Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators · 2020. 4. 3. · VTTE has been fortunate in having teachers, teacher educators, researchers who have contributed to it and shared their

Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators

Volume IV Issue 2 December 2015

Published by:

National Council for Teacher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development,Government of India, New DelhiPreparation of the publication at Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur.

Cover Design: Janaki Rajan and Rajesh SenLayout Design: Rajesh Sen and Preeti Misra

About the publication

The launch of the journal ‘Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators’ is an initiative of

the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to highlight the vital role of

teacher education in India, as the country is poised to provide quality education to all

its children, irrespective of gender, caste, creed, religion and geographies under the

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RtE), 2009. The large influx

of teachers necessitated under RtE represents the biggest opportunity to bring fresh

life into schools for decades to come. The challenge is to enhance the role of teachers in

shaping the social transformation India is witnessing, as well as have a long lasting

impact on the quality of education, also making it significantly more equitable. Teach-

ers and all those in the system need to recognize that their ownership and voices are

important and that they can and do learn not only from their own experiences but also

from each other through collective reflection and analysis. The publication attempts

to lend voice to teachers, their educators, researchers, administrators and policy mak-

ers in the varied institutions: Schools, CRCs, BRCs, DIETs, IASEs, CTEs, SCERTs etc.,

and make visible their engagement in accomplishing extraordinarily complex and

diverse tasks that they are expected to perform. Contributions are welcome both in

English and Hindi and there are plans to produce the journal in a multilingual format

in the near future.

Call for contributions

This publication is for all of us: teachers, teacher educators, administrators, researchersand policy makers. It is to provide a platform and also to build a network for ourvoices, ideas and reflections. Since the idea is to make this journal reflect all ourvoices it would only fulfill its purpose, if we contribute to it in as many ways as wecan. We look forward to all of you contributing with your experiences, questions,suggestions, perspectives as well as critical comments on different aspects of teachereducation and schooling. This could also be through comments and reflections on thecurrent issue. Your contribution could be in the form of articles, reports documents,pictures, cartoons or any other forms of presentation that can be printed. We lookforward to your inputs to make this journal truly reflective of our voices. We wouldlike to receive contributions for the next issue by 31st January, 2016. We also lookforward to comments and suggestions for improvements of the publication to makethis a participative endeavor and improve its quality. These can be sent to the following:

[email protected]@gmail.com

[email protected]

Editorial Team

Dr. Janaki Rajan is Professor of Education at Jamia Millia Islamia. She was Director,

State Council of Educational Research and Training, Delhi from 2000-2006. She holds

Master’s degrees in English Literature, Psychology and Education. Her research, publications,

teaching and activist interests lie in the areas of gender, inclusive education, curriculum

and cultural studies, women and child rights.

Hriday Kant Dewan was formerly Education Advisor, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur,

Rajasthan. He is now Professor, Azim Premji University. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from

Delhi University. He is involved in strengthening SCERTs and DIETs, textbook development,

teacher and teacher educator training and research and dissemination in education.

Dr. Manish Jain is Assistant Professor, School of Education Studies, Dr. BR Ambedkar

University, Delhi (AUD). He has previously taught at Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Mumbai and has been a school teacher for a decade. A recipient of Shastri Indo-Canadian

Doctoral Studies Fellowship and CSDS doctoral fellowship, he has been part of textbook

development teams at SCERT Delhi and NCERT. His research interests and publications

are at the intersections of history, sociology and politics of education and also include

education policies, comparative education, gender and social science education.

Assistant Editor: Preeti Misra, Vidya Bhawan Education Resource Centre, Udaipur,

Rajasthan.

Publication Coordinator: Ms. Anamika Singh, Ministry of Human Resource Development,

Government of India.

Contributors

Anwar Alam, Professor, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Economics &

Administrative Science, Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey.

N. Upender Reddy, Professor, SCERT, Telangana. Also, consultant, Educational Reforms,

O/o. Commissioner & Director of School Education, Telangana, Hyderabad.

Utpal K. Chakraborty, SCERT, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

Nitin Talokar, Lecturer, SCERT, Raipur.

Santosh Tamboli, Lecturer, SCERT, Raipur and pursuing M.Ed. at CTE, Raipur.

Mahendra Kumar Mishra, State Head, IFIG, Chhattisgarh.

Neelam Shukla, IFIG, Chhattisgarh.

Anju Das Manikpuri, Azim Premji Foundation, Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh.

Ekta Patidar, Vidya Bhawan Education Resource Center, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Shruti Bhadbhade, Vidya Bhawan Education Resource Center, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Shikha Takker, pursuing Ph.D. at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai

and guest faculty, TISS, Hyderabad.

Ritesh Khunyakari, Associate Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad.

Images:

Cover Image: Janaki Rajan, Jamia Millia Islamia. Delhi.

D.Ed. course material: SCERT, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

Image of science experiment: Bal Vaigyanik, Class 7, Eklavya, MP.

Learning Camp Images: Vidya Bhawan Education Resource Center, Udaipur.

Contents

Editorial

Section I: From practitioners, researchers, policy makers

1. Gandhi and Gulen : Comparing their views for peace building exercises

Anwar Alam 1

Section II: From the SCERTs and DIETs

2. Possible role of DIETs in devising new curriculum

N. Upender Reddy 14

3. Effort of Chhattisgarh to design new B.Ed. syllabus in the context of NCTERegulation 2014

Utpal Chakraborty 18

4. Using GeoGebra as a tool for better understanding of geometrical shapesand concepts

Nitin Talokar 22

5. Management of distribution of course content, assignments and projectsfor pre-service students (Diploma in Education, Bachelor of Education)using Moodle open source software

Santosh K. Tamboli 27

Section III: Reports of conferences, seminars, workshops

6. Report on National Seminar on Language Education

Mahendra K. Mishra and Neelam Shukla 32

Section IV: Experiences of teachers, trainees and teacher educators

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vatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjh 36

8. yfuZax dSai esa foKku f'k{k.k ds vuqHko

,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj o Jqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+s 42

7. Re-Imagining classrooms as spaces for learning and professionaldevelopment of teachers and teacher educators

Shikha Takker & Ritesh Khunyakari 47

Editorial

VTTE has been fortunate in having teachers, teacher educators, researchers who havecontributed to it and shared their unique experiences and special learnings from analysis ofthese experiences. As we reflect on this journey, we repeatedly ask ourselves, what issuesshould a publication devoted to teachers and teacher educators focus upon. It also seeksfrom us a statement of framework that would bring out the points of immediate as well aslong-term attention and interest. We need to think simultaneously about our conceptionsand uncover the ‘realities’ of teacher(s) and teacher educator(s) and what is significant intheir concerns and reflections. It also involves recognizing how and in what ways cansomething be narrated and how constraints, both self-imposed and from outside, shapewhat can be shared and spoken about. The importance of the perspectives or the standpoints/lenses that are used needs to be recognized, understood and critiqued. How can this createspace for discussion around classrooms, their practices, experiences, the ideas that underpinthem and ideas, experiments, experiences and reflections that may guide change? Howdoes it bring out the importance of that which is mundane and yet is the mainstay ofeducational processes? What is the relationship between the daily-lived world of educationalinstitutions and education policies?

This issue of VTTE does not take up all these questions for discussion but does engage withsome of them to some extent. In a world marked by immense violence, Anwar Alam engageswith ideas of Gulen (a Turkish Islamic Scholar and thinker) and Mahatma Gandhi to thinkabout peace and modernity and role of education in it. Essays by Reddy and Chakrabortyfocus on the challenges of curriculum reform in DIET and B.Ed. They tell us how reformsadvocated at the central level unfold at local sites and the challenges and hopes therein.Quite a few articles in this volume engage with Science Education. Takker and Khunyakaribring out the importance of classroom observations and the insights they offer. Issues ofmultilingualism, pedagogy, evaluation and engaging with school children are raised in thecontributions by Manikpuri, Talukar, Tamboli, Mishra and Pooja, Shruti and Ekta.

We wish to add that the journal now has an ISSN registration number. We also request youto help us in making VTTE better with your comments on the essays in this issues, throughsuggestions, and contributions. The next issue is to focus on mathematics education and wewould like and hope that educators, particularly elementary and secondary school teachers,would share some of their ideas, experiences, analysis and suggestions as short pieces, articles,anecdotes and/or class room activities. Please send them at the following ids:

[email protected]@[email protected]


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Introduction

Revered as ‘special person with divine grace’among their people at popular level, both Gandhiand Gulen envision a free, peaceful, democratic,tolerant and non-violent world and havegenerated positive public actions to achieve thisgoal through legal, peaceful and non-violentmeans. Though the world view of both are deeplygrounded in religious philosophy, Gandhi’sworld view is primarily constructed throughSantan Hindu religious tradition, while Gulen’sworld view is primarily filtered through the prismof Sunni orthodox Islamic traditions with a focuson Turkish Islamic history. Gandhi, unlike Gulen,was not a product of religious seminary or hadundergone any scholastic training. On the otherhand, Gulen, unlike Gandhi, is neither a productof modern educational system nor a national-political leader of the masses -fighting for thepolitical liberation of people. Notwithstandingthe differences in the political context, time-periodand religious traditions and other semanticdifferences between the two, both are credited tohave conducted public actions on the basis of theirunderstanding of ‘religious truth’ in pursuit of afree, peaceful, democratic, tolerant and non-violent world through legal, peaceful and non-violent means.

Given the similarity in terms of ontologicalvisions between the two, can Gandhi and Gulenbe brought on the same philosophical discursiveplane? Is there any commonality between thetwo? This paper attempts to highlight the commonethical and moral approach that underliesphilosophical discourses of Gandhi and Gulen,which has an implication for peace buildingexercises in the increasingly violence -pronemodern world. This will be examined bycomparing and contrasting their views on theissues related to religion, modernity, notion of‘other’, means-ends dichotomy, inter faith andinter-cultural dialogue, education and democracy,

which in totality produces a discourse of positiveaction, right conduct, love, and tolerance leadingto twin inter-linked goal of the negation of the‘notion of other’ and development of durablepeace. The ‘other’ here does not merely refers to‘religious other’ but all possible forms of ‘others’:national, political, ideological, social, economic,gender etc. In the process of examinations of theirviews on these issues this paper will also throwlight on the points of departure between the twowithin the frame of their common moral andethical discourses.

As the paper attempts to compare and contrastthe viewpoints of Gandhi and Gulen for the peacebuilding exercises, it will not be out of place toprovide a brief background of both globalpersonalities of modern times from the readerpoint of view, notwithstanding of the fact that thetwo do not require any introduction.

Given the similarity in terms of ontologicalvisions between the two, can Gandhi and Gulenbe brought on the same philosophical discursiveplane? Is there any commonality between thetwo? This paper attempts to highlight the commonethical and moral approach that underliesphilosophical discourses of Gandhi and Gulen,which has an implication for peace buildingexercises in the increasingly violence -pronemodern world. This will be examined bycomparing and contrasting their views on theissues related to religion, modernity, notion of‘other’, means-ends dichotomy, inter faith andinter-cultural dialogue, education and democracy,which in totality produces a discourse of positiveaction, right conduct, love, and tolerance leadingto twin inter-linked goal of the negation of the‘notion of other’ and development of durablepeace. The ‘other’ here does not merely refers to‘religious other’ but all possible forms of ‘others’:national, political, ideological, social, economic,gender etc. In the process of examinations of their

Anwar Alam

Gandhi and Gulen : Comparing their views for

peace building exercises


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views on these issues this paper will also throwlight on the points of departure between the twowithin the frame of their common moral andethical discourses.

As the paper attempts to compare and contrastthe viewpoints of Gandhi and Gulen for the peacebuilding exercises, it will not be out of place toprovide a brief background of both globalpersonalities of modern times from the readerpoint of view, notwithstanding of the fact that thetwo do not require any introduction.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

M. K. Gandhi, known as Mahatama (great soul)Gandhi, the father of Republic of India, was bornin the salaried Gujarati Indian middle class family.Having received the degree in Law from UnitedKingdom, Gandhi moved to South Africa to takeup legal cases belonging to Muslim merchantfamily. Gandhi lived in South Africa for morethan twenty years and encountered personalindignity, humiliation and suffering andwitnessed the same for non- White populationunder the Aparatheid White regime of SouthAfrica. It was in South Africa that Gandhiexperimented with religiously inspired principlesand methods of peaceful struggle and non- violentresistance against the system of oppression andrepression. Having returned to India in 1915Gandhi successfully applied the methods andprinciples of non-violent resistance against theunjust colonial rule of British Kindom, developedthe powerful peaceful mass movements andfinally led the country to independence. Over theyears Gandhi has emerged as the universalsymbol of peaceful political struggle and non-violent resistance against any system of injustice,oppression and repression.

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (born 1941—)

M. F Gulen is a profound Islamic scholar andthinker of Turkish origin who is respectfullycalled hodjaefendi (a respectable teacher). He wasborn in the impoverished family of Erzurumprovince of modern Turkey; received Islamiceducation informally, as the Kemalist republic hasbanned and outlawed all Islamic centres oflearning, and served as an government imam in

the various mosques of modern Turkey. He wasconferred the title of Eminent Preacher andgranted the right to preach anywhere inside theTurkey by the Turgut Ozal government duringmid 1980s. His ideas and writings spanning overmore than four decades have influenced, inspiredand motivated millions of Muslims,predominantly Turkish Muslims to engineer avoluntary, peaceful, faith based civic-socialmovement called Gulen or Hizmet movement thathas become global in scope. Today the Gulenmovement that originated in Turkey in 1970s hasspread to many other countries and succeeded inregistering its presence in social field, particularlyin the field of education, health, interfaith, relief,dialogue and peace building exercise. By aconservative estimate the movement voluntaryruns more than thousands of socio-cultural-institutions including schools, preparatorycoaching centres, university, hospitals, dialoguecentres, relief organizations, mass media,publishing houses etc organizations all over theworld. Gulen prefers to call himself a humbleteacher in the service of humanity. He continuesto provide Islamic teaching from his present homein Pennsylvania, USA, to students, mostly theTurkish ones.

Gandhi and Gulen: Meaning of Peace Building

It is pertinent to point out the notion of ‘peacebuilding’ in the Gandhian and Guleniandiscourse is significantly different from themodern/contemporary understanding of theterm. In the modern literature the concept of peacebuilding refers to the institutional capacity ofmanaging conflict (Galtung:1976, 1996, Chapinand Foster: 2001, Lederach : 197, DAVIES,Johnand KAUFMAN, Edward(eds.),2002,BOUTROS-GHALI,Boutros,1992 ) and thusfocuses on the role of state and non- state actors/institutions- international and national non-governmental organisations- or combination ofboth in promoting peace in preventing theoutbreak of the war or societal-political-ethnicconflicts. Thus the modern understanding ofpeace building is premised on the idea ofinevitability of violence that needs to be managedthrough building the institutional capability of stateand society, which in turns flows from deep seatedassumption of modern social science that human beings


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are primarily selfish and aggressive by nature andhence prone to conflict and violence. Hence theconception of peace building in modern discourseis narrow, negative and of transient nature as itentails the ‘prevention or absence of violence’.

Whereas in the Gandhian and Gulen’s discourse,peace building is not about prevention of conflictand violence but a ceaseless participation in thepositive actions. Hence in this discourse peacebuilding is about moral and ethical purificationof self that aims at elimination of internal cognitiveconditions, which leads to the development ofconflict and violence. It is about a state of mind andheart that allows oneself to overcome his/hernarrow self even in the midst of unfavourablematerial conditions and live in peace with others,with his/her surroundings and institutions ofstate and society. However this does not meanthis discourse does not pay attention to the issueof exclusion and marginalization, which areimportant for peace building process. In fact adurable peace is only possible when peacebuilding exercises must address to the issue ofequity, justice, representation and recognition ingeneral and issue of material and spiritualdeprivation in particular cutting across class,ethnicity, religious, caste, tribes, nationality,political, ideological, gender and other identities.

However unlike the reductionist politicaleconomy approach that links the issue ofdeprivation with occurrence of violence, theGandhian and Gulen’s discourse of peacebuilding pays more attention to subjectivearticulation of deprivation, exclusion andmarginalisation and address to ‘human moraland ethical power’ to remain steadfast in pursuitof ‘truthful, peaceful and non-violent’ life in themidst of adverse material conditions. Thus unlikethe modern discourse of peace building, Gandhiand Gulen’s conception of peace building is apositive, action oriented force and of permanentnature that draws its substance from natural selfof mankind: trust, peace, cooperation,compassion, love and tolerance. It is thisconviction in the goodness of the mankind whichled Gandhi to remark, ‘’the fact that there are somany men still alive in the world shows that it is basednot on the force of arms but on the force of truth orlove———-History does not, and cannot, take note ofthis fact. History is really are record of everyinterruption of the even working of the force of love or

of the soul (Gandhi1997:89-90), The samegoodness of mankind as the constitutive sourceof Gulen’s conception of peace building processin particular and activities of Gulen movement inGeneral has also been explored in a recent worktitled as ‘Islam and Peace building’ (Esposito andYilmaz: 2010).

Within this larger framework the peace buildingexercises — both discourses as well as concretesocial-political actions must be directed towardspreventing the process of gradual transformationof notion of ‘other’ into a ‘politicised other’leading to the development of discourse of ‘US vsTHEM’, which often degenerates in the form ofviolence- both at individual and collective level.At the collective level the violence often assumedthe form of riots, pogrom, genocide, terrorism,holocaust or what is called crime againsthumanity. In other words, while ‘self’ and ‘other’is a part of natural-self of social being, however apoliticisation of each other endangers societalpeace; hence the only solution to the perpetualconflict between (politicized -ideologised) selfand (politicized-ideologised) other is thedissolution of each -other into each-other. DoGandhi and Gulen offer such discourse? Any ifthey do offer, are their discourses capable ofachieving this goal?

Approach to Religion

Both Gandhi and Gulen espouse ethical andmoral understanding of religion and stress oncommon universal heritage, roots, principles,values and objectives of all religion and religioustraditions: honesty, truth, peace, non-violence,respect, love, friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, service,brotherhood, harmony, tolerance, compassion,forgiveness, humility, servitude etc. It is to revivalof these principles, and not the prevailing localpractices in the past, that Gulen and Gandhi referto ‘revival of faith’ (revival of Islam or revival ofHinduism respectively). Both imagined ‘religion’in terms of belief in the ‘unity of and submissionbefore God’, ‘right conduct’, and ‘selfless service’to people, community, nation and humanismbased on the principle of altruism. There areplenty of statements belonging to Gandhi andGulen that signifies to this understanding ofreligion.


