Curriculum & the Marginalised Identity

7/25/2019 Curriculum & the Marginalised Identity

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Ayushi Bhatt

MA Education 2012- 14Azim Premji University, Bangalore

University Guide: Malini Bhatacharjee

Field Guide: Dr. Farah Farooqui

INTRODUCTION

Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself John Dewey

Being a social science teacher in my experience of school teaching and also primarily

being a student of social science, I have always encountered a larger question both as a

teacher and as a student, which is why study social science?, the subsequent questions

that follow are howis it relevant to my life, here and now?. Another constant struggleas a teacher and as a student was the issue of the subject being labelled purely as a rote

learning one. A subject which merely transmits information and is

highly centered, on the text. Also the popular perception about the textbooks is that they

seem to be totally disconnected with everyday realities of childrenslife. It was with thisbackground and after a lot of brainstorming that I came to place my area of internship

where I seek the opportunity to explore and understand what happens in a social science

classroom, what lies in the pedagogic practices of the subject that lead to the above stated

perception of the subject being disconnected with the life of the children. Given the

context of the school I choose to do my internship in, it provided me with even more


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space to explore the pedagogic process in social science classroom and whether students

are facilitated to find any connect of classroom learning with their life beyond school and

secondly how would I as a teacher attempt to contextualize the learning process for the

child?

In my study the context of the students and school is very crucial which I would elaborate

in my next segment but in a brief overview majority children of the school belonged to

the marginalized community. This specific context gave birth to my research problem

which was:

In what ways can the Social Science Curriculum incorporate the life experiences of

children belonging to a marginalized Muslim community studying in Shafiq Memorial?

The objectives of this study were to understand whether children are facilitated to find

any connections of their classroom learning in social sciences with their everyday life

experiences of living in a marginalized community. The second part of my study was

that of action research. Let us first understand what is meant by Action Research. It is a

form of investigation designed for use by teachers to attempt to solve problems and

improve professional practices in their own classrooms. It involves systematic

observations and data collection which can be then used by the practitioner-researcher

in reflection, decision-making and the development of more effective classroom

strategies.Parsons and Brown (2002)

Given the above understanding of action research the next objective of my study was To

teach the chapter Understanding Marginalization (NCERT, Socio and Political Life) to

class 8th students through their social context and life experiences.

On the lines of the above stated objectives of my study I designed a timeline as the study

was to be conducted over the span of 6 weeks. I decided to divide my study in three

stages wherein the first stage which stretched from week 1 to 3 the focus of the study was

Focus on familiarization with context, observations and capturing perception

of teachers and students and community about the curriculum and school.

Once a ground understanding of the context of the classroom, school, teachers, students,

parents and other such stakeholders were established the study moved into its second

stage which spanned across week 4 to 6 wherein I engaged in


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Teaching of the concept of Marginalization by including the life experiences

of the children of the school who themselves belong to a marginalized

community.

With the data that I collected from the above mentioned two stages I entered the third

stage of my study which was:

Analysis of the teaching practice through reflection on the nature of

classroom participation and nature of responses of the students during the

course of it.

Given the stated research problem and its objective, a larger question that I faced was the

relevance of this study, what is the need of doing such a study? The answer to this

question lies in the following statement The education system does not function in

isolation from the society of which it is a part. (National curriculum framework 2005). It

was in my reading of the document that one finds the answer to the relevance of doing

such a study where the document which currently drives the changes occurring in our

education system from the change of textbooks to the introduction of CCE to guidelines

provided by it for changes in the epistemological framework itself, gives significant

attention to education and its social context by talking about how childrens voices and

experiences do not find expression in the classroom. The nature of interaction which

takes place in a classroom evolves more in the form of a monologue where childrenusually speak to answer the teachers questions or repeating the teachers words.They

rarely do things, nor do they have opportunities to take initiative.

In words of the NCF 2005The curriculum must enable children to find their voices,

nurture their curiosityto do things, to ask questions and to pursue investigations,

sharing and integrating their experiences with school knowledgerather than their

ability to reproduce textual knowledge.Given this background of the study I would now

like to draw your attention to the context of the field which as I mentioned earlier as well,

is very crucial to the study.


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The field that I choose for my study was a school named Shafiq Memorial, which is

located in the Bada Hindu Rao area of Delhi 6 also known as old Delhi. A brief history of

the school would help us situate the school in socio historical context. The school is a

historical school that is it was established prior to Indiansindependence in 1923 by the

name of Madrasa Rehmani, where children were given Islamic religious education. But

Post independence the school served as an accommodation for people who were

displaced during the partition and had migrated to India from the then created Pakistan.

