Teacher Training In Tribal Areas Of Orissa, India ( Rupantar )

RUPANTAR Teacher Training in Tribal

Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra State Tribal Education Coordinator, Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority Department of School and Mass Education, Orissa 

Why Rupantar ?

•About more than 60 % teachers in tribal areas are non tribal •They have a different view about tribal people and culture •Schools in tribal areas are dominated by the non tribal values

Teachers attach their own cultural values and attitude in the classroom  Teachers are dominant and students and parents live in culture of silence  Many teachers have a little knowledge about tribal culture and language  With all these in mind teachers run the schools. 

Result: Mismatch of values, culture and language  Gap and invisible conflict in the mind of the teachers and the children  Teachers superiority is established  Children’s wisdom is neglected  Learning is blocked  Poor retention, poor achievement  National goal is not achieved 

How 

We have to understand the school type and classroom situation as a teacher

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Let us see the situation..

barrier

School for the child.. A child centered classroom is successful when  a child speak and understand in her mother tongue, since the child see her world in her language,  experience of the child is reflected in the learning and teaching.

Learning for the child.. Space for children’s creativity through learning activities  Learning is interesting and meaningful,  connected with the experience of the child, exploring  Children have the freedom to speak and interact with out fear and hesitation 

Culture and Language Scope for learning from the environment and culture  Most important for the child is language of thought and language of speech Two questions:  In which language does the child see her world and identify the objects, and express her feelings?  Is it similar or different from book language? 

As a teacher in tribal areas we have to know : Does the state curriculum and text books responsive to the educational needs of tribal children?  Does the teacher training module contain tribal education as the special focus? How many sessions is given for tribal education  Does it fulfill the training needs of tribal area teachers?  Can we put blame on the community if they are not responsive to the school? 

Asking the Self: If I don’t know the language of the children, • Am I really competent enough to teach them? • Why the tribal children are non responsive, in spite of my efforts? • Is my classroom suitable to meet the need of tribal children effective and responsive ? • Knowingly or unknowingly, do my behaviour and language hurts the children and discourage them to come to school?

Attitude 

Attitude of teachers on tribal children:

Tribal children lack intelligence  Tribal language is inferior to the state language  Tribal girls are weak in mathematics  Tribal children are docile  Tribal children should not use their language in the classroom 

Training Need:  Do the teachers have training on importance of mother tongue in early primary classes?  Do the teachers have training on acquisition of second language skill?  Do our teacher- training Institutes have adequate academic facilities to impart tribal education below the district level?

What to do? We have to be responsible for the children irrespective of tribal and non tribal  we have to rethink on our established ideas and thoughts on tribal people and children and to change our mind set  We have to prepare for a school where tribal children can get better opportunity 

Knowing the situation

What could be the training Content ? Knowing the strength of tribal society, culture and language  Knowing the traditional knowledge system  Knowing how the local knowledge can be put in to the school curriculum  Creating new knowledge from the foundation of local knowledge  Process of learning of tribal people  Children’s folklore( oral tradition, games, dance, music, art and craft etc.) 

Teacher Training Content Content: Syllabus: NCF( 2005)  Culturally appropriate curriculum  Mother tongue as medium of instruction  Method: Activity based/experiential  Child Centered  Participatory 

Training Method Specific methodologies for language training  Discovering learning methods from the tribal communities( counting system, units of measures etc. language learning process)  Community process of learning( How do they learn?)  Learning from the elders ( process of story telling,specific learning style of singing and dancing, games, material culture) 

Tribal Pedagogy That starts from tribal culture; connected to life experience  Strengthening self esteem  expanding the existing knowledge and skill system of the community/ learners  Creating a community based pedagogy Practical use of knowledge  Devising an interactive and reflexive learning teaching process by the teachers 

Quality

Tribal Education:

Quality tribal education involves competent and qualified teachers who are:  Familiar with tribal culture and language as well as the state/ national culture and language  Respect to tribal values and concepts regarding education and who engage in an interactive process with tribal communities and teachers 

Contd.. 

Using and creating responsive and experiential teaching methods and learning materials in cooperation and consultation with the tribal community

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Trained in mother tongue education/ multilingual teaching methods and language training methodologies

Open to continuous assessment of their work and teaching practices trained in teacher training programmes and facilities organized in cooperation with tribal people’s organization( jati mahasabha) tribal teachers should take the initiative/leadership in tribal education with state support, so that community involvement will be effective. Linda King: 2005)

Now Let’s break our myth.. Thank you

Orissa Teacher Training programme on Tribal Education: Why Rupantar ( Transformation)  Concept: Attitudinal Training makes the teachers sensitive to issue concurring the psychology of tribal children. Analyse and reflect on their emotions and actions, which could have affected children psychologically. 