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For instance, contrary to popular perception thatHinduism is polytheist religion, Gandhi, aSantani Hindu, was a fervent believer andworshipper in the oneness of God: ‘’ we haveanother thing in Hindu philosophy, viz, Godalone is and nothing else exists, and the sametruth you find emphasised and exemplified in thekalma of Islam. There you find it clearly stated —-the God alone is and nothing else exist’’ (Gandhi:n.d, 66). In another instance Gandhi states,‘’ Godthe Ruler pervades all there is in this Universe.Therefore renounce and dedicate all to him, andthen enjoy or use the portion that may fall to thylot. Never covet anybody’s possession’’ (Gandhi:nd, 40). Identifying religion as ‘ service ethics’, hestates, ‘ Yajna (Sacrifice) means an act directed tothe welfare of others, done without desiring anyreturn for it, whether of a temporal or spiritual nature( emphasise mine). ‘ Act’ here must be taken in itswidest sense, and includes thought and word, aswell as deed’’ (Gandhi: nd, 48). ——-Every singleact of one who would lead a life of purity shouldbe in the nature of yajna ‘’ (Gandhi: nd: 48-49).Similarly, the Islamic principle of Tawheed andservice ethics (hizmet) without any expectationof return constitutes the foundation of Gulen’sreligious philosophy and Gulen movement. Gulenrepeatedly draws attention towards the Quraniccall for ‘selfless sacrifice’ and statement that ‘those who are constant in praying and spend onothers out of what We provide for them assustenance. It is they who are truly the muminun’

Further both emphasise rational understandingof religion but concede supremacy of faith overreason, limitation of human mind incomprehending God’s secret, emphasise‘essential of religion’ and avoid unnecessaryritualism connected with the religious practices.In this context both avoid literalist method ofreading of Scriptures and place due importanceto the factor of ‘spiritual discipling’ for theinterpretation of Scriptures and in deducing the‘spirit’ of the discourse of Scriptures throughrelying upon the intra-text reading of theScriptures. Gandhi declares that, ‘ I am not aliteralist. Therefore I try to understand the spiritof the various scriptures of the world. I apply thetest of Truth and Ahimsa laid down by these veryscriptures for interpretation.’’ (Gandhi: nd 10).For Gulen, Islam is the seal of good morals and

conducts filtered through all revealed scriptures.He often quotes the Prophet’s statement, ‘’ Islamconsists in good morals; I have been sent to perfect andcomplete good morals’’. It is from this point of viewthat Gandhi considered ‘untouchability’ as‘superstitions’, and ‘distorted practice’, which isnot an original Hindu practice connected withVedic culture. He even refused to visit Hindutemples on two grounds: he did not consider idolworship as the essential of Hinduism and second,denial of access to untouchables (the outcastes)to the Hindu temples as great injustice not only tothe humanity but to the cause of Hinduism itself.Similarly Gulen did not consider hiijab, beard,veil, fez, or other associated with bodilyrepresentation of Islam or many of sufi practicessuch loud dhikr as the essential for Islam. In short,for both, religion is a moral and ethical discoursewithout any fixed identity boundary.

What further unites both of them is theimagination of God/Allah as ‘transcendentaltruth’ and ultimate source of ‘causation of allcauses’ and expression of Love, Truth,Compassion, Mercifulness and Fearfulness—- allattributes of God that has been exemplified bydifferent names of God. While one may findobjectionable in treating God and Allah equalfrom Islamic point of view, Gandhi’s conceptionof God is akin to Islamic notion of Allah in whichGod emerged as the ‘Maker of Universe’ having acomplete separate identity without anyassociation with anybody and in any form.However for Gandhi, ‘Truth’ is the mostappropriate word, symbol or discourse to describeGod and hence he adopted the principle of ‘Truthis God’, which is different from ‘God is Truth’which he used to believe at one point of time. Whilethe latter is a statement of fact, the former is aeveryday living value to be realised throughmeans of love and non- violence as God revealedmost himself in the truthful moments, truthfulconducts and truthful actions. It is a call of innerconscience. Gandhi stressed that while everybodydemands the right to conscience but hardlypractice the same in their everyday life. In Gulen’sIslamic discourse there is a heavy emphasis onihsan/ihlas (intention/inner conscience) to secureGod’s blessings. The Sufi’s conception of ‘livingwith God’s consciousness’, a notion furtherenriched by Gulen, comes close to Gandhiannotion of ‘ Truth is God’.


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Notwithstanding the similarity over the broadconception of religion and divinity, Gandhi,unlike Islamic position, does not consider theScriptures including Vedas, Quran or Bible or anyother Scriptures as ‘Divine Book’ or ‘RevealedBook ‘ but ‘divinely inspired’. Speaking from thispoint of view Gandhi maintained that one couldremained a Hindu without having a belief in God,because Hinduism is a relentless search for truththrough the means of peace and non-violence(Gandhi: nd,1), a proposition which is impossiblefor any version of Islam to admit someone asMuslim or believer without having faith in God.In fact Islamic discourses including those ofGulen is harsh on atheism.

A second point of departure between the two isthat while both aims at the ethical and moraltransformation of individual, however inGandhian discourse Hinduism does not emergeas social or political project, unlike in Gulen’sIslamic discourse where Islam emerged as ‘social-political project’, though not in the sense ofpolitical Islamism that aims at the creation ofIslamic state, connected with objective of creationof ‘golden generation’, which is anchored in themirror image of first generation Muslims of Islam,which will guide the humanity. Though Gandhiemploys the metaphor of Ram-Rajya to denote thejust order or ‘state of happiness’, which is akin toGulen’s conception of Asre Sadat (state ofhappiness during the period of ProphetMuhammad), however unlike Gulen, Gandhidoes not elaborate the institutional framework ofachieving the same. This difference between thetwo may be partly on account of nature ofHinduism itself in which there does not exist any‘historical model for emulation’, unlike the‘Prophetic model’ and model of ‘Rightly GuidedCaliphs’ in Islam from where all Islamicmovements derive their legitimacy.

A third point of departure between Gandhi andGulen pertains to the notion of self defence. ForGandhi, the notion of self defence is related tointernal purification of self. Gandhi believes thatsecret of success of Hindu civilisation lies in itsmoral and ethical mechanism of self defenceagainst the external challenges or calamities. Ashe states, ‘ The best and most lasting self defenceis self-purification. I refuse to be lifted off my feetbecause of the scares that haunt us today.——- If

I can get together a band of young Hindus withfaith in themselves and therefore faith inMussulmans, the band will become a shield forthe weaker ones. They (the young Hindus) will teachhow to die without killing. I know no other way’’(Gandhi: nd, 22). Similarly on the issue ofprotection of cow, a symbol of contemporaryHinduism, Gandhi took the position that hemight gave up his life to save a cow but will notkill a Muslim in the name of protection of cow(Gandhi,.1934: 41). In his interpretation of Vedas,a compilation of dialogue between Shri Krishnaand Arjuna during the battle field of Mahabharat,he came to the conclusion that no one kills or iskilled, neither he ever evoked the notion ofdharmyudh (just war) against anybody includingfighting with British’s unjust rule in India. Thusin Gandhian imagination of Hinduism there isno place for violence and killing is not justjustified under any circumstances including inthe name of principle of self-defence. It may benoted that the modern international law is verymuch based on the doctrine of self defence thatallows nation to commit offence in the name ofself defence. Examples are abound, the most recentexample of which is US’s doctrine of pre-emptivestrike that aims to conduct an unilateral militarystrike in order to preempt the military actions ofdesignated enemy.

On the other hand in Islamic traditions there arenumerous interpretations of Jihad, which broadlyfall in two categories: (A) lesser jihad—- themeaning of which range from waging war in thepath of Allah to armed defence in retaliationagainst external enemy. (B) greater jihad: innerpurification and development of moral capacityto control the nafs (carnal desires). However eventhe most pacifist Islamic voice including Guleninterpreted the act of war on the part of ProphetMuhjammad as a just act in self defence and forgood cause. (Gulen, 2006: 201-255,).Ali Bayaram,one of the senior volunteers in the Gulenmovement, while conducting shobet , in responseto my query, stated that ‘ there is no concept ofjust killing in Islam except in war as self defence’(interview, Asya Resort, Ankara, 2011). Further,the Islamic dictum that ‘killing a person unjustlyamounts to a killing of the entire humanity’ doescontain the notion of just or unjust killing. Thusthe ‘killing’ is justified in self defence and for


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greater cause in the Islamic traditions.

Finally, the difference between the two lies interms of means to serve the humanity. Gandhiutilised the means of politics to serve his peopleand make them free from the bondage ofunfreedom. While conceptualising politics as‘moral vocation’, as for him, politics bereft ofreligion is an immoral profession, Gandhi linkedhis politics of liberation of the country withHindu-Muslim unity, abolition of practice ofuntouchability in Hindu society and integratingthe untouchables in the national mainstream anddevelopment of women. Gandhi’s politics wasessentially integrative in nature and intended tobring harmony and cooperation among differentclasses, castes and religious groups, which partlyexplains that despite the instrumentality ofreligion in Gandhian politics, Gandhi has neverbeen accused of indulging in the ‘politics ofcommunalism’. One the other hand Gulenconsiders politics as essentially ‘immoral anddivisive phenomenon’ and therefore any ‘politicsof Islam’ inherently pose a danger to Islam itself.The nature of ‘Muslim/Islamic politics’ in muchof Muslim societies testifies Gulen’s insight.Hence Gulen prefers social actions over politicsto serve people, Islam, community, nation andhumanity. Working with this approach Gulenputs social agencies such as education, health,relief work, media etc in the service of the people.

Notwithstanding of these differences, bothGandhi and Gulen provides an inclusive, holistic,flexible, relative and pluralistic understanding of

religions and underlines the unity of all religions.Gandhi wrote in Hind Swaraj, ‘By religion, I do

not mean formal religion, or customary religion,but that religion which underlies all religion,

which brings us face to face with our Maker(Gandhi.1934: 30). In another instance he stated

that ’My Hinduism is not sectarian. It includesall that I know to be best in Islam, Christianity,

Buddhism and Zoroastrianism’ (Chandra,2004:37).

Similarly underlying the unity of all religionsGulen states, ‘“ Regardless of how their adherents

implement their faith in their daily lives, such asgenerally accepted values as love, respect

tolerance, forgiveness, mercy, human rights,peace, brotherhood, and freedom are all values

exalted be religion. Most of these values areaccorded the highest precedence in the messagesbrought by Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, uponthem be peace, as well as in the message of Buddhaand even Zarathusa, Lao-Tzu, Confucius, and theHindu Prophets” (Unal and William: 2000, 242).Further he states, ‘’ As a Muslim, I accept allProphets and Books sent to different peoplethroughout history, and regard belief in them asan essential principle of being Muslim. A Muslimis true follower of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesusand all other Prophets. Not Believing in oneProphet or Book means that one is not aMuslim’.(Ibid).

Approach to Modernity

Though both Gandhi and Gulen were/ areinfluenced by the humanistic tradition of westernmodernity, both were/are also critical of moderntrajectory of life, particularly the destructive sideof modernity, excessive individualism,materialism and positivism. While engaging withmodernity, both saw Europe as inflicting withserious illness and hence called for sympathywith them. Gandhi considered the westerncivilization as immoral and unethicalphenomenon because it had made ‘bodily welfare’as its ‘objects of life’ and compared it with theUpas tree that poisoned everything that cameunder its shadow or like a disease that wastedthe body politic. He writes, “This civilization takesnote neither of morality nor or religion.——Thiscivilization is irreligion, and it has taken such ahold on the people in Europe that those who arein it appear to be half mad. They lack real physicalstrength or courage…… This civilization is suchthat one has only to be patient and it will be selfdestroyed. According to the teaching ofMohammed this could be considered a SatanicCivilization. Hinduism calls it a Black Age.——— It is eating into the vitals of the English nation.It must be shunned.——If you will sufficientlythink over this, you will entertain the sameopinion and cease to blame the English. Theyrather deserved our sympathy’’. (Gandhi.1934.24-25).

Echoing the spirit of Gandhi, Gulen calledmodernity ‘mislabelling’, ‘misuse of concept’ inorder to dupe people with false promise: ‘’Civilization is different from modernism. While


7

the former means the changing and renewal ofman with respect to his views, way of thinkingand human aspects, the latter consists in thechanging of his life style and bodily pleasures andthe development of living facilities. Although thisis the truth, the new generations, who have beenbewildered through misuse of concepts, have firstbeen misled in their way of thinking and thenmade to degenerate in belief, language, nationalthoughts, moral and culture. Apart from this,those Western people enjoying technical facilitiesmore than others, and the so called ‘intellectuals’who have emerged among Eastern peoples, andwho consider themselves civilized and the othersas savage, have committed, through such mis-labelling, a grave, unforgivable sin againstcivilization and culture.———————————all these, together with many other signs ofsavagery prevailing world wide, show decisivelythat the ‘developed’ peoples of the world havenot founded a true civilization, and nor have their‘developing’ imitators been able to do so. Howpitiful it is that the intelligentsia of ‘developing’countries have deceived their people intobelieving that they could be civilized throughmodernization of their life style————”(Gulen:1998, 71-73. ).

Thus, both the Gandhian and Gulenian discourseare life centred, not state-centred- the subjectmatter of modernity. Gandhi in his personalconviction was at best a political anarchist whoconsidered state as an immoral force. He wouldassign minimum possible role to state in matterof governance as he believed that people did notrequire any external authority or force to governthemselves as they are capable of self-governance.This is the meaning of Sawaraj or Self Rule onegets from Gandhi’s seminal work titled, ‘HindSwaraj’. On the other hand, Gulen has graduallymoved from his once held position that a strongstate is necessary condition for survival of Islamand Muslims. Today he fervently advocates thecause of ‘neturality of state’ in matter ofgovernance and religion but continues to believein the classic Islamic dictum that ‘bad governmentis better than no government’.

In this context it is interesting to note that amajority of works on Gulen movement hasattempted to understand the discourse of Gulenas an attempt or response to bridge the gap

between Islam and modernity. Whether this ispartly due to historical burden of intellectualtraditions in Muslim society, which hashistorically frame the problems of their societiesin terms of relationship between Islam andmodernity or desire to catch up with themodernity, particularly among the Turkishintellectuals, a great of majority of them hasconstructed a parallel between Gulen movementand protestant movement of Europe (Yuvuz:2013, O¨zdalga: 2000, Uygur: 2007, Arslan,:1999,2000. 2001, Yousef,: 2001). What can be said withfair amount of certainty is that Gulen’s Islamicdiscourse, which mostly revolve around thenotion of people’s rights, life styles, pluralism,tolerance, harmony, service ethics and socialactivism, reflects a post modern concern andaspiration: recognition of identity in public sphereand freedom from the intrusive culture of modernnation state. On the other hand the majority ofworks in India on Gandhi have hardly attemptedto frame his discourse in terms of bridge betweenHinduism and modernity; rather predominantlysaw Gandhian discourse as moral and ethicalcritique of modernity. In recent years the tendencyto study Gandhi within post modern frame hasincreased (Nandy 1983, 1987; Paranjpe1983;Prasad 1985; Parekh 1989, 1997; Dallmayr1996; Sarkar 2001; Chakrabarty,2006; Parel 2006,.Rudolph and Rudolph 2006). In other words, asmodernity brought the rupture between heart andmind and as a consequence produced uncountedhuman misery, violence and destruction, theGandhian and Gulen’s religiously inspired moraland ethical discourses attempt to restore thebalance between reason and faith, religion andscience, heart and mind and nature and man. Inshort, both attempt to place a heart in the heartlessmodernity.

Absence of ‘Other’

Unlike the materialistic modern philosophy,which is constructed on the principle ofrecognition of separate ‘self’ and ‘other’, there isno place of ‘other’ in the philosophy of Gandhiand Gulen. This comes from their abiding faithand recognition that ‘everybody is children ofGod’ and hence everybody is equal. A genuinelove and respect for God automatically translatesitself in the unconditional love towards His


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creations: both humans and non-humans. Thusby reserving ‘Self’ to God only and ‘Other’ to entirehuman beings Gulen resolves the perpetualconflict between self and other that exists in thepositivist philosophy by upholding the moralequality of human beings. Thus in this discoursethe self becomes others which results in acceptingothers with all their identities and beings.

It is interesting to note that while Europe/ Britainhas been factor in dismemberment of OttomanEmpire and colonisation of India and laterpartition of Indian sub-continent, Europe/Britaindoes not appear as ‘other’ in the discourses ofeither of Gandhi or Gulen. Making a distinctionbetween British rule and modernity Gandhi statedthat, ‘’it is my deliberate opinion that India isbeing ground down, not under the English heel,but under that of modern civilization’’ (Gandhi:1934, 29-30). All techniques of non-violentstruggle that Gandhi employed to mobilise peopletowards fighting British mis-rule: whetherSatyagrah and Hijrat, (Champran, 1917, Kheda,1918 and Ahmedabad Mill Strike, 1918), Khilafatand Non- Cooperation movement (1919-1921),Civil disobedience movement or Salt Satygarah(1929-1930), Fasting (against Poona Pact, 1932and Bengal Hindu-Muslim riots-1947) and QuiteIndia movement (1942)— were intended to exposethe moral and ethical bankruptcy of British‘civilized’ rule and were not guided byconsideration of British rule as ‘enemy’ of Indianpeople. It may be noted in this regard that Gandhiunilaterally withdrew the non-cooperationmovement in 1921 at the height of the movement(to the much dismay of many Congress leader)during Churi Chura incident when a fewpeasantry had burnt the police station that led tothe killing of a few policemen, as for Gandhi thisamount to lack of sufficient moral and ethicaltraining to become Satyagrahi . Gandhi’sembracing of Muslims and other communitieswas based on this approach and hence he neveragreed to the ‘Partition’ of Indian subcontinentbetween Indian and Pakistan. The absence of‘other’ in Gandhian discourse partly explainedwhy India did not see any problem in becoming amember of Commonwealth headed by Britishmonarch after independence.

Like Gandhi, there is no conception of ‘other’ inGulen ’s Islamic discourse. All credible research

on Gulen movement has demonstrated that themovement lacks the notion of ‘other’ in itsdiscourse, practice and action. It is neither directedagainst any individual, ideology or politicalsystem or value-whether Islamic or non-Islamic.It does not pass fatwa on things/value calledIslamic or non-Islamic. Though one may noticewithin Hizmet movement a kind of reservationand stiffness towards Shii, communist andatheists; however such reservation does not flowfrom Gulen’s Sunni Islamic discourse as it ispopularly assumed. With regard to Shii, Gulenhas reservation towards Iranian political systemthat fused both religion and politics and hencedestroys the moral and ethical spirit of Islam.Similarly, for Gulen, communism and atheism areprincipally an ideological construct that killshumanism.

Since ‘education’ has emerged as the identity ofGulen movement, can this be considered a site ofcounter- mobilization against secular state/elite/lifestyles in Turkey? From the writings andspeeches of Gulen and other research materialson Gulen movement it is difficult to argue that heconceives education and encouraged theestablishment of educational institutions as‘political project’ to displace the westernized/kemalist status-quoist class within Turkey. Thelarge transformation one is witnessing in today’sTurkey in terms of ‘black AnatolianMuslimTurks’ acquiring centre stage in all fields-economy, political and social- is at best unintendedconsequence of Gulen’s reconfiguration offundamental Islamic principles and values to suitthe present times.

Rasim Bey, a student of Gulen stated, “that Gulenhas never used such terms as ‘Kemalists’,‘’Secularist’ or ‘Islamicist’ or any kind of ‘isim’for describing people or thought, which is inaccordance with Prophetic traditions. ProphetMuhammad (PUBH) lives with ‘munafiq’ for 10years but never used this term” (Interview withRasim Bey, Academy, Istanbul,, dated, 23.2.2010)In other words; Gulen’s Islamic hermeneutics isthe discourse of social change without any fixedideology, target or objective. Further, unlike manyIslamic figures and movements in the world, the‘West’ does not appear as ‘other’ either in Gulen’sdiscourse or in the everyday action programmeof Gulen movement. Rather with the discourse of


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darul- hizmet Gulen motivates his followers tointeract with the West without any fear. In factthe Gulen movement in Turkey has been at theforefront in mobilising public opinion in favourof Turkey becoming a member of European union.Esposito and Yilmaz rightly commented that ‘Gulen’s acceptance of the two Turkishidentities—-European and Islamic—- ascomplementary rather than contradictory wasinnovative at a time when both secular andIslamist identities totally reject this duality’’(Esposito and Yilmaz :2010, 25-26).

In short, both the Gandhian and Gulen’sdiscourses emphasise the constant internal moraland ethical purification of self in order to overcomethe ‘hidden other’ within himself or herselfthrough the modes of prayer, practice of truth,pacific resolution of conflicts and developing‘service ethics’. Thus both discourses demandceaseless and rigorous ‘spiritual practices’ to‘purify’ self and negate the perception of other asenemy. In Gandhian discourse the attainment ofthis state of condition is linked with practice ofYamas (the cardinal virtues)—Ahisma (non-violence), Satya, (truth), Asetya (non-stealing),Brahmacharya (celibecy), Aparigraha ( non-possession) and Niyamas (the casual virtues)—-Shaucha (bodily purity), Santosh (contentment),,Tapa (forbearance), Swadhyaya (study ofScriptures), Ishwarapranidhna (resignation to thewill of God). Similarly, the entire purpose ofGulen’s writings of Emerald Hills of the Heart thatcontains the exposition of various principles ofSufism such as, dhikr (rememberance of God), zuhd(asceticism), muraqaba (self-reflection) muhasaba(self-evaluation) and many others is to directMuslims to undergone the spiritual training ofSufism in order to dissolve his/her ‘self’, toovercome the carnal-bodily desires and to developGod’s consciousness.

