Blogger: Sociology of Education - Blogger

Blogger: Sociology of Education - Blogger

Deeksha

It was a nice change to watch a movie with a sociological lens, for this practicum.  Caste and class ideologies that prevail in Indian societies and their cultures are prominently displayed. Durkheim’s idea of religion being the basis for collective conscience that shared the moral beliefs of sacred and profane in society has been brought out well in this movie.

Deeksha’s storyline is adopted from a novel written by Dr. UR Ananthamurthy.  As is typical in any Anathamurthy’s stories, it leaves us with more questions than answers to the various problems.

There are many symbolic systems shown in the movie that were strictly followed in the early ages and still prevails in many parts of our country.  Food is shown as an important theme in the movie to symbolise the class and caste of the people in the community. The Brahmins gave food an important place in their culture.  They practised rituals such as taking bath before cooking, eating, chanting ‘mantras’, and considered themselves superior as they thought these were sacred practices. The sudra community on the other hand who had the privilege of eating meat, booze/smoke in the open, spoke without restrictions, which were considered profane by the brahmins. This symbolises the class divide between them that became an accepted norm in the communities. We see in the movie Koga who is the Sudra, ensures that he does not cross the paths or touch the Brahmins and accepted the food that was thrown to him, showing that they accepted the power and authority imposed upon them and took into their stride, the oppression by the upper class.  In a particular scene, he mocks at the Brahmins by telling little Nani who insisted on touching him that he can touch the sun, the sky, the trees and even God, but not the Brahmins, which the little boy was unable to comprehend.

The other contrast of sacred and profane is seen, when the daughter of the Acharya who is a widow, suddenly faces opposition and is rejected by all when she becomes pregnant during her father’s absence from the Gurukul. She was in for a rude shock when Srikar (the acharya’s favourite student) who comes to teach the children in the gurukul during acharya’s absence, also scorns and rejects her, who otherwise wanted her to be happy.  Despite the best interest of Srikar and the Acharya for the widowed daughter, they were unable to stand up to the societal and cultural pressures when she needed them the most.  Ultimately, their selfish interests took precedence over humanity and they disown her. This according to me is the most profane act by the Acharya, Srikar, the Brahmin community and the school master who got her pregnant and forces her to abort the child.  However, the little boy Nanni who comes to learn the scriptures from the Acharya and Koga the Sudra, excellently played by Nana Patekar in the movie, brings out the sacredness of humanity.  They outplay all other emotions and ideologies of the upper class when both of them showed their love and care for the girl in her agony.  Koga, who obeyed and accepted his status all the while,  was shocked at the decision of the Acharya to disown his daughter.  When he begs him to accept his daughter, the acharya laments some slokas in Sanskrit to which Koga  responded back at the acharya in his own language using the ‘slokas’ that he learnt from the back, leaving the acharya puzzled. Koga proved that the slokas and the scriptures can be learnt by all but what’s its use when it did not come to the help of his daughter. This really shows that the innate human values of love, caring, sharing and helping in need gets disillusioned once they are bound by cultural classifications in the society.  Only, if we can see beyond this and accept all as human beings, can we come out of the shackles of this caste and class divide.

Blogger: Blogger Dashboard

Blogger: Blogger Dashboard

Visit to a KV

This was one visit that I looked forward to, as it was from this school that my husband completed his schooling  right from 1^st to 10^th grade. He always talks about his school with great pride and has fond memories of his school  and his teachers.  We always have arguments on whose school was better, his ‘The Kendriya Vidyalaya’ or the Convent school that I had been to.

My first interaction was with the Principal, a dominating personality who  had just then concluded a meeting with a few teachers and authoritatively gave instructions and it seemed that the Principal was mounting up pressure to the creation of identity among themselves and in the process were negotiating identities for themselves.   Post that meeting, he greeted us and without asking us too many questions and put us to one of the teachers, who  guided us to different classes for our observation of the class room proceedings.

