Dr.

Mahendra K Mishra
State Tribal and Minority Education
Coordinator,
Orissa Primary Education Programme
Authority
Bhubaneswar 751001
E mail : mkmfolk@gmail.com
www.opepa.in
all education is inherently political and
all pedagogy must be aware of this
condition
a social and educational vision of justice
and equality should ground all education
issues of race, class, gender, sexuality,
religion, and physical ability are all
important domains of oppression and
critical anti-hegemonic action.
the alleviation of oppression and human
suffering is a key dimension of
educational purpose
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
Village School
A composition of many Though physical access is
languages, ethnicity, not denied, children’s
religion do coexists cultural values and
experience is not
captured
What is the secret that
perpetuates the co What's the secret that
existence of these denies the diversities of
diversities in the language, ethnicity and
villages gender
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 ?
Who are the Who are not
marginalized
Lower castes/class Upper Caste/class
Powerless powerful
Poor Rich
Illiterate Literate
Working class Ruling class
Unprivileged privileged
Dalits
Adivasi
Muslims
Artisan castes
Women
Migrants
Urban deprived
Nomadic
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 ?
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 ?
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)
 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 participation
 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..
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?
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
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
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
 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)
There are 11614 schools with more than 20
children with linguistic diversities
Total 683745 children (6- 14 age )
58 000 Santali children
( 44265 Telugu,
45449 Bengali,
32189 Hindi
Other tribal languages : 396843 children
Other 16067 language s
90611 Muslim children are Urdu speakers
78 Recognized Madras for 10000 children
..Unrecognized Madrasas for…..children
Many Muslim girls still denied access
17 lakhs Adibasi children
Lets initiate the dialogue ..
Why these disparities..
How to resolve them ..
Thank you