Means Justifies Ends

Unlike the modernist dictum of ‘End justifiesMeans’ which justifies all sorts of application ofillegal, immoral, unethical means to achieve goal—whether individual or collective—-, bothGandhi and Gulen believes in the principle ofpurity of means to achieve pure goals as an articleof faith. According to them, a goal— no matter

how pure and noble, cannot be achieved withimpure and unethical means. For both, adheringto legal rules and regulations is ethical and moralvalue and hence both emphasise on the legal,moral and ethical way of pursuing one’s own goalor conducting business or undertaking anyprivate or public action. In other words, for both,the mean is an end in itself. Thus both seeks to restorethe morals and ethics in public life through thediscourse of means-ends dichotomy, which has beentotally eliminated in the modern form of politics.

As Gandhi states, ‘They say ‘means are after allmeans’. I would say ‘means are after all everything’.As the means so the end. Violent means will give violentswaraj. That would be a menace to the world and toIndia herself....There is no wall of separation betweenmeans and end. Indeed, the Creator has given us control(and that too very limited) over means, none over theend. Realization of the goal is in exact proportion tothat of the means’’ (Gandhi, 1998: 28, 310).

Similarly Gulen opines, ‘’ The means to attain alawful and right target must also be lawful and right.For those who are on the Islamic line, that the object oftheir efforts in every enterprise should be lawful is aright, and lawfulness of the means to reach that rightis an obligation. As the pleasure of God and unionwith Truth cannot be acquired without sincerity andbeing for the sake of God, so service to Islam and thedirection of Muslims to the true goals or targets cannotbe achieved by evil ways and means’’ (Gulen,2009:38).

Thus Gandhi never compromised on applyingonly peaceful and non-violent methods such assatyagrah, padh yatra, (march on foot), peaceful,unarmed mobalisation, fasting, civil disobedienceand non-cooperation techniques such as boycottof British goods, particularly cloths, call for givingup honorary titles and governmental jobs underBritish rule, refusal to pay tax etc and conductedall his public-political actions within theconstitutional-legal structure of the British’s rule.Similarly Gulen too conducts all his publicactions and all Hizmet linked public actions-whether in the field of education, business,conference, media, relief etc— are conductedwithin the legal framework of the nation and statewhere work is located. It is this strength ofpeaceful, non-violent, legal legacy of Hizmetmovement that has made the task of currentErdogan government very difficult to de-


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legitimise the movement despite almost everydayillegal attack and undue harassment that is beinginflicted upon the movement.

In this regard Ahmet Kurucan (2015) maintaineda distinction between the principle of passiveresistance and principle of civil disobedience. Hebrought Gulen’s discourse in the former categoryas this does not allow any violation ofgovernmental rules and regulations even whilepeacefully resisting the government’s publicpolicies without any mobilisational form, thelatter contains the measures such as refusal topay tax or quiting the job as sign of non-cooperation against the government that amountsto violation of existing legal rules and regulations.Though the distinction between the two, asbrought out by Kurcan, is technically correct;however in the Gandhian discourse civildisobedience is only one form of passiveresistance, the employment of which dependsupon the political context.

Inter-faith and Inter-cultural Dialogues

Interfaith and Inter cultural dialogue is the key inGandhi and Gulen’s religious discourse to retrievethe fundamental unity and essence of allreligions. Interfaith dialogue helps to experiencehow one can learn about the religious beliefs andspiritual identity of the other while at the same timelearning more about the religious beliefs andspiritual identity of ourselves. It is aboutdiscovering oneself through otherness. Both Gandhiand Gulen articulate the conflicts in the modernage in terms of misunderstanding of religioustraditions by people in general. Hence bothemphasise on the necessity of the correct and truerepresentation of religious traditions. Further,since the problem lies in the exclusive constructionof religion which leads to misunderstanding anddisrespect to other’s religious and cultural legacy,both emphasise a constant dialogue between thetwo with a view to understand each other pointof view and reach to a common understanding.An essential condition of this dialogue is theunconditional acceptance and recognition ofother with his/her compete identity, (secular,religious, national etc) history, and cultural legacyin order to penetrate his/her thinking andunderstand them in order to address each other’s fear and concerns.

Gandhi firmly believed that understanding thereligion of another is ultimately appreciation ofthe other as a person with a direction and hope.Gandhi tried to reveal himself in this sense to hisMuslim friends so that they could perceive theinner meaning of his tradition. It is for this reasonGandhi totally identified with Indian Muslim’sgrievances over the threat of abolition of Caliphateand led the Khilafat movement (1918-1920) in thecountry against the European treatment of Turkeywith a possible politics of abolition of Caliphate,which Gandhi considered as an essential elementof Islamic faith and therefore needs to be protected.Moreover, he exhorted every member of theCongress party to cultivate personal friendshipswith persons representing a faith other than hisown. For him, ‘heart unity’ meant that one shouldbe open to the deepest values of each other’straditions. In the context of the outbreak ofcommunal riots in the aftermath of the Non-Cooperation Movement, Gandhi said, ‘I see noway of achieving anything in this afflictedcountry without a lasting heart unity betweenHindus and Mussalmans of India’ (Gandhi1966:153). He believed in achieving the ‘heartunity’ between the two through inter-faith andinter-cultural dialogue — a discipline that hasbecome dominant in today’s world in addressingthe issue of inter-community relations.

For Gulen, the purpose of dialogue is to not tosatisfy each other ego but to help enabling thetruth to come out, which requires such principlesas mutual understanding, respect, and dedicationto justice. According to him, the creation of thisenvironment calls for a Muslim to develop whatis considered sufistic ethics or what Heon ChoulKim has described as ‘Gülen’s Dialogic Sufism’,which has four inter-connected aspects: love,compassion, tolerance and forgiveness. Lester R.Kurtz has called these dimensions of Sufi Islamas ‘pillars of Gulen’s conception of dialogue’.Celik and Valkenberg identifies three stages inGulen’s conception of dialogue. They describe thefirst stage of Gülen’s dialogue concept asaccepting the others in their own position. Thesecond stage involves respecting the position ofthe other(s), and the third stage is the concept ofsharing values in the context of the other(s). Gulenhas personally reached out to the prominentrepresentative of Christian, Jewish and other


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religious traditions in order to develop a commonunderstanding of each other faith. Over the yearsthe Gulen movement has developed the hundredsof dialogue centres all over the world so as to reachout the members of other communities and faiths.

Education

For both Gulen and Ghandhi education isessentially a life long moral and ethical discourse.While in Gulen scheme of things education islinked with creation of ‘golden generation’— ageneration well versed in the knowledge of thepresent age, Gandhian conception of ‘BasicEducation’ (nai taleem), while retaining manyattributes of golden generation, emphasises theunity of work and knowledge production inaddition to creation of ethical and moral being. Inmany ways the educational thought of Gandhiand Gulen provide a critique of Western model ofeducational system. For Gandhi and Gulen, thewestern, modern educational system though didachieve a very high level of professionalism butwithout humanism. It is this imbalance betweenimpersonal professionalism and humanism thateducational ideas of Gandhi and Gulen are gearedto address. Though the educational and inter faithview of Gandhi is not as sharply developed asthe his idea of peace and non- violence, Gulen isbest known for inspiring an educational and interfaith, inter-cultural movement within and outsideTurkey, which has become global today with morethan thousands of schools and dialogue centresrunning in more than160 countries.

In lieu of Conclusion : Limitation and Strengthof Gandhi’s and Gulen’s Discourses

How effective is the peace building discourses ofGandhi and Gulen that has filtered through theirviews on religion, modernity, interfaith dialogueand culture, notion of other, means-enddichotomy and education as deliberated above?Have these discourses succeeded in preventingthe process of gradual transformation of notionof ‘other’ into a ‘politicised other’ leading to thedevelopment of discourse of ‘US vs THEM’, whichoften degenerates in the form of violence- both atindividual and collective level? The fact thatGandhi could not succeced during his life timesin preventing the growth of communal

polarization and series of communal riotsbetween section of Hindus and Muslims leadingto the creation of Pakistan out of the Indian sub-continent does point out the limitation ofGandhian discourse. Similarly in Turkishcontext, the current reversal of democratizationprocess and growing polarization among varioussection of Turkish society under the current AKPgovernment led by Rajjp Tayep Ergodan tooreflects the limitations of Gulen’s discourses.

Part of the problem in Gandhian and Gulen’sdiscourse emerges from the fact that in bothdiscourses the conflict in the society is understoodas flowing from the mis-representation and mis-understanding of each other faith. Thus otheraspects of conflict—social, economic andpolitical- are de-emphasised, if not totally ignored.From this point of view both Gandhian andGulen’s discourses offer the model of a ‘goodMuslim’, a ‘good Hindu’, a ‘good Christian’ or a‘good human’ for the resolution of societalconflicts, which also works as a powerfuldeterrence to the emergence of politicised binaryof us and them. However the critics have rightlypointed out the limitation of apolitical model of‘good human/Muslim’, as the understanding of‘goodness’ is thoroughly subjective; in additionto the fact that the model privileges the religiousidentity against all other identity ofindividualhood, thereby unwittinglyundermining the prospect of development ofdemocratic personality.

Notwithstanding the above limitations both thesediscourses have played an important role in thestrengthening of structure of democracy and civilsociety atleast in those countries where itcommands a good influence. Thus, Gandhi, awareof resultant majoritarianism of politics of nationstate, stressed upon the greater sense ofresponsibility, conciliatory gestures and good willon the part of the majority community towardsthe minorities in order to instill the confidenceamong the latter and to make the majoritariandemocracy work. It was this Gandhianconception of democracy that to a great extenthelped in keeping the Indian political processlargely non-ideological, flexible, accommodative,which in turn helped the institutionalisation ofdemocracy in India. Moreover as Gandhi continueto belong to the realm of civil society and not to


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the state despite being father of nation, theGandhian ideas of pluralism, brotherhood,human rights, civil liberty, service ethics, toleranceand pacific resistance continued to strengthen therealm of civil society against the state actions.

In a similar way, Gulen’s discourse of dialogue,peace, positive action, social activism in tune withpeople rights, human rights, pluralism,multiculturalism and civil liberty since mid 1970sdid played a significant role in de-ideologising/de-Kemalism the Turkish political process andunderstanding of the secularism andnationalism, which to a large extent helped inunleashing and strengthening the process ofdemocratisation in Turkey. It is in part thisprocess that helped AKP (Justice andDevelopment Party) to come into power in Turkeysince 2002. Further, like Gandhi, Gulen motivatedand inspired the Sunni Turkish Muslimmajoritarian community to reach out the religiousand ethnic minority communities living in thecountry. One credible aspect of thisdemocratisation process within Turkey is theopening of communication and dialogue with Alviand Kudish community as well as the gradualrecognition of cultural autonomy of these ethnicminority communities. It may be noted that Gulenmovement is the leading voice in the Turkey inthis direction. Today one finds a good numbersof Kurdish volunteers participating in the Gulenmovement. It is indeed a commendable taskconsidering the historical Turkish-Kurdish dividein the modern Turkey. Though the AKPgovernment has turned hostile and adopted abelligerent approach towards the Gulenmovement since the outbreak of 17th December2013 corruption exposure against the government,however like Gandhi, Gulen’s ideas of pluralism,brotherhood, human rights, civil liberty, serviceethics, tolerance and pacific resistance continuedto strengthen the realm of civil society against thearbitrary state actions without directly aiming thesame.

(Note: Presented at International Gandhi Jayanti

Conference 2015.

Education as a Basic Right of Humankind Oct 3-

5, 2015, New Delhi.)

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N. Upender Reddy

Possible role of DIETs in devising new curriculum

Abstract

As per the policy document Govt. of India, DIETs are the premier institutes at the districtlevel, which look after both pre-service and in-service teacher education at the elementarylevel.The D.Ed. course is requiredto gear potential teachers to deal with field level challenges.The faculty of DIETsis thus familiar with ground level reality. While revising the D.Ed.curriculum in Telangana, it was felt that faculty from the DIETs and other Teacher EducationInstitutions (TEIs) as well as Teachers Resource Group members should be involved in theexercise so that the focus is on the gaps in the existing curriculum, both in theory and in fieldlevel practices.

Development of D.El.Ed. Curriculum inTelangana - Some reflections

During the implementation of basic educationprojects such as the district primary educationprogramme (DPEP) and the SarvaShikshaAbhiyan(SSA), strong State Level Resource Groups (SRGs)were developed in all the subject areas. Over theyears, these groups have been involved asResource Persons in various training inelementary education. They were also involvedalong with the DIET faculty in designing D.El.Ed.curriculum in the State. In Telangana, we haveconducted 3 workshops with the SRGs, selecteddistrict resource persons (DRPs), classroomteachers, DIET faculty and discussed field levelchallenges and issues to address the same inTeacher Education curriculum.

The field level challenges and gaps beingobserved and the reflection on sameled to thesebeingincluded in the process of curriculumdesign for Teacher Education at elementary level.They also influencedthe selection of knowledge,pedagogical approaches, assessment proceduresetc. and focused on realities in classrooms andschools. The Pre-service Teacher EducationCurriculum was revised based on field inputs ofthe DIET faculty who critiques the existingcourses including the field experience part.

Areas of change and focus in the revisedD.El.Ed. Curriculum

The curriculum development team, being awareof direction of reform, aligned the revised D.El.Ed

in such a way that content and pedagogy enablestrainees for self-learning and independent

thinking. Key areas required for a teacher wereespeciallyhighlighted and some new papers

added and the title revised to reflect thechanges.Based on the inputs and reflections of

the team, the following areas were highlightedin the revised D.El.Ed. curriculum:

• Early literacy and numeracy, with theory and

appropriate teaching practice based onclasses 1 and 2 textbooks. Earlier, the trainees

usually selected 4 th and 5th classes forteaching practice and never classes 1st and

2nd. Now, thishas been made compulsory bygiving 50% of weightage in the teaching

practice to the transaction of classes 1 and 2textbooks. Trainees will then take up teaching

practices for classes 1&2 and 3, 4, 5separately.

• Development of subject specific and classspecific curricular standards and learning

indicators at elementary level. The reformsin School Education in evolving standards

and learning indicators are reflected in theTeacher Education Curriculum.

• The revised curriculum tries to ensure deeperengagement with disciplinary knowledge

and integratesit into the pedagogy courses.

• Emphasis was laid on development of deep

conceptual clarity and doing conceptualmapping of a whole area related to a topic.


15

• Given that the school textbooks are alignedto the State Curriculum Framework, SCF-2011, focus was also on how to use thetextbooks effectively and engage students inactive learning in a participatory way.

• Engagement with deeper understanding ofdisciplinary knowledge: The pedagogycourses integrates content knowledge andsufficient time is provided for dealing contentmatter of pedagogical subjects. Developingconceptual clarity through conceptualmapping and ways of introducing theconcepts have been discussed in the D.Ed.curriculum. Further, how to engage studentswith deep content knowledge which addsvalue to the textbook content is alsofocusedon for meaningful classroomtransaction in schools.

• Developing appropriate perspective oftrainees on the basic areas suchasunderstanding childhood andunderstanding learning. There are severalassumptions among teachers and traineesabout children and learning which are notbased on any scientific evidence. Therefore,deep and critical discussion on these areashas been included.

• Separate paper “Knowledge, Curriculum

and Pedagogy”was developed to discussNature and Construction of knowledge,Ways of creating knowledge etc.

• Criteria of curriculum construction,connections among knowledge, curriculum,pedagogy and learners to be discussed withthe trainees.

• Focus on issues of diversity and inclusionincluding gender, caste, and class.

• Two separate areas on Pedagogy andlanguage across curriculum emphasise thecommon principles in these.

• Papers on Health & Physical Education andArts& Cultural Education, Value Education& Life Skills,Work& Computer Education etc.were modified and strengthened.

• There is a separate paper on “UnderstandingSelf” to enable trainees to understand theirown biases so that through a reflective

process, they can actively foster skills andcommitment for improving themselves asindividuals and professionals.

• Exposure to alternative approaches andinnovations to include marginalisedchildren.

Field experience programme

The field experience programme is an essential

component of all pre-service teacher educationprogrammes as it gives the student-teachers abrief taste of what actual school teaching is allabout. In the new revised programme, attemptshave been made to enrich the field experienceand make it more relevant. For this:

• About 40% of weightage has been given tofield based practices and projects in non-pedagogical subjects. Within that, 70%weightage has been given to the practicum,teaching practice and internships in thepedagogical subjects. The idea is to seethe

translation ofunderstanding of theoryintofield based practices i.e. examiningtheory in the field.

• The key principles of NCF-2005 such asconnecting knowledge, life outside theschool, keeping children away from rotelearning, enriching the curriculum bymaking it less textbook centered areaddressed by increasing the field basedprojects in Teacher Education Curriculum.

• The alternative approaches and innovationsfrom the NGOs for improved literacy and

numeracy practices, conducting bridgecourses for out-of-school children etc. havebeen discussed and taken up as a part ofteaching practice.

Changes in the Transactional process

Along with changes in the curriculum andsyllabus, we have also tried to change the wayclassroom teaching occurs in the D.Ed. colleges.While this requires extensive interactions withteachers and orientations, we have proposedsome guidelines that can help in changing the

transactional process. For example,


16

• Existing way of treating knowledge externalto learners needs to be changed,foregrounding learner experiences should bethe focus.

• Experience of tasks needing independentthinking, reflection & collaborative learningamong trainees should be ensured.

• Emphasis should be on co-curricularsubjects, both in theory and practice.

• A programme in every subject on ‘Readingand Reflection’ of basic books has beenintroduced

• The pedagogy should include classroomdiscussions, reading the texts and reflectingon them, individual and grouppresentations, projects, field tasks,experiential learning.

• The assessment process for the course nowinvolves providing feedback and continuousdialogue to share suggestions with thelearners.

• The DIET faculty is expected to develop newquestions and assignments to help learnersreflect and analyse their learning.

• The existing practice of teaching i.e. isolatedlessons/ concepts is addressed by makingtrainees deal with one complete unit alongwith exercise part and conducting FormativeAssessment and reflecting on practiceteaching.

• Focus should be on critical pedagogy andsocial construction to question theassumptions and beliefs about knowledge,learner, learning processes and on otherissues of gender, caste, class and develophabits of independent thinking, reflectionand collaborative learning among thetrainees.

• While teaching,reflections and small studiesto authentically understand teaching-learning should also happen.

• ICT can be integrated in transactingcurriculum through groups and OpenEducational Resources (OER).

• The trainees develop and transact two (2)multimedia teaching activities for eachmethodology paper.

Challenges

While the curriculum has been revised, there arestill many challenges in its successfulimplementation. For example, the DIETs areinsufficiently staffed and the faculty required forteaching all subjects are not available. There arealso a large number of private training collegeswith their own set of problems. For example:

• There is no mechanism for proper regulationof the large number of private colleges andas a result they lack academic focus.

• The DIETs are unable to orient and train thefaculty in private teacher education colleges,due to lack of numbers as well as capability.

• Assessment processes are also compoundedby large numbers.

• Sources of learning such as library, labs, ICTresources in the TEIs are inadequate.

There is a need for more orientation and capacitybuilding of the DIET and the SCERT faculty onthe revised curriculum and the basic concepts ofeducation and contemporary trends in pedagogyand field based practices. All this is needed toovercome deficiency in Teacher’s Knowledgebase.

Some of our learnings in the course ofworking with schools and while undertakingcurricular and evaluation reforms

During the curriculum revision process and alsoin our previous work we have learnt somevaluable lessons. For example, DIETs need to beengaged in the formulation of State Level schoolcurriculum and textbook development processesunder the guidance of well-informedNationalLevel educational persons. This will notonlydeveloptheir capacities but also help themunderstand the decision making and selectionprocess thus enabling them to conduct moreinformed teacher orientations. Further, thisengagement cannot be sporadic; the DIET facultyneeds to be engaged with the reform process forsufficiently long time to develop the ability to leadthe effort.

