Educating for a Common Collective:
Pedagogies of Sharing and Caring
Anita Rampal
Delhi University, India
Aims of Education?
Declaring an ‘educational arms race’
with India and China, President
Obama said the US must invest in
education, otherwise “countries that
out-educate us today will out-compete
us tomorrow.”
Militaristic jingoism - ‘out educate’ and
‘out think’- the aggressive effect of
commodification of knowledge
EFA – Education For All – for what?
1990 Jomtien Declaration – ‘expanded
vision’ of education for empowerment.
An Education For All review of national
policies saw aims for education
changing between 1980-2000:
In the 1980s - to help individuals to
transform society. By 2000 - to
facilitate successful adaptation to a
fast changing world
A standardised fast changing or a
diverse sustainable world??
Gandhian transformative model of
Basic Education
Developed as part of the anti-colonial
freedom struggle in India - ‘education
for life, through life’.
A productive craft such as weaving,
carpentry, agriculture, or pottery, etc.
was the medium of interdisciplinary
hands-on learning. Also culturally
challenged the traditional caste
system, which stigmatized the lowcastes and their vocations.
Neo-liberal reforms: global
economy of knowledge
Education increasingly used for
selection and reproduction of
inequalities, through managerial
discourses of ‘standards’, ‘choice’,
‘efficiency’.
Textbooks publishing, testing, teacher
training, ICTs, computers, ‘smart
classrooms’… large market
Higher segregation - Poor relegated
to poor schools, demoralised teachers
Towards Equity not Efficiency
The ‘experience of school’ nurtures
perceptions of a fair and equitable society
Inclusive schools promote racial, social and
religious tolerance. Culturally responsive
pedagogy – not learning as individuals but
collectively – leads to better quality for all.
‘Advanced’ for the ‘gifted’ and ‘special/
remedial’ for the ‘backward’ for the sake of
‘efficiency’ – now given up by many
countries. Children with same curricula in
mixed ability groups learn better.
Equity leads to a ‘culture of success’,
higher systemic quality .
Education for creative cooperation:
a new paradigm for humanity
SSFS Concept Note calls for a new
search to invoke creative cooperation
and sharing, to overcome capitalism
and destructive modernization – what
is the role of education?
To ensure that the majority of (rural)
learners engage their collectivistic
agency, to counter individualistic
competition; share alternate visions of
development.
Place based pedagogies for an
‘ecological identity’, cultural belonging to a
place (sea, forest, river, village, slum,..);
different knowledges find ‘official’ place in
the curriculum; also see nature through
the eyes of those who care and connect.
To support ‘productive learning and
assessment’; exams in real life contexts
Constructivist approach to ensure critical
reflection for social justice and active
construction of knowledge, not passive
reception or rote memorisation of
information
Avoid the legacy of the abstract for
a ‘few’, forge ‘common’ knowledge:
1860s England had a curriculum of
‘science of the common things’ for rural
working class children, based on
concrete work with soil, plants, pumps,..
Strong opposition from the elites,
including famous scientists, who say this
would disturb the social order.
No science in primary school until the
1880s, when it came only in an abstract
decontextualised form.
Pupils’ voice: ‘Our’ vs ‘their’ knowledge
Students of an elite school in Delhi today
call for separate schooling for the poor,
knowledge of books “is too difficult for
them to grasp”.
“What is the purpose of teaching our
knowledge of science, math, English, etc.
to the poor..... they should (instead) be
going to schools where skills like making
gol gappaa (a snack), carpentry, shoe
making, etc. could be taught, so that they
could learn to manage their basic needs of
food, clothing and shelter”.
Guiding Principles: NCF - 2005

Connecting knowledge to life outside
the school; represent all children

Moving away from rote methods to
learners constructing knowledge

Enriching the curriculum to provide for
overall development of children rather
than remain textbook centric

Making assessment and examinations
flexible, non-threatening and integrated
into classroom life; free from fear
The national primary curriculum:
breaking boundaries of subjects
Examples from the national syllabus
and textbooks – Language, EVS,
Mathematics. EVS – Environmental
Studies - the integrated form of science,
social studies and environment edn.
Challenges of designing a thematic
syllabus with critical questions on the
‘civilising agenda’ of traditional
textbooks, while stressing on
alternative visions of ‘development’
Socio-cultural math: value of time and labour
Class V: Environmental Studies Syllabus based on themes (Excerpt)
Questions
1.
Key concepts
Resources
Food
Who produces the food we eat?
On different types of
farmers. Hardships faced
Do you know of different kinds of
farmers? Do all farmers own their land? by subsistence farming,
including seasonal
How do you think farmers who do not
migration. Increased use
own land make a living? How do
of fertilizers. Plight of
farmers get the seeds they plant every
year? Do you know of what happened to farmers with new seeds
being introduced.
some farmers when the seeds they
bought failed to grow?
Farmers’ narratives - Could take
one example from Punjab and
the other from AP. Story of a
child missing school because of
his/her family’s seasonal
migration.
When people do not get food
Print material on different
calamities; Narrative of the
Bengal famine as a man-made
calamity; TV news bulletins etc.
Hunger, famine (as both a
natural and man-made
Do you know of times when many people do
phenomenon); grain being
not get enough food to eat? Are people
hungry because there isn’t enough food spoilt in storage; nutrition
to feed them? Have you seen where extra deficiency diseases.
grain is stored?
How do you know when you are hungry?
Do you know of people who get ill
because they do not have enough to eat?
EVS Textbook Class III
Notion of diversity
constructed from children’s
conversation
Followed by story/ exercises
on food needs of different
people in the family
To appreciate that ‘food’
and ‘tastes’ are cultural
constructs
Language texts: indigenous art
what do you see in this picture?
Thematic units: contexts of work, heritage, crafts
Primary math chapters
Building with Bricks,
Fish Tale, true story of a
woman Junk Seller,
Visit to pre-historic cave
paintings, etc