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" " Nicolas Heller India Journal Entries Journal 1 The experience of studying in India for the next two weeks is something I have been looking forward to since starting the HESA program, however, as I was boarding the plane I was filled with apprehension. As someone who has never ventured outside of America, going to India was nerve-wracking and full of many unknown variables and expectations, the product of moving from the familiar into the unknown. In the weeks prior to this trip I have done all of the required reading, followed India travel blogs, and watched several movies to immerse myself in the culture, however, I know that the best way to experience the culture and Higher Education system is first hand. I am anticipating learning a lot through my experiences in the country. Many times New York City is described as the melting pot where people from different cultures, faiths, and backgrounds work, live and interact together. However, it has been my experience that so much of the melting pot really happens within the confines of a subway car or through passing diverse people on the streets. In life many of my interactions are with people who are very similar to myself in terms of education, socioeconomic status, language, and sometimes background. What I found as I entered the Mumbai Airport was that I was fully immersed in a culture where, I was no longer part of the majority. There was no way to blend and to stick out as less than an outsider. Reminders were everywhere that I was no longer in America. While I was waiting for my bags at the baggage claim, the conveyer that brought the bags into the terminal would pause every several minutes and the lights would flicker, as if the mechanisms at the

#" " baggage claim were just barely supplied with enough electricity to function. At this point I heard a fellow traveler waiting by the baggage claim say something to the extent of, were definitely in India. The experience of getting a cab was another reminder that I was in a non-western country. After paying for my cab at the prepaid station I asked several people, one of which was an armed guard outside of the airport, where I should take my cab receipt. I was directed across the courtyard where four different men helped me take my modestly sized carry-on luggage to the taxi. All four men wanted a tip for their service of helping me with my one bag. It was dark and too difficult to differentiate between who actually helped in this transaction; not wanting to argue, I gave all four men tips. It feels like I am walking around with a bulls eye painted on my forehead that says, I am not from here please rip me off. As a white American it is impossible to blend, and to be viewed as anything but a foreigner. In the first few moments outside of the airport I could feel the pollution sting my eyes, a sensation that would remain constant throughout the trip especially during our time in Mumbai. The smell of smoke hung heavily in the air from people burning trash and cooking. During the car ride to the hotel I was amazed at the dogs and goats wandering along the side of the road. At one stoplight a girl of maybe 7 or 8 approached my side of the cab and tapped the glass to ask for food. It was such an uncomfortable experience to see someone so young begging. I remember what I read and heard in our orientation about not giving money to beggars, even children. As the cab pulled away I couldnt help but feel a little helpless. I know that as a casual observer of the higher education system and culture I am powerless to bring about changes during these next

$" " two weeks that will affect the lives of children such as that girl. So far these first experiences in Mumbai are helping me understand my place of privilege in America. Journal 2 Reflections from St. Xavier Visit, a Jesuit run institution. The sense of pride that the faculty, administrators, and students have for their school is overwhelming evident. I have been pleasantly surprised to hear administrators and students speak about a required service-learning component; students are required to participate in community service projects outside of their fields of study. This contributes in a positive way to a holistic approach to education. The negative, as one student pointed out, is that students are less compelled to participate to the fullest in required activities. One interesting point that was brought up during the visit is the autonomous status of the institution, meaning that St. Xaviers can craft their own curriculum, and syllabus. There is a complex process institutions must go through to be granted autonomy, and even more checks and balances must be followed for creating and implementing curricular changes; Dr. Vivien Amonkar described three different boards that must grant approval for new classes. A positive of autonomy is that it allows the institution to design and implement curricular changes and development as it sees fit, something not done at affiliated institutions. The University of Mumbai, for example, has 700 different affiliated schools, all of which teach curriculum passed down from the central institution. Autonomy gives St. Xaviers, the ability to do what works for their students and stay at the forefront of developing competitive curriculum. Dr. Amonkar also talked about student learning outcomes and designing curriculum to optimize learning. She stressed that in order to remain a highly ranked, competitive institution with rigorous academic