Lastly, if they are to meet these expectations, theDIETs need to be adequately populated with the


17

faculty and provided with capacity buildingopportunities through workshops or/and onlinecourses in collaboration with organisationsengaged with the state’s reform processes i.e.VidyaBhavan Society, Eklavya, Homi BabaCentre for Science Education etc. The currentunderstaffed DIETs find it difficult to managetheir day to day tasks and this effects theirmotivation to take part in other activities.

Areas that still need attention in D.El.Ed.Curriculum

While efforts have been made in the revisionprocess to undertake various reforms, there arestill many areas that could not be included.Perspective building on the part of studentteacher on how quality can bring equity, socialjustice, and how poor learning levels impacts thenation building and national identity has to moreextensively dealt with. There are many otherspheres that need more attention such as:

• Care for children and love for them: Openingup this phrase to understand the nuancesassociated. Does it mean that teachers shouldbe with them, should understand children,their family backgroundand their social,cultural and economic context especially forfirst generation literates? Is anything else apart of this?

• Diversity in the Class Room i.e., social,cultural, linguistic which can be a positivefactor. How to capitalize these diversitiesthat the children bring to the class rooms?

• Participation in community activities andunderstanding socio economic backgroundand challenges they face and take a proactiverole in encouraging the parents andcommunity to participate in the schoolprogrammes and activities.

• MGT and multi-level situations in most ofthe schools is a reality with grade specifictextbooks. Focus on how deal such classes.

Innovations and exemplary practices

The team also explored different practices indifferent states to understand their usefulnessand decide if they should be included in the newcurriculum. It has been suggested thatdocumenting local knowledge resources byTeacher Education Institutions (TEIs) can be partof project-workof the trainees, as being practicedby the DIETs of Uttarakhand. Further, conduct ofschool assembly/ prayer in Maharashtra, Mid-Day Meal programme in Tamil Nadu, ODLprogramme in Chhattisgarh, the process ofcurricular reforms and textbook development inthe States of Andhra Pradesh/ Telangana,Chhattisgarh, Bihar etc. are the exemplarypractices as per the JRM reports.These need to beexplored and implemented. The curriculumreform process has now expanded to include ourDIETs and school faculty and the effort now is tofurther widen it toinclude best practices andideas from across the country.


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Background

Chhattisgarh state has, in the recent past, revisedand implemented the D.Ed. programme. Ourinitial attempt to design School ExperienceProgramme for two year D.Ed. course in 2005 wasmet with some reservations on the part of DIETsand BTIs as D.Ed. curriculum is the subject ofBoard of Secondary Education (the newprogramme was designed by the SCERT,Raipur). However, in 2007, SCERT again startedwork on D Ed curriculum in conformity with NCF2005 with the help of NCERT, RIE (Bhopal),Digantar, Vidya Bhawan, Ekalavya, IFIG andAzim Premji Foundation. The principals and PSTmembers of all DIETs and BTIs participated inthis exercise. Through a series of workshops, acourse outline was developed and guidelines ofschool experience programme were prepared andtried out in DIETs and BTIs. Major shifts in schoolexperience programme of the D.Ed. studentsincluded:

• Full time attachment in school as a full-fledged teacher

• Orientation of student-teachers and the Headteachers of practicing schools

• School teachers to act as mentors

• Teaching plan instead of lesson plan

• Longer and split school attachment

Simultaneously, theory courses were reorganisedand renamed. Courses were focused onunderstanding education, community andsociety, purpose of education, how childrenlearn, nature of subjects and not merely onmethods. The objective was to help studentteachers to understand and construct their ownstrategies rather than being fed. A new paper wasintroduced on epistemology of knowledge.Language education was based on how childrenlearn language, while mathematics education on

its nature and how mathematical conceptsdeveloped. Art education also found a place inthe course.

Materials for these courses were carefullyprepared in a manner that included bringing inexamples that were related to the ideas, languagethat was simple and exercises that expected thelearner to articulate her experiences and ideas.The transaction method expected the learner toread and understand the text and discuss withpeers. To support and make this transitionmeaningful there was a major shift in theevaluation pattern as well. The nature ofquestions was changed by creating moreopportunities for open-ended questions withmultiple acceptable answers possible. An initialset of such questions was created and shared andthen faculty and students of all the teacherstraining institutes were invited to add questionsto this question bank.

Utpal Chakraborty

Effort of Chhattisgarh to design new B.Ed. syllabus in

context of NCTE Regulation 2014

Utpal Chakraborty

Effort of Chhattisgarh to design new B.Ed. syllabus in context of NCTE Regulation 2014


19

As D.Ed. curriculum is the subject of the Board ofSecondary Education, the board was initially notready to adopt, accept and implement the newD.Ed. syllabus. Ultimately, the governmentissued an order and the course was introduced.The Board remains the examining authority.During our exercise on implementing the newD.Ed. syllabus we realized that any pre-serviceteacher preparation programme should have atleast five major and equally importantcomponents: 1) Theoretical part which isundeniably useful and required 2) Schoolinternship, 3) Availability of sufficient readingmaterial, 4) Reflective evaluation system and 5)Continuous capacity development of teachereducators. Each of these five componentsrequires equal focus and attention for thecurriculum to be effective.

The implementation of the course requiredsharing of the basis and the principles of thecourse with the faculty who were to teach thecourse in the above 5 components. In order tomake that possible content-based orientation forfaculty members was also carried out in manyphases. These included discussions on the natureof the course, the changes from the previouscourse and the concepts included. Thetransaction was discussion based giving an

illustration of the expectation from theirclassrooms as well. The materials were alsoreviewed in this process and changesincorporated.

The B.Ed. reform process

In the light of this effort a similar effort wasundertaken to reform the B Ed program. InDecember 2013, faculty from different universitieswere brought together to discuss how to developa revised curriculum and if considered useful bythe group think of a two year program. In orderto do this and to focus on improving teachereducation courses in the state, a state levelresource group was envisaged. Accordingly,persons for such a state level resource group were

identified, consisting of members from SCERT,university departments and other TeacherEducation institutions of the state and national-level resource persons. A preliminary workshopon larger issues in teacher education andcontextualising it to the needs of the state washeld.

The workshop succeeded in articulating theconcerns of teacher educators regarding presentscenario of teacher education in the state and alsoidentified key academic issues for reform. But,further progress on this front was held back dueto the fact that NCTE was in the process ofreformulating the Norms and Standards for allteacher education courses in view of the order ofthe Hon. Supreme Court of India andrecommendations of Justice Verma Commission.NCTE notified new regulation in November 2014.SCERT held consultations with the sixuniversities of the state to understand theprogress on two year B.Ed. course and if possibleto coordinate the development of revised B Edcourses. It seemed that universities were also notwell prepared to introduce two year B Ed/M Edcourse. Pt Ravishankar university, BilaspurUniversity, Bastar University, Sarguja University,Dr. C.V.Raman University and MATS Universityagreed to work jointly with SCERT.

Initially, a workshop was organized in SCERTto understand the recommendations of NCFTEin curricular areas. The workshop included thepersons who were engaged in drafting modelcurriculum for two year B.Ed. course for NCTE


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and all heads of academic council of universitiesand SCERT faculty. Most of universityrepresentatives wanted to convert the one-yearcourse in to two years. There were concernsabout radical changes, lack of orientation of thefaculty, lack of appropriate books for a newprogram etc.

The final steps in syllabus development

Keeping in mind all this, a balanced coursestructure for the two year B. Ed. course aligned tothe principles of the NCFTE 2010 was workedout. A long workshop was held to develop a finalusable draft of the course. For this purpose, wemade an effort to understand the objectives of thenew courses proposed, prepared a syllabusoutline of each subject (paper), and developedan initial reading list for each of the subjects.Perspectives relating to the subject areas werepresented and discussed. Three large groups onFoundations of Education, Subject and Pedagogyand Language were formed

The group working on this exercise consisted ofmany academicians engaged in teachereducation from various state universities, SCERTand national resource persons drawn from DelhiUniversity, RIE (Bhopal) Azim Premji University,Eklavya, and Vidya Bhawan Society. Theparticipants heard talks, read, discussed ideasand formulated outline of the courses andpresented before the large group. Identified keypersons took the responsibility to incorporate thesuggestions and address the concerns expressedby the participants.

Finally, a short workshop was held to finalizethings and a two year course was designed tomeet the aspiration of NCFTE. The syllabus wassent to all universities through the Govt. ofChhattisgarh, Deptt of School Education.

Out of the six universities, two accepted thesyllabus with minor changes and organizedsharing workshops with their affiliated colleges.Two did not respond over the syllabus. PtRavishankar University, the biggest of them,eventually prepared a syllabus that was a mixtureof papers from a variety of sources. They adaptedonly three papers (out of 12) from the SCERT co-ordinated syllabus. Pedagogy papers were takenfrom NCERT proposed 2008 syllabus and the

remaining papers were picked up from their oldsyllabus.

Post-development

After development of two year B.Ed. syllabus andmaking it available for all universities, SCERTengaged in identifying study material with thecollaboration of Ekalavy, Vidya Bhawan andAzim Premji University. We made the studymaterial available on SCERT website in the firstweek of October, 2015. Meanwhile we alsodeveloped 4 week school experience programmefor B Ed 1st year and sent it to all universities. It isavailable on SCERT website. The effort atpreparing the syllabus and collating possiblesuitable materials was not used as widely andwith as much enthusiasm as we had expected.The reason for this were the constraints andlimitations universities faced regarding capacityof faculty, inability to adapt and make widelyavailable materials and notes on and there senseof the possible reaction of the colleges and theirteachers to the new syllabus. They were alsodaunted by the nature of effort required toimplement a new course successfully.

The major challenges we are facing regardingpre-service teacher education are

• Capacity development of teacher educators -it is the responsibility of universities but nogovernment university in Chhattisgarh hasregular education department. They wouldfind it difficult to undertake thisresponsibility?

• In Chhattisgarh, there are 131 B Ed and 33 DEd private colleges. It is difficult to visaulisehow their extended and deeper schoolinternship programme will be managed.These colleges are also concentrated in urbanand semi-urban regions. There areinsufficient number of private schools andgovt schools and besides there is nocoordination between university anddepartment of school education?

• No university has made any significantchange to their evaluation scheme. Thismeans that the rote based examination willcontinue to exist, defeating the very purposeof the curriculum revision.


21

• The Universities do not have anymechanism to monitor academic activities ofthe TTIs. The SCERT also cannot make anycontribution to ensure quality in pre-serviceteacher education as it does not have anystatutory role and also has inadequate staff.

D.Ed, B.Ed and M.Ed courses lead to preparationof teachers and teacher educators. The schooleducation department is the single largestemployer of the teachers and teacher educators.The quality of these courses leads to the qualityof teachers which ultimately affects the qualityof school education. At present, in most of thestates SCERT is the only responsible institute forin–service training of the teachers. If we wish tosee the preparation and development of teacheras a continuous process then, there is a need toensure the involvement of SCERT in pre-serviceteacher education as well. There is also a need toregularize non administrative academic role oradvisory role of SCERT along with universitiesand NCTE.

I think the SCERT now has the experience and aresource pool that is competent to review thecurriculum, syllabus and study material for theD Ed, B Ed and M Ed courses and givesuggestions on conducting of evaluation. It canalso facilitate better coordination between schooleducation system and the university system,leading to proper conduct of internshipprogramme and make it effective andimplementable. We can also do research on in-service and pre-service teacher requirement,monitor and formulate policies and conductregular capacity building of the teacher trainers.

Despite good challenges and concerns the onebig achievement that SCERT derived from thisentire exercise was the confidence that SCERTcan work with and provide a forum for theuniversities to come together and collaborate. Theexperience of working with universities andacademic NGOs and establishing a partnershipwith them has been useful and enriching. Now,what is required is a continuous discussion oncurriculum, its implementation and assessmentto maintain quality.


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Context

Chhattisgarh, located in central India is the tenthlargest state in India with a population of 25.54million people. The northern and southern partsof the state are hilly, while the central part is afertile plain. At the time of writing this article,Chhattisgarh had 16 DIETs, 2 BTIs (BasicTraining Institutes), 1 CTE (College of TeacherEducation), and 1 IASE (Institute of AdvancedStudies in Education).

Surveys conducted by various institutes such asNational Achievement Survey, StateAchievement survey, Pratham, show that theunderstanding of mathematics in Chhattisgarhschool children is very poor. Traditionallymathematics is considered as a difficult subjectboth by the teachers and students and geometryis no exception.

Geometry and ICT

“Geometry is the beginning of Mathematics for theyoung child since geometry is none other than thestudy of spatial relationships. It is the means ofviewing a situation mathematically to provide one ormore ways of gaining understanding. Almost everyobject has some geometric property, and stimulatedby his experiences, a young child has an innatecuriosity about geometry. Shapes, size and positionare entities for him to explore, manipulate and control,and the means whereby he organizes his environment,so that geometry becomes the natural way fordeveloping intuition, creativity, enquiry, and theability to solve problems.” Earnest Choat

Teaching of geometry can be made easier andmore interesting using technology.Hundreds offigures may be drawn in minuteswhereasdrawing byhand may be very difficultand time consuming. A teacher who isconversant with using ICT might find it possibleto develop better pedagogy for teaching Geometry

even in pen pencil method.In any case, givencurrent developments in the world, it isimperative that teachers become conversant andcomfortable with using ICT.

Capacity building in the use of ICT for teacher-educators is required. A separate provision has beenmade in the revised CSS for setting up of computerlabs and purchase of equipment (CSS Guidelines2012, Page 54).

It has been proposed in recent policies thattechnology in Teacher Education should beactively integrated in all teacher educationinstitutions (TEIs). Satellite transmissioncommunication, content development,MIS,interactive and self-paced learning shouldbe the focus areas for bridging the divide digitally(Teacher Education Planning Handbook, 2014-2015, Page 4). It is suggested that the TEIs shouldhave Resource Centre/ Teacher Learning Centerand MaterialDevelopment.

“Use of resource center and educational technologiesneeds to beintegrated within the curriculum at alllevels.Instead of providing a separate courseonteaching applications for editing texts orspreadsheets,students could beexposed to pedagogicalapplications like Geo-Gebra (Mathematics) andMarble(Geography). ………..Appropriate training needs tobe provided to the faculty in useof suchapplicationsbefore they can be integrated into thecurriculum. …….DIETs can contribute to building acadre of teachers with computer competencethroughorganizing regularworkshops on EducationalTechnology”.(Centrally Sponsored SchemeofTeacherEducation, 2012 page 36).

What can be done?

In this article, I want to address an importantarea of mathematics i.e. Geometry at Upper

Nitin Talokar

Using GeoGebra as a tool for better understanding of

geometrical shapes and concepts

Nitin Talokar

Using GeoGebra as a tool for better understanding of geometrical shapes andconcepts


23

Primary Level. Specifically, I wish to examine theuse of GeoGebra (an open resource software) withthe DIET teacher trainee students to clarify theirconcepts and develop better pedagogy to teachgeometry at elementary level. This will help themto visualize geometry shapes with little effortusing technology. It will increase their knowledgeof geometry and pedagogy of geometry to applyto their teaching in elementary schools.

GeoGebra is an interactive geometry, algebra,statistics and calculus application,intended forlearning and teaching mathematics and sciencefrom primary school to university level. GeoGebrais available on multiple platforms with itsdesktop applications for Windows, Mac OS andLinux, with its tablet apps for Android, iPad andWindows, and with its web application basedon HTML5 technology. Open-source developersand translators all over the world were part ofdeveloping this software. It makes math tangiblebut it doesn’t replace teachers.

All 16 DIETs in Chhattisgarh are located inDistrict Headquarters. Selection process of pre-service teachers is on the basis of an entrance testexamination. In the selection process 80% seatsare for Chhattisgarh native students and 20%seats are for all India students. This creates a richdiversity among the students. All teachereducation institutes have good internetconnectivity. Good internet connectivity throughinternet café is also available throughout thestate. Pre-service teachers can use these facilitiesfor reading study materials and updating theirknowledge. Use of android cell phones with dataconnectivity is also very common among pre-service students and I plan to utilize this aswell.All of my work will be disseminated forother students and teachers using SCERTwebsite.

Objectives of my work are as follows:

i. To develop study material for systematicapproach to teach GeoGebra based on ourclass 8th (Grade-8) textbook.

ii. To develop user manual for using GeoGebrabased on our class 8th (Grade-8) textbook.

iii. To conduct ICT training for GeoGebra ondeveloped user manual for 03 DIETs, 02Private D.Ed. Colleges.

iv. Pre-Service students will be asked to developtheir lesson plan using GeoGebra.

v. To enhance the visualization andunderstanding of Geometry shapes amongpre-service students.

Educational Reform

In my reform proposal, I along with my StateResource Group, will develop study material forgeometry taught at Grade-8 in our state. For this,workshops will be conducted at state level. Afterdeveloping the study material with the help ofour IT team at SCERT it will be converted toGeogebra open source software. In betweentraining on Geogebra will be conducted for 03DIET and 02 Private D.Ed. College. The study onpedagogy used to teach geometry by previousyear pre-service students will be done. Pre-teston the content knowledge and visualization ofgeometric images will be done on pre-servicestudents.

Trainings on Geogebra will be done at the DIETand in private D.Ed. Colleges. After training onGeogebra, post-test of pre-service students willbe conducted. In the post-test content knowledgeand visualization of geometric images will betested. Revised lesson plan will be designed afterdiscussion with pre-service students. We willdesign the better pedagogy to teach mathematics.Pre-service students will use revised lesson planbased on their understanding and visualization.

NCF 2005 talks about ICT and its potential ingreat detail but also cautions:

“While several countries have implemented CS and/or IT curricula in schools, we need to be aware of the

challenges that Indian school students face. The firstof these is the paucity of technology resources for

computer science. It is absurd to teach computer science(let alone computer usage) without access to computing

resources. Providing computer access and connectivityfor all children is a tremendous technological and

economic challenge. However, given the pervasiveimpact of computer technologies, we need to address

this infrastructure challenge seriously and exploreviable and innovative alternatives with regard to

hardware, software and connectivity technologiesappropriate for rural and urban Indian schools.


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We also need to address the issue of the developmentof a comprehensive and coherent curriculum model incomputer science and IT, which can serve as the basisfor the beginning of a discussion between educators,administrators, and the general public. Certain coreelements are common to several CS and IT curricula,and are applicable to Indian schools as well. Theseinclude the concepts of iterative processes andalgorithms, general problem-solving strategies arisingfrom computing, possibilities of computer usage, theplace occupied by computers in the modern world,and the societal issues that arise thereby”. (NCF 2005Page 45-46)

As per Govt. of India Guideline digital resourcerepositories will be made available withcontextual comment. “Existing digital resourcerepositories from governments and NGOs includingaudio resources (EDC), video resources, animationmovies etc. should be made widely accessible. It isimportant to make the resources available indistrictrepositories linked to state repository. Student-teachers also need to learn how toaccess the WorldWide Web for resources, including principlesgoverning quality, authenticity of resources, rules offair use etc.”

(CSS Guideline page 81.)

Potential Barriers

Before implementing my proposal, I haveidentified some possible roadblocks and possiblesolutions:

• Will the Educational Institute respond for theimplementation of Geogebra Software?: It willrequire educating the educational instituteso that they will feel that it is useful forstudents to work on this and it will enhancethe result.

• Student may be reluctant to respond thereform project: Students will be educated bytheir teacher educator about the importanceand usefulness of the GeoGebra software. Wewill provide them hands on using GeoGebrasoftware. It will be explained that they willenhance their quality of work and willincrease if the GeoGebra is used.

• Technology expertise and availability oftechnology access may be a concern: The costof using technology at cyber café in

Chhattisgarh is relatively cheap. If studentteachers are properly motivated thenpersonal and institutional access can beprovided.

