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The impact that information technology can have on development is the subject of an ongoing debate. Central to this debate is the role of universities. Education shapes people's attitudes toward technology and determines how it will be used. This research shows that in India, students at higher educational institutions are socialized to believe that information technology can have a very positive impact on their country. They do not share the skepticism commonly found in Western literature. This research finds that first and foremost, IT is seen as a tool for personal development, where students can leverage their education to become rich and successful, either in India or abroad. Second, IT is seen as a tool for Indian ascension, lifting India to the status of a great global power. Only thirdly is IT seen as a means to assist in the development of India's poor population. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the development of UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute on Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), examining its record from global, national and institutional perspectives. The global perspective encompasses challenges to UNESCO's attempts to articulate a distinctive, humanistic vision in competition with other multilateral bodies. The national perspective relates to India, which hosts MGIEP, provides the bulk of its funding and exerts significant influence over its governance. Consideration is also given to the relationship between MGIEP's work and Mahatma Gandhi's ideas. Finally, the institutional perspective relates both to the author's own experience with MGIEP, and to information gained through interviews with others involved with the institute. It is argued that MGIEP's story illuminates challenges to attempts, within India and internationally, to sustain a humanistic vision of education in the face of powerful countervailing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between conflict trajectories and years of schooling in India for girls and boys. It adopts propensity score matching methods on panel data from the India Human Development Survey (2004/05-2011/12) merged with conflict data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Conflict is measured according to the dynamic trajectory of Naxal violence-related fatalities at the district level, distinguishing areas of chronic conflict with those experiencing dynamism in conflict intensity over time. ATT estimates indicate that conflict is associated with a reduction in years of schooling for both genders, though relatively high for girls (by a quarter of a year for girls and by 0.16 of a year for boys), driven by large reductions in school accumulation for girls living in areas of chronic conflict. Results are consistent when adopting different methods, alternative measures of conflict fatalities, and accounting for other conflicts and selective migration. Examining transmission mechanisms suggest that household spending on girls' education may be de-prioritised amidst conflict, while conflict may also weaken or destroy school infrastructure. Results suggest that policy responses should prioritise girls' education in areas of chronic conflict, not only in 'fragile states' but in countries where conflict remains a subnational concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the mother's association with the child's schooling and educational needs is not just limited and peculiar to the middle-class families, as the literature suggests, but it is increasingly true of poor and working-class families too. This paper discusses how mothers from a poor neighbourhood in India straddle between household work, paid employment and children's education and how they envisage and support their children's schooling, at times going against the general tide to ensure a better life for their children. Other than highlighting the gendered nature of support for children's education, this paper, also outlines the nature of the differences and distinctions among mothers from a poor neighbourhood in terms of the family social status and educational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this editorial introduction to the Special Theme, Sacrifice, Suffering and Hope: Education, Aspiration and Young People's Affective Orientations to the Future, we discuss the key theoretical themes (aspiration, sacrifice and affect) that underpin the papers in this collection. With geographical focus on India, Indonesia, Kenya and Bangladesh, our aim is to contribute a more ethnographically-grounded understanding of the affective orientations that emerge or become visible in the context of young people's educational experiences, and that shape and give meaning to processes of aspiration formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private tutoring participation is increasing in several developing countries, and this expansion has attracted the interest of scholars spanning disciplines of economics, sociology and history. This paper presents a theoretical model of private tutoring demand. The model incorporates the household and school characteristics in a developing country context and demonstrates the source of gender gaps in access to private tutoring. Using a recent database from India and employing a hurdle model approach, the paper also provides estimates of the drivers of private tutoring participation and spending for pre-secondary students. Our results indicate evidence of gender gaps in private tutoring access, and that the socio-economic profile of a student is positively correlated with tutoring demand. Further, school quality indicators are negatively correlated with tutoring participation, suggesting that students at 'better' schools rely less on tutoring. Overall, the findings suggest that tutoring demand is influenced by a mix of demand-side (household, community drivers) and supply-side (school quality and learning environment) factors. The results bring into focus the equity implications of tutoring growth and the need to improve school quality in order to reduce the dependence on private tutoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the expansion in schooling infrastructure of girls as part of India's Education for All program has increased female literacy and reduced gender gaps. To identify causal effects, I exploit the variation according to the targeting scheme of the programme which involved classifying subdistricts as either educationally backward or not. Using a regression discontinuity method, I find significant expansion in the number of girls' schools and residential schools for girls, but no significant