%" " standards St. Xaviers needed to completely re-think their approach to education. Autonomy was the needed to be competitive. One of the drawbacks of autonomy is that because the institution is constantly evaluating student learning and trying to improve curriculum more work is created for students, faculty, and the institution. One of the students we met in small groups described the testing fatigue and burn out she experiences as a result of constant student learning assessments. In spite of this extra work, faculty were largely willing to participate in the extra work of learning assessments, to achieve autonomy because they knew it was necessary for St. Xavier to remain a prestigious institution. The students we interacted with at St. Xavier were also very internationally focused, both girls I talked with mentioned plans to attend graduate schools in other countries, and that their families were supportive of their international aspirations. One of the students even mentioned her family lived in Queens, New York for several years prior to India. Students at St. Xavier have to pick a track, or field of study upon entering college, this track is essentially the job sector that students will work in for the rest of their life. Students who are smart and test well in high school go into math and sciences; those who do not do well on placement tests go into the liberal arts. The interesting thing about St. Xaviers approach is that they let students pick three different tracks, and allow students to decide which one is the best fit; we were told that not all schools do this. Dr. Angelo Menezes spoke about faculty career paths and posed an interesting question to our group. He asked us why we were studying St. Xaviers, and the Indian Higher Education System? My immediate answer centered on examining the ways in which India promotes social mobility and equity through the education system. This is

&" " especially relevant as India has a reservation system where spots in institutions are reserved for backwards casts. All of the employees at St. Xaviers are state employees with salaries paid by the state government. Dr. Menezes mentioned that it is difficult to retain faculty who can easily work in the private sector for better wages. He also mentioned that faculty tenure usually occurs after the first two years of teaching. It seems that this system does not require much of the same rigor that is a familiar part of the American tenure system. Even though St. Xaviers is a top ranked institution it is still very affordable. Students who are admitted pay fees of less that $100 USD; the government and other private organizations subsidize the rest. The principal of the school, Dr. Frazer Mascarenhas, mentioned that the government was trying to decrease the amount of funding for education; however, his sentiments were not re-affirmed by other speakers during the week. In fact it was mentioned that government funding for education had increased. Journal 3 Prior to the slum visit I tried to prepare myself emotionally and mentally for what I was about to see, however, there is so much that I simply had to experience first hand. To start this journey we took the train into one of the largest Indian Slums, Dharavi. I was struck by the width of the train cars that had no formal doors; perhaps this is to increase capacity for carrying people. We did not take the train during peak hours, and were told by the guide that during peak commuting hours people literally hang off the side of the cars. Our guide also mentioned a high rate of train fatalities caused by people hanging off the side of the cars or from riding on the roof.

'" " Our tour group was called Reality Tours, we were told that they give 80% of their profits back to the slum economy. For this reason slum residents largely do not bother the tour groups, however, no photographs were allowed inside the slum. Despite the conditions, the slums have their own system of commerce; the people living there have jobs, families, and homes. This tour took us through the industrial and residential parts of the slum, I was surprised to see the extent that recycling and re-using materials played a part in their industry. Slum industries will break down the scraps of discarded items and sell the raw materials for re-consumption; everything from bottles, plastic keyboards, old aluminum and paint cans. This is highly creative, and seems to be what so many green initiatives in NYC strive to do: recycle, reuse etc. However, the processes used for recycling the materials is also toxic and many people in the slum have a lower than Indian average life expectancy, suffering from medical ailments as a result of their working conditions. In short, recycling is done as an economic necessity as a means to make money, not as a social responsibility. The government owns the land that the slum is located on, however, our guide said that once you are a squatter on the land for 8-10 years the land culturally belongs to you. It felt weird to walk through the slums and see the residents living conditions and realize that as a casual spectator I have no true grasp of their reality; we get to drop by for an afternoon. It is easy to see the perimeters of the slum, the high-rise apartments with glass windows signal the end of its boarders. In terms of education it was difficult to comprehend that access to schools will fix the problem of poverty. Even slum residents who do gain access to education will still fight an uphill battle against a deficit of social capital, and connections to resources necessary for success after graduation.

(" " The tour ended with seeing a school financed in part by the reality tours group. The school made the case that the slum culture was trying to advance through supporting the education of children who then would have access to colleges and universities. The reservation system instituted by the federal government makes provisions within the college system for backwards casts, and such slum schools help students prepare for the rigors of college. However, the reality is that many families need children to help contribute to the household income; the substandard resources of many primary slum schools make it difficult to imagine their effectiveness. Once we got back on our bus several of my classmates remarked about how they would have liked to have been able to interact more with the people in the slum. I do not share these sentiments, and remain unsure of the purpose served by interaction. The students we met at St. Xaviers, and who will be meeting in the coming days, have all successfully accessed higher education; in this we have a shared background. In the slum we are simply spectators, without shared commonality. In seemed like interacting would have been the equivalent of seeing a car accident and not just slowing down but stopping the car and getting out to stare. Journal 4 The morning of 1/15 was spent visiting Sophia College, a womens college in Mumbai as well as a school of technology. The first meeting of the day was with the director of the Womens Center at Sophia. What struck me was the conversation about the services provided by the Womens Center. The director talked about their outreach to prostitutes, and that the College offered certificate programs on healthcare access and entrepreneurship. It was a sad reality to think that the prostitutes did not realize on their