Key Partners

The proposal cannot be implemented by oneperson sitting in the SCERT and requirescooperation between several partners including:

i. Diploma in Education (Distance LearningMode) state level mathematics team atSCERT C.G.

ii. 03 DIET, 02 Private D.Ed. Colleges,Mathematics Faculty Members, Pre-Servicestudents and administrators.

iii. State Resource Group (Mathematics). Thestate Resource Group will provide guidancefor developing study material.

For further extending the reform project afterone year, we expect the District ResourceGroup to co-ordinate along with:

iv. Mathematics excellence center established byICICIFIG(ICICI Foundation for InclusiveGrowth) at DIET Ambikapur.

Colleges will participate in the first phase wherethe faculty members will assist in contentgeneration. The cooperation of the administratorsof the respective institutes is vital. The team ofmathematics teachers of Diploma in Education(Open Distance Learning Mode) will also help.

To assess the effectiveness of my reform proposalI will primarily rely on reports of the pre-test andpost-test of pre service students. The possibilityof online pre-test and post-test may also beconsidered.The student teachers of 03 DIETs, and02 private D.Ed. will be involved. There are 100students per DIET, 50 students each in privateD.Ed. colleges. As this is an innovative style ofproject to be implemented in Chhattisgarh, theinstrument has to be designed after theconsultation of student teachers and facultymembersso that a realistic instrument can bedesigned.Reports related to content enhancementand pedagogic development will be analyzed.The effectiveness of study material developed anduser manual developed will be analyzed. Based


25

on the feedback of student teachers and facultymembers it will be modified to improve its quality.After success in first year it will be applied to allDIETs and private D.Ed. Colleges.

The evaluation of my reform project will be donein following ways:

i. Developed study material will be evaluatedby State Resource Group.

ii. Developed user manual for using GeoGebrawill be evaluated by IT team Members ofSCERT, DIET and ICICIIFIG.

iii. Interviews of pre-service students andteacher educators will be done after ICTtraining.

iv. Interview of lesson plan supervisor will beconducted for the comparison of the lessonplan prepared last year and after theGeoGebra is introduced.

Conclusion

As described in the article, during my three monthprogram in Arizona State University, I prepareda reform proposal for working on conceptualclarity of geometrical topics among D.Ed.students using geogebra software. The reformproposal has been submitted in our department.They have scrutinized the reform proposal andsuggested some changes.The suggestions weremade by the Secretary, School Education,Government of Chhattisgarh who felt someschools should be included.

The state resource group members have beenidentified. The 10 member SRG was formed inJune, 2015 and included faculty from the SCERT,subject experts from IFIG Raipur as well asteachers and lecturers from government schools.It was felt that the Geogebra software must bepromoted primarily in the RMSA schools whereICT@School program is running and 10computers per school are available. It is decidedthat the SRG group will meet once every threemonth and will be in contact using whatsappgroup and e-mail. Study materials are beingdeveloped by individuals and will be collated.Initially we were following the basic GeogebraManual and 63 Videos available on GeogebraTube/ You Tube Chanel based on the basicGeogebra Manual. Videoswere downloaded and

distributed to SRG. Translation of this manualin Hindi and mapping of topics with our textbooks is in progess.

I have identified 04 schools including TeacherTraining Institutes. The development of usermanual and some study material on GeoGebrais ongoing but progress is slow. I visited threeschools and have installed Geogebra, discussedwith teachers and shared 63 Videos (930MB, MP3Format). The best part of the video is that it can beplayed directly through USB Drive available inschools T.V. Set. I also installed PhET Simulationfor Maths, Physics, Bio and Chemistry.

During the school visits and on inspecting the

computer rooms and in discussions with thestudents I found that the computer lab is used for

teaching word, excel and powerpoint. This leavesboth the students and teachers dissatisfied as they

realize the potential of computers but are ill-equipped to utilize them. They requested

simulation softwares, teaching material andmaterial related to their textbooks which could

be used in off-line mode. This is because theinternet is not available everywhere and the speedis very slow even where it is available.

The main challenges are time given to school byme. Schools are open at 10:30 am and closes at

4:30 pm. Beyond the school hours it is verydifficult to work with them.From SCERT,

frequently visiting school is also very difficultbecause of the work load.School principals think

that it is an additional ICT activity so they arereluctant to provide their own subject period for

GeoGebra. They think that it is a computer classand must be conducted beyond their subject

periods. I think it is subject matter and should betaught with their text book. To overcome this

problem, I am planning to map it with text book,translate in Hindi and implement in all schools

of ICT@School. While there are many challenges,I hope to successfully implement my project.

References

National Curriculum Framework, 2005. NCERTINDIA.

National Curriculum Framework for TeacherEducation, 2009. NCTE INDIA.


26

Restructuring and Reorganization of theCentrally Sponsored Scheme on TeacherEducation, Guidelines for Implementation,June, 2012 MHRD INDIA.

Justice Verma Committee Teacher EducationReport.

Bu, L. (2010). Modeling the mirascope usingdynamic technology. MAA Loci. Retrievedfrom http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/23/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument& nodeId=3595.

Cobb, P., Confrey, J., diSessa, A., Lehrer, R.,&Schauble, L. (2003). Design experiments ineducational research. EducationalResearcher, 32(1), 9–13.

Freudenthal, H. (1973). Mathematics as aneducational task. Dordrecht, Holland: D.Reidel Publishing.

Hohenwarter, M., &Preiner, J. (2007). Dynamicmathematics with GeoGebra. Journal ofOnline Mathematics and Its Applications.

Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental models:Toward a cognitive science of language,inference, and consciousness. Cambridge,MA: Harvard University Press.

Lesh, R., &Doerr, H. M. (Eds.). (2003). Beyondconstructivism: Models and modelingperspectives on mathematics problemsolving, learning, and teaching. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum.

Lesh, R., Hamilton, E., & Kaput, J. (Eds.). (2007).Foundations for the future in mathematicseducation.

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles ofinstruction. Educational TechnologyResearch and Development 50(3), 43–59.

Milrad, M., Spector, J. M., &Davidsen, P. I. (2003).Model facilitated learning. In S. Naidu (Ed.),Learning and teaching with technology:Principles and practices (pp. 13–27).

Mooney, D. D., & Swift, R. J. (1999). A course inmathematical modeling. Washington DC:Mathemaitcal Association of America.

Pollak, H. O. (2003). A history of the teaching ofmodeling. In G. M. A. Stanic& J. Kilpatrick(Eds.), A history of school mathematics (Vol.1, pp. 647–671). Reston, VA: NationalCouncil of Teachers of Mathematics.

Presmeg, N. (2006). Semiotics and the“Connections” standard: Significance ofsemiotics for teachers of mathematics.Educational Studies in Mathematics, 61,163–182.

Seel, N. M. (2003). Model-centered learning andinstruction. Technology, Instruction,Cognition and Learning, 1, 59–85.

Shulman, L. S. (2002). Making differences: A tableof learning. Change, 34(6), 36–44.

Spector, J. M. (2000). Introduction. In J. M. Spector& T. M. Anderson (Eds.), Integrated andholistic perspectives on learning, instructionand technology: Understanding complexity(pp. xi–xxii).

N. M. Seel& S. Dijkstra (Eds.), Curriculum, plans,and processes in instructional design:International perspectives (pp. 271–287).Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Streefland, L. (Ed.). (1991). Fractions in RealisticMathematics Education: A paradigm ofdevelopmental research. Dordrecht,Netherlands: Kluwer.

Treffers, A. (1987). Three dimensions: A model ofgoal and theory description in mathematicsinstruction—The Wiskobas Project.Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel.

Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, M. (2003). Thedidactical use of models in realisticmathematics education: An example from alongitudinal trajectory on percentage.Educational Studies in Mathematics, 54, 9–35.

Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., Clark, R. E., & de Crook,M. B. M. (2002). Blueprints for complexlearning: The 4C/ID-model. EducationalTechnology Research and Development,50(2), 39–64.

Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., &Kirschner, P. A. (2007).Ten steps to complex learning: A systematicapproach to four-component instructionaldesign. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Zbiek, R., & Conner, A. (2006). Beyond motivation:Exploring mathematical modeling as acontext for deepening students’understandings of curricular mathematics.Educational Studies in Mathematics,63, 89–112.


27

Santosh Kumar Tamboli

Management of distribution of course content, assignments and

project for pre-service students using Moodle open source

Abstract

I was part of the teacher educators selected from Chhattisgarh to attend a three-month longcourse in Arizona State University. During my work there, I developed a proposal related tomy work in Chhattisgarh. The details of the proposed project and the work done are describedin the article.

Introduction

Once RTE 2009 came into effect, it became

incumbent upon various states to train its in-

service teachers in order to fulfil its conditions.

Chhattisgarh was one of the states with a large

number of untrained teachers. The state devised

a diploma in teacher education program in the

distance mode in order to train their teachers

without withdrawing them from the schools. One

component of the diploma program was to

design and distribute regular assignments to the

participants of the open and distance learning

program. The purpose of my educational reform

project was to standardize the distribution of

assignment and project by faculty members of

D.Ed. and B.Ed. colleges. This reform project will

create a database of assignments and projects for

the continuous enhancement of the quality of

assignment and project done by the pre-service

students. This project will also keep record of all

the assignments and projects submitted by the

students online.

Initially it was decided that the project would be

piloted in 03 DIETs, 01 CTE, 01 IASE, 03 Private

D.Ed. Colleges and 03 Private B.Ed. Colleges.If

the proposal is successful, we propose to drop

the traditional method of project distribution and

replace it by the online method.

The indirect benefit of the project would be

familiarize the in-service teachers to ICT activities

for learning and professional development.

Rationale

There is a need for an integrated monitoring

system for different Teacher EducationInstitutions as stated in Teacher Education

Planning Handbook 2014-2015 of CentrallySponsored Scheme of Teacher Education, 2012

which says:

Technology in Teacher Education is to be actively

integrated in all TE institutions. Satellite transmissioncommunication, content development, MIS, interactiveand self-paced learning should be the focus areas for

bridging the divide digitally (Teacher EducationPlanning Handbook, 2014-2015 Page 4).

It also advocates setting up a resource centre inall TEIs. My reform proposal will partly fulfill

the resource center requirement. Use of resourcecenter and educational technologies needs to be

integrated within the curriculum. Instead ofproviding a separate course on teaching

applications for editing texts or spreadsheets,students could be exposed to pedagogical

applications like Geo-Gebra (Mathematics) and

Marble (Geography). Such applications are not

proprietary, being maintained by a community

of like-minded professionals (open source) and

require no additional funding. Also, student

teachers could be encouraged to prepare

documents digitally which could be used for

formative and summative assessments.

Basic knowledge of Internet and web based toolsand resources including of cybersecurity –avoiding dangers and risks as well as basicwebsite and web tools use (for creating and


28

maintaining institutional resource portals etc.)is required for teacher educators. This isespecially required as they are expected to usethe Moodle software.

Moodle is a public software, the course has freelycustomized it for its own specific requirements. Similarprograms need to be offered by DIETs to teachers whichcan allow learners to learn at their own pace(relatively) and also reach a larger number of teachersthan is possible through purely physical interactions(CSS Guidelines 2012, Page 80).

It is very difficult to track the record ofassignments and projects of students in order toassess the quality of students work. Usingtraditional method (Hard Copy) is very difficultto manage but if we use ICT it will be easier tomanage the system. As ICT facility is availableeverywhere in the state, and from our previousexperience of online Registration of Diploma inEducation (Open Distance Learning Mode)where 40000 elementary teachers were registered,internet is now widely used.

Objectives

i. To standardize the system of course content,assignment and project distribution amongpre-service students.

ii. To create a database of pre-service studentsand faculty members.

iii. To monitor the academic activities of teachertraining institutes, this will make themresponsible and accountable towardsregular assignment distribution and gradingthem.

iv. To create a database of assignments andprojects of pre-service curriculum.

v. To enhance the academic quality of pre-service students.

vi. To make available widely accessible digitalresource repositories from government andNGOs with local contextual comments.

vii. Piloting use of Moodle system for In-servicetraining course dissemination.

Educational Reform

“The tremendous effectiveness of the computer andcomputing technology in shaping modern society has

created the need for an educated public that can utilizesuch technology most effectively for the betterment ofsociety and humankind. There is, therefore, a growingrealization of the need to have a place for thesedomains of knowledge in the school curriculum.

A distinction must be made between the InformationTechnology (IT) curriculum, which involves the useand application of tools of the information andcomputer age, and the Computer Science (CS)curriculum, which is concerned with how these toolsare designed and deployed. Both of these have theirplace in school education.” (NCF 2005 Page 45-46)

The reform proposal consists of implementing aLearning Management System using Moodle. Moodle is a learning platform designed toprovide educators, administrators and learnerswith a single robust, secure and integrated systemto create personalized learning environments.Itis a highly flexible, free software, open sourcelearning platform. With comprehensive,customizable and secure learning managementfeatures, it can be used to create a private websitefor dynamic online courses.

All cognitive functions originate in and must beexplained as products of social interactions. Learningis not simply the assimilation and accommodation ofnew knowledge by learners; it is the process by whichlearners are integrated into a knowledge community.(Vygotsky, 1997)

Moodle was originally developed by MartinDougiamas to help educators create onlinecourses with a focus on interaction andcollaborative construction of content, and is incontinual evolution. Features provided byMoodle are avenues for social interaction, aparticipant’s page with space for profile picture,a central location wherein formation about allparticipants can be seen, providing a way to seeeveryone in the course who is logged in andtherefore might be available for synchronouscommunication. There are communication toolsas well such as emails notifications, blogs, instantmessaging, etc. lastly, there are course deliverytools to which instructors have access. Instructorscan change permissions for individual studentsor groups of students forsingle activity or for thewhole course.It allows spontaneous formationof groups and assignmentof a student as thegroup leader with instructor-like permissions forjust a particular section of a course.


29

Implementation of plan

My reform will create website “reformcg.reformindia.net”. In this website Moodle(Learning Management System) will be installedby me. Registration of pre-service students andfaculty on Moodle website will be done using thedata available with SCERT during counselling(Online admission process).

All the assignments and projects given to pre-service students in 2013-14 and 2014-15 sessionand list of references of textbooks/reference bookswill be collected from teacher training institutes.These assignments, projects, list of referencematerials and textbooks will be discussed withState Resource Group (subject wise) in 3workshop for the finalization and to bedisseminated through Moodle. Commonassignments/projects will be distributed at statelevel rest will be left on the teachers at respectiveteacher training institutes.

As per Govt. of India Guideline student-teachersneed to integrate ICTs into their subject teaching-learning, using varied digital methods tocreatelearning resources, using publiceducational software applications, such as

(i) Maths – Geogebra, Bruch, K Turtle, carMetal

(ii) Languages - SCIM (multi-language typing),K Hangman etc. (language), KAnagram, KLetters

(iii) Science – K Stars, Stellarium etc. (astronomy),Kalzium, STEP, PHET etc.

(iv) Social Science - Marble (geography),KGeography, OpenMaps

(v) Other subjects - Freemind (creative thinking)for creating concept maps

(vi) Web tools like wiki, blogs

(vii)Digital tools like video camera and video/photo/audio software applicationsincluding record mydesktop, Kdenlive,

Audacity etc. as well as CBTs such asspokentutorials (www.Spoken-Tutorial

.org)” (CSS Guideline page 81.)

A meeting with pre-service students, faculty

members and administrators of teacher traininginstitutes will be conducted for the

implementation of this project where they will be

briefed about the benefit of the project, their rolein project. They will be explained how academicachievement may be enhanced using this project.Their concerns about the project will be

addressed.

Appropriate training needs to be provided to the

faculty in useof such applicationsbefore they canbe integrated into the curriculum. DIETs can

contribute to building acadre of teachers withcomputer competence throughorganizing

regularworkshops on Educational Technology.Information and CommunicationsTechnology

including TV, radio, telephony and internet areuseful resourcesthat provide access to ideas and

enable wider dissemination of information.Distance media can effectively be used to keep

teachers connected with professionals inacademic and applied disciplines. Rather

thanbeing thework of an education technologywing, technology needs to become anintegral

part ofthe knowledge and practice of all teachereducators.

The different stakeholders such as theeducational institutes, students will need to be

oriented towards the project. The cost oftechnology and website hosting expenses are low

and can easily be borne by the institute personallevel for the success of the project.

The key partners in my reform proposal includesthe SCERT, a state resource group and district

resource groups. Subject wise excellence centershave been established by ICICIFIG (ICICI

Foundation for Inclusive Growth) in differentDIETs and can be tapped.

i. For first year, to implement the reform projecta budget of Rs. 50000 is required and the

expenditure can be done from B.Ed. Fund

available at SCERT C.G.

ii. After first year, to roll out the reform project

for 16 DIETs, 02 BTI, 29 Private D.Ed.

Colleges and 130 B.Ed. colleges (Total of

16000 Pre-Service students) one full time

programmer, one assistant programmer and

02 Data Entry operators will be required. The

technical persons will be hired through

central government agency NICSI. The

expenses for the Man power will be as per


30

the NICSI norms. Approximate cost per year

would be Rs. 9.00Lakhs. Per Student cost willbe Rs. 56.25. The expenses of Rs. 9.00Lakhs

can be done from the balance amountcollected from pre-service students for

counselling (Admission Process). There willbe no financial burden to state government

or central government.

The project initially will be implemented in 3

DIETs and similar number of private TEIs. Wewill try to involve the faculty members in content

generation. Roughly 500 students will be part ofthis phase.

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, for the implementation ofmy project I will register a domain name

“reformindia.net”. Under this domain I willcreate a website “reformcg.reformindia.net”. For

admission to Diploma in Education and Bachelorin Education candidates have to appear in

entrance test examination conducted byProfessional Examination Board of Chhattisgarh.

The admission to college are done based on theranks achieved by the candidates and preference

they opt for colleges. The above admission datais available with SCERT. I will use the admission

data to create login Id/ Password for the studentteachers. Orientation of student teacher and

faculty members will be done so that they canunderstand the Moodle software and reform

proposal. I will consult the faculty members forthe assignment and projects distribution to the

candidates so that it can be distributed throughMoodle and responses of student teacher can be

uploaded by the student teachers.The samplecourse on mathematics is developed with the

help of State Resource Persons is completed and

available at http://moodleskt.reformindia.net/

with sample username – director and password

director

To communicate to the student teachers I will

use SMS (Text Messages) facility provided by the

National Informatics Center, Government of

India. Using SMS (Text Messages) I will give

instructions, ideas, guidelines to the student

teachers. Data analysis will be done on the

responses received in the website. There are

various reports available with Moodle software.

All related reports will be analyzed in

consultation with student teachers, faculty

members and administrators.After first year

before rolling out to all teacher training

institutions extensive discussions, workshop will

be organized.

Various forums are available in internet but there

is a need for the contextualized forum for the

teacher educators of Chhattisgarh; my reform

proposal is an effort in this direction to create a

contextualized forum for the teacher educators

of Chhattisgarh using Moodle.

References

National Curriculum Framework, 2005. NCERT

INDIA.

National Curriculum Framework for Teacher

Education, 2009. NCTE INDIA.

Restructuring and Reorganization of the

Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher

Education, Guidelines for Implementation,

June, 2012 MHRD INDIA.

Justice Verma Committee Teacher Education

Report.

Aberdour, Mark (2013). Moodle for Mobile

Learning.by Packt PublishingHilar, Silvina

P.Moodle 2.5 Multimedia Cookbook (2nd

Edition).

Wild, Ian. Moodle Course Conversion : Beginner’s

Guide.

Churchward, Michael .Moodle 1.9 Extension

Development.

Büchner, Alex (2008). Moodle Administration

Wild, Ian (2009). Moodle 1.9 Math: Integrate

Interactive Math Presentations, Build Feature-

Rich Quizzes, Set Online Assignments,

Incorporate Flash Games, and Monitor Student

Progress Using the Moodle e-Learning Platform.

