• To be Intelligent or not to be: The Sociocultural Construction of Intelligence in Two Bangladeshi Schools

This research explores how sociocultural processes construct intelligence in schools and shape the everyday experiences of students. More specifically, it explores the elements and beliefs that teachers and students associate with intelligence and how classification based on intelligence affects classroom experiences, pedagogy, and student selfhood. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two schools of Cumilla district in Bangladesh from July to August 2023, I argue that different categories of elements such as academic success, behaviour, moral trait and communication skills function as the markers of intelligence. In addition to that, I argue that three types of beliefs based on naturalistic, personalistic and supernatural assumptions shape the notion about the source of intelligence in school settings. This research also explores the effect of classification based on intelligence in schools by arguing that this classification affects the selfhood of the students by regulating behaviour and also creates an unequal pedagogical relationship in classes. This article contributes to the field of Educational Anthropology by illuminating the sociocultural construction of intelligence within Bangladeshi schools.