)" " own that they could be entrepreneurial. The women had to be showed that they could sell beads or food for money instead of sex. Women in India remain a highly oppressed group, and womens colleges still provide access to many necessary resources and services. From a comparative American social perspective it seems like this cultural context is situated somewhere just prior to the feminist / civil rights revolution; however, the reality and remnants of the caste system remain difficult for my 21st century western mind to process. In America many womens college models are incorporating men because from a financial perspective, market demands have dictated the necessity of integration and increased enrollment. In India, there remains a great need for female centric space, services, and for womens institutions. At Sophia we were next led into a classroom where we had the opportunity to interact with the students. The student I sat next to was named Ritika and the class we interacted with was an education class. Ritkah was interested in getting her PhD and becoming college teacher. We talked about her academic interests and what she thought about the school, including how she chose the college. Ritika had applied to several schools but really wanted to study at Sophia, which was also very close to her parents. I asked Ritkah what her parents thought about her going to college, and she said that they were not very excited; they were more concerned about her getting married. She had a brother and her family was more excited about his schooling. I am very interested in exploring the concept of family pride in educational achievement especially as it translates across gender. Later in the day we were at a business college and I was paired with two male students, Sadish and Degis and I asked a similar question. Both male

*" " students responded that their families were very proud of their desire to attend a business school and to further their education. At the business school one concept that immerged was getting a degree to get a job, any job. Degis responded that he was getting his degree in engineering so that he could open up a chain of restaurants. He was relying on his business degree to give him credibility when setting up his business and to connect him to peers who would help him design a business model. Degis was interested in his engineering degree to help provide him with knowledge of how to create the logistical infrastructure of his restaurant. He was more interested in the big picture of creativity that would be fostered by the engineering degree. Sadish was interested in finance, and did not know the specific job segment he wanted to work. Sadish knew that he wanted a job, and was not picky. It was difficult for him to pick a dream job; he simply said that he would take whichever internship he could get and hoped it would materialize into employment. Both of these students were very proud of their engineering and finance background; this aligned with what I had heard previously from students at St. Xavier about science and engineering careers being very desirable professions. Journal 5 The visit to Barilla College was much more about cultural immersion than our previous visits and was less focused on directly studying of the schools academics. Because of an accreditation team visiting the school, a program of cultural events had been prepared, it seemed that the first day of the accreditation visit was more about show than content of the schools programs. When we arrived at the institution there were

!+" " ornate sand sculptures on the path to celebrate our group and the accreditation team. We were told that it takes a team of students roughly two hours to go throughout the school and create these displays. After arriving, we had a brief question and answer session with the students from the engineering department who were our tour guides for the day. Although we did not directly interact with the accreditation team, they were present throughout the cultural component of the visit. The cultural part of our visit consisted of presentations where students danced and sang in traditional custom. During the visit we saw several displays of the institutions various student work. The level of student pride in their work and in their school was evident. One thing that surprised me was the low level of resources the students worked with at the institution. For example, the school science fair had projects that were made out of macaroni and recycled computer boxes. During our tour of the science fair the guide announced that several of these projects were 100% eco friendly and were made of entirely recycled products. I wonder if the low level of the institutions resources also stimulated interest and necessity in creatively recycling and re-using resources. I was also impressed at the sustainable and entrepreneurial focus of many of the science fair projects. For example, one project focused on creating electricity through using bacteria. This project was proposed as a potential way to give light to the slums. Another project was about creating a sugar supplement for use with Pepsi products. This project had potential for partnerships with Pepsi that could yield funding for the institution. The visit to the University of Kerala in contrast had a much larger academic component. During this visit I had the opportunity to talk with one of the teachers named

