Classroom, Curriculum, Pluralism And Social Inclusion

Classroom, Curriculum, Pluralism and Social Inclusion: Voices from the Margin Dr.Mahendra K Mishra State Tribal and Minority Education Coordinator, Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority ,Bhubaneswar [email protected]

Village verses school ► Village

► School

►A

Though physical access is not denied, children’s cultural values and experience is not captured What's the secret that denies the diversities of language, ethnicity

composition of many languages, ethnicity, religion do coexists

► What

is the secret that perpetuates the co existence of these diversities in the villages

Space of marginalized in the village ► Marginalized

are secluded from the sacred centers ► They live in a secluded place ► Visible social barrier ( well, tank, temple) ► Traditional culture has perpetuated this in the society

►Are

these social inequalities influence the school ? ►Curriculum and content ? ►Teachers attitude ? ►School management ? ►Classroom behaviors ? ►Learning of children ?

In the classroom.. ► Who

are the marginalized ► Lower castes/class ► Powerless ► Poor ► Illiterate ► Working class ► Unprivileged

► Who

are not

► Upper

Caste/class ► powerful ► Rich ► Literate ► Ruling class ► privileged

Who are they ? ►Dalits ►Adivasi ►Muslims ►Artisan

castes ►Women ►Migrants ►Urban deprived ►Nomadic

What type of classroom do our schools contain Children from ► Different languages ► Different religion ► Different ethnic groups ► different cultural background Teachers as authority (on the chair ) and children in culture of silence (sitting on the ground) Is the school replicate our inherited colonial mind set ?

Teachers Values (outside in) ► The

As-Is Situation ► Often the only voice heard in class is that of the teacher. ► When children’s voices are heard, they are answering the teacher’s questions or repeating the teacher’s words. ► Do the children’s voice matter? (in side out) ► Do the children have choices of learning from their language and cultural context ?

NCF 2005 ►The

formal approach, of equality of treatment in terms of equal access or equal representation for girls, is inadequate. Today, there is a need to adopt a substantive approach, towards equality of outcome, where diversity, difference and disadvantage are taken into account.(p.6)

►Marginalized

learners, and especially girls, to claim their rights as well as play an active role in shaping collective life, education must empower them to overcome the disadvantages of unequal socialization and enable them to develop their capabilities of becoming autonomous and equal citizens.(p.6)

A classroom with equality To make it an inclusive and meaningful experience for children ► To move away from a textbook culture to connect with children’s life Child centered pedagogy: ► Gives primacy to children’s experiences ► gives primacy to their voices ► gives primacy to their active ►

Do our classroom count these diversities? ►

Why

NO

Traditional social biases ► Mind set of untouchability( high /low) ► Behaviour /Body language ► Cultural attitude ► Sitting arrangement in classroom ► gender disparity/caste based space management ► priority to upper caste children and importance to upper caste teachers ► Neglect to Adivasi and Dalit children ► All these are invisible in our mind set.. ►

Understanding others .. Different make-beliefs on other’s ,language,ethinicity, religion (we all enjoy holidays of other religion but we don’t know the background) Do we know about the Muslims and Christians literature ? Why we fail in understand them ? Is there any source in our education to know their culture?

Physical access only ? ► Marginalized

children have physical access

to the school ► But they are intellectually neglected ► Rich human values of Adivasi is not discussed ► Dignity of labour of workers are not respected ► Contribution of Muslims are ignored ► Tolerance of women and girls are ignored ► Service of Christians are misunderstood

How our curriculum contains cultural diversities Uniform curriculum and textbooks have little space for cultural diversities Local social, religious or linguistic diversities are not discussed in the classrooms Curriculum designers / Textbook writers and teachers always chant “mainstream” mantra

Teachers .. ► Faithful

follower of text books ( course completion syndrome ) ► Only what is written is knowledge and others are not (exam related texts) ► Ignores knowledge outside classroom ► No emphasis to the social composition of the village/city which is constitutive of children’s knowledge and environment ► No or less connectivity with village and school

Orissa What do we see in reality ? Inter-district disparity in the state ► (one district 85% literate another is below 30 % in case of tribal ) ► Monolingual , mono-cultural curriculum in multilingual classroom ► No mention of social strength ( multiethnic and multi cultural society) ►

Linguistic diversities in schools ► There

are 11614 schools with more than 20 children with linguistic diversities ► Total 683745 children (6- 14 ) ► 58000 Santali ► ( 44265 Telugu, 45449 Bengali, 32189 Hindi Munda,Koya, Kondh,Oram, Kishan, Saura etc.) ► Other tribal languages : 396843 children ► Other 16067 in school have language diversities

Muslim Minority schools

► 90611

Muslim children are Urdu speakers ► 78 Recognized Madras for 10000 children ► Unrecognized Madrasas ► Many Muslim girls still denied access ► 17 lakhs Adibasi children

► Lets

initiate the dialogue . ► Why these disparities ► How to resolve them ..

Thank you