Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:03:48.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Interacting Circles of Educational Desire in Rural Odisha: Students, schools, state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2018

ZAZIE BOWEN*
Affiliation:
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Children from rural Odishan Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities have an historically marginalized relation to schools and a corresponding greater involvement with informal education regimes and participation in everyday economic and cultural routines. Although radical state restructuring in recent decades makes rural school buildings more visible, inside the classrooms, students were often present and teachers absent. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, in Western Mayurbhanj, Odisha, I examine students’ engagement with school and argue that rural schools cannot be fully understood without examining the motivations of and interactions between three sets of stakeholders: state, local providers, and students. Further, the motivations, evaluations, and experiences of students deserve to be brought much more to the fore in light of their active roles in Mayurbhanj village schools and the significant effects of this involvement on both the nature of rural schools and the changes in rural blocks.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antal, Carrie (2008) ‘Reflections on Religious Nationalism, Conflict and Schooling in Developing Democracies: India and Israel in Comparative Perspective’, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 38 (1): 87102.Google Scholar
Bajaj, Monisha (2011) ‘Human Rights Education: Ideology, Location and Approaches’, Human Rights Quarterly 33 (2): 481508.Google Scholar
Bates, Crispin (1995) ‘Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry’, in Robb, P. (ed.), The Concept of Race in South Asia, Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bayly, Susan (1995) ‘Caste and “Race”’, in Robb, P. (ed.), The Concept of Race in South Asia, Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Benei, Veronique (2008) Schooling Passions: Nation, History and Language in Contemporary Western India, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Beteille, T. (2009) ‘Absenteeism, Transfers and Patronage: The Political Economy of Teacher Labor Markets in India’, PhD thesis, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Bhatty, K. (1998) ‘Educational Deprivation in India: A Survey of Field Investigations’, Economic and Political Weekly 33 (27) (July 4–10): 17311740.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1989) The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Carrin, Marine (2008) ‘Santal Religious Discourse and the Assertion of Adivasi Identity’, in Behera, D. and Pfeffer, G. (eds), Contemporary Society Tribal Studies, Volume Seven: Identity, Intervention and Ideology in India and Beyond, New Delhi: Concept Publishing.Google Scholar
Carrin, Marine (2015) ‘Adivasi Childhood and the Making of Indigeneity in Jharkhand’, South Asian History and Culture special issue: Childhoods in India: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives (guest eds.) Bowen, Z. and Hinchy, J., 6 (3) (July): 348354.Google Scholar
Carrin-Bouez, M. (1991) Inner Frontiers: Santal Responses to Acculturation, Bergen: Chr Michelsen Institute, Department of Social Sciences and Development.Google Scholar
Chaudhury, N., Hammer, J., Kremer, M., Muralidharan, K., and Rogers, F. H. (2006) ‘Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (1): 91116.Google Scholar
Das, K. (2010) ‘Tribal Revolt of 1949 in Mayurbhanj’, Orissa Review.Google Scholar
Dayal, H., Noamani, F., Bagchi, D., and Godsora, J. (eds) (2007) State of the Adivasis in Odisha 2014: A Human Development Index, New Delhi: Institute for Human Development, Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Di Paolo, Ezequiel, Rohde, Marieke, and De jaegher, Hanneke (2007) ‘Horizons for the Enactive Mind: Values, Social Interaction and Play’, in Cognitive Science Research Papers 587, Brighton: University of Sussex.Google Scholar
Froerer, Peggy (2007) ‘Disciplining the Saffron Way: Moral Education and the Hindu Rashtra’, Modern Asian Studies 41 (5): 10331071.Google Scholar
Jeffery, Patricia (2005) ‘Introduction: Hearts, Minds and Pockets’, in Chopra, R., Jeffery, P., and Reifield, H. (eds), Educational Regimes in Contemporary India, New Delhi: Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd.Google Scholar
Kipnis, Andrew (2011) Governing Educational Desire: Culture, Politics and Schooling in China, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kremer, M., Muralidharan, K., Chaudhury, N., Hammer, J., and Rogers, F. H. (2005) ‘Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot’, Journal of the European Economic Association 3 (2–3): 658667.Google Scholar
Morrow, Virginia (2004) ‘Children's Social Capital: Implications for Health and Well-being’, Health Education 104 (4): 211225.Google Scholar
Morrow, Virginia (2008) ‘Ethical Dilemmas in Research with Children and Young People About Their Social Environments’, Children's Geographies 6 (1): 4961.Google Scholar
Nieuwenhuys, Olga (1994) Children's Lifeworlds: Gender, Welfare and Labour in the Developing World, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pramanik, Rashmi (2007) ‘Overburdened School-going Children: Reflections from a Small City in India’, in Behera, D. (ed.), Childhoods in South Asia, New Delhi: Longman.Google Scholar
Troisi, J. (1978) Tribal Religion: Religious Beliefs and Practices among the Santals, New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
van Schendel, Willem (2011) ‘The Dangers of Belonging: Tribes, Indigenous Peoples and Homelands in South Asia’, in Rycroft, D. and Dasgupta, S. (eds), The Politics of Belonging in India: Becoming Adivasi, London: Routledge.Google Scholar