positive effect on either female literacy or the gender literacy gap. Cost-effective methods other than an untargeted, large-scale infrastructure programme should be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an ethnographic account of how Golden Harvest International School in Bengaluru branded itself as both 'International' and 'Indian', by elaborating discursive practices within the school. Drawing upon scholarship that has sought to delineate the ways in which globally hyper-mobile Indians construct a distinctive cultural identity, the paper shows how a fusion of national and international allowed the school to cater to a particular set of elite parents, who were globally hyper-mobile even as they sought to be 'appropriately Indian'. The paper pays attention to how cultural practices and resources in the school operated within a forward caste-Hindu ethos that was presented as 'Indian', while also responsibilising teachers, students, and even parents to ensure the school acquired and retained globally valued credentials such as accreditation for the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalaureate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an effort is made to explore the authors' involvement as resource persons and facilitators in an exchange programme between Japan and India. The 15-day programme was created to understand the culture and rich heritage of India, particularly Rajasthan, by involving Japanese participants in a Tour based student exchange programme. The programme offered an opportunity for Japanese students to provide an experience of Indian culture through the use of various modules. The paper attempts to explore the impact of learning that took place during the period of the exchange programme, analysed through structured interviews. The findings of this study can facilitate effective creation and development of such exchange programmes in India and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges (inter)national development narratives that propose schooling as a way out of poverty in the global South by interrogating poor children's experience of pedagogic and disciplinary processes in an Indian classroom. It also develops a theoretical framework to interrogate the relationship between urban poverty and classroom processes which attends to wider class and caste relations in the contemporary context of economic liberalism and 'political and social illiberalism'. Drawing upon parent interviews and ethnographic fieldnotes from a classroom in a state school it unpacks the term, 'labour class', used by teachers to refer to pupils' social background. Further, deploying the notion of 'deficit view' it shows how pedagogic practice, physical and verbal aggression experienced by pupils and pupils' struggles to engage with classroom teaching are shaped by realities of deeply stratified schooling, inadequate infrastructure in state schools and the relationship between 'labour class' communities and middle-class teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Girls' education has for many decades been central to the global development agenda, due to its positive impact on girls' health and wellbeing. In this paper, the authors revisit boys' attitudes, behaviours and norms related to girls' education, following the Samata intervention to prevent girls' school dropouts in Northern-Karnataka, South India. Data were collected from 20 boys in intervention villages before and after the intervention, and analysis was undertaken using a thematic-framework approach. Findings suggest that while boys did hold some attitudes and beliefs that supported girls' education and delayed-marriage, these remained within the framework of gender-inequitable norms concerning girls' marriageability, respectability/family-honour. Participants criticised peers who sought to jeopardise girls' respectability by teasing and community gossip about girls-boys' communication in public. Boys who rejected prevailing norms of masculinity were subjected to gossip, ridicule and violence by the community. Boys' attitudes and beliefs supported girls' education but were conditional on the maintenance of gendered hierarchies at household and interpersonal levels. Social norms concerning girls' honour, respectability and the role of boys as protectors/aggressors appeared to influence boys' response to girls' school dropouts. Future interventions aiming to address girls' education and marriage must invest time and resources to ensure that intervention components targeting boys are relevant, appropriate and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to understand gender differences in sustainable entrepreneurial intentions among university students through the attitude, education, and moral obligations of an individual. The data was collected from 372 students from the universities of the northern part of India. Results of the study revealed that moral obligation plays a strong predicting role in sustainable entrepreneurship intentions (SEI) in both subsamples. Even females have a stronger influence of moral obligation on the intentions than males. Also, education about sustainability has a trivial influence on the SEI in the whole sample. Surprisingly, attitude and education about sustainability do not influence the intentions about sustainable entrepreneurship among university students. The study will help the universities to amplify the role of gender in entrepreneurship intentions particularly the one supporting sustainability. The present study is among the first very few to focus on the gender differences among students toward SEI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, the history of education has traversed a unique path in the last hundred years. The political influences guided the discipline, but at the same time, they were also contested and critiqued in equal measures. History of education as a discipline went through four distinct phases. The first phase coincided with the last stage of the freedom movement (1920–1947), which saw a new interpretation of what constituted education from the perspectives of Indian tradition and its contestations. The second phase (1947–1980) began with the collection and publication of official documents with strong introductions analysing the complexity of the history of education in the colonial period. The third phase (1980–1998) revived the arguments that took centre stage during the freedom movement based on literary texts and political speeches. The fourth phase (1998–2020) has witnessed a critical questioning of the historiography of the previous decades on the basis of archival sources and saw the publication of books and journal