Gadsdon, Paul James (2010). Moodle 1.9 theme

design: beginner’s guide : customize the

appearance of your Moodle Theme by using

Moodle’s powerful theming engine.


31

De Raadt, Michael (2010). Moodle 1.9 topextensions cookbook: over 60 simple andincredibly effective recipes for harnessing thepower of the best Moodle modules to create effectiveonline learning sites.

Myrick, Jason (2010). Moodle 1.9: testing andassessment: develop and evaluate quizzes and testsusing Moodle modules.

Aranda, Adanays Diaz. Moodle for distance

education. Distance Learning, ISSN 1547-4712, 04/2011, Volume 8, Issue 2.

Cooch, Mary (2012). Moodle 2 for teaching 7-14year olds: beginner’s guide : effective e-learningfor younger students, using Moodle as yourclassroom assistant.2nd ed., Open source :community experience distilled, ISBN9781849518338.

Fernandes, JoaÞo Pedro Soares (2009). Moodle 1.9multimedia: create and share multimedia learningmaterials in your Moodle courses.

Hole, Alastair (2011). Quick answers to commonproblems, ISBN 184951190X

Rice, William (2007). Moodle teaching techniques:creative ways to use Moodle for constructingonline learning solutions.

Henrick, Gavin, Cole, Jeanne, Cole, Jason (2011).Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner’s Guide.PUBLISHER: Packt Publishing

Barrington, Rebecca (2012). Moodle Gradebook

Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). “The Collected Works ofL. V. Vygotsky”. Problems of GeneralPsychological.Nueva York: Plenum Press.

h t t p : / / w w w . n c l . a c . u k / s m l / a s s e t s /documents/Johnson.pdf


32

Backdrop

21st February is celebrated across the world as“Mother Language Day”. On the eve ofInternational Mother Language Day, a three-daylong National Seminar on “Language andEducation” was organized by SCERT, Raipur incollaboration with ICICI Foundation for InclusiveGrowth (IFIG),Raipur. The objectives of theNational Seminar were to:

• Understand the language in education fromthe perspective of NCF-2005, RtE-2009, andthe position paper on language education.

• Examine theoretical perspectives on

multilingualism and multilinguality with afocus on education.

• Learn from the experiences of the variousstates on policy and implementation oflanguage in education.

• Consultations with National organisations/Universities/ Linguists / Educationists on

theory and practice in language education.

• Prepare a road map for language education

in primary stage in Chhattisgarh.

The seminar addressed these issues by posing

the following questions:

1. How multilinguality is a reality and how our

schools are unable to ensure the linguistic

rights of the children?

2. How language of the text book is teacher-

centric and unable to represent the meaning

of the texts in a language that is not

understood by the children.

3. How education can be imparted – as far as

practicable to those children who are

linguistic minority, and equally be able to

maintain equal competencies in many

languages like Hindi and English based ontheir mother tongue.

Introduction

The tone of the seminar was set by Dr. MahendraMisra who gave introductory remarks on thevarious technical sessions and programmes ofthe seminar. He emphasized the importance ofknowledge of the local language which is notonly a medium of communication but, animportant subject to learn and mediate in theessential subjects such as mathematics andscience.

He told that there are some differences betweenchildren’s experiential language in relation tobook language of the school, differences betweenthe language of thought and language of speech.Achievement of children depends oncomprehension and comprehension is possiblewhen the children learn through their ownlanguage in initial years and achieve secondlanguage along with their first language.

Shri Anil Rai, Director, SCERT, Chhattishgarhelaborated and concretized these remarks in thecontext of the state. He said that enrolment ofchildren as per the gender ratio and SC/STpopulation in the state is achieved as a part ofuniversal access followed by retention. But thequality aspect of schooling is still a big challenge.Referring the Achievement Survey ofChhattishgarh, he lamented on poor performanceof class III to VIII students in the state where only22% students have achieved required languageskill. He emphasized the multilingual nature ofthe society and monolingual situation of teachingthat impedes learning of the children. Hecategorised the regional language ofChhattisgarh; Chhattisgarhi, Sargujiya, Kuduk,Gondi (Kanker and Baster region), and Halbi. He

Mahendra Kumar Mishra & Neelam Shukla

Report on

National Seminar on Language Education

February 21 - 23, 2014


33

stressed on quality education as people are awareof RTE Act and posed two questions:

- How language is useful in Chhattisgarhtextbook designing and in improvement ofeducation standard?

- How to make multilingual textbook in thediverse context to Chhattisgarh state?

Dr. K.K. Chakraborty, Chairman, Lalit KalaAcademy, New Delhi stressed following localprotocol instead of global protocol and expressedthat all western knowledge is not scientific. Hegave some factual data of Chhattisgarh state butlamented that there are no historic articles,evidences, and records in local and regionallanguage. He emphasized that with the help ofmicro and minor projects, practical workshopsshould be organised. He stressed focus onregional language policy and to be aware that itshould not be for 'museumization' but to maintainthe cultural tradition from the past and toperpetuate the best of it in the modern times.

Padmashree Prof. D.P. Pattanayak, Founder andFormer Director, Central Institute of IndianLanguages, Mysore defined the scope and natureof multilinguality and its implication ineducation. He said that many people are still notclear about multilingualism but there is a greatneed to understand it. He explained the historyof acceptance of multilingualism in India andnarrated that purpose of education system is tobind the family, society, country together. Heemphasized understanding the nature and formsof multilingualism.

Proceedings

Prof. Rajesh Sachdeva briefly explained theimportance of multilingualism in different statesof the country. He also demonstrated themeaning and purpose of Right to Education(RTE). He explained a famous statement of Robert

Cooper - “To plan language is to plan society”,and categorised language as a problematic issue.He described the word DIVERSITY in terms oflanguage in detail, and said that there is no pointwhere a man is without language. He put forwardsome data of census of India and said that theenumeration is erroneous as it ignores the

language whose speakers number less than10000 and derecognises their ethnic andlinguistic identities.

He said that language planning has three mainareas:

1. Planning for the state

2. Corpus planning

3. Acquisitioned planning

He admired that the state of Nagaland has donemajor work for multilingual education,particularly the tribal languages.

As per the “Linguistic Interdependence Theory”the child should learn in his first language ormother tongue. Most of the deliberations in theseminar were on the importance of the motherlanguage. Language is instrumental as mediumof instructions carrying knowledge andmeanings in all the subjects. The involvement ofchild’s own language in learning and teachingis very much essential for basic educationaldevelopment or else it is sure that the learningwill be blocked and a huge human potential isdamaged.

Prof Minati Panda stated that most of the peopleknow more than two languages. While learningmany language, brain works as a magicalmachine. In our brain there is linguistic structurenot just a language (either Oriya, Telugu, Bengalior any). Brain is capable of decoding language ofmultiple structures. She also explains the Gillstheory for comparative graph between evolutionof brain and culture, in which graph of culture is

fast because of neurological inputs. She

highlighted the Multi lingual education (MLE)

programme of Odisha state. Prof. Minati

explained the “Linguistic interdependence

theory” and emphasized that child should be

explained any subject in his first language or

mother tongue.

She also posed some questions:

- Why is MLE so material centric?

- Why we are not focusing on how any

language is learned?

From here she also moved on the kind of models

that have been developed in different parts of the


34

country where she discussed Andhra and Orissa

model and commented that these are mostly

integrative approaches whereas we need an

inclusive approach. She also shared her

experience of working in Orissa and writing two

books named EraiErai.

The next session focused on MLE in

Chhattisgarh. Many teachers from different

regions of the state also shared their experiences.NCF 2005 ensures that every child has the right

to education in her mother tongue. These learning

rights can be possible when multilingual

education is adopted in state curriculum and text

book production. In reference to developing a

multilingual child in Hindi along with other

language i.e. mother tongue. in Chhattisgarh

state, it has been noticed that no historic articles,

evidences, and record of scientific knowledge is

available in local and regional languages.

The importance of multilingualism has also been

discussed in the context of Chhattishgarh. Thestate can be divided in to three linguistic zones,

Central Chhattishgarh which stretches out from

Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, and

Kawardha. The Northern Chhattishgarh is

consists of Surguja, Jashpur, Korea, Korba and

Raigarh. The Oram and Korba tribes are

dominant in Northern Chhattishgarh. Southern

Chhattishgarh is known as Bastar region which

consists of linguistic diversities with Gondi,

Halbi, Bhatri, Marathhi, Kolami, Dhurua, and

Abujhmaria. The multilingualism in

Chhattishgarh is a strength which should not be

treated as problem. The house criticized western

countries for using the unique quaint terms, seems

to be typical for general people. We also follow

and opted words from Sanskrit language, and

always marginalize the common languages used

by the people.

In Chhattisgarh the disappearance of many local

languages is a major impediment to the

development of the language due to declined

numbers of language speakers due to dominance

of state language and external influences. The

state has accommodated 25% text materials in

the state curriculum and text books in six regional

languages. Within the state it is difficult to learn

all regional languages which are spoken by

linguistic minority people in a limited area. In

this direction creative writing may support to

conserve the language diversity which is at the

verge of extinction. The Gondi, Halbi, Dhurva

and many other regional languages should be

included in textbook.

The second day started with the technical session

titles “Language across the curriculum”. Therewere specific presentation on language related

issues faced in different subjects. For example, in

maths:

1. Vocabulary: Very technical words are used

in the textbooks like, parallelogram,

multiplication. Also same words might have

many different meanings in our daily

conversation but in mathematics each word

has specific meaning which needs to be

understood by the child.

2. Syntax related issues

3. Abstract and Natural Language.

4. Miscue and word problems: The way

language is used in the mathematics, it can

give some miscues to the child because of

which child can make a mistake.

The session emphasized that it is necessary to

learn how the curriculum and text books are

designed based on children’s learning need.

Some states have taken steps on it and this should

be explored by the new state where there is an

opportunity of teaching the children in their

mother tongue is essential. It is necessary to learn

from others experiences. Therefore, some micro

and minor projects should be organized in length

to learn from other states.

As expected, a substantial discussion was taken

up in the seminar addressing the

multidimensional approaches of language

education. The focal theme of the seminar was to

discuss on language of science and language of

mathematics in the context of children’s learning

abilities and teachers teaching difficulties. It was

found that , the subjects like Science and Maths

may be made simple and compatible to the

children’s language of comprehension or else the

learning will be blocked.


35

Recommendation of the Seminar to State

Government

1. Report preparation on linguistic survey: This

was already done in 2008 by SSA but not ina report form; only raw data were made

available;

2. Reform of curriculum, based on children

language, knowledge and reform text bookin the context of Kurukh, Gondi Halvi, Baiga,Korba and Abujh Maria and Dhurua;

3. Strengthening of TEG (Teacher EducatorGroup)

4. Policy documents on language inChhattisgarh to be developed

5. 2-3 conceptual seminars to be organisd onlanguage in different cities.

6. Research and language education to bepromoted.

7. Convergence with Women and ChildDevelopment and Tribal Welfare Departmenton using MT in early childhood andeducation.

8. Lastly, in reference to Kothari commission ithas been recommended that each childshould be given essentially mathematics andscience education for ten years in school. Weshould build our ability to construct newknowledge.


36

vyx vyx uhfr;ksa vkSj vuqla'kkvksa us f'k{kdf'k{kk esa ,slh ckrksa ds lekos'k dh vuqla'kk dh gStks ,d vyx izdkj ds f'k{kd f'k{kkfFkZ;ksa dhdYiuk djrh gSaA tSls] os vf/kxe dks O;fäxrvuqHkoksa ls vFkZ fudkyus dh çfØ;k¡ ekusa] Kku dksikBîiqLrd çnÙk cká ;FkkFkZ ds :i esa gh uns[ks oju mls f'k{k.k & vf/kxe ds lk>k lanHkksaZvkSj O;fäxr vuqHkoksa }kjk x<+k gqvk ekusa bR;kfnAblds fy, ftys ds fo|ky;ksa esa csgrj v/;;uv/;kiu gsrq fd, tk jgs ç;klksa esa le; le;ij f'k{kdksa dh is'ksoj {kerko/kZu Hkh 'kkfey gSA

jk"Vªh; ikBîp;kZ dh :ijs[kk] bl ckr dks t+ksj'kksjls j[krh gS fd ek/;fed 'kkyk Lrj ij foKkudk ifjp; ,d la;qä fo"k; ds :i esa fn;ktkuk pkfg,A bl Lrj ij i<+kus ds fy, pquhx;h oSKkfud vo/kkj.kk,¡ cPpksa ds vuqHko txrls lacfU/kr gks rFkk çkS|ksfxdh ds O;kogkfjdKku dks Hkh roTtks nsrk gksA

loky ;s mBrk gS fd ges afoKku lh[kus vkSjfl[kkus esa fnDdr D;ksa vkrh gS\ vxj gexgjkbZ ls bldk fo'ys"k.k djrs gS rks dqNcqfu;knh dkj.k lkeus vkrs gS%

1- ge vDlj ;gh lksprs gS fd foKku rF;ksadk HkaMkj gS vkSj vxj bu rF;ksa dks fdlhrjg ls le> fy;k tk, rks foKku lh[kusdk dke gks tkrk gSA

blesa dqN lPpkbZ rks gS ij bl lPpkbZ dslkFk ge cgqr vkxs ugha tk ikrsA dkj.k oghfd ge rF;ks dks le>us ds ctk;mUgsa ;kn

dj Mkyrs gS vkSj oafpr jg tkrs gS mu rdksZals :c: gksus ls] tks foKku dks lgh ek;usesa #fpdj cukrs gSA

2- ge vf/kdrj dqN [kkl lzksrksa rd vius vkidks lhfer dj nsrs gSa tks gesa fdlh oSKkfudçfØ;k ds ctk; mu lzksrksa ij fuHkZj gksukT;knk fl[kkrk gSA

fofHkUu lzksrks elyu fdrkcsa] O;fä ;k txgls çkIr tkudkfj;ksa dks ge Kku dk iqfyankekudj pyrs gS vkSj ,sls lzksrks dks ge vkf/kdkfjd lzksr ds :i esa ns[krs gSaA ;g gesabruk n`<+ dj nsrs gSa fd ge vius vkidkslh[kus dh çfØ;k esa 'kkfey gh ugh dj ikrsvkSj bl rjg ge fdlh oSKkfud çfØ;k dksle>us ds cnys mls ;kn dj Mkyrs gS] jVMkyrs gSA

3- ge lksprs gS fd foKku lcds fy, ugha gSvkSj oSKkfud fof/k;k¡ dqN [kkl {ks=ksa esa ghlhfer jg tkrh gSaA

foKku esa tks ge lh[krs gS ;k i<+rs gS dbZckj og fdrkcksa rd gh lhfer jg tkrk gSAgekjs thou ds mrkj p<+ko esa mu lh[kh gqbZckrksa ;k Kku dk dgha mi;ksx ugha fn[krkA,sls esa ge Lor% gh vius vkidks foKkulh[kus dh çfØ;k ls [kkfjt djrs pys tkrsgS vkSj lksprs gS fd foKku rks dsoy fpfdRlk;k vfHk;kaf=dh i<+us ds fy, gh gSA

Åij fn;s x, cqfu;knh dkj.kksa dks /;ku esa j[krsgq, vkSj fiNys 4 lkyksa ls f'k{kdksa ls yxkrkj

vatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjhvatq nkl ekfudiqjh

LoSfPNd foKku f'k{kd eap%LoSfPNd foKku f'k{kd eap%LoSfPNd foKku f'k{kd eap%LoSfPNd foKku f'k{kd eap%LoSfPNd foKku f'k{kd eap%,d igy] csgrj foKku f'k{k.k dh vksj,d igy] csgrj foKku f'k{k.k dh vksj,d igy] csgrj foKku f'k{k.k dh vksj,d igy] csgrj foKku f'k{k.k dh vksj,d igy] csgrj foKku f'k{k.k dh vksj


37

ckr djrs gq, geus ik;k fd bu dkj.kks dks lclsigys xgjkbZ ls le>us dh t:jr gSA D;kokdbZ esa foKku f'k{k.k ;gh gS] ;k blds brjcgqr dqN vkSj gS\

bl ç;kl esa gh vt+he çseth Q+kmaMs'ku }kjkf'k{kdksa ds is'ksoj {kerko/kZu dh fn'kk esa yxkrkjvkSj xgurk ds lkFk tqM+dj fd;k tkus okykçeq[k ç;kl] fo"k; vk/kkfjr f'k{kd lonZ~/kudk;Z'kkyk gSA bu dk;Z'kkykvksa esa laokn ds nkSjkuf'k{kdks dks uokpkj viukus ds fy, çsfjr djuk]muds vkRefo'okl dks c<+kok nsuk 'kkfey gSAlkFk gh foKku f'k{k.k ds çfr mudh xaHkhjrkrFkk f'k{k.k çfØ;k esa vkus okyh pqukSfr;ksa lslacfU/kr dbZ igyqvksa dks tkudj ;k fo"k; f'k{k.kdks dSls fo"k; ds ç-fr ds vuq:i cuk;k tk,]bl ij xgu ppkZ dh vko';drk Hkh eglwlgksrh gSA

blh dM+h esa geus f'k{kdks ls ckr dh vkSj ik;kfd foKku f'k{k.k dk ,d çeq[k mís'; gekjscPpksa dks loky mBkus] ç;ksx djus vkSj lkspus dsu, oSKkfud rjhdksa dk fodkl djus dks çsfjrdjuk gSA mPp çkFkfed Lrj dh iwjh vof/k esaçfØ;k dkS'kyksa ij T;knk t+ksj gks rkfd cPpk[kqn ds igydneh ls] vius Lrj ij gh dSlslh[ksa] ;g lh[k ldsA

mä lanHkZ dks /;ku esa j[krs gq, vkSj /kerjh dhf'k{kd f'k{kk dk;Z ;kstuk ds varxZr f'k{kdksa dh{kerko/kZu gsrq ekax vuq:i igy r; fd, x,Ablesa ftys ds mPp çkFkfed f'k{kdksa ds fy,fo"k;okj] vo/kkj.kk vk/kkfjr dk;Z'kkykvks dkvk;kstu ,oa ckn esa fo|ky;ksa rd mldk Q‚yksvi^^LoSfPNd f'k{kd eap ¼voluntary teachersforum&VTF½** çeq[krk esa gSA

blh rkjrE; esa ^^ohVh,Q+ ,d vo/kkj.kk** dksetcwr djus dh dksf'k'k esa tqM+ x, ge lHkh&pkgsoks Q+kmaMs'ku ds lkFkh gks ;k gekjs f'k{kd lkFkhA

lHkh us feydj bl fn'kk esa dne c<+kus dkBkuk] vkSj bldh 'kq#okr gqbZ Qksu }kjk vdknfedppkZA /khjs /khjs bl ppkZ ls ÅtkZ feyus yxh]ftys ds dqN f'k{kdksa ds lkFk feydj u dsoyvo/kkj.kk cfYd d{kkxr çfØ;k dks etcwr dSlscuk,] d{kk dh O;oLFkk dSls gks fd foKku fo"k;dks mldh çfr ds vuqlkj i<+us ;k i<+kus dkekdwy ekgkSy fey lds vkfn ij xgu ppkZfujarjrk ds lkFk gksrh jghA Qksu ij ckr djrsgq,] ,d fuf'pr varjky esa cSBd dh vko';drkHkh eglwl dh x;h rkfd lHkh foKku f'k{k.k esafd, x, vius ç;kl] lh[k] pqukSfr;ksa vkfn dklk>k dj lds] vkSj bl rjg ls ohVh,Q+ ,dQksje dk mn; gqvkA

bl ohVh,Q+ ds fy, çkjfEHkd rS;kjh ds lkFkÞ,d f'k{kdß ds lkFk bl ij ppkZ dh x;hAmUgksus vius Hkh QhMcSd dks 'kkfey djrs gq,varr% ohVh,Q+ dks lapkfyr djus dh iwjh rS;kjhdk ft+Eek fy;k rkfd oks ,d lqfo/kknkrk ds rkSjij leqg ds lkFk dke dj ldsA

igyh eqykdkrigyh eqykdkrigyh eqykdkrigyh eqykdkrigyh eqykdkr

lqfo/kknkrk us viuh ckrphr ,d loky ls 'kq:dh ftlesa mUgksus mifLFkr f'k{kd lewg ls iwNkfd d{kk esa ^^çdk'k** i<+krs gq, D;k vuqHko gq,gS] cPps fdl rjg ds loky djrs gS] vkSj çdk'klaca/kh cPpks ds igys ds vuqHko ;k Kku fdlrjg ds gSaA Åij ftu lokyksa dk mYys[k fd;kgS] oks blh laokn ds fgLls gSA cPpks ds mÙkjfdl çdkj ds gksrs gS bl ij dqN çfrfØ;k,¡bl rjg ls vkbZ fd oLrq dks ns[kus ds fy, vk¡[k]ysal] jks'kuh] dSejk] lw{en'khZ] oLrq dh vko';drkgksrh gSA

vf/kdrj f'k{kdksa dk ;s dguk Fkk fd fdlh HkhoLrq dks ns[kus ds fy, fdldh vko';drk gksrhgS] iwNus ij t+~;knkrj cPps vk¡[k dgrs gSA bl


