanding the space between religion, gender and citizenship through a focus on teaching and learning about marriage in Ugandan churches. While pastors focused marriage teaching on the primacy of a church wedding, sexual purity and harmony through hierarchy, church-going women saw cohesion, spirituality and physical survival as cornerstones of an ideal relationship. By juxtaposing how women saw themselves as having learned these ideals, and how pastors saw themselves as teaching theirs, we illustrate that teaching and learning about gender, relationships and citizenship—and the character-moulding concomitant within these processes—occurs more in everyday lives than in places formally set out for the purpose. To achieve contextualized understanding of citizenship in religious contexts, it is important to pay attention to both religious teaching and practice and to develop methodological tools that identify how men and women actually learn about their worth, rights and responsibilities as citizens.

Keywords: citizenship; religion and religions; conceptions; religious perceptions; gender; gender roles; marriage; teaching and instruction; ideals; rights; responsibilities (duties); contextuality