Classroom, Curriculum,

Pluralism and Social

Inclusion: Voices from
the Margin
Dr.Mahendra K Mishra
State Tribal and Minority Education
Coordinator,
Orissa Primary Education Programme
Authority ,Bhubaneswar
mkmfolk@gmail.com
 Village verses school
► Village ► School
►A composition of Though physical
many languages, access is not
ethnicity, religion denied, children’s
do coexists cultural values and
experience is not
► What captured
is the secret
that perpetuates What's the secret
the co existence of that denies the
these diversities in diversities of
the villages language, ethnicity
 Space of marginalized in the
village
► Marginalized are secluded from the
sacred centers
► They live in a secluded place
► Visible social barrier ( well, tank,
temple)
► Traditional culture has perpetuated
this in the society
 ►Are these social inequalities
influence the school ?
►Curriculum and content ?
►Teachers attitude ?
►School management ?
►Classroom behaviors ?
►Learning of children ?
 In the classroom..
► Who are the ► Who are not
marginalized
► Lower ► Upper Caste/class
castes/class ► powerful
► Powerless ► Rich
► Poor ► Literate
► Illiterate ► Ruling class
► Working class ► privileged
► Unprivileged
 Who are they ?
►Dalits
►Adivasi
►Muslims
►Artisancastes
►Women
►Migrants
►Urban deprived
►Nomadic
 What type of classroom do our
schools contain
Children from
► Different languages
► Different religion
► Different ethnic groups
► different cultural background
Teachers as authority (on the chair ) and
children in culture of silence (sitting on the
ground)
Is the school replicate our inherited
colonial mind set ?
Teachers Values (outside in)
► The As-Is Situation
► Often the only voice heard in class is
that of the teacher.
► When children’s voices are heard, they
are answering the teacher’s questions
or repeating the teacher’s words.
► Do the children’s voice matter? (in
side out)
► Do the children have choices of
learning from their language and
cultural context ?
 NCF 2005
►The formal approach, of equality
of treatment in terms of equal
access or equal representation
for girls, is inadequate. Today,
there is a need to adopt a
substantive approach, towards
equality of outcome, where
diversity, difference and
disadvantage are taken into
account.(p.6)
►Marginalized learners, and
especially girls, to claim their
rights as well as play an
active role in shaping
collective life, education must
empower them to overcome
the disadvantages of unequal
socialization and enable them
to develop their capabilities
of becoming autonomous and
equal citizens.(p.6)
 A classroom with equality
► To make it an inclusive and
meaningful experience for children
► To move away from a textbook
culture to connect with children’s life
Child centered pedagogy:
► Gives primacy to children’s
experiences
► gives primacy to their voices
► gives primacy to their active
 Do our classroom count these
diversities?
NO
►
Why
►
Traditional social biases
► Mind set of untouchability( high /low)
► Behaviour /Body language
► Cultural attitude
► Sitting arrangement in classroom
► gender disparity/caste based space
management
► priority to upper caste children and
importance to upper caste teachers
► Neglect to Adivasi and Dalit children
► All these are invisible in our mind set..
 Understanding others ..
Different make-beliefs on other’s
,language,ethinicity, religion
(we all enjoy holidays of other religion
but we don’t know the background)
Do we know about the Muslims and
Christians literature ?
Why we fail in understand them ?
Is there any source in our education to
know their culture?
 Physical access only ?
► Marginalized children have physical access
to the school
► But they are intellectually neglected
► Rich human values of Adivasi is not
discussed
► Dignity of labour of workers are not
respected
► Contribution of Muslims are ignored
► Tolerance of women and girls are ignored
► Service of Christians are misunderstood
How our curriculum contains cultural
diversities

Uniform curriculum and textbooks

have little space for cultural
diversities
Local social, religious or linguistic
diversities are not discussed in the
classrooms
Curriculum designers / Textbook writers
and teachers always chant
“mainstream” mantra
 Teachers ..
► Faithful follower of text books ( course
completion syndrome )
► Only what is written is knowledge and
others are not (exam related texts)
► Ignores knowledge outside classroom
► No emphasis to the social composition of
the village/city which is constitutive of
children’s knowledge and environment
► No or less connectivity with village and
school
 Orissa
What do we see in reality ?
► Inter-district disparity in the state
► (one district 85% literate another is
below 30 % in case of tribal )
► Monolingual , mono-cultural
curriculum in multilingual classroom
► No mention of social strength
( multiethnic and multi cultural
society)
 Linguistic diversities in
schools
► There are 11614 schools with more than 20
children with linguistic diversities
► Total 683745 children (6- 14 )
► 58000 Santali
► ( 44265 Telugu, 45449 Bengali, 32189 Hindi
Munda,Koya, Kondh,Oram, Kishan, Saura
etc.)
► Other tribal languages : 396843 children
► Other 16067 in school have language
diversities
 Muslim Minority schools

► 90611 Muslim children are Urdu

speakers
► 78 Recognized Madras for 10000
children
► Unrecognized Madrasas
► Many Muslim girls still denied access
► 17 lakhs Adibasi children
► Letsinitiate the dialogue .
► Why these disparities
► How to resolve them ..
Thank you