38

fLFkfr esa ,d f'k{kd us crk;k fd oks nwljkloky d{kk esa djrs gS& vxj vk¡[k gh ns[kus esalgk;d gS rks D;k crk ldrs gks fd nhokj dhnwljh rjQ D;k gS\ bl rjg ckrphr ds ek/;els jks'kuh rd igq¡prs gSaA fQj vkSj Hkh loky vkrsgSa tSls jks'kuh D;k gS] jks'kuh dgk¡ ls vkrh gS]lwjt rks cgqr nwj gS fQj mldh jks'kuh dSlsigq¡prh gS] lwjt dh jks'kuh loZçFke dSls igq¡prhgS] vxj lwjt ugha gksrk rks D;k gksrk vkfnA

loky djuk foKku v/;;u vkSj f'k{k.k dkçeq[k dkS'ky gS D;ksafd ftKklk ,oa ç'uks dhtxg cukus ij t+ksj nsus ls gh oSKkfud KkufuekZ.k] Kku ds iq"Vhdj.k] oSKkfud çfØ;kvksa ,oafof/k;ksa dks çnf'kZr ;k le>us esa enn feyrh gSA

lqfo/kknkrk us çdk'k dk ,d xq.k Þçdk'k lh/khjs[kk esa pyrk gSß dks crkSjrF; ysrs gq, blsyxHkx rhu xfrfof/k;ksa ds ek/;e ls le>us dhdksf'k'k dhA xfrfof/k;ksa ds ckjs esa foLr`r o.kZubl çdkj gS%

eksecÙkh dh ykS vkSj dkxt dh cuh uyh&eksecÙkh dh ykS vkSj dkxt dh cuh uyh&eksecÙkh dh ykS vkSj dkxt dh cuh uyh&eksecÙkh dh ykS vkSj dkxt dh cuh uyh&eksecÙkh dh ykS vkSj dkxt dh cuh uyh&

bl xfrfof/k ds fy, lekpkj i= ls dkxt dhuyh cukbZ x;h vkSj lkeus ty jgh eksecÙkh dsykS dks Qksdl djus dks dgkA tc ykS fn[kusyxh rks çfrHkkfx;ksa ls iwNk x;k fd vxj uyhdks dqN bl rjg ls eksM+k tk, fd mldk eqagcan u gks oks [kqyk jgs ij uyh eqM+ tk,] D;k rcHkh ykS fn[kkbZ nsrh gS \T;knk vPNs ls le>us dsfy, ikBd fp= }kjk le> ldrs gSA

bl nkSjku tks ppkZ esa [kqydj vk, os fcUnq Fks fdd{kk f'k{k.k dh çfØ;k esa ckrphr }kjk cPpks dsiwoZKku ds ek/;e ls çdk'k laca/kh muds fopkj]loky vkSj ftKklk dks tkuukA fQj lh/ksxfrfof/k djuk] vkSj bu nksuksa ds chp ppkZAckrphr esa dqN ckrsa lkeus vkbZ tSls xfrfof/k ds

egRo dks le>kuk] xfrfof/k djds ewyvo/kkj.kk dks le>uk ;k igys ewy vo/kkj.kkcrkdj ml ij vk/kkfjr xfrfof/k djokukA iwjslewg us ;s eglwl fd;k] fd gesa dksbZ Hkhxfrfof/k ;k ç;ksx ;k dksbZ e‚My cuokus cukusds igys ,d ppkZ dh t:jr iM+rh gS tksv/;;udrkZ dks vo/kkj.kk ds lkFk tksM+ ik;sAbl chp ,d çfrHkkxh }kjk laokn esa ;g Hkh tksM+kx;k fd ?kjksa ds NIij ls vkus okyh iryh jks'kuhvkSj ;g xfrfof/k dkQh dqN ,d nwljs ls feyrhgS vkSj çdk'k ds lh/kh js[kk esa pyus dks bafxr Hkhdjrh gSA dqN loky bl rjg ls j[ks x, fdxfrfof/k ,d esa fy, x, dkxt dh uyh dhyackbZ de ;k T;knk ;k uyh ds vuqçLFk dkV dsO;kl de ;k T;knk gksus ls D;k çdk'k ds xq.kds v/;;u esa dksbZ QdZ iM+sxk ;k ns[kus dhçfØ;k esa fdlh rjg dk dksbZ Hkh cnyko gksxk\blh rjg vxj bl uyh dks fLFkj j[kds] oLrqdks nwj ;k ikl j[kk tk, rc D;k QdZ iM+sxk \

ekfpl ds [kkyh fMCcs vkSj eksecÙkh dhekfpl ds [kkyh fMCcs vkSj eksecÙkh dhekfpl ds [kkyh fMCcs vkSj eksecÙkh dhekfpl ds [kkyh fMCcs vkSj eksecÙkh dhekfpl ds [kkyh fMCcs vkSj eksecÙkh dhykS& ykS& ykS& ykS& ykS& nwljs xfrfof/k ds fy, ekfpl ds rhu[kkyh fMCcksa dh t:jr iM+hA ekfpl ds fMCcs esanks fgLls gksrs gSa] ,d mij okyk [kks[kk vkSj ,duhps okyh VªsA rhuksa ekfpl ds fMCcs ds uhps iryhlqbZ dh lgk;rk ls Nsn djus dks dgk x;kA ,d


39

eksecÙkh dks tyk;k x;k vkSj lHkh çfrHkkxhf'k{kdksa ls ekfpl ds fMCcksa dks bl rjg tekusds fy, dgk x;k fd bu fMCcksa ds drkj esa lsvafre fMCcs ds Vªs ds Nsn ls vxj ns[kk tk, rkseksecÙkh dh ykS fn[kkbZ nsA f'k{kdksa esa fMCcks dkstekus dk mRlkg ns[kus yk;d Fkk vkSj mUgksuscgqr gh de le; esa ,slk dj Hkh fy;kA fMCcksadks djhus ls bl rjg tek;k x;k fd rhuksa fMCcsds Nsn ls lh/ks eksecÙkh dk ykS fn[kkbZ iM+ jghFkhA gekjs çfrHkkfx;ksa esa ls ,d cPph es?kk ¼,dçfrHkkxh f'kf{kdk dh fcfV;k½ us Hkh bls ns[kus dhdksf'k'k dh] bl chp ekfpl ds fMCcs fxj x,Avc fQj ls tekuk eryc ,d NksVk lk ç;klvkSjA #fpdj Fkk ;s ns[kuk fd es?kk fMCcksa dkstekrh gS ;k ugha\

mlus fMCcksa dks fQj ls tek;k ij bl ckj rhuksafMCcs ds Nsn ,d lh/k esa ugha FksA;s dqN ,slk ghFkk tSls dkxt ds uyh dks eksM+ nsukA njvlylkjs Vªs ,d ÅapkbZ ls ugha te ik;s Fks] ftlds

dkj.k Vªs esa fd;k x;k Nsn lh/khykbu ij ugha FksA FkksM+h nsj dsfMCcs fxjus&mBkus dh dljr dsckn og og Hkh le> ikbZ fdNsn dks lh/ks ykbu esa ykukgksxk rHkh eksecÙkh dh ykS fn[kkbZnsxhA ,d f'k{kd us tksM+rs gq,

dgk fd ,sls xfrfof/k esa cPpksa dkscgqr vkuan vkrk gS vkSj oks [kqn

vius Lrj ij ç;kl djrs gq, vkxsc<+rs tkrs gSA ogk¡ f'k{kd flQZ ,d

lqfo/kknkrk ds rkSj ij gksrk gSA

pkd vkSj LVª‚&pkd vkSj LVª‚&pkd vkSj LVª‚&pkd vkSj LVª‚&pkd vkSj LVª‚& bl xfrfof/k esa pkd dks [kM+sj[kdj] LVª‚ dks {kSfrt fn'kk esa j[kuk FkkA LVª‚dks ,slh fLFkfr esa ykuk Fkk fd pkd LVª‚ ds Nsnls fn[kkbZ nsA ppkZ ds le; f'k{kdksa us tksM+k fd;fn oLrq LVª‚ ds lkeus gS rks gh fn[kkbZ nsxhAdqN loky bl rjg ls Hkh vk, fd vHkh rks LVª‚ds vanj gok gS] ;fn bls fdlh vkSj inkFkZ ls Hkjfn;k tk, rks D;k rc Hkh LVª‚ ls pkd fn[kkbZnsxk\

rc ikjn'khZ vkSj vikjn'khZ okyk ekeyk Hkh lkeusvk;kA ckrphr esa ;g Hkh vk;k fd dSls tqM+rkgS ml vuqHko ls ftles ,d f'k{kd lkFkh usvius cPpks ls loky fd;k Fkk fd vk¡[k jgrs gq,Hkh D;k nhoky ds nwljs ikj dh pht+ fn[kkbZnsxk\ ,d jkspd loky ;g Hkh vk;k fd lwjtdh jks'kuh /kjrh ij igqprh gS] rks D;k bldkeryc ;g Hkh gqvk fd nksuksa ds chp tks Hkh gS lcikjn'khZ gSA ,d vkSj f'kf{kdk lkFkh us bls crk;kfd fdl rjg fuokZr vkSj ok;qeaMy esa ls gksrs gq,lwjt dh jks'kuh /kjrh ij igq¡prh gS ftlesat:jh ugha fd lwjt dh jks'kuh iwjs le; lh/kspyrk jgsA rks bl rjg ckrphr djrs gq, ;gckr Hkh vkbZ fd fuokZr esa çdk'k rsth ls pyrk


40

gS] eryc ek/;e dk cM+k ;ksxnku gS çdk'k dksle>us esaA loky ;g Hkh vk;k fd ;fn dejs dsgok dks iwjh rjg ls ckgj fudky ns rks fuokZr gkstk,xk] rc çdk'k ds LoHkko esa dksbZ varj vk,xkD;k\rhuksa xfrfof/k djrs le; ;g Hkh ckrphrfd;k x;k fd d{kk esa dSls mfpr çca/ku fd;ktk, fd gj cPps dks lh[kus ds volj çkIr gksAdqN fopkj bl rjg ls vk, tSls lewg dk;Z]lkFk esa vf/kxe dh çfØ;k dks c<+kok nsuk]'kq#okr esa fnDdr vkrh gS] ij tSls tSls cPpksa esajkspdrk vkus yxrh gS]dke vklku gks tkrk gStgka os gh usr`Ro djrs gSaA bl ppkZ ds ckn lewgdks çdk'k laca/kh ,d vkys[k i<+us dks fn;k x;kftlesa lewg ls dgk x;k fd bl vkys[k esaçdk'k ds dkSu ls xq.k Li"V le> vk jgs gS] dkSulh ?kVuk vkSj ifj?kVuk dk ftØ gS] mls uksVdjsa\

bls i<+us ds ckn ikBdksa ds dqN çfrfØ;k,¡ vkbZtks bl rjg ls gS&

• çdk'k QSyrk gS]

• vikjn'khZ oLrq ds vkus ls ijNkbZ curh gS]

• çdk'k dks gkFk ls ugha idM+ ikrs gS]

• -'; çdk'k dbZ jaxks ls feydj cuk gS]

• çdk'k ds dkj.k gh jaxks dks ns[k irs gS]

• çdk'k ds vusd lzksr gS]

• vkx esa çdk'k vkSj Å"ek nksuksa gS]

• rfM+r Hkh çdk'k dk ,d lzksr gS]

• dqN ?kVuk tSls vekoL;k dk mYys[k gS]

• çdk'k la'ys"k.k laca/kh ifj?kVuk dk mYys[kgSA

bl nkSjku f'k{kdksa ls ;g Hkh ckr fd;k x;k fdfdl rjg NksVs NksVs dgkuh ;k vkys[k dklgkjk ysdj Hkk"kk;h dkS'kyxr n{krk dks c<+k;ktk ldrk gS rkfd fo|kFkhZ i<s gq, ;k le>s gq,

vo/kkj.kk dks vius nwljs lkFkh ds lkFk vusd ek/;eksa dk bLrseky djrs gq, lk>k dj ldsA blchp ;g ppkZ Hkh cM+k jkspd Fkk fd dSls [kklle; ij gh lw;Z dk çfrfcac vPNs ls fn[krk gSvkSj dM+h nksigj esa lw;Z dk çfrfcac ns[k ikukeqf'dy gksrk gSA

lqfo/kknkrk us vkys[k dk lgkjk ysrs gq, vkSjçdk'k ds lh/kh js[kk esa pyus laca/kh ckrphr dkslesfdr djrs gq, ,d ç;ksx vkSj fd;k ftlesamUgksus ikuh esa lsoyku Mkydj ckgj ls ysljV‚pZ ds çdk'k dks foy;u ls fudyrs gq, fn[kk;kAlHkh çfrHkkfx;ksa us Hkh ;g ç;ksx fd;kA blç;ksx dks djrs gq, dqN loky vk, ftl ijppkZ vxyh ohVh,Q+ esa djus dk lkspk x;kAtSls fdl jax ds ikuh esa çdk'k iqat ;k fdj.kvPNs ls fn[ksxk]bl çfØ;k esa çdk'k fdrus

ek/;e ls gksdj xqtj jgk gS] foy;u dk xk<+k;k gYdk gksus ls D;k çdk'k iqat ;k fdj.k dsfn[kus dh rhozrk esa dksbZ QdZ iM+sxk] bR;kfnAcgqr le; rd rks ,d vulqy>k loky vkSj Fkk]ftles vkus okys le; esa ppkZ gksxh vkSj oksloky Fkk D;k çdk'k inkFkZ gS\ gk¡ rks dkSu lkinkFkZ gS ] ugha rks fQj D;k gS \

ysfdu ;g ppkZ ;gh lekIr ugha gksrkA dk;Z'kkykds ek/;e ls 'kq: gqbZ bl lh[kus&fl[kkus dhçfØ;k dh fujarjrk dks cuk, j[kus rFkk vkilhle> dks vk/kkj cukdj fo|ky; dh çfØ;k;ksadks vkSj djhc ls le>rs gq, fo|ky; fodkl


41

;kstuk dks ifj.kfr rd igqapkus ds Øe esa blppkZ dks dqN lokyks ds lkFk jksdk x;k] tksyxHkx gj xfrfof/k ds lkFk fy[kk gqvk gSAvxyh cSBd ds igys] lcus Qksu }kjk lokyksa ijppkZ djus dk lkspk ftlds fy, ,d rkjh[k r;dh x;h vkSj vxyh ppkZ ds fy, ^viorZu** ,dvo/kkj.kk pquk x;k] tks ek/;e cnyus ds lkFkçdk'k ds xq.k esa vk, cnyko dks crkrk gSA

bl iwjh ckrphr dks j[kus dk mís'; dsoy ,dohVh,Q+ dk ftØ djuk ugha gS ] cfYd ,sls igydks mtkxj djus dk ç;kl gS tgka f'k{kdlkfFk;ksa dks vius fopkjksa dks lk>k djus dk eapfeyrk gSA le>s gq, ckrksa dks vius fopkjksa esaykuk vkSj nwljs f'k{kdks ds lkFk lk>k djuk HkhfoKku f'k{k.k dk çeq[k dkS'ky gS tks bl ckrdh odkyr djrk gS fd fdlh Hkh rF; dhO;k[;k djus ds fy, fd;k x;k ckrphr ikBd;k Jksrk ds mez vkSj le> vuq:i djus ds fy,ljy cuk;k tk, ij bruh ljy Hkh uk gks tk,fd ewy ckr dgha [kks tk,A foKku f'k{k.k esaftruh vko';d xfrfof/k gS] mruk gh vko';dgS fd fyf[kr lkexzh dk bLrseky gks ftlsi<+dj lh[ks gq, vo/kkj.kk dks iDdk fd;k tklds vkSj mlls lacfU/kr vU; vo/kkj.kkvksa dkHkh tqM+ko ns[kus dk xqatkb'k cuk jgsA bl ohVh,Q+esa ;gh ftØ gSA

bl ckrphr dks ;gk¡ j[kus dk ,d vk'k; vkSjgS fd fdlh Hkh fo"k; esa {kerko/kZu ds fy, dksbZ,d dk;Z'kkyk i;kZIr ugha gksrk cfYd ;g ,dyxkrkj pyus okyh çfØ;k gS tgka ,dvo/kkj.kk ls lacfU/kr dqN T;knk xgjkbZ lsckrphr dh tk,] vkSj d{kkxr çfØ;k esa vkusokys pqukSfr;ksa dks lcds lkeus j[kk tk,A lkFkgh ;g Hkh fd buohVh,Q+ esa çdk'k dks blLo:i esa le>uk] f'k{kd lkfFk;ksa dks] tgka ,du;h vo/kkj.kkRed n`f"V ns jgk Fkk ogha cPpksa ds

lkFk dke djrs gq, mUgsa djds lh[kus ds vkuanvkSj vius vklikl foKku dks ns[kikus ds jksekapds lkFk csgrj le> cukus esa enn Hkh dj jgkFkkA

blh eap ij ,sls dbZ f'k{kdks ds lkFk :c: gksusdk ekSdk Hkh feyk] tks reke pqukSfr;ksa ls tw>rsgq, csgrj dk;Z djrs gS vkSj csgrjh dh fn'kk esavkxs c<+rs tkrs gSA ,sls f'k{kd] bl dk;Z'kkyk esanwljs f'k{kdksa ds fy, çksRlkgu vkSj çsj.kk nsus dkdk;Z djrs gSA

ysfdu dk;Z'kkyk ds lkFk ohVh,Q+ dh ppkZ ;ghlekIr ugha gksrkA dk;Z'kkyk ds ckn ohVh,Q+ dsek/;e ls 'kq: gqbZ bl lh[kus&fl[kkus dh çfØ;kdh fujarjrk dks cuk, j[kus rFkk vkilh le>dks vk/kkj cukdj fo|ky; dh çfØ;k;ksa dks vkSjdjhc ls le>rs gq, fo|ky; fodkl ;kstuk dksifj.kfr rd iagqpkus ds Øe esa gekjh vkxkehxfrfof/k;ka bl çdkj gS &

• ge yxkrkj 'kkykHkze.k ds }kjk 'kkyk fodklçfØ;k esa lg;ksx djus dk ç;kl djrs gSaftlls fd 'kkyk dks vkSj Hkh csgrj laLFkkuds :i esa fodflr fd;k tk ldsA

• ladqy ,oa 'kkyk Lrjh; ekfld cSBd esa'kkyk fodkl ;kstuk] vo/kkj.kkvks a ijvk/kkfjr vdknfed eqíksa ij ppkZ tSlhxfrfof/k;ksa dks fu;fer çfØ;k ds :i esaLFkkfir djus dh fn'kk esa ç;kl djukA

