Showing papers in "Contemporary Education Dialogue in 2006"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take up the case of World Bank aid for primary education in India to illustrate the deceptively neutral characterisation of aid in contemporary politics and argue that the institutionalisation of "rationally assessed and technically managed aid" by international agencies generates and sustains an ideological position that obscures existing linkages between politics and policy in the making of development strategies.
Abstract: The political nature of aid in contemporary society is not easily a visible characteristic of daily reality. The institutionalisation of ‘rationally assessed and technically managed aid’ by international agencies generates and sustains an ideological position that obscures existing linkages between politics and policy in the making of development strategies. The following paper takes up the case of World Bank aid for primary education in India to illustrate the deceptively ‘neutral’ characterisation of aid in contemporary politics.
31 citations
TL;DR: Within the burgeoning field of educational research and writing, this book represents a distinctive contribution as discussed by the authors and its greatest value lies in the numerous fresh insights and the rich ethnographic portraits that the essays offer.
Abstract: Within the burgeoning field of educational research and writing, this book represents a distinctive contribution. Its greatest value lies in the numerous fresh insights and the rich ethnographic portraits that the essays offer. What seem to be missing in some of them are stronger theoretical reflections in the light of available critical and feminist perspectives on education. The concept of educational regimes itself remains very inadequately defined and developed and most of the authors use it generically and appear to mean different things while using it. Few use it in a conceptually rigorous manner as articulated, for instance, in the work of R.W. Connell. A concluding essay that pulled together and confronted emergent insights and conceptual issues would have considerably enhanced the value of the book. Nevertheless, even as it stands, the book constitutes indispensable reading for all those seized with educational problems of contemporary India.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reflect on the systemic constraints and processes of conventional teacher education that have disempowered the teacher and thereby contributed to the stagnation of the education field i...
Abstract: This paper reflects on the systemic constraints and processes of conventional teacher education that have disempowered the teacher and thereby contributed to the stagnation of the education field i...
18 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined how a marginalised group (children with disabilities in the 5 to 13 age group) within a "mainstream culture" perceives itself to be, in contrast to how others construct them to be.
Abstract: The reality of children with disability is one that is often ignored, viewed with prejudice, analysed and commented upon externally — usually by those who are safely distanced from this reality by virtue of being neither disabled, nor children. How do these non-inclusive, non-participatory attitudes and assumptions impact on the schooling that the children receive, even if the school setting is an integrated one? More importantly, how do they impact on the children themselves, on their self-image and their relationships with each other and with the adults around them? Through conversations with children and the drawings made by them, this paper examines how a marginalised group (children with disabilities in the 5 to 13 age group) within a ‘mainstream culture’ perceives itself to be, in contrast to how others construct them to be. During the course of the research, children‘s conceptions of self as being different, as belonging to a group, awareness of prejudice and resistance to being categorised were apparent. What was also apparent were the limitations in the way we view children with disability and the need for us to re-view these existing images.
17 citations
TL;DR: The authors considers the implications and possibilities of contextualized learning and argues that any particular context in itself does not build up an entire framework of what may be learned, and proposes a framework for contextualised learning.
Abstract: This essay considers the implications and possibilities of contextualised learning. It argues that any particular context in itself does not build up an entire framework of what may be learnt. Usin...
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that in the NCF 2005 there seems to be some confusion between pedagogy, cognition and epistemology, and they also compare its pedagogic approach to that of the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) which was based on learning science through experiments.
Abstract: Given the state of total neglect of the child’s experience and knowledge in existing classroom practices, the emphasis of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 on child-centred education is important. Equally important, if not more so, is the disentangling of issues of pedagogy, learning theories and epistemology. This essay argues that in the NCF 2005 there seems to be some confusion between pedagogy, cognition and epistemology. It also compares its pedagogic approach to that of the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) which was based on learning science through experiments. However, both are silent on the philosophical issues of knowledge creation and the transfer of knowledge in education. While focusing on these issues, this essay questions the notion of the child as a constructor of knowledge from an epistemological perspective.
7 citations
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TL;DR: The Basic Principles of Curriculum Development and Instruction (BPDI) as discussed by the authors is a curriculum development and instruction book by Ralph Tyler, who argued strongly for a rational curriculum development which would follow from educational objectives, and for the recognition of different sources of educational objectives.
Abstract: After McCauly, perhaps the Western educationist who most influenced school education curriculum in India was Benjamin Bloom, through his ‘Taxonomy of Educational Objectives' and his concept of ‘Mastery learning'. And I count myself among those educationists who struggle to evolve a discourse on curriculum development that is not pegged to ‘behavioural objectives'. My own early reading of Ralph Tyler was profoundly influenced by the knowledge that he was Bloom's mentor. I have recently re engaged with Tyler's book, the Basic Principles of Curriculum Development and Instruction while preparing for a course. This has been a journey of rediscovering the ‘Tyler rationale' and discovering a ‘Tyler paradox'. Tyler achieved an important breakthrough for curriculum theory in this book where he argued forcefully for a ‘rational' curriculum development which would follow from educational objectives, and for the recognition of different sources of educational objectives. The book simultaneously presents Tyler's own progressive educational philosophy and lays the foundation for the ‘behavioral objectives' approach to curriculum development. It became a classic, provoking intense debate in Tyler's own lifetime.
6 citations
TL;DR: The National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for Classes I, III, VI, IX and XI are already out and being used in schools for the new 2006 academic year as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Perhaps one of the more welcome aspects of the changes that have taken place is the scrutiny and subsequent revision of school curricula across the country. This was a long overdue step keeping in mind the enormous changes that have taken place over the years both at the national and international level. The changes in the school curricula have been followed by an exercise in designing new syllabi and, subsequently, textbooks for all grade levels in schools. The new National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for Classes I, III, VI, IX and XI are already out and being used in schools for the new 2006 academic year. Others are under preparation.
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors reviewed conventional quantitative methods in educational research and asked the reasons for their inability to provide a basis for reliable policy advice on how to improve the quality of educational research in the US.
Abstract: This paper critically reviews conventional quantitative methods in educational research and asks the reasons for their inability to provide a basis for reliable policy advice on how to improve scho...
2 citations
1 citations
TL;DR: This article provided some of the political context for the development of the school curriculum in the period after apartheid, pointing out that the curriculum that was drafted originally under the apartheid regime was not suitable for children in South Africa.
Abstract: This paper provides some of the political context for the development of the school curriculum in the period after apartheid, pointing out that the curriculum that was drafted originally under the ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the recommendations on vocational education contained in the NCF 2005 and suggest that its definition is deeply entrenched within the ideology which promotes it, and that the challenge to it is more political than pedagogical, and surprisingly comes mainly from the Dalits.
Abstract: This essay examines the recommendations on vocationalised education contained in the NCF 2005 and suggests that its definition is deeply entrenched within the ideology which promotes it. In India, the challenge to it is more political than pedagogical, and surprisingly comes mainly from the Dalits. There is therefore a need to demonstrate that it can be emancipatory in both a class and caste sense.