But it was only in 1953 that people of the area decided to establish the space as a primary

school naming it as the Delhi Middle School. By 1962 it became a higher secondary

school replacing the earlier name and being called as Shafiq Memorial School. The

school currently runs under Delhi education society, but it has had a long journey and has

seen quite a bit of history with changing politics and demography of the region. Talking

about the demography of the area, Bada Hindu Rao from where the majority of the

students come from is inhabited predominantly by the Muslim community. More than

20% of the student population is such whose families have been residing in this area formany generations. The other areas in the surrounding which draws the student population

of the school are, Sadar Bazar, Kasab Pura, Azad Market, Filmistan, Shidipura, Nai Basti

etc. Areas like Bada Hindu Rao, Kasab Pura, Azad Market, and Sadar Bazar are known

for their major occupational identity like for example, the Bada Hindu Rao is known for

small scale factories*. Majority of the school children are working individuals either in

the very same Karkhanas or the markets that surround the region along with their parents.

Almost 25 percent of the students start working from class 5.

1It was keeping this context of the children in mind that the school unlike other schools

became a double shift school wherein classes 6th

to 12th

were given a morning shift that is

from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and the second shift was allotted to classes 1stto 5

th. Sadar

*Small Scale factories as known as Karkhanas


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Bazaar is one of the biggest cloth market, Kasab Pura major occupation is meat export

and earlier was the biggest Mandi of non-vegetarian goods. Also the region is highly

populated by migrant laborers who usually migrate to this area in lieu of work

opportunities in the karkhanas available in the area largely from the Northern belt of U.P.

and Bihar.

The total enrollment of students is 1100, out of which 97% are children from Muslim

community. It is the only co-education school in the community. The girls population

comprises of 9% of the total population of the school, as parents of the area prefer

sending their daughters to all-girls school. Talking about the school infrastructure, since

the school is a historical school the building is in a very bad state, it constantly needs

repair, but with further discussion I found out that the school was no more structurally

safe. They were in an administrative and legal battle to push for the demolition and

reconstruction of the building.

Given this context of the field where I was immersed for my internship, I would now like

to speak about the related literature which provides a theoretical grounding to the study.


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Review of L iterature:

Education is not a physical thing that can be delivered through the post or through a

teacher. Fertile and robust education is always created, rooted in the physical and

cultural soil of the child, and nourished through interaction with parents, teachers, fellow

students and the community. The role and dignity of teachers in this function must be

strengthened and underlined. There is a mutuality to the genuine construction of

knowledge.(NCF 2005)

Construction of Knowledge, is a very crucial phrase, which highlights the changing trend

of our education system. An epistemological shift in the understanding of education, the

teaching and learning process & role of the teacher and students.

A break from the traditional Jug-Mugapproach of teaching,

to an approach where the document goes on to say: Since children usually perceive and

observe more than grown-ups, their potential role as knowledge creators needs to be

appreciated.

Here one can talk about the socio-cognitive conflict which is derived principally from

Piagetswork where he talks about how cognitive conflict created by social interaction is

the locus at which the power driving the intellectual development is generated. That is to

say, contradictions between learners existing knowledge and what learner experiences in

school gives rise to a disequilibrium, which in turn leads to the learner raising questions

about his/her ideas and beliefs making the entire experience inquiry based and hence

constructs his/her knowledge through the process of assimilation and accommodation in

the words of Piaget.


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But given the current education scenario where children are not viewed as creators of

their knowledge and the fact that learning has become a source of burden and stress on

children and their parents, it becomes a complete distortion from the educational aims

and quality that India as a nation aspires. NCF 2005 given the above situation has

proposed five guiding principles for curriculum development:

(i) connecting knowledge to life outside the school;

(ii) ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods;

(iii) enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks;

(iv) making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life;

(v) Nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the

democratic polity of the country.

Out of the five principles for curriculum development presented by the NCF 2005, the

one most crucial to my study is connecting knowledge to life outside the school. It shed

light on the diversity that is present in our classrooms be it cultural, linguistic or religious

or economic which is to say that each child coming to the school should be able to feel

that their homes, communities, languages and cultures, are valuable as resources for

experience to be analyzed and enquired into at school that is to say in words of the NCF

2005 The boundaries of the school need to become moreporous to the community.

Social Sciences as a subject incorporates diverse concerns of society and draws from a

wide range of disciplines of history, geography, political science and economics. Social

Sciences are full of essentially contested concepts as they are complex, contemporary and

hence contentious. One common perception towards Social Sciences is that it does not

follow the scientific inquiry as much as the natural sciences do.

The National Curriculum Framework 2005 proposes a shift in the epistemological frame

that is summarized as follows:

From the textbook as the only source of information to the textbook as suggestive of a

particular way of understanding issues.