As I walked in the corridor,  I noticed that there was a performance index chart  giving target vs. achievement of each teacher on the Notice Board.   I quickly glanced at it and was wondering what and how it was being done.  But my thoughts were interrupted with the unifying voice of the students who greeted us, as we entered a 9^th standard class room where a revision in Hindi grammar was on.  The teacher greeted us rather nicely and told us that she was only doing a revision and not much of teaching happening and looked questioningly at us.  We said that was okay and occupied seats in the last few rows .   The students were surprised to see us and some of them were immediately trying to negotiate with their identities for some time  by pretending to be very attentive  or smiling  at us and expecting us to reciprocate. But this lasted for a brief period and the students went back to their self in a matter of few minutes.  The teacher was referring to a grammar book and asked students to come up with the answers for the questions raised.  A few  regulars mostly the conformists raised their hands and came up with answers and the teacher made corrections whenever incorrect answers were given.  She came across somewhat like an entertainer as she was trying to connect with the students to some extent and had a smile on her face and did not reprimand even when students gave incorrect answers.   When she explained the  terms, she also related to their context and thus the concept was being reinforced.    One could see the humanistic approach in her as she cared for her students and the students too reciprocated the feeling towards her.  After the class, I asked a student if he liked his Hindi teacher and he replied that she was quite strict, but then he enjoyed her classes.  Although, I did not get a chance to speak to her personally,  I could gather that as a person her personal and her occupational self,  seem to be closely related and  has invested some amount of personal identity in her work.  However,  with a pressure to deliver  ( I mentioned about the performance index), the teacher was unable to be her true self and is always in a dilemma  whether to be  friendly to the students or be like a ring master and extract the best behaviour as appropriated by schools.  She is forced to choose between her students as persons or between the bureaucracy in whom she needs to change and feel powerless when confronted with this change. 

The second class that I observed was a dampener.  It was a math class and teacher falls into the category of a ring master.  She was very impersonal and didn’t even know the names of her students.  I was aghast when she called out roll numbers instead of their names.   Her approach to teaching was very mundane and she could not get across to the students half of who were struggling with basic concepts, despite this being  a revision class to prepare them for their final exam.   Her method was rote and she was angry that some students did not know the formulas by heart.    She had a distinct identity and the one portrayed in the class seemed to be her social identity too, as she came across as a very insensitive person who did not have much of humanism left in her.  She seemed to be more conforming to the rules laid down in an hierarchical system and therefore made every effort to  please her superiors rather than have a child centered approach.   One could see that there was a clear case of labelling as she favoured a few students to the rest and therefore  could see some deviant behaviour in some children, who did not take too much of interest in what was happening in the class.

My visit to an International School

When compared to some of the elite International schools, this was a little mediocre as this school catered mostly to the ‘affordable middle class’ with a fee structure being a little modest for an international syllabus.  One reason being that the they did not offer all the fancy things that the elite schools have like breakfast, juice, lunch, ac bus, acres of sprawling campus with lush green lawn and ornamental plants, Wi-Fi enabled campus, fancy play area and all that.    This was more like a public school and children also came from middle class backgrounds.    The atmosphere of the school was like any other ICSC schools in B’lore.  They had a fairly big campus of at least 3-4 acres with a good play ground to play cricket, football, basket-ball court, tracks for running etc.   The class rooms were spacious enough to accommodate comfortably 30-35 students with their own desk spaces.

We observed one class in which the Principal herself took the class - a chapter in Chemistry for the 9^th graders.  Her knowledge on the subject was pretty good and ‘Class room Knowledge’ as told by Nell Keddie was quite apparent.  She was indeed trying to pass on information from the available knowledge that she had, rather than allowing students to come out with their own ways of seeking the answers. She was guiding them in a way such that the desired result is what she was getting at. Thus allowing for free thinking and autonomy in students were being restricted.  Although, I could not come across any differentiation in class, as all seem to be from more or less similar backgrounds,  I could see categorisation of ‘high and low ability’ students with differential treatment of the students by the teacher.  Even the body language of the teacher and her facial expressions to the so called ‘bright’ student vis-à-vis the ‘not so bright’  was different.   There was no contrasting views expressed by her rather could see the differentiation as given in Keddie’s article as ‘A’ and ‘C’ stream pupils and her view of the students who spoke in the class and got better grades were construed as more knowledgeable. 