articles on various themes. This paper looks at these distinct phases and analyses the underlying socio-political currents that moulded the history of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the policy of reservation for lower castes in India. This policy is similar to that of affirmative action in the United States. The paper provides a brief overview of the caste system and discusses the types of groups that are eligible for reservation, based on data from government reports. The stance of this paper is that affirmative action has not benefited the lower castes due to contextual factors like low school enrolment and completion rates, and high dropout and failure rates. Also, continuous addition of more and more castes to the fold of reserved categories has diluted the positive impact of the reservation policy. This paper suggests that under-representation of any social group in educational institutions should be assessed with reference to sub-populations of secondary school completers and argues that, unlike Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Other Backward Castes are not markedly under-represented. Hence, the 27% quota declared by the government recently is not justified. The paper also highlights social, pedagogic, psychological and political issues involved in the policy of reservation, and suggests that quotas should be based on economic criteria rather than on caste considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world we live in today compels what Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandes describes as 'intensified encounters with difference' constituted by contradictory and paradoxical movements. A decolonial approach to constructing global imaginaries centres on reconfiguring human relations in ways that unmask complicity and denial and further healing, justice and solidarity. In this paper, we reflect on the possibilities and challenges for alternative approaches to global citizenship education (GCE) in India through the experience of a thirty-year old educational programme called Avehi-Abacus (AA). The paper begins with an overview of the historical influence of colonial, nationalist and neoliberal discourses on citizenship and citizenship education. We then reflect on specific pedagogical challenges and possibilities in relation to (a) unlearning socio-cultural diversity as deficit and danger, and (b) reimagining ourselves and our relationships with other living beings. The discussion highlights the intrinsic linkages between knowledge, relation and affect in an educational approach which attempts to inculcate alternative understandings of being and becoming a global citizen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper assessed the relationship between the Dark Triad Traits of the management teachers and the Students Rating of Instruction Quality. Furthermore, it also examined the moderating effects of the teachers' traitedness and the students' agreeableness on the above relationship. Using the data obtained from the teachers (n=202) and post-graduate students (n–604) of 19 elite management schools in India, the current paper has found a curvilinear relationship between the teachers' Dark Triad Traits and the Students Rating of Instruction Quality. Additionally, the results have revealed the moderating effects of the teachers' traitedness and the students' agreeableness. The implications of the findings in theory and practice have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data from a qualitative study on the community engagement experience at the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, to prepare students for social work practice. It focuses on how students and academics understand engagement, the values derived from the engagement experience and the particular activities that formed part of the engagement process. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with six academics and eleven students. Using a process of thematic analysis, the study found that service learning within the context of rural villages presented a rich opportunity to prepare students for social work practice and, more importantly, to facilitate the social justice mandate of the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores gender inequality within households in the decision of private versus government school choice in India. Using a three-period longitudinal dataset on rural households from Uttar Pradesh, a northern state of India, this paper estimates a household fixed effects model and finds that there is an intra-household gender bias of 6 percentage points in private school enrolment among children aged 6–16 years. Contrary to the trend in overall enrolment, the gender gap in private school choice is rising over time, and is more pronounced in villages with a larger cost difference between private and government schooling. This finding remains robust even after controlling for average school quality and considering potential endogeneity of the cost variables. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Field of education is associated with herculean task and innate responsibility of escorting societies forward. Across space and time, it has been an unambiguous synthesis that education should precede any progress or change. It helps humans to understand themselves and better their interaction with rest of the society. Hence the field of education and dissemination of knowledge is very much a pivotal entity in the evolution of human civilisation. No country in the globe over centuries could afford to flourish on the paths of growth and development while ignoring the crucial role of education. Country like India where in there has been a perpetual struggle over the decades to overcome perils of colonisation and social stigmatisation reflective in terms of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. In order to overcome these bottlenecks 'knowledge dissemination' must spearhead the change. Apart from other funding inadequacies, infrastructural lacunae, education sector in India has also been grappling with certain innate contradicting and counterproductive structures. Hence in this paper we have made an effort to address and assess the nature and impact of these dichotomies over the field of Education in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on qualitative interview data from a group of lower income parents in Delhi, India, this paper focuses on the dynamic relationship between parental choice of a particular school and parents’ own identity construction. The data indicate that choice of school is for some parents a symbolic expression of identity, influenced by family dynamics and