From the mainstream account of the pastand its past to one where more groups and

more regions are taken into account.


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From utilitarianism to egalitarianism.

from the textbook being perceived as a closed box to the textbook as a dynamic

document.

NCF 2005 stresses on how social sciences lend themselves to scientific inquiry just as

much as the natural science and physical science do, and also the ways in which methods

employed by social sciences are distinct to those of the natural and physical sciences but

in no way are they inferior to them. It also sheds light on the plural nature of our society,

and how important it becomes that all regions and social groups be able to relate to the

textbooks for this it recommends that Relevant local content should be part of the

teaching-learning process, ideally transacted through activities drawing on local

teaching-learning resources.

In the light of this understanding what emerges, is the question which I raised right in the

beginning of my report why study social science, what is the objective of teaching social

sciences in school?Social sciences should enable children to understand the society in

which they live, introduce them to the values enshrined in the constitution of India such

as justice, liberty, equality and fraternity and the unity and integrity of the nation and the

building of a socialist, secular and democratic society. Enabling children to learn how

society is structured, managed and governed and also about the forces seeking to

transform and redirect society in various ways. Enable them to undertake activities that

will help them develop social and life skills and make them understand that these skills

are important for social interaction and encourage children to question and examine

received ideas, institutions and practices.

The document also directs us towards advocating need to shift from mere imparting of

information to involvement in debate and discussion which would keep both learners and

teachers alive to social realities. This also resulted in reforms in textbooks keeping this

shift of epistemological frame, where textbooks were to be seen as tools ( only as one of

the tools) to help learners develop perspectives on various contemporary issues and the

expectation was that learners would apply these concepts to their life instead of simply

memorizing the information.

Since in this study, context has come to play a very crucial role it is also important to

understand the context of the children who come from a marginalized community, to


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have some insight about their status in the Indian state and along with this I also looked at

what lies in the understanding of community, how does a community demarcate their

boundaries, the whole understanding of boundary as something that marks the beginning

and the end of a community which is something given by the people a symbolic aspect of

community which is also to say what does it appear to its members to be rather than what

it appears us to be. Hence here Cohen does not talk about commonality as being uniform

but commonality of form that is ways of behavior and not clones of behaviors and ideas.

(Anthony P. Cohen)

I glanced at the Sachar committee report which analysis in depth the status of Muslims at

all human development index. When I looked at the educational status of the community

I found that the literacy rate among Muslims (59.1%) in 2001 which was far below the

National average (65.1%) and that the literacy gap between Muslims and the general

average is greater in urban areas and for women. As many as 25% of Muslim children in

the 6-14 year age group have either never attended school or have dropped out making

them have the highest dropout rate in the country. The report also noted that despite a

common belief that a large number of Muslim children attend madrasas for primary

education, only 3% of Muslim children among the school going age go to Madrasas.

Instead, many Muslim children are enrolled in Maktabs, which provide supplementary

religious education in addition to enrolment in public schools.

According to the Committee Report, the most striking feature is the relatively high

share of Muslim workers engaged in self-employment activity, primarily in urban areas

and for women workers. Participation of Muslim salaried workers in both the public and

private sectors is quite low (as is true for SCs/STs), and the average salary of Muslim

workers is lower than others. Participation of Muslim workers in the informal sector is

much higher than the average population. Social boycott of Muslims in certain parts of

the country has forced Muslims to migrate from the places where they lived for centuries.

The perception of being discriminated against is overpowering amongst wider section of

Muslims, resulting in collective alienation.

A community specific factor for low educational achievement is that Muslims do not see

education as necessarily translating into formal employment. The low representation of


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Muslims in public or private sector employment and the perception of discrimination in

securing salaries jobs make them attach less importance to formal secular educationin

comparison to other SRCs. Schools beyond the primary level are few in Muslim

localities. Exclusive girls schools are fewer, and are usually at a distance from Muslim

localities. The communal content of school textbooks, as well as, the school ethos has

been a major cause for concern for Muslims in some States.

Many a time Madrasas are the only educational option available to Muslim children,

especially in areas where no schools have reached to the Muslim masses. Very often

children go to the Madrasas not out of choice but due to non-availability and

inaccessibility of other schools, and a near absence of education in their mother tongue.

One big perception which prevails in the society is that Muslim parents are averse to

modern or mainstream education which is not true as per the report as parents are willing

to send their children to the affordable Government schools.

Krishna Kumar in his writing Learning to be Backward he draws attention to how

understanding of curriculum has reduced to mere content presented in the textbooks. But

for him it is also very important to look at the way the content is being transmitted to the

learners by the teacher. It is here that Krishna Kumar finds a huge gap as this aspect of

teacher student interaction, role played by the teacher and the pedagogy followed are

being ignored. A very crucial statement that he points towards is Whose meaning and

Viewpoint are being reflected in the curriculum?

