Curriculum Construction From the Below

Case of Chhattisgarh

Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra Sanjay GulatiState Head IFIGChhattisgarh,IIndia

Learning from Experience

Teaching that does not emerge from the

experience of learning cannot be learned by any

one.-Paulo Friere

Schools must not hurt students--good schools don't blame students for their failures or strip students of the knowledges they bring to the classroom

Joe L Kincheloe

On Critical Pedagogy

India: Three kinds of Learning that

India perceived and constructed

Imitative –follow others – no thinking

Educative – follow others – some thinking

Intuitive - follow self critical thinking Based on two words

Sradhha-ban Labhate Jnanam(

Sradhha)process

Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye( Mukti ) end Result

From School To Society

19- 20 th century education was mainly based on

schools and classroom , knowledge determined by

few.

Society to School

21 century – curriculum determined by cultural

democracy, by many

Cultural democracy rests on

Indian constitution

promoting cultural diversity, and the right to

culture for everyone in our society and around

the world;

encouraging active participation in community

cultural life;

enabling people to participate in policy

decisions that affect the quality of our cultural

lives; and

assuring fair and equitable access to cultural

resources and support.

Shift in education

No teaching without learning

Ethical nature of human education

Child is a subject , not object ,respect children’s

knowledge

From hypocritical moralism to democratic realism

knowledge from transformation to construction-

reconstruction –by both T and C

Ever increasing creative curiosity by T and C

Chil Schools Indian context

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 ?

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) contd…

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 Equity

To make it an inclusive and meaningful experiencefor 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 participation

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 the history of Hindu festivals?

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?

Do we respect the children’s festivals that is not included in our calendar of holidays

Why

Traditional social biases Mind set of untouchability( high /low) Behaviour /Body language Cultural attitude Sitting arrangement in classroom gender disparity based space management priority to upper caste children and importance

to upper caste teachers Neglect to Adivasi and Dalit children ll these are invisible in our mind set..

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

Conventional 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

In Chhatishgarh

what do we see in realities

Inter-district disparity in the state

(one district 80% literate in Durg another is below 50 % in case of tribal districts )

Monolingual , mono-cultural curriculum in multilingual classroom

No mention of social strength

( multiethnic and multi cultural society)

map

Chhatishgarh

Chhatishgarh In Brief

About 2.55 crore people in the state

32 % scheduled tribes and 12 % scheduled

castes : 80% people stay in rural areas

44 % forest land and 65 % forest in 44 % forest

land.

60% people depend on forest products

82 % people depend on wage agriculture

78 % people in rural areas practice agriculture small

farmers 56 %, medium 30 %, high 13 %

paddy crop 63 % farmers

Labourers 56 %

Agriculture 46 %

Traditional farming 64 %

Cottage industry 12.7 %

Fisheries 16 %

Cattle 24 %

Rural employment 18.3%

Employment 3.61 lakh in CG,

85% male, 15 % female employees

23 minor forest products

32 type of roots

Fire wood from the forest 45 %

Furniture 21 %

Medicine 23 %

MFP 49 %

Issues

Decreasing rain fall and water crisis

Decreasing forest , loss of natural resources

Migration from CG to other states

Inter-district disparity ( poverty ? Illiteracy?

Gap of urban and rural > all roads leads to Raipur

Traditional knowledge vrs technological knowledge

( what to choose )

Economic growth ( unequal growth

Social cohesion( rift between rich and poor)

Counterbalance between local and global

Can We Solve ?

Out of these social groups of CG , which category we

all are belong to ?

Do we really have examined our state status in the

light of these human and natural resources and

challenges?

Or we have just ignored it , considering that this is

some one’s responsibilities. My role is to teach!! Not to

think beyond it !

State Vision On School Curriculum

Jan Rapat- CG HRR- 2005

Education must ensure application of

knowledge to every day life.

Education must provide wider opportunity to

people

curriculum should use local references and

should be contextual.

To ensure quality in education , expertise to be

build in state to ensure capability of children in

education

Curriculum should incorporate eco-cultural

knowledge