!!" " Anita who was a research scholar with a teaching appointment. One of the interesting things that Anita mentioned was that when you become a teacher you many times have to move every 2-3 years as the government transfers you to a new teaching assignment unless you are married to another government employee. Anita still lives with her parents who are both retired and as such would be very willing to relocate for her if necessary. One of the challenges Anita mentioned was that many students are too complacent and content to stay in Kerala. Anita was particularly proud of the fact that she, unlike so many others, was very well traveled within India. The desire to stay in Kerala was reiterated by many students at the University of Kerala who did not have the same desire for international (or inter-country) experiences as those I talked with at St. Xavier. As a teacher, Anita spoke of the challenges she faced in the classroom of maintaining students attention and motivation. Lack of student focus was one of her large concerns and frustrations as many of the girls are more focused on starting a family than with their academics. Anita also mentioned that students expected to be spoon-feed the curriculum and provided with a sheet of notes to memorize for a test. She was interested to hear about the class structure of many American programs where students take their own notes based on an instructors lecture. It was apparent that this institution was non-autonomous and that the curriculum had already been set. On the bus ride to the last meeting of the day with the Chancellor of the institution I sat next to another student researcher, Farah, who had also helped coordinate our visit. She reiterated the problem of complacency with the girls, and that too often educational aspirations are pushed aside in favor of getting married and having a family. Farah was

!#" " not against marriage and saw it in her future, however, she wanted to get her PhD first and become self-reliant. Our group had high expectations for the visit with the chancellor of the University of Kerala, however these expectations were not met. This visit was odd in that the Chancellor seemed unable to answer many of our questions, he would instead ignore our questions and offer a sidebar tangent. I wondered if this poor ability to field questions was typical behavior of college or government leaders or if this was perhaps a sign of a lack of transparency within the institution and the government. During this painful onehour meeting one of the other institutional leaders who had been with our group for a good part of the day ended up fielding and answering many of our questions. It was later unofficially disclosed that the Chancellor had been selected as a political concession made by the current government party. I can only imagine the frustration that such concessions have for faculty and administrators who as a result suffer from poor leadership. Journal 6 The speaker at the State Council for Education described the persuasive power that the council has to make recommendations for policy and best practice; that is in fact the governments charge to the organization. Our speaker noted that the government party in power tends to change every five years, as a result many people have a lot of skepticism regarding whether any changes implemented will last beyond the current partys time in office. The speaker mentioned that the first year any group is in office is spent un-doing the policy that was established by the previous group. The next four years

!$" " are spent creating initiatives that will most likely not last beyond the first year of whichever party next assumes authority. The notion of institutional autonomy that institutions like St. Xavier have achieved sounds in principal like a desirable outcome, however, our speaker at the Higher Education Council said that general distrust of the government and reluctance to change causes many institutions to avoid autonomy. For the faculty who are usually given a syllabus to teach, autonomy creates more work, and for the students there is a general distrust of new initiatives. Many faculty and students would prefer to keep what looks and feels familiar than embrace new changes and challenges. Another point to reference is that faculty at most non-autonomous institutions do not grade their own exams; other professionals outside of the institution grade exams. In spite of the general fear surrounding autonomy, our speaker noted that the best schools in the country were autonomous, and mostly religiously affiliated. Perhaps the religious institutions pushed so hard for autonomy to integrate religious components into the curriculum, i.e. morality, community service, and ethics? One of the changes proposed by the council with regard to accreditation system was granting states greater authority to assess and accredit their own institutions. This would elevate work from the University Grants Commission UGC (whose name is in the process of being changed to the Higher Education Commission). Because of the many education institutions under the UGC the Council had suggested establishing separate state accreditation bodies. However, the Higher Ed Council makes suggestions and recommendations only, the government than has the authority to accept or decline the

!%" " recommendation and has so far been unreceptive to establishing state accreditation agencies. The last institution we visited, the Institute of Biology and Bio Informatics, was affiliated with the University of Kerala. One of the points addressed by faculty at this institution was the amount of power that students have to bring about change through striking. If students do not like something they will simply strike and the institution typically complies with the student demands. It must be a powerful thing to know that your voice can so effectively and efficiently bring about change to policy. The faculty member at the Institute of Biology also noted difficulty getting students to accept policy that was in their best interest, but that was negatively perceived. A situation was described where he had to work tirelessly to get students to see the benefits of a particular policy and to stop striking. Striking extends beyond student culture and plays a large role in the general society; politicians will periodically initiate shutdowns to protest or advocate a policy. During a shutdown all business comes to a halt. Although people are tired of the disruption caused by striking and shutdowns, they are largely perceived as the only way to get the governing body (institutional, local, or national) to address specific concerns and injustices.