My study engages with how a Social Science teacher in his/her pedagogic processes

caters to the childs social context. The attempt is to gage at whether an interactive space

is available in the classroom or can be created, where meaning, viewpoint & experience

of the learner around their social identity is blended with the curriculum. The attempt is

also to understand how a teachers perception towards children from a marginalized set up

impact his/her choice of pedagogic process which would include content, examples,

activities & engaging with questions by children.

The relevant literature helps me to dwell on whether the classroom processes, in any way

lead to children Learning to be Backward (Krishna Kumar) or can this very process


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create a space where children interact, share, question and bring solutions while engaging

with something as close to them as their own identity.

This encounter with the relevant literature helped me look at my field with a theoretical

lens and helped me analyze the practices of the school.

For the given research problem, the methodology I choose to follow was that of a Case

Study. A case study method is a specific research methodology where field studies are

investigations of phenomena as they occur without any significant intervention of the

investigator. Case study refers to a detailed analysis of an individual case supposing that

one can properly acquire knowledge of the phenomenon through intensive exploration of

a given case. (Becker 1970). A Qualitative case study methodology provides tools for

study complex phenomena within their contexts. The Philosophical Underpinnings of the

case study approach is that of a constructivist paradigm. Constructivists claim that truth is

relative and that it is dependent on ones perspective. This paradigm recognizes the

importance of the subjective human creation of meaning, but doesnt reject outright some

notion of objectivity. Constructivism is built upon the premise of a social construction of

reality (Searle, 1995). One of the advantages of this approach is the close collaboration

between the researcher and the participant, while enabling participants to tell their stories(Crabtree & Miller, 1999). Through these stories the participants are able to describe their

views of reality and this enables the researcher to better understand the participants

actions(Lather, 1992; Robottom & Hart, 1993).

So when should one use a case study approach? According to Yin (2003) a case study

design should be used when: (a) the focus of the study is to answer how and why


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questions; (b) you cannot manipulate the behavior of those involved in the study; (c) you

want to cover contextual conditions because you believe they are relevant to the

phenomenon under study; or (d) the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon

and context.

The second element of my study was to do action research where in I attempt to teachthe chapter Understanding Marginalization (NCERT, Socio and Political Life) to class

8th students through their social context and life experiences. The idea of using research

in a natural setting to change the way that the researcher interacts with that setting can

be traced back to Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist and educator whose work on action

research was developed throughout the 1940s in the United States. Lewin is credited

with coining the term action research to describe work that did not separate the

investigation from the action needed to solve the problem Let us first understand what is

action research. Well as mentioned above it is a form of investigation designed for use by

teachers to attempt to solve problems and improve professional practices in their own

classrooms. It involves systematic observations and data collection which can be then

used by the practitioner-researcher in reflection, decision-making and the development of

more effective classroom strategies. - Parsons and Brown (2002).

The questions that one needs to take into account while planning an action research are

1. Why am I collecting this data? How is the data related to the study question? What will

the data tell us about students learning and teaching strategies?

2. What exactly am I collecting? What kind of data will give me the best information

about students learning and teaching strategies? How can I gather data on the same

question in different ways, from different sources, and at different times (triangulation).

3. Where am I going to collect it? What kind of a sample is needed? Do I need to identify

the student for long-term tracking?

4. When am I going to collect it and for how long? How much data is needed? How

periodic should the collection be?

5. Who is going to collect it? Is data being collected by myself or will others be involved?

6. How will data be collected, analyzed and findings shared? Has a time line been

established?


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The tools that I used to collect my data were detailed semi-structured interviews of

multiple stakeholders like students, teachers, parents and community and SMC members.

Observations of social science classrooms (classes 8th to 12th) and Group interviews of

students.

Data Analysis and Findings

Given the above mentioned timeline of my study wherein I first began with classroom

observation of social science classes from 8th

to 12th

standard and Focus on

familiarization with the context, and capturing perception of teachers and students and

community about the curriculum and school, I would first like to talk about the data

which I collected during the first stage of my study. In my interaction with my mentor on

the field I decided to observe two teachers of Social Sciences which I would here refer to

as Teacher A and Teacher B. They taught across classes 8th

to 12th

where I got the chance

to observe them teaching various disciplines that social science borrows from namely

History, Economics only till class 10th

, and political science till class 10th

.