The teacher introduced a new topic and did make an effort to find out if the students had any prior knowledge.  One of the student raised his hand and gave his understanding and while she was not completely satisfied with the answer, she did not probe further to see if any of the other students had any different things to say on the subject.  This was more like an ‘a’ stream student focussing mostly on the individual unit of their study and  not connecting links to see the topic as a whole.  

Post the class observation, we met her at her chamber and asked our questions.  It was clear from her talks that they aimed at academic excellence and all other activities took a second seat.   Like in Keddie’s article, the teacher has set expectations and they are based on her conception of what is ‘knowledge and ability’ which is to master the subjects and getter above 70- 80% of marks in the exams, irrespective of whether the child has memorised or understood the topic or whether his or her interests lie elsewhere other than academics.   One could clearly notice that she labelled the students according to their academic achievement and their socio economic background too, how much ever she tried to hide it    from us. Her mannerisms and communication with each student differed.  There was one senior student who walked into her chamber for her signature on some paper, and she very nicely asked him why he got into trouble with another teacher and this student who was deviant on some account, answered rather confidently that he was just playing the fool a little bit, to which she just smiled and signed on to the paper and he walked out.   The way he answered her question did give us a feeler that he was from a well to do family and was not afraid to voice out his opinions or distaste on anything. 

 We asked her about inclusion of under privileged children into the school as per the RTE act, to which she had different views.  She says it doesn’t work and the child from the economically backward section might be bullied, ostracised and made to feel even more low when they are a part of such schools and instead, these schools need to adopt a nearby Govt schools as a part of their Social responsibility and help them with infrastructure, stationeries and also spend a few hours every week in helping with teaching their students.  It made me think that they were not even ready to open their doors to explore this possibility.

Visit to Poorna

Week 2 – Visit to a school

My visit to an alternate school was truly an enriching experience.  The interactions seen between various people in the school was a very positive and promising sign and something that should be spread rapidly among various educational institutions, if we are to have a healthy sustainable life in our societies.

I was quite amazed at the freedom given to Children in Poorna.  There were very limited rules and therefore didn’t notice deviant behaviours among them atleast during my observation in a few classes.  The children were quite free with the teachers and did not show any fear of the teachers.  They were more like friends.  They were relaxed and shot out questions and gave their opinions, narrated experiences without any inhibitions.  They were least affected by our presence in the class and did not try to put up any different behaviours. 

I focussed a little more attention on the teachers to see if they were putting up a different behaviour since we were observing. But they too seemed to be unaffected and were quite normal as any they would be.   The teachers at Poorna believed that the best can be brought out in children, when they are given total freedom.  They were receptive to ideas and encouraged children to open up.   The teachers mostly fell into the category of Romantics and entertainers.    When I asked one teacher on what she was her idea of an ideal teacher, she said that a teacher has to firstly go without making any assumptions of the students.  She should  be innovative, flexible, have adaptability factor and should be prepared with a plan b and plan c.    She said the lesson plan that they make fortnightly helped them to structure their teaching although it may not be followed fully as planned. When we asked her to categorise her students, it did not even occur to her that she had to categorise them according to their academic capabilities.   She immediately told us that there were normal students  and a few with difficulties such as dyslexia and ADHT/DS.  When further probed about the learning capabilities, she mentioned that there were slow learners and in her words I quote  “nothing as good and bad learners, as every child has an innateness about them, learning comes secondary.  It is important to have moral values, value your culture by inculcating and practising them”. 

In their interactions with the children and the other members of the staff, each one came across as persons with confidence and open to ideas from each other so that they also learn in the process.  There was no competitive behaviour in  both students and teachers.  Unlike the teachers in Padma Sarangapani’s research, I did not see the teacher constructing an identity for themselves nor were the students being submissive and agreeing.  One of the student infact very categorically told the English teacher that she was wrong on one account to which the teacher too agreed in a dignified manner.   This clearly shows that the learners were not just receiving information  passively but were equal partners in the system.  Negotiations did take place in their settings, but it was unlike the American schools given in the readings or like any other private schools in our own cities where perceptions of pupils by teachers are drawn depending on their socio economic background, caste, race etc.   The negotiations were mostly to bring about a positive relationship or perhaps there could be more which I might not have figured it out with just one day of observation.  

