Competing ideologies of literacy are well documented in the literature, articulating the gap between everyday literacies in people's lives and formalised literacy norms. Despite this recognition of literacy as 'situated', the gap in perceptions across generations regarding knowledge content and learning forms remains underexplored. This article…

This article asks whether the slow process of divesting Indian native schoolteachers of their traditional authority was only about new concepts and representations of education and knowledge. Following the methodological idea of constellations of affordances, emphasising a relational ontology, the article discusses whether changes in the shape and…

Researching with the Bharia in Central India was a rare opportunity as it is perhaps the only tribal community in the region who are not dispossessed from their habitat in Madhya Pradesh, the Indian province with the largest number of tribal people. Dominant debates rarely take cognisance of the perceptions of the tribal communities. The article…

Purpose: The visible ill-effects of the developmental enterprises in the ex-colonies and the tendency towards technocratic totalitarianism, in many ways, have altered the way modern humans perceived the idea of "progress" and "development" historically since the Cold War. This paper presents a deconstructive-transdisciplinary…

This article explores the conceptualisation of alternative education based on the lived realities of marginalised indigenous communities. By amplifying the voices of the Bettakurumba, Kattunayakan, Mullakurumba and Paniya communities, the article explores their vision for an alternative education system that promotes equality and justice, and the…

Researchers often point out a wide rift between school culture and students' home culture, especially for Adivasi students whose culture, language and knowledge systems are played down by the mainstream discourse. We believe that such deficit perspectives must be countered to work towards an equal and just society. For this purpose, in this study,…

The paper explores the historical significance of Hindu College Calcutta, a key institution in colonial India's intellectual discourse. Established in the early 19th century, the college faced numerous challenges, including opposition from conservative factions and financial constraints, as it evolved into a hub for education and independent…

Indigenous women in India struggle to maintain their traditional knowledge, education and livelihoods in the face of colonization, neoliberalism and development. The paper analyzes the vocational education and skills training programmes implemented for indigenous women in India by the national government and local agencies. It considers the…

Literature indicates that sociolinguists and educationists often claim multilingual practice and Africanizing and Indigenizing education will jeopardize national unity and social cohesion. Such claims delay the implementation of decolonization policies and the transformation of the curriculum under false assumptions. However, research reveals many…

The Calcutta "madrasa" was one of the many institutions which witnessed recurrent attempts at reform in Muslim societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since the eleventh century, when "madrasas" first emerged as the principal institution of higher Islamic learning, it has undergone many changes, adapting in…

In the 21st century, discussions on the environment actively intersect with religious discourse, purposefully incorporating religious texts and spiritual perspectives to propose effective solutions for addressing the pressing global environmental crisis. Within this context, this study employs a narrative analysis approach, conducting fifteen…

Agricultural improvement was a vital aspect of the 'development scheme' of the British Government in India as agriculture was the most revenue-generating industry in Bihar. From the first Famine Commission Report of 1880, there was a set agenda to improve agriculture through education. This was to be achieved through importing western science and…

This article documents, describes and discusses the dynamics of an international school located in south Delhi, India. It discusses the means and ways via which the international school designs and delivers its curricular and pedagogic content that tend to shape and reinforce an element of 'internationalism' among its pupils. The international…

In Nagaland, a state in India's North-East region, the morung is a tribal institution that serves as an educational portal through which all young men passed as the means of learning their living heritage. Described by anthropological accounts, for a century until the 1950s, as a 'dormitory' for boys and young men, it is in fact much more. It is a…

The paper focusses on three aspects of our work with the urban poor: utilization of participatory research methodologies to elicit local knowledge in forms that do not require traditional education; building capacities to create active organized citizenry through catalysing Settlement Improvement Committees, which are representative bodies…