Through the span of first 3 weeks I got a glimpse of the teachers engaging with issues

like reservation, marginalization, history of clothing, life of Akbar, history of Cricket,

paintings and their changing patterns over history, settlement, transport and

communication, democratic rights, consumer rights, election system in India etc. from the

above mentioned wide range of topics covered I tried to understand the pedagogic

practices of both the teachers starting right from the routines that their classes constituted


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of, the nature of interaction between student teacher, mobility of the teacher, the

contextualization of the content being taught in the class to the learners everyday life

experiences and teachers understanding of what is learning, on textbooks, examination

and her expectations of students. Talking about routine of each teachersclassroom, in

my observation both teachers had a distinct and unique classroom routine. When I

observed Teacher As classroom I observed that she always entered the class with a very

positive body language always with a smile on her face and a sense of humor which

immediately attracted the attention of her classroom. There was no restriction of standing

up in her classroom to wish her in a single baritone but every student would wish her

differently

student1: good morning mam,

student2: asalahwalequm mam,

student3: mam aj sardi badi zayada hai, aj ap pure dhake hue ho aj to ap pada nahi

paoge.

Teachers response: janab ap ki class main itna josh hai ki sari sardi bhag jati hai.

Chalo bhai ab kuch pad likh bhi le aj.

Her class would begin with a very light environment, where she would start us

recapitulating what they had discussed in the previous class. She would pick students

randomly in class and ask them to talk about what they understood of the discussions

from the previous class. Students would try and elaborate whatever they could recall from

the class if not able to she would another student to give clues which were not direct

answers to help the other student remember or draw link as to what the answer could be.

This was part of her routine of her every class. She would then go on to put forward the

chapter and the topic within the chapter that she proposed to cover in the given class. She

would ask every student to first close their books and discuss about a topic she choose.


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E.g. Teacher A: acha ek bat batao tum roz assembly main sunte ho principal sir kehte

hain ki hame apne rakh rakhav ka dhyan rakhna chahiye. Koi batega isse unka kya

matlab hota hai.

Student1: matlab vo kehna ye shahte hain ki hum kaise dikhte hain school main saaf

sudhra hona, uniform saf hona, roz nahana.

Teacher A: Uniform, jo ye school ki uniform hoti hai ye school main hamara pehnava

hoti hai sahi. Jab school se bahar hote to to kya tab hi uniform pehente ho?

Student 2: nahi mam wapis jake to hum ghar ke kapde pehente hain par agar sidha

school se kam pe jaen ya tution jaen to uniform main hi chale jate hain.

Teacher A: acha kya uniform har smay ek jaisi rehti hai?

Student3: nahi mam, ajkal to hum sardiyon ki uniform pehan rahe hain aur garmiyon ki

alag hoti hai.

Teacher A: to iska matlab hamari uniform aur jo pehnawa hamara school se bahar hota

hai vo mausam par nirdharit hota hai. Matlab hum jab delhi main thand hoti hai to

garam kapde pehente hain aur jab garmi hoti hai to garam kapde pehente hain.

Teacher A: acha kya ye sirf delhi main esa hota hai jab tum log gaun jate ho vahan bhi

kuch esa hota hai.

Student4: vo to mam har jagah log vase hi kapde pehnegen jaisa mausam hoga, jaise

south main lungi pehente hain kyunki wahan garmi aur chipchip wala mausam hota hai,

aur kashmir main baki jahan ke mukable garam hi pehente hain kyunki wahan sard hi

mausam hota hai.

Student 5: mam par ek bat batao ye jo angrez ate hain ye delhi main sardi main bhi

garam kapde nahi pehente inhe thand nahi lagti.

Teacher A: acha sawal hai, koi iska jawab dena chahega?


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Student 1: main batata hun, dekh sab angrezon ko thand nahi lagti esa nahi hai agar koi

zayad sardi wali jagah se aega to use to Delhi main thand kam lagegi na to vo sweater

kyun pehnega, aur jo videshi garam jagah se aenge vo bhi sweater pehnegen.

Student6: par angrez to waise bhi kam kapde pehnete hain unki sanskriti hi esi hai.

Teacher A: bada acha point rakha tumne, iska matlab pehnawe main faraq sirf

paryavaran se hi nahi sanskriti ya kaho culture se bhi ata hai.

This a brief example of how she would usually begin her class, that is through discussion

around the topic and childrens understanding of the issue. If I talk about her mobility in

the classroom, due to lack of space she is not much mobile but her approach to being

mobile in classroom is not that of keeping a check on her students but to ensure everyone

feels a part of the discussion.

If look at the above conversation and for me like her many other conversations that I

observed she always tried to begin her classroom with taking into account the prior

knowledge of the students. One can clearly see the process of assimilation and

accommodation taking place in her classroom as she opens her class to an inquiry based

approach. One would find her constantly asking why and how questions rather than what

questions. She would allow cross questioning among students, probing and discussions

that raise multiple viewpoints in her classroom. There is space in the class to assimilate

the knowledge and accommodate as she develops scope for disequilibrium in classroom.

