China’s internal labour migration has profoundly reshaped rural family life, leaving millions of children to grow up apart from their parents. This article examines how left-behind children (LBC) in rural households perceive and pursue education when parental academic guidance is largely absent. Drawing on Social Learning Theory, the article employs a qualitative approach that integrates home-based observation and semi-structured interviews with LBC and their caregivers. Findings show that children’s perceptions of schooling are highly instrumental; education is seen as a pathway to stability and social mobility, but emotionally ambivalent when daily support relies on distant parents or elderly caregivers. Challenges cluster around thin academic scaffolding at home (generational and educational gaps, inconsistent digital access) and pronounced emotional strain (loneliness, insecurity). Yet, children and caregivers demonstrate resilience and ingenuity: self-directed study routines, peer-supported homework circles, ‘silent scaffolding’ by caregivers, teacher reinforcement via phone or video and micro-community resources all play key roles. The study argues that the household, even in parental absence, remains a critical learning site where modelling and reinforcement are sustained through alternative figures and mediated environments. Effective support should go beyond remedying deficits, instead leveraging and amplifying the resources and routines already present in rural families and communities to bridge remaining academic and emotional gaps.
Despite strong educational outcomes, women comprise less than 20% of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) researchers in Indian higher education institutions (HEIs). This underrepresentation transcends the ‘leaky pipeline’ metaphor, resembling instead a ‘braided river’ of intersecting barriers—sociocultural pressures, infrastructural deficits and institutional biases operating simultaneously. Through critical policy document analysis, we systematically coded 32 institutional gender policies alongside seven national frameworks. Findings reveal that while 22% explicitly address the dual burden, only 31% mandate infrastructural support. None of them address patrilocal assumptions or dual-career support, and 87.5% lack any substantive commitments. Current interventions accommodate individual women’s circumstances rather than transforming institutional structures—an approach inadequate for navigating braided complexity, where women must successfully traverse all channels simultaneously. We propose a Gender Equity Institutional Framework (GEIF) comprising 10 interconnected components: gender mainstreaming with audits and budgeting, substantive policies, transportation infrastructure, bias training, representation with power-sharing, formalised mentoring, physical and mental health infrastructure, childcare as shared responsibility, curriculum integration and leadership development. These multi-layered institutional interventions transform HEIs from passive sites mirroring societal inequalities into active agents fostering equity, inclusion and leadership among women in STEM.