parents’ educational biographies. The paper outlines the concept of ‘forging solidarities’ and proposes it as an alternative way of understanding school enrolment decisions that recognises the social significance of such choices for the wider family unit. More generally, as school choice mechanisms in various forms become an increasingly important part of the educational landscape in many countries, the findings draw attention to the sociocultural nature of choice in real-world market settings and the contribution of schooling choices to processes of social and educational segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role played by education as a mediator of inter-generational social mobility in India. It uses a nationally representative data set (the National Election Study 2009) to describe and establish patterns of social mobility in India, and subsequently, to establish the role played by education with regard to this mobility. In particular, it attempts to test the ‘merit’ argument by analysing whether the effect of social origins (class and caste; along with locality and gender) on mobility and on gaining access to one class destination (where education is expected to be critical) has declined, and whether education plays a role. However, while the paper finds high rates of inter-generational stability, rural–urban disaggregation complicates the broader picture. The role of education is also key, especially for women. The paper finds that education plays an important role with regard to social mobility chances, but the effect of caste and class of origin remains significant. Focusing on one class destination – the professional class – once we control for education, the impact of caste seems to vary, while the role played by class of origin remains statistically significant. The implications of these patterns by gender and locality are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education in ancient India can be a source of inspiration for education in modern times. It was based on a sophisticated theory of knowledge derived from Indian philosophy and unique in that it included an understanding of the subject (the knower) in relation to the object (the known) and the process of knowing. It gave great emphasis on understanding the inner map of the subject/the person (the vehicle for learning), including the mechanics of thinking, the different layers of the mind and of a state beyond the mind, without denigrating the acquisition of objective or worldly/outer knowledge. By contrast, modern education, at least in the West, has tended to focus on outer knowledge only, neglecting in the process the importance of understanding the inner dimension. This paper offers a point of comparison to reflect on educational principles for other papers in this volume dealing with Islamic education in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the story of the American Baptists and how their mission activities in the Naga Hills District (1871–1955) have impacted upon present day politics in the Indian state of Nagaland. Baptists make up nearly 95% of the current Naga population in Nagaland. The paper will investigate the relationship between the Baptist mission's philosophy on education, Christian conversion and the subsequent rise of a sense of 'national community' amongst the Nagas. Although the primary motivation for the American missionaries was to convert, the British administrators also thought that introducing Christianity would prevent influence on these tribes from Hindu and Muslim groups. Thus began Christianity's part in a developing framework for resistance in this region, raising significant questions with regard to Christianity's persistence as a form of political articulation in contemporary Nagaland. This political articulation, I suggest, is related to a greater sense of agency brought about by Christianity and Missionary activities in the fields of education and print. The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) was at the forefront of these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dalit (the 'downtrodden') students continue to experience caste-based discrimination, humiliation and dehumanization; illegal practices that are being reproduced in the school system in the state of Odisha, India. Based on a research study organized by the Center for Research and Development Solidarity, an adivasi (original dweller/Scheduled Tribe)-dalit (Scheduled Caste) research organization and 401 dalit students in grades 6-10 attending 16 government schools in a 25-village zone, this paper elaborates on this research initiative. It demonstrates how knowledge democratization, both, as research undertaken with and for dalit students as producers of (caste-resistance) knowledge and as knowledge sharing as mobilization, can simultaneously mobilize wider circles of organized collective action with parents, Village Education Committees (VECs) and local dalit NGOs and movements to address casteism and untouchability in state schools. The paper concludes with some brief insights pertaining to academic and funded research as knowledge democracy and mobilization for social action that are emergent from this caste research and related research and social action addressing land-forest-labour assertions in South Odisha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing scholarship on knowledge mobilities tends to focus on the largest metropolitan centres as loci of education and employment and as desirable destinations for knowledge migrants. This paper draws attention to the ways in which the spaces of learning in non-metropolitan locations intersect with circulations of disciplinary knowledge and aspiration to generate opportunities for social and spatial mobility. It is premised on the idea that the experiences and situated knowledge of those engaged in women's studies in Tier II cities are apposite starting points for a critical reflection on non-metropolitan locations as brokers of student mobilities. Focusing on two government-funded Women's Studies Centres in universities in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, I explore the transformations catalysed by these mobilities and discuss the politics of the personal -- by rethinking the notions of home and alienation, and reflecting on the re-imagination of futures that Women's Studies (WS) has permitted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the returns to education for adult male workers in regular and casual wage employment using Indian national survey data at three points in time spanning almost two decades. Both standard and augmented Mincerian wage equations are estimated using a set of human capital