In Piagets words one can to some extent see construction of knowledge happening in the

class, where children are active constructors of their knowledge and life of students

beyond textbook, finds a space in classroom processes.

Another example of this is when she tries teaching economics and the concept of money

and income. She directly connects it with the life of children understanding that most of

them are working members of their family and have an income. She starts by asking

children to talk about their work and what they do with their salary. She moves to asking

what they do when they receive the salary. Students respond to it by telling how they

divide their salary into several parts, which is the amount they give at home, they spend


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on themselves, the part they save. Through these examples she tries to bring out how in

the language of economics we would call it Consumption, Saving and Investment. She

talks about how it is a human tendency to think of tomorrow and invest like their parents

invest their education today for them to have a brighter future. Also what is interesting to

note is that while talking about the occupation of children or their parents, she does not

make them feel bad about their work, but rather she tries to instill in them pride for their

work.

For example she says: koi saoch sakta hai ki tum pura karkhana samhal te ho, is umar

main tumhe kitna anubhav hai.

Even in my interaction with her when I tried to understand her perception of the

pedagogy she follows in her social science classroom, she says:

Agar main sirf is kitab se chalun mere bache choot jaenge. Hame pata hai ki ya bache

kitni mushkilon ka samna kar ke school ate hain, aur social science hai kya jo inki

zindagi ka sach hai wahi to social science ke issues hain. To agar inki zindagi se nahi

jodungi to ye log kyun padenge phir to wahi hua na rato aur pass ho jao. Hum teacher

hain hame inhe sahi rah dikhani hai. Main to maan hun inki mujhe to dhyan rakhna

hoga.

One aspect which I also wish to shed light is her moral stance in life and how that

invariably percolates down in her classroom. She does incorporate life experiences of the

learners and gives space to raise questions and inquiry in class but she also has strong

views on some issues which she seeps in class for example on language, the way the

children speak, she does not recognize the linguistic differences and the language as

rooted in a deep culture and makes it a point that she child speaks in her class in either

Urdu, English or clear Hindi.

Also her moral stand on right clothing what girls should or not wear gets percolated in

classroom as she teaches the chapter on pehnava.Jab ham pehnave ki bat karte hain,

dekho islam hame kehta hai ki hame poora dhaka hona chahiye, samay ke sath cheezen

badalti hain lekin hame ye bhi dekhna zaroori hai ki kaise kapde hame sabhya dekhate


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hain aur kahan ap kaise kapde pehne gain. Jaise agar main school main jeans pehan ke a

jaun to sahi nahi lagega na.. to iska bhi hame dhyan dena chahiye. I sometimes feel

she lets go of difficult questions on gender issues in her classroom, starting with she

herself not ensuring any participation of the girl students of her classroom. This was a

gist of my observation of teacher A.

Student1:Mam agarAkbarnama nahi likha hota to kya aj hum jaise Akbar ko dekhte

hain, ek bade ache leader ki tarah, kya use kisi aur tarah se bhi samjha ja sakta tha.

Student 2:Mam gar ye swatantrata, samanta aur bhaichara kisi desh main na paya jae

to vahan kaise halat honge

Student 3:Mam par kai bar police bina kuch kahe bhi to ghar se utha le jati hai koi

FIR ke bina hi. Vo kya hota hai

Stuent 4:Mamagar adivasi koi crime kare to unke liye alag law hoga kya

Student5: ye adivasi abhi bhi samaj se alag kyun hai kya unhe judne ki icha nahi hoti

Now to talk about the routine of teacher Bs classroom, one finds quiet a contrary

situation here. The students seem to hold a very passive space in the classroom, raising

questions was sometimes given space but mostly the questions were often rejected by the

teacher as a waste of time or irrelevant. Notice the nature of questions mentioned above

in her classes one can easily glance at the curiosity level of children, in her classes no

attention or attempt was made to address these questions.

She strictly restricted herself to the textbook and would only make eye contact with

children when the read aloud would take place or if she gets holds of someone talking in

the class. I observed most of the children did not carry books or copies in her class and


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this was her deep concern for her. She would everyday begin her class with raising this

issue by first asking who all have got their books, and the ones, who have not got them

were made to stand. A child who enters the class late was also made to stand no matter

whatever the cause for coming in late would be.

Teacher B: kahan the ye koi time, kya hai bhai aj phir late ho, bolo bhi kuch.