Methodology: 

Indirect attempt to discover the inherent values, beliefs, practices, assumptions, biases and prejudices with a view to change them.

Implications: Change in attitude.  Moving beyond the boundaries of the textbook and understanding the child.  Linking the background of the child with the textbooks teaching methods, thereby leading to better teacher community interaction and teacher- pupil and community interaction. ` 

Objectives: 1.       Identification and sensitization of teachers on attitudinal issues and to develop training strategies ans training skill  2.       To assess the attitude of teachers towards tribal children as learners and also as a cultural group. The attitude objects are language, culture, children, and parents, teaching methods. 

Contd… 1.       Identify the current social bias, which stands against tribal education and its reflection in the textbook and transactional strategies.  2.       Examine the beliefs, assumptions and stereotypes of the teachers about tribal children and their culture and make them examine these beliefs and assumptions. 

Contd. 1.       To acknowledge that it is not the tribal child, rather the school and the class room transactions, which create problem in the growth of the tribal children and learning outcomes.  2.       To make the teacher nonjudgmental, less ethnocentric and dismissive.  3.(a) To tune the school and the teacher towards identifying the potentials of tribal children so as to know how the tribal children learn in their social atmosphere.  (b) To understand and make use of the tribal language, culture, and customs in the learning processes of the children. 

Contd. 1.      Identify strategies to link the language resources of tribal children with the medium of instruction at school and to know the process in which a child learns language.  2.       Develop basic approaches towards language, arithmetic, EVS, using the knowledge base from the natural and cultural environment of tribal children. 

Contd. 1.       To make use of tribal folklore in the learning process to make the classroom contextual (in language, EVS and mathematic).  Identify the concepts, skills, information’s, attitudes required by the teachers to understand and make the school suitable to tribal children 

Expected Outcomes: 1.      To remove the ethnic stereotypes beliefs and attitude embedded among the teachers regarding tribal children, language & culture.  2.       Sensitizing the teachers on each of the attitudinal objects (language, children, culture & customs) and analyse the implications these have on teachers- pupil interaction. 

Contd 1.       Listing out the attitudes which have serious implications on transactional strategies adopted by these teachers and working backwards on the beliefs.  2.       To discover the hidden potentials of tribal knowledge, and link that up with the textual materials and evaluation system. 

Contd. 1.       To develop the planning skills for conducting attitudinal training programme among the TRG  To gather knowledge during the training on how to prepare the learning- teaching materials in tribal languages 

Session Plan: Initial Attitudinal Assessment on language, mathematics, tribal children, tribal society  consolidation of the assessment of individual teachers and discussion  Discovering the training group and accordingly devise training stretegies 

Day I This is a four day Training programme:  Day I: understanding tribal children from tribal context( likes and dislikes,daily life of a tribal child)  Experience of the child in her environment which bear enormous learning potentialities  To know the learning style of Tribal Children in their socio- Cultural context. 

Day 2 knowing the teachers Quality  : Remember your childhood and state any one characteristic/ incident for which you still remember your teacher?  Remember and state one incident with your teacher during primary school, which had hurt you most? 

Contd. Out Come: Teacher sensitization.  -   Self-recognition of a good teacher.  -Self-assessment by individual teachers.  Developing introspection in teachers. 

Day 3 Understanding Local Knowledge  learning of language from social context and l;earning of language in classroom context: gap and bridge  Oral tradition and children;s folklore ( songs, tales, myths, legends, traditional games, riddle, food preservation process,forest, agriculture, family and village, festivals, music etc) 

Understanding the learning style in tribal society Analyzing a tale, song, game, riddle and discovering learning style  Creating new knowledge from the culture for classroom transaction  Learning how to prepare a lesson from the text drawn from the community ( tales, songs, pictures,etc) 

Day 4 Problems of tribal girls: teacher/ community perception on girls education  Role specification for girls in home/ school  Attitude and behaviour of teachers on girls in classroom that affects the girls  Parental attitude on girls schooling 

Knowing the community: Analyzing the social strength of tribal society  Group solidarity  Having a land and a language  Cultural expressions  Village as a large family  Shared understanding of life  Collective decision  Sustained efforts 