measures and other controls after addressing the issue of potential selection bias. This paper finds that the returns to education are significantly different for the two types of workers—while casual workers face at best flat returns to education, the returns to education for regular workers are positive and U‐shaped with respect to education levels. There is also some evidence of a widening wage gap between regular workers with graduate and primary education that could possibly be a consequence of trade liberalization and other reforms pursued during the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education over the last decade has become a frequently used concept in the international literature and has been accorded legitimacy through various international declarations. In India, it has gained currency with its usage in government documents, in schools and in the popular media. This paper reviews the literature in the field of inclusive education in the Indian context with an aim to elucidate the different perspectives in its understandings and various conflicts in its conceptualization, while identifying significant gaps. The paper begins by adopting a chronological approach, tracing the development of this concept. Further engagement with the literature attempts to seek answers to questions such as who is included, into what they are included and why they are included. Based on reflections gathered from the literature, it is noted that the field of inclusive education is driven by a rather narrow and limiting perspective. It is therefore argued that inclusive education must be regarded as an approach encompassing the broader education system. Only when understood as such, can we fulfil our goal of education for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the intergenerational effects following the positive changes in women's inheritance rights in India. Using the Indian Human Development Survey data for rural India and a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the property rights reform significantly empowered women through increased education. However, we find no intergenerational effect of the reform on children's education. We explore two potential mechanisms to explain these results: the role of status conflict among spouses and that of a child's birth-order and gender. Given that a woman's bargaining power may depend on her relative position to that of her husband, we investigate this channel and find a significant decrease in children's education in households where fathers are less educated than mothers. Accounting for a child's birth-order and gender, we find no evidence of son-preference through the education channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a rigorous literature review of research into medium of instruction in Ghana and India, whose language-in-education policies represent two contrasting models of use of local languages and the development of competence in English. The paper begins by briefly overviewing the language-in-education policy in these two countries and sets out the methodological approach underpinning this review. It then turns to the initial findings, which are discussed in two parts: the first categorises the three areas of research explored in the empirical studies reviewed, namely the effectiveness of language-in-education policies, problems hindering the implementation of these policies, and attitudes to these policies. The second provides an overview of the recommendations for how, given the obstacles in implementing the current policies, to better ensure the effectiveness of language-in-education policies in Ghana and India. Together these findings show that similar issues arise that contribute to challenges of providing equitable, quality education, and similar recommendations have been put forward as a result. This paper thus provides a valuable overview of key issues in the role of language-in-education policies in improving equity and quality in education in LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on qualitative interview data from a group of lower income parents in Delhi, India, this paper focuses on the dynamic relationship between parental choice of a particular school and parents’ own identity construction. The data indicate that choice of school is for some parents a symbolic expression of identity, influenced by family dynamics and parents’ educational biographies. The paper outlines the concept of ‘forging solidarities’ and proposes it as an alternative way of understanding school enrolment decisions that recognises the social significance of such choices for the wider family unit. More generally, as school choice mechanisms in various forms become an increasingly important part of the educational landscape in many countries, the findings draw attention to the sociocultural nature of choice in real-world market settings and the contribution of schooling choices to processes of social and educational segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we analyse the education and wage gaps between Hindus and Muslims over the period 1983 to 2011–2012 in India. We find that Muslims are worse off than Hindus in terms of education and this disadvantage has increased over time. Our analysis shows that the wage gap is more pronounced at the higher end of the wage distribution which we interpret as a glass ceiling effect. We find that the wage gap has increased over time and the increase is more pronounced at the upper quantiles. Our decomposition analysis shows that difference in education has a significant contribution to the Hindu-Muslim wage gap. We find that the Hindu-Muslim gaps are more pronounced in urban areas relative to rural areas. Comparing Muslims with different Hindu castes, we find that while the disadvantaged castes have improved their condition relative to Muslims over time, the condition of Muslims relative to the advantaged castes has worsened. Dividing the sample into younger (aged 16–35) and older (36–65) cohorts, we find that the Hindu-Muslim gap in education is more acute in the younger cohort while the Hindu-Muslim wage gap is more pronounced for the older cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this ethnographic study I demonstrate how students, teachers, and parents use the affordances of social media platforms to insert religious identities within educational spaces, learning experiences, and classroom interactions. This study was conducted in three schools in tier-I cities of India. The aim of this study was to examine the role of parents and teachers in socializing young students to perform their religious identities while engaging with both educational content and