Student:Mam vo kal der tak kam kar rahe the to late uthe

Teacher B: jao pheeche jake khade ho jao, roz ka yahi hai

This routine was engrained with students that even before she would ask them stand

students would stand up on their own.

Student: Good morning mam. (in chorus and as loud as possible) chalo bhai khade ho

jao. Han bhai nai hai na chal peeche hole.

Teacher: kya ho raha hai bhai tumhae kaha hai kuch bolne ko phir, han bhai jo books

nahi lae hain..

Student: han mam khade hi hue hain.. (class starts laughing.)

She would restrict mostly to textbook examples and even if she gave examples fromevent hapnining from current affairs, she would generalize the fact that children would

know it. One could sense that somewhere the teacher lacked to make a connect with the

students and their life beyond school. It was no surprise that in this class social science

was being transacted without any critical inquiry and questions and even the potent

questions which lead to exploration and debate on factual information provided in social

science textbook were left and no space for interaction or brainstorming was created.

The focus was on majorly remembering what happened, when and why, but why was notto be understood but memorized. One clear example of this practice was that she would

place the facts on the board or pointers for herself as to what is to be covered in

classroom for the day and confine the classroom to rote memorization and dictating notes

for examination. Also as a social science teacher one should be very aware of the kind

questions one raises in the classroom and the nature and purpose of the question


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presented to the classroom, would it serve the purpose of facilitating inquiry and debate

among students and whether the question consists of sensitivity towards the social

context of the students.

In one of her classes she said:

Janise Hindu religion main hum kiting tavern dike hair bhagwano ki, lekin maine to aj

tak allah ya prophet ki tasveer nahi dekhi.

To this the students unitedly said immediately: Mam kabhi dekho ge bhi nahi.. (With

some anger in their voice).

Teacher expectation comes to play a very crucial role in the classroom processes. She

did not expect much out of them, one could find her constantly taunting them of being

incapable and referring to their social context. Her class would get restricted to students

starring at their books or sleeping and underlying every bit she asks them to do. Major

part of her interaction was limited to why students are not paying attention and getting

books to class. One could hardly find any interaction over childrens experiences or

opinions over topics and restricted to only answer to questions posed by the teacher

which would be followed by humiliation if the child failed to answer. It is also interesting

to note how this routine of social science classes of TA was followed across class 8th

and

12th

. While teaching the chapter on Marginalization she introduces the concept of margin

as:

Teacher B:Chalo apni copy dekho, ek side pe tum log likhte ho and ek side pe kam

likhte ho , to jis taraf nahi likhte use hashiye kehte hain aur english margin.

Teacher B: Acha ye batao ki sheron main kis ki sankhya kam hai

Student: mam janvaron ki

Teacher B: tum khabhi dimag mat lagana

The question needed to be more specific so as to elicit childrens response in a particular

direction. Even leaving the concept of who are the people at the margins what it means to

be on the margin in a society, while teaching children who belong to the margins of the


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society she totally ignores incorporating aspects of their life and make them reflect on

they are being marginalized. The NCFs emphasis on the purpose of social science being,

critical inquiry and investigation, overall seems to be defeated. It somewhere restricts

self-expression and the whole idea of investigation gets defeated in a social science

classroom. When I spoke to her also one could feel her apathy for the system, for her it

was just a job with many obligations, whatever she learned in B.Ed. was of no use as she

felt it is all theoretical and in practice teaching such students one could not expect

anything good. She said that she feels social science is a very scoring subject which she

also kept retreating to the class where she asks them to understand what is there in the

books but contrary to that her teaching practice did not leave any space for developing an

understanding of concepts or critically thinking about them.

For an enabling curriculum, certain themes that facilitate interdisciplinary thinking are

required. These themes should be culturally relevant, and concepts introduced bearing in

mind the age of the child. There is a need to select themes where different disciplinary

approaches can facilitate an in-depth and multiple understanding.(NCF 2005)

As stated above the second phase of my study comprised of action research where I tried

engaging with learners around the concept of marginalization. In the planning of my

study I had ensured that I would plan my lessons before entering the field as I was very

much in sync. With the idea of understanding the context of the learners and attempting

to engage with them on the idea of marginalization from their own life experiences as

they themselves belonged to a marginalized background.

After understanding the socio-economic-cultural context of the learners I sat down to

think of possible ways to introducing and interacting with the learners on the given issue.

I had interacted with the students earlier as well and from their I got the cue of using the

different areas that they lived in as a starting point as in my previous conversations with

the learners I observed how passionately they would talk about the area they lived in

specially knowing that I am not familiar with the surroundings as they are.