Dangerous Minds

Interpreting a few moments of the Movie from an Interactionist perspective  !

In the first scene we notice that the teacher (Ms.Johnson) is being shown in to the vice principal’s cabin for an interview for the post of a teacher.   We see that the vice principle is in the midst of her daily ‘routine’ interacting with two people at a time, one on the phone with somebody and the other person in her office, trying to give away some signed papers  or something.    Her action has some amount of ‘civil inattention’ where she is not trying to get involved deeply either with the person on the phone or with the person who is standing before her.    The next scene we see  Johnson’s friend interrupting the vice principal to tell her that Ms. Johnson has come to see her, to which she seems a little disturbed as she would have to get out of her routine of that ‘hustle-bustle’ with which she seemed to have settled for that moment and get out to put up a different face altogether to meet up with a person whom she has not met before.   I get a sense that for the vice principal to shift to that character is an effort from another zone and that is getting her worked up. However, when he insists that she is already in the office, she resigns to that situation and hangs up her phone saying she would call the person at the other end,  later and comes forward to greet  Ms. Johnson as she steps into the vice principals office.  While they sit down to further their conversation, the vice principal is searching for Johnson’s c.v. and when she finds it she starts commenting about her varied qualifications, her experience  etc. in  a rather hurried tone.  While Johnson looks a little more composed and even manages to steal a look through the chamber at her friend,  she is quite desperate.  Desperate  to get the job just as the vice principal is desperate to hire her.  So we see a ‘negotiation’ happening between both the parties where they don’t delve deep into their private spaces. For eg., when she asks why Johnson quit when she was so close to being certified, she hesitatingly tells her about her impending divorce with her husband and immediately,  the vice principal without probing into her  personal life much, she tells her  that it would not be a problem to get her an emergency certificate and asks her when she could start.  Johnson is surprised that she is being offered the post and therefore questioningly asks “start”?, , the vice principal tells Johnson of 3 teachers quitting prior to her and that she would be filling up a vacant slot of full time  academy teacher.  She is again startled at the full time position and tries to tell her that she didn’t think that it was full time job but a part time position and when the vice principal tries to explain, Johnson cuts her short and asks her what an academy teacher is.  Here we see a sign of desperation where she does not want to get into the intricacies of the role or position etc and again negotiating with the Vice Principal.  Finally she is happy that the position is offered to her and agrees to start off right away and so is the principal happy that she has accepted the offer and hands over the curriculum, syllabus etc. to Ms. Johnson to start off. 

We see in the movie how different people – students, faculty, other staff etc. are busy with their daily routines.  We also see how body language of her friend, Ms. Johnson and the vice principal brings about a certain identity of them and how things are conveyed through facial expressions, gestures, nudging etc.    When the teacher enters the class, we see the students behaving indifferently, clearly expressing with their body language or symbolically that they are least interested in her and carries on with their disruptive activities showing a sign of dominance.  A student called ‘Emilio’  also tries to be sexually abusive by threatening to eat her, again showing his strength and dominance over her.  Her reaction first laughing perhaps he was just funny and later being scared with his advances shows clearly how she couldn’t even negotiate with him.   However, we find later how the teacher thinks through the night to get over this situation by dressing up differently and saying that she was with the US Marines and how she draws the attention of the class and slowly winning over every students’ attention and affection. The behaviour of the students in that fashion clearly indicates that they were being labelled as notorious by all previous teachers and hence they resigned to that perception unwilling to change and perceive that every other teacher would behave the same way.

  A truly inspiring movie that has touched my heart, apart from learning a few concepts of the micro social and symbolic interactions.

sample blog

this is beautiful day and we are enjoying it.