their classmates from a different religious community. In this paper, I argue that social media networks are largely used by individuals to reactivate the existing discursive-discriminatory practices which populate the already dense and politicized mediascapes in cities of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skill development has been a major policy agenda of the Indian government in the past few years. This paper sheds light on the current scenario and labour market outcomes of vocationally trained population. The paper is based on data from two recent rounds of nationally representative employment and unemployment survey. The paper shows that 2.4% of the population had vocational education and training in year 2004–2005 and this share has further declined to less than 2% in year 2009–2010, in the age bracket 15–29 years. Though unemployment rate of this group has declined by two percentage points between the two years, nevertheless, the extent of the rate has remained very high. Further, we compare the outcomes between formal and non-formal vocational trainees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The economic importance of financial literacy among individuals necessitates policy intervention. Estimation of financial literacy is a prerequisite for strategies to improve financial literacy. This paper, using data collected from the educated young adults in Kerala, the most literate state in India, builds a predictive model for financial literacy employing logistic regression. The study reveals the low level of financial literacy in the state. The model points to the significance of gender, age, religion, discipline of study, occupation, and personal income as determinants of financial literacy. The findings have implications for policies aimed at improving the financial literacy of young adults in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the apparent internal coherence of a programme of agrarian development in India and the distortions and contradictions arising out of its practical implementation. Our object is to examine official policy with regard to tribal residential schools in India, known as ashram shalas. These schools represent an innovation and are different from the general type of day primary schools seen in rural India. In ashram schools, tribal pupils are provided free boarding facilities, together with free school uniforms, text books and other learning materials. These schools are expected to impart elementary education in areas which are remote and sparsely populated and where, on account of the geographic spread of the numerous hamlets, single teacher schools cannot be established. Our study is aimed at understanding official policy in the context of ashram schools, and at providing an arena for bringing to the surface the fundamental contradictions played out in areas of the school situation, specifically relating to: (a) the school organizational structure; (b) the teaching practice; (c) dropout; (d) school-community relations; and (e) area development. The paper is presented in two major parts: (a) the first section will try to relate the functioning of the ashram schools to how the state plans and administers schools with respect to access to them; (b) the second section examines the ashram school as a locus of a wider and general social problem of relating education to social economic and developmental purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Child-Centred Approach (CCA) is increasingly promoted within India and internationally as a response to the challenge of delivering quality education. From identifying and examining Indian indigenous and global concepts of CCA within traditional and contemporary child-centred pedagogic discourse, this paper reveals the complexities of underlying agendas within the domestic and international setting and the implications of this for the integration of CCA and the ‘child-centred’ teacher in India. Based on empirical analysis of teachers’ interviews, the findings demonstrate that the role of the teacher continues to be largely overlooked in spite of a willingness from teachers to engage within the child-centred pedagogic discourse. Disempowerment, a lack of autonomy and limited professional status are highlighted. Therefore, this paper calls for the rediscovery of the ‘child-centred’ teacher to advance from within the nation. Without this, it is asserted that the authenticity of the CCA model will continue to be compromised, and with it, any indigenous expressions of a similar epistemology will be fundamentally restricted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we assert the critical influence of education on health-beliefs among women from India, an emerging economy. We further examine the urban vs. rural differences and the role of social capital in shaping health-beliefs of women. Using nationally representative data of eligible women from India, we find education to have a positive influence on health-beliefs. We find this effect to be higher in rural regions. Further, we find social capital to negatively moderate the effect of education. Our findings stress the importance of education, especially in rural regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century higher education sector has come a long way after undergoing continuous metamorphosis from pedagogy to andragogy. Most of the educational approaches adopted in medical schools are directed towards developing more of competencies and less of capability, which is the ability to use competencies in novel contexts. Competencies alone are not sufficient to thrive in the present day work place as medical profession subsumes complex contexts; it is in this scenario that, medical educators are entrusted with the challenging task of developing “capable learners”. In the heutagogical approach, learners are required to decide upon what to learn and how to learn and therefore the control of the learning process is on the learner and the role of the teacher becomes that of a navigator. This paper highlights the current higher educational practices based on heutagogy, considers its application in the context of Problem-based learning and also discusses a few challenges in incorporating this approach in the existing undergraduate medical curriculum. The article proposes the use of social media in order to support learner autonomy, which in turn improves learners’ cognitive engagement with content and tasks, thereby assisting the development of attributes associated with capability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies to date show how low-fee private (LFP) schools, including unrecognised ones, have gained practical