Contemporary Education Dialogue

Secondary education has been a relatively neglected area in India, both at the level of policy and research. Statistical data at the secondary level of education reveals a bleak picture in terms of enrolment and completion rates. This article explores the underlying reasons for the dismal scenario at the secondary level of education by situating it within the larger political economy and livelihood patterns in a rural region. The research is based on an ethnographic study of parents and children from labouring households in a village in Odisha in 2008–2009.

This article presents the current perception of dialogical teaching models as a notion that is concerned primarily with the cognitive layers of the dialogue, and focuses on the cognitive functions of learning, information processing, interpretation and decision-making. This perception, according to different researchers, ignores the relational dimensions of the dialogue and fails to raise the question of how the relational capabilities should be developed among teachers. In contrast, the article argues that research attempts to present or propose non-cognitive dialogical models, which focus on the interpersonal aspect, while emphasising relations such as containment and empathy, and while focusing on the emotions of the student, do not necessarily contribute to the realisation of an educational dialogue and might even block the creation of the ‘sphere of the between’, which is essential to the development of a dialogue. The article suggests the adoption of the existential approach and proposes an initiation path towards dialogical teaching based on the initiation process found in Buber’s interpretation of the biblical Moses.

This article analyses a tactical intervention aimed at improving the academic performance of students that brought about more than the intended positive changes in the target schools through contiguous effect. The intervention was primarily focused on student performance in examinations and was externally driven but led to many improvements in the internal systems as well. The manifestation of this process is explained through the Stakeholder Transition Model and the Outcome-focused Tactical Intervention Model. Within the broad framework of the Tactical, Network and Tacit triad, the article argues that contextualising for the local milieu or situation, coordinated stakeholder engagement and interpersonal relationships play important roles in the success of any intervention. The fact that these are not effectively implemented in the government schools covered in this study is not a comment on the system, since this issue is far too complex to be exhaustively discussed here. This intervention suggests a way for external change agents to bring about changes in the internal processes through contiguous pressure in contrast to directly acting on the system.

Mukunda U., & Vellanki, V. (2016). Unlocking Shelves: Fostering a Culture of Reading and Inclusion through Open Libraries. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 13(1), 157–165. DOI: 10.1177/0973184915603179