Meenakshi Thapan, ed. 2014. Ethnographies of Schooling in Contemporary India. New Delhi: SAGE Publications. x + 368 pp. References, index. ₹895 (hardback).
The book aims towards an ‘understanding of the experience of education…(of) life at school, or what goes on within schools…through a focus on participants in the schooling process’ (p. 5). However, it seeks to move away from ‘a more person-oriented symbolic interactionist approach that underplayed agency’ and stresses the need to pay ‘particular attention to the social, political and cultural forces as they shape school experience’ (p. 5). Towards this endeavour, the book presents a sampling of short ethnographic studies from various schools. These schools ‘represent different perspectives on schooling’ (p. 9) and include both government and private schools. Most of the schools are in Delhi. Two of these are government schools—one a Sarvodaya Vidyalaya (these are composite schools aiming to provide uniform education to students across areas). The private schools are varied—one is for underprivileged children, another emphasises Indian culture and heritage and the third is a ‘Convent’ school (an all-girls Christian school). Three schools in Muslim localities in Ahmedabad are specifically studied in the context of the aftermath of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the city. An ‘alternative’ elite boarding school in south India (Rishi Valley run by the Krishnamurti Foundation) completes the selection. The book concludes with a chapter that presents a few observations on memory and autobiography in the writing of school experience.
The focus of the studies is largely on students and ‘student culture’—with some attention given to the teachers in these schools. The importance of the peer group in students’ life is underlined in all the essays. The snippets of interaction among students give a sense of their daily negotiations, as they seek acceptance among their peers while also acceding to the demands made by the school—which can be in conflict sometimes. An example that emerges in more than one study is of the negotiations over the prescribed or desired attire for students in the schools. The impact of media and popular culture on students’ perceptions and actions is also discussed in most of the studies. Another focus of the book is on notions of citizenship, explicit or implicit, which inhere in the daily routines and everyday practices of the schools.
The schools seem to be each selected by a primary ‘identifying’ feature as listed above, and it is this aspect that dominates further analysis. So, for example, the article on Rishi Valley focuses on aspects that make the school different, while the study of the convent school emphasises its Christian attributes. This approach is helpful in highlighting certain aspects but not always so productive in presenting a fuller picture of an institution. I point this out for while any study can necessarily only be partial, here the stated aim is to study the interplay of the schools with ‘social, political and cultural forces’. However, in many of the essays, the engagement with the larger socio-political context seems minimal. One instance is from the first essay in the book on a private school for underprivileged children. It is an institution that is representative of many schools across the country, as parents who are poor choose to send their children to a variety of private schools where the medium of instruction is English. Many of the children are likely to be first-generation learners. However, neither of these significant aspects is discussed in the essay. So, while the observations on peer interaction, the role of play and gender stereotyping are interesting, the analysis seems incomplete.
Similarly, the focus in the essay on the convent school is on its Christian elements, including the spatial layout and lessons on moral education. However, a convent school is not primarily perceived as a Christian institution in India; it is an institution that people aspire to, with many non-Christian parents clamouring for admission for their children to convent schools. Its privileged position in the educational spectrum cannot be ignored and yet finds no mention here. This is in contrast to the Muslim-run schools, which are primarily discussed here as beleaguered institutions for a community that feels threatened. However, one misses an analysis of them also as mono-denominational schools, where only children of one religion study and where religious identity is the foremost marker. So, while the ‘interplay of religion and citizenship’ is an important focus of the book, many strands of this complex issue remain unexplored.
The contributors to the book identify ‘ideological inculcation and indoctrination’ (p. 6) as a primary element of the schooling process. One wishes though that this postulate had been interrogated further, rather than being adopted as the starting premise. What a society wants and makes of its schools and the education system, and what schools come to represent for students and parents, is composed of many elements and cannot be subsumed by a single dimension. The booming demand for schooling across sections of society today—and the variety of schools that result—is indicative of the myriad motivations, processes and outcomes that help constitute the system. The book while recognising this diversity does not reflect on it further.
With its emphasis on life in schools, this collection is still a welcome addition to the field of ethnographic studies of schools in India. It will contribute especially to discussions around student culture and schooling and citizenship.