I planned the starting activity by dividing them in groups of area that they resided in and

making them brainstorm about what all they could write about their area which would

help a person who does not know the area well to get a good idea. observations was that


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in teaching a concept like what it means to be marginalized and who are at the margins of

the society to children who belong to the marginalized community, one approach could

be to begin with their day to day life experiences. They formed roughly 6 groups and

started discussing about what all they should write. They began with the name, location,

people and the communities they belonged to, which community people were more in

number, the cultural practices of the area, the clothing of the people who resided with

them, the occupation of the people, infrastructural facilities etc. once they were done

writing these down they all came one by one to share their writing with the rest of the

class and with me.

As soon as the sharing process was done, each groups localities with their key features

were noted down on the board. Our attention was focused on the pointers written on the

board. It was here that analysis of the data collected by the class started, from a series of

discussion we came down to discuss how the number of people and the community to

which they belonged effected the culture of the area they lived in. Here by culture I mean,

festivities, clothing, food, occupation, language, etc. This was here that children

constructed a sense of I & the Other. The concept of how a community is formed & who

becomes a part of the community and who does not. From this above discussion we

organically moved to discuss the concept ghettoization of communities that is why in

certain areas some community people were more and some less. Students came up with

several reasons as to why would people of the same community would wish to stay

together for example: common culture, shared beliefs, common things to talk about, to as

small as comfort to go to each others house to borrow things, to fear of living among

people who were different than them.

When probed on this idea, responses like Hampar hinsa ho sakti hai to apne logon ke

sath rahenge to bache rahenge, Gujrat main jo hua vo hamare sath nahi hoga agar

hum sath rahenge to from here I introduced the concept of ghettoization and the features

and reasons for it and how the area they lived in was a ghetto. I gave them census data to

trace the population of different communities and their participation in the society. From

here we went on to discuss how numbers design a social context of a community, that is

what it is to be a minority and majority in a society.


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With the idea of minority from their local experience we moved to understanding

minority from a national point of view. The approach was to move from local to global.

Another challenge which I felt would be to understand the concept of margin. But to my

surprise due to our earlier discussions on Ghetto and minority, progress to understanding

how the social reality of being a minority and majority is embedded in the politics of

power and voice. Here their understanding of the role of occupation & education ( which

is of great matter of concern) plays in ensuring that the minorities are set to the margins

of the society with low decision making powers. All this discussion revolved around the

data they generated about the localities that they lived in. They also spoke about how

their areas were lacking in infrastructural facilities as compared to many other areas of

Delhi possible reasons for this, and could it be connected to their marginalized identity.

What was also interesting was to note how they arrived at the idea of having multiple

identities and not just a religious identity as contributing to their marginalization. When

the girl of the class said that she was doubly marginalized as she had less voice and say in

her house as compared to her male members and even in school, Is school main bhi to

dekh lo ladikiyan itni kam hai unki awaz to class suni hi nahi jati, tum se zayada hashiye

pe to main hun.

I also engaged with learners in a play which revolved around the theme of class and

gender disparities leading to marginalization in society. The goal here also was to

highlight that how we have multiple identities and how each contributes to our being

marginalized or non-marginalized status in the society. Here too the students engaged in

detailed discussion around how the school marginalizes the voice of girls and how

income discrepancies lead to lesser choices for some and merit then is not just about the

marks one obtains but understanding merit given the social context of the child and the

opportunities one receives in society. This was the next level of raising questions &

understanding problems. The idea was not to leave children with a sense of feeling

negative about their position but to develop the constructive aspect as to what all will


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lead to their enhanced position in the society with an equal voice, respect & decision

making powers.

Conclusion:

In my observations and teaching practice and its reflection I can conclude that it is

very crucial to develop an understanding of childssocio-cultural context in a Social

Science classroom to make the classroom teaching of any intrinsic value for the child.

Also to develop the attitude of inquiry and critical thinking in Social Sciences it is a

must that the teachers move away from pedagogic practices that only promote rote

memorization in classrooms making children passive recipient of knowledge. By

giving space for different viewpoints and opinions in classroom one helps to develop

a more holistic understanding of any concept of a child. The disequilibrium is very

crucial for construction knowledge to take place. To facilitate children to build the

ability to form their own opinions multi-vocality has to be the nature of classroom as

it helps critical thinking. When I planned activities around the life of the learners it

helps children move from thinking from concrete ideas to more abstract ones and

place arguments in the reality of society which is very crucial in social science

pedagogy. Also what helped me as a teacher was to constantly present evidences

supporting my arguments in classroom which motivated the learners also to place

their arguments in the context of facts and evidences hence constantly making efforts

to validate their own arguments.

I feel one of the limitation of my study is that it does not go in depth into teacher

identity which greatly affects the pedagogic practices. This I feel could be a possible

space for further research.


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Curriculum & the Marginalised Identity

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