legitimacy and continue to increase in number. However, little explanation is offered regarding the legal legitimacy of such unrecognised LFP schools. This paper intends to fill this gap by examining the legal legitimacy of unrecognised schools in Delhi whose actual existence was challenged by the Delhi High Court and the Right to Education Act, 2009. The paper also illustrates the practical legitimacy of unrecognised schools by comparing perspectives of different actors (the government, NGOs and managers, teachers and parents at nine unrecognised schools in Delhi) based primarily on the author’s interviews with these actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global and national agendas to improve the 'quality' of Education For All have brought focus to pedagogic processes in developing country contexts. How can development research pay attention to the social and political significance of pedagogical projects and understand the micro-processes of classroom reform? This paper considers how Basil Bernstein's sociological theories helped develop a nuanced account of pedagogic reform in a study of Indian primary education. I explore how the analysis encouraged by Bernstein's concepts of recontextualisation and educational codes may contribute to current thinking on the role and significance of pedagogy in development research and evaluation activities. The paper also raises caution about the selectiveness and limits of efforts to capture, identify, measure or assess pedagogic processes and change. A Bernsteinian research approach is not immune from producing the kinds of reductionist accounts of pedagogy of which the analysis is wary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the work of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932), urban Bengali Muslim educator and writer, placing her in the wider context of women organising themselves in associations to create social change through education for women, in the province of undivided Bengal in colonial India, from c. 1900 to c. 1932. A subject of the British Indian Empire, Rokeya, and many of her colleagues, wrote back to the empire against both colonialism and patriarchy, and created innovative educational discourses and practices. The history of education is inscribed not merely in the formal school that Rokeya founded, but in her larger career as writer and builder of women's associations. An analysis of the enmeshing of women's writing and women's networks thus yields a creative, nuanced history of women's education. This paper also connects micro-histories and macro-histories of women's education, correlating macro-level data about Indian non-governmental agency in advancing female education with the work of individual figures such as Rokeya. The paper analyses Rokeya's novella Padmarag (“The Ruby”), showing that the integrated paradigm of women's educational and welfarist work found here has many similarities with the actual educational-welfarist work done by women such as Ramabai, Sarala Ray, or Abala Bose. Through her activities and writing, often made in alliance with other educating women such as Sarala, Rokeya gave voice to ideologies and views widely at variance with conservative Indian nationalists and hegemonic British colonial officialdom. The paper also shows that women of different races and religions formed networks and alliances, in the transnational British Empire, to further women's emancipation and education, in bodies such as All India Women's Conference and Bengal Women's Education League. The paper recognises how much women such as Rokeya were able to actually be and actually do in achieving social change in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests three hypotheses about how mothers' autonomy in India affects their children's participation in school and the labor market. To do so it extends the concept of mothers' autonomy beyond the household to include the constraints imposed by the extent of gender equity in the regions in which these women live. This study began with the expectation that increased autonomy for Indian mothers living in heterosexual households would increase child schooling and decrease child work. However, the results are mixed, indicating that mother's autonomy can be reinforced or constrained by the environment. The paper concludes that mothers and fathers in India make different decisions for girls vis-a-vis boys and that the variables reflecting mothers' autonomy vary in their impact, so that mothers' level of education relative to fathers' is not often statistically significant, while mothers' increased contributions to household expenditure decrease the probability of schooling and girls' work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to improve the 'quality' of education for all in government primary schools in India have seen a shift towards child-centred teaching. This paper examines the 'Joyful Learning' programme, an example of a pedagogic reform implemented in rural primary schools in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Through an empirical analysis of teachers' pedagogic discourses, I explore what it means to introduce child-centred pedagogic principles in low-income, rural Indian contexts. Of particular interest to this paper is how new forms of pedagogic control in child-centred approaches might be understood and mediated by teachers. The analysis reveals how the social controls of knowledge acquisition can remain unchallenged, and hidden, by the rhetoric of this child-centred pedagogy. The discussions reflect on the need for more complex and contextual considerations of pedagogy in attempts to achieve 'quality' universal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to the proliferation of private, fee-paying schools in India, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an important role in providing educational services, especially in un-served and under-served communities. This paper uses qualitative research to critically examine the nature and potential of NGO provision of primary schooling in India. In particular, it explores the contributions of one NGO programme which has sought to increase access for socially and economically marginalised children by establishing and providing support for small, rural, multigrade schools. The paper argues that NGO programmes like these have had positive impacts in terms of both access and quality because, firstly, the programmes are small-scale and locally rooted, and secondly, their organisation allows for greater flexibility and room for innovation in areas such as curriculum design, teacher education, and school networking than is commonly possible within government schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether the recent growth in 'low-fee private' (LFP) schools is able to promote Education for All by being accessible to the poor. Based primarily on a 13-village survey of 250 households and visits to 26 private and government schools in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, this paper explores who 'chooses' private schooling, in the light of the well-documented failure of the government school system. In particular, the paper explores the issue of whether private provision is affordable and accessible to poor rural parents. It finds that LFP school costs are unaffordable for over half of the sampled children, including the majority of low caste and Muslim families. It also finds that while LFPs are greatly preferred under current conditions, what parents actually want is a well-functioning government school system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's education system is complex because it has to meet the needs of a population which is culturally, geographically, politically, religiously and economically diverse. The principal investigator spent two summers in India talking with teachers and learners. This paper reports on the impact of Christian values in the secular but arguably Hindu nationalist education system. Working within an interpretivist paradigm and through an ethnographic lens, an interpretive phenomenological analysis approach was adopted to make sense of 34 interviewees' narratives from five Indian states. The narratives were mapped onto an adaptation of a 'tree metaphor' to illustrate how values underpin decision-making and action in the school context. Five of the narratives are presented as keyhole examples to exemplify the similarities and contrasts in reported beliefs, values and behaviours set within the context of teachers' professional practice. Findings reveal that all 34 participants drew on their Christian faith, and Indian cultural context, in their decision-making both in how they made sense of education policy, and how they interpreted school events and behaviours. Despite their common faith (Christianity), the 34 interpretations, decision-making and actions varied as demonstrated in the five selected narratives. We explore how the variance manifested and was influenced by the geographical, cultural, post colonial and school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in two collaborative interpretive studies—one with women in India who were survivors of domestic violence, and another with queer youth and youth of color in the Midwest who were survivors of sexual assault—this paper argues that there is a hidden curriculum of violence. This curriculum of violence can be traced through affective resonances that exist within an assemblage of violence. Powerfully enacted on the bodies of women and girls and their ways of being, these lessons occur across contexts, from the classroom through the communities where they are learned. This is significant because victims/survivors of such violence are often working to exercise their available power within a set of agentic contingencies that reify oppression, making it difficult to surmount normalized aggressions that are ultimately understood as business-as-usual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the cultural and economic strategies of educated but un/under-employed young Muslim men aged between 20 and 34 in a village in western Uttar Pradesh, north India. Drawing on Connell's gender theory, the paper demonstrates how economic and political forces shape Muslim young men's strategies. The paper distinguishes between 'school-educated' men, some of whom had studied in madrasahs for long periods, and the 'madrasah-educated'. Concentrating on school-educated men, we discuss their perceptions of education, and how these relate to their search for a respectable masculinity and what they regard as 'good work'. We also show how uneducated Muslim young men with alternative visions of education criticise the strategies of their educated peers. We use this account of Muslim young men's practices to emphasise the value of a culturally sensitive political economy approach to the analysis of threatened masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the portrayals of schools in various textbooks used by the focal children at an anathashram (orphanage) in suburban New Delhi, India. It draws on data collected in the course of ethnographic inquiry on the language and literacy socialization of focal boys over the past decade. The texts selected for this study related to the topic of 'school' and were drawn from textbooks assigned to the focal children at their village school. I conduct a close analysis of the descriptions of schools that circulate in the children's textbooks, focusing specifically on the imagined community of readers of these texts. The analysis highlights the marked differences between the schools depicted in the books and the actual schooling worlds of the children. Furthermore, I show how the use of person deixis in these texts implicates socioeconomically marginalized readers of these textbooks in profoundly problematic ways. Beyond pushing us to question the politics of representation within textbooks, this investigation contributes to the inter-disciplinary scholarship challenging the penetration of dominant ideologies through the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comprises an overview of film education institutions in India, mapping orientations and concerns centred on the interface between theory and practice. The paper posits that film education in a country of a developing status, such as that of India, is influenced by the interplay of complex factors which mould the role of students as film-makers. These factors include qualifications of faculty and heads of institutions; accessibility to amenities; location of film education, first in the context of the film and television industry and then within the wider context of development; and funding patterns of these institutions. This paper looks at three particular instances and attitudes in the institutions: the proposal for syllabus revision and the spate of student strikes at FTII since the mid-1990s; technology reification prevalent in the film schools in particular and Indian society at large; and the lack of Film Studies as an organized, academic discipline. These instances and attitudes are discussed as not simply inherent within the institutions, but as comprising responses on behalf of the institutions to changes around them. These point at the role the film schools perceive for themselves as educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]