• ladqy vdknfed leUo; dk ,d vdknfedçfrfuf/k ds rkSj ij fodkl] rFkk ladqy vkSjfodkl [kaM Lrj ij f'k{kdksa dk ,d vdknfedeap dh rjQ igy dj ikuk tgka f'k{kdlkFkh vius fo"k; ls lacfU/kr pqukSfr;ksa dks[kqydj j[k lds vkSj csgrj vdknfedç;kl dks ,d nwljs ds lkFk lk>k dj ldsaA


42

,drk ikVhnkj,drk ikVhnkj,drk ikVhnkj,drk ikVhnkj,drk ikVhnkj

cPpksa ds lkFk dke djus ds fy, eSaus viuh dk;Z;kstuk esa dksf'kdk] inkFkZ] cy vkSj xfr ikBksa dks'kkfey fd;kA dk;Z dh 'kq#vkr dksf'kdk ukedikB ls dh vkSjblds rgr cPpksa dk ^iz;ksx'kkykls ifjp;* djok;k x;kA blesa lw{en'khZ] chdj]cuZj ¼LizhV ySai½ vfHkjatd] dakp dh NM+ vkfndks Nwdj ns[kus] vkSj muds mi;ksx ij ckr dhxÃ rFkk muds fp= cukokdj muij uke fy[kok,x,A rhljs fnu d{kk vkB o nl nksuksa ds cPpksadks 'kkfey djds I;kt dh dksf'kdk o fj;ksa dhiÙkh dh dksf'kdk dh LykbM lw{en'khZ ls ns[kusdk o Lo;a Hkh cukus dk volj fn;k x;kA mudslkFk dksf'kdk dh [kkst dSls gqbZ\ fdlus dh]lw{en'khZ dk vkfo"dkj dSls gqvk] mlds fodklds ckjs esa ckr dh xbZA bl lkjh izfØ;k esaxfrfof/k&voyksdu&O;k[;k fof/k dk iz;ksx fd;kx;kA cPpksa }kjk cukbZ xÃ LykbM esa dksf'kdkdSlh fn[kh] mldk dkWih esa fp= cuok;k x;kAfp=

ukekafdr djus ij Hkh ckr dh xbZAmuds }kjkcuk, x, fp= dks vk/kkj ekudj dksf'kdk fHkÙkh]dksf'kdk f>Yyh] dksf'kdk nzO;] gfjr yod]fjfDrdk dh igpku] dksf'kdkvksa dh jpuk oblds dk;ksZa ij foLrkj ls ckr dh xbZA

lHkh cPps lh[kus ds fy, tw> jgs FksA tSls tarqo ouLifr dksf'kdk dk fp= dqN cPpksa ls ughacu ik jgk FkkA os ckj&ckj dksf'k'k dj jgs FksvkSj yxHkx pkj&ikap ckj fp= cukus dk iz;kldjus ij muls Bhd&Bkdfp= cu ik,aA ge Hkhvyx&vyx rjhdksa }kjk mUgsa le>kus dk iz;kldj jgs FksA bu dksf'k'kksa us gekjs chp dh nwfj;ksadks dkQh de dj fn;kA

tks cPps ikB~;iqLrd ds lkFk Hkh lgt ugha Fksmuls dgk fd tks i<+uk vkrk gS mls i<+ks] tksugha vkrk gS mls vaMj ykbZu djksA iqLrd esaikB dSls <w<+rs gSa] ;g Hkh vf/kdka'k Nk=ksa dks irkugha FkkA ikB~;iqLrd dks dqN us rks [kksyk Hkhigyh ckj FkkA vuqØef.kdk dks dSls ns[kdj

,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj ,drk ikVhnkj o Jqfr HkM+HkM+s Jqfr HkM+HkM+s Jqfr HkM+HkM+s Jqfr HkM+HkM+s Jqfr HkM+HkM+s

yfuaZx dSai esa foKku f'k{k.k ds vuqHkoyfuaZx dSai esa foKku f'k{k.k ds vuqHkoyfuaZx dSai esa foKku f'k{k.k ds vuqHkoyfuaZx dSai esa foKku f'k{k.k ds vuqHkoyfuaZx dSai esa foKku f'k{k.k ds vuqHko

^lsok eafnj*LoSfPNd laLFkku] fiNys dbZ o"kksZa ls mn;iqj ds xzkeh.k {ks=ksa esa f'k{kk] LokLF; oLokoyacu ds fy, fofHkUu izdkj ds dke dbZ Lrjksa ij dj jgk gSAlsok eafnj us ljdkjh Ldwyksa ds,sls cPps ftUgkasus viuh i<kbZ chp esa gh NksM+ nh gS ;k os vius Ldwyksa esa fu;fer ugha gSa] dks f'k{kkls iqu% tksM+us ds fy, 20 ebZ ls 25 twu 2015 rd muds fy, fo|k Hkou Ldwy esa ,d vkolh;yfuZax dSai dk vk;kstu fd;kA fo|k Hkou f'k{kk lanHkZ dsanz us blesa vdknfed lg;ksx fn;kA blyfuZax dSai dk eq[; mís'; bu cPpksa dks mudh d{kk ds Lrj rd ykuk rFkk muesa i<+kbZ ds izfr#fp txkuk Fkk rkfd os viuh i<+kbZ fu;fer :i ls tkjh j[k ldasA

bl dSai esa yxHkx 50&55 cPps vk, Fks tksd{kk 8] 9 o 10 esa ukekafdr FksA ;s cPps vk;qvuqlkjçkFkfed d{kkvkas ls lh/ks ek/;fed d{kkvksa esa ços'k ik x, FksA ;g ,d pqukSfriw.kZ dke FkkAvr%lsok eafnj ds lkFk feydj cPpksa ds lanHkZ esa izkIr tkudkjh ds vk/kkj ij fo"k; vuqlkj f'k{k.k

;kstuk cukbZ xbZA ;gka foKku lewg ls tqM+s lzksr lnL; vius vuqHkoksa dks lk>k dj jgs gSaaA


43

ikB dks fudkyk tkrk gSA i`"B la[;k dk erycD;k gSA ikB ds e/; fp= dk uacj fn;k gS rksmldks mlds fooj.k ls dSls tksM+dj ns[kk tk,A;g lkjh izfØ;k djus ij Nk=ksa dks ikB i<+us esadqN&dqN #fp mRiUu gksus yxh vkSj os ikBi<+dj vkus yxsA ikB i<+us ds nkSjku vkbZfnDdrksa ij vxys fnu d{kk esa lcls igys ppkZdh tkrh] mlds ckn vkxs c<+rsA

ikB~;iqLrd ij dk;Z djrs gq, d{kk esa rhu lewgcuk, x,A izFke lewg esa nl cPps tks iqLrd i<+ysrs gSaysfdu vFkZ fuekZ.k ugha dj ikrsA ysfduHkk"kk ljy gksus ij vFkZ fuekZ.k dh izfØ;k 'kq:gks tkrh FkhA nwljs lewg esa os cPps Fks tks#d&#ddj i<+ ikrs Fks ysfdu vFkZ fuekZ.k ughadj ikrsA yxHkx nl cPps rhljs lewg esa Fksftudkss i<+us esa leL;k vk jgh FkhA lg;ksxhlanHkZ lkFkh}kjk bl rhljs lewg dh enn ls ;grhljk lewg Hkh lh[kus yxkA os ljy dgkuh dhfdrkcksa dks i<+us yxs vkSj /khjs&/khjs muesa i<+usdk vkRefo'okl cgky gksus yxkA

ikB i<+us&i<+kus dh bl izfØ;k ds nkSjku] ikB esavk, u, 'kCnksa ds mPpkj.k ,oa vFkZ ij Hkh ppkZdh xbZA bl lkjh izfØ;k dk mn~ns'; cPpksa dhi<+us esa #fp mRiUu djuk Fkk rkfd os vkxs Hkhi<+uk tkjh j[k ldsaA dfBu 'kCnksa tSls fHkÙkh]f>Yyh] ,d dksf'kdk] cgqdksf'kdk] iknkHk] mÙkd]dksf'kdkax] xq.klw=] izksdSfj;ksfVd] ;wdSfj;ksfVd]gfjr yod] vkfn ds mPpkj.k o vFkZ le> vkusij mUgsa ikB le> esa vkus yxk o os i<+us esa #fpysus yxsA

lewg esa ppkZ ds nkSjku cPpksa us dgk fd vkiMkaVrs o ekjrs ugha gSa] tcfd fo|ky; esa rks nksuksagh iM+rh gS ftlls mudh iwNus dh bPNk gh ughagksrhA lHkh cPps vyx&vyx fo|ky;ksa ls Fksblfy, fo|ky; ds muds vuqHko vyx&vyx

FksA 'kq#vkr esa cPps dks d{kk esa nks ?kaVs cSBus esaHkh fnDdr vkrh Fkh ysfdu tSls&tSls fo"k; oizdj.k esa #fp c<+h] le; dgka fudy tkrk] irkgh ugha pyrkA d{kk vkB vc i<+us esa #fp ysusyxh FkhA 5 twu dks dSai ds lHkh cPpksaus lewg esafo|k Hkou ds fofHkUu izkax.kksa esa o`{kkjksi.k fd;kftlesa xqykc] uhe] xqyeksgj] xsank vkfn ds o`{kyxk, rFkk buds ukeksa o muds fofHkUu mi;ksxksads ckjs esa pkVZ cuk,aA

dSai dk nwljk lIrkg [kRe gkssrs&gksrs eq>s d{kknl i<+kus dks feyhA tSo izØe uked ikB esa tSoizØe] iks"k.k] Loiks"kh] ijiks"kh] ikpu ra=] ikpu]ikpd jl vkfn ij d{kk esa ppkZ dhA ikpu ra=ds vaxksa dks Nk=ksa dks i<+dj fp= cukus o mudko.kZu vius 'kCnksa esa djus dks dgk x;kA fQjikpu ra= ds vaxksa o ikpu dh izfØ;k dksikB~;iqLrd ls i<+k;k x;kA izR;sd dks i<+us dkvolj fn;k x;kA bl nkSjku fdlh iz'u dkmÙkj dSls [kkstk tkrk gS ij Hkh muls ppkZ dhxbZ rFkk dqN iz'uksa ds mÙkj [kkstUks dks fn, x,AcPpksa dh foKku esa #fp c<+s] blds fy, fofHkUufØ;kdykiksa tSls iz;ksx] voyksdu] fo'ys"k.k ofu"d"kZ fudkyus ds volj fn, x,A blds rgreM] LVkpZ] olk VsLV djok,( ikjn'khZ] vikjn'khZo ikjHkklh oLrqvksa dk lewghdj.k djok, x,A


44

d{kk ukS esa X;kjg cPps Fks ftuesa Ng dks i<+uk oFkksM+h ljy Hkk"kk gksus ij le>uk Hkh vkrk FkkAikap dks i<+us o vFkZ fuekZ.k esa leL;k FkhA bld{kk esa Hkh dksf'kdk o mÙkd ij dk;Z fd;kx;kA I;kt dh dksf'kdk ,oa fj;ksa dh iÙkh dhdksf'kdk dh LykbM cuokdj voyksdu }kjkfp= cuk dj djok;k x;kA blds i'pkr bysDVªkulw{en'khZ dksf'kdk ds izk:fid fp= ds fofHkUuHkkxksa ij fp= ns[k dj ppkZ dh xbZA bl nkSjkulkanzrk] ijklj.k] folj.k] fu"dklu vkfn ijfofHkUu nSfud thou ds mnkgj.kksa }kjk le>cukus dk iz;kl Hkh fd;k x;kA dksf'kdk f>Yyh]ekbVkdksfUMª;k] dsanzd] dsafnzdk f>Yyh] dsafnzdk]xq.klw=] var%iznk;h tkfydk] dksf'kdk nzO;] dsanzdnzO;] ykblkslkse] jkbckslkse] xkYth ckWMh fjfDrdkvkfn dh lajpuk omuds dk;ksZa ij ppkZdh xbZA bl nkSjkuNk=ksa dh leL;kvksa dksle> dj mudh enndjus ,oa ppkZ }kjk mUgsaizsfjr djus dk iz;klHkh fd;k x;kA bu lcdksf'k'kksa o ppkZvksa dsdjrs gq, pkyhl fnudc lekIr gksus vk x,]irk gh ugha pykA bldSai us gesa ek/;fed Lrj ds cPpksa dks le>us]lh[kus&fl[kkus mUkdh leL;kvksa dks tkuus dkvolj feykA cPpksa dks ikB~;iqLrd dh Hkk"kkdfBu yx jgh Fkh vkSj mUgsa vFkZ fuekZ.k djus esaijs'kkuh vkjgh Fkh] blds fy, geus mUgsa ikB dksljy Hkk"kk esa fn;kA bl izfØ;k esa geus nks ikBdksf'kdk rFkk mÙkd lgtrk ls le> esa vk tkusokyh Hkk"kk esa cuk dj fn;kA cPpksa dks ;g dkQhlgt yxk vkSj mUgsa i<+us o le>us esa vklkuhgksus yxh FkhA

Jqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+sJqfr HkM+HkM+s

foKku lewg esa dke djrs gq, ;g igyk voljFkk tc eSa cPpksa ds lkFk fd, tkus okyslh[kus&fl[kkus ds dk;Z ls tqM+hA cPpksa ls ckrdjus ij irk yxk fd dbZ cPpksa ds ikl f'k{kk lstqM+s jgus ds fy, vuqdwy okrkoj.k ugha gSA ;scPps vius ekrk&firk ds lkFk dke ij tkrs gSatSls etnwjh djus] [ksrh&ckM+h djus vFkok dghavkSj O;Lrrk ds pyrs viuh i<+kbZ dks fujarjugha j[k ik, FksA bu lcesa dbZ cPps ,sls Hkh FksftUgksaus ikapoha ds ckn lhs/ks vkBoha d{kk esa izos'kfy;k FkkA viuh mez ds eqrkfcd ;s cPps cM+hd{kkvksa esa rks vk x, Fks] fdarq bu cPpksa dkiwoZKku mudh d{kk ds vuq:i ugha Fkk] ml Lrjrd vkus ds fy, vHkh Hkh mUgsa cgqr dqN tkuuk

ckdh gSA dSai ds 'kq:gksus ls igys geus tks;kstuk cukbZ Fkh] ogT;knk mi;ksxh lkfcrugha gqÃA ;gka ij vk,cPpksa dh ifjfLFkfr;kaesjh dYiuk ls foijhrFkhA esjs fy, ,sls cPpksads lkFk dke djuk ,dpqukSrh FkhA

d{kk uoha ds cPpksa dslkFk eSaus jlk;fud foKku* ds ikB gekjs vkliklds inkFkZ* ds lkFk 'kq#vkr dhA ;g ikB eSausblfy, pquk D;ksafd bu cPpksa ls ckrphr djusij geus ik;k fd bu cPpksa dks oSKkfud 'kCnkoyhdh T;knk le> rks ugha Fkh] fdarq muds nSfudthou esa gksus okyh dbZ ?kVukvksa vkSj phtksa dsckjs esa muds voyksdu vPNs FksA tSls ;s cPpsdbZ rjg ds inkFkksZa vkSj muds xq.kksa ds ckjs esatkurs Fks ijarq buds oSKkfud dkj.k ugha tkursFksA dbZ cqfu;knh 'kCnkofy;ksa tSls Bksl] nzo vkSj


45

xSl ls os T;knk okfdQ ugha FksA dbZ 'kCnksa dksos viuh {ks=h; Hkk"kk esa le> ikrs Fks fdarqoSKkfud 'kCnkoyh dks le> ikus esa mUgsa fnDdrgks jgh FkhA lcls cM+h leL;k rks ;g Fkh fd bucPpksa dks mudh ikB~;iqLrd dh Hkk"kk le>us esaHkh eqf'dy gksrh FkhA esjhs le>ls 'kk;n ;g Hkh,d otg jgh gksxh ftlds dkj.k cPpksa dh i<+usesa #fp ugha cu ikbZ FkhA ,d vkSj ckr Fkh fd bucPpksa ds lkFk dHkh foKku dks iz;ksxksa }kjk djdsle>us&le>kus dh dksf'k'k ugha dh xÃ FkhAbu cPpksa ds lkFk voyksdu] iz;ksx djus rFkkLo;a lh[kus dh {kerkvksa ij dke djuk lclscM+h t:jr Fkh A

blfy, mUgsa ,d iz;ksx dj] vius voyksduksa dksvius 'kCnksa esa fy[kus dks dgk x;kA ;g iz;ksxfoy;rk ls tqM+k FkkA bu cPpksa dks lewg esa ckaVkx;k vkSj mUgsa ,d lwph nh xbZ ftlesa fofHkUuinkFkZ tSls ued] 'kDdj] 'kgn] jsr] ekse] gYnh]uhacw dk jl ds uke FksA ;s inkFkZ mUgsa fn, x,vkSj mUgsa foy;rk dk iz;ksx djds vkil esackrphr djus ds fy, le; fn;k x;kA mUgsa bliz;ksx ds nkSjku dqN pqukSfr;ka Hkh nh xbZ tSls]muls dgk x;k fd os foys; dh ek=k dkscny&cnydj ns[ksa fd D;k gksrk gSA mUgsa ;s rksirk Fkk fd 'kDdj dks xeZ ikuh esa ?kksyuk] BaMsikuh esa ?kksyus ls vf/kd vklku gS ij tc mulsiwNk fd ,slk D;wa gksrk gksxk rks os lc fu:Rrjgks x,A bl iz;ksx dks ml fnu bUgha lokyksa dslkFk [kRe fd;k vkSj cPpksa ls dgk fd os vkilesa ckrphr dj bl iz'u ds mÙkj [kkstus dhdksf'k'k djsaA

gesa ;s vis{kk rks ugha Fkh fd cPps ,dne lghmÙkj <wa<dj ys vk,axs] ij ;g t:j pkgrs Fks fdcPps dqN lkspuk 'kq: djsaA bl pht esa dqN gnrd ge lQy Hkh gq,A eq>s vxys fnu [kq'kh gqbZtc dqN cPpksa us ;g loky mBk;k fd 'kDdj

dks ikuh esa ?kksyus ij 'kDdj dgka xk;c gks xbZ\gYnh ?kksyus ij ikuh dk jax ihyk D;ksa gks x;k\eSa pkgrh Fkh fd bl izdkj ds loky cPpksa dsfnekx esa mBs rkfd muesa ftKklk dk fodkl gkslds tks foKku f'k{k.k ds fy, cgqr vko';dgSA

cPpksa ds iz'uksa dk mÙkj nsrs gq, mUgsa inkFkZ esamifLFkr ckjhd d.kksa ds ckjs esa crk;kA mudks;g ,d tknwbZ pht tSlk yxkA mUgsa ;s tkudjvk'p;Z gqvk fd Bksl oLrq tSls est ds l[rgksus ls ysdj] [kq'kcw dk dejs esa QSy tkus dsihNs dk ,d dkj.k bu d.kksa dh O;oLFkk gSA ;sd.k tks gesa [kqyh vka[kksa ls ugha fn[krs] budhvn~Hkqr xq.kksa dks tkudj lHkh cPps [kq'k gq,A

cPpksa ls tc eSaus dgk fd jsr ds ,d d.k esa Hkhgtkjksa d.k gksrs gSa] rks cPpksa us viuh dYiuk ds?kksM+s nkSM+k fn,A ,d cPps us iwNk fd ^pkWd dk;g d.k tks esjs maxyh ls fpidk gqvk lQsn lkfn[k jgk gS] D;k mlesa Hkh dbZ vkSj d.k gksrs gaSa\^rc eSa le> xbZ fd vc bu cPpksa esa dYiukdjus vkSj viuh lksp ds nk;js c<+kus dh 'kq#vkrgks xbZ gSA foKku dh nf"V ls phtksa dks ns[kus dh{kerk gh foKku esa #fp mRiUu djk ldrh gSA

;g lgh gS fd bu cPpksa ds Lrj dks mudsd{kkuqlkj ykus esa vHkh vkSj le; o esguryxsxhA ysfdu esjk ekuukgS fd fujarj dk;Z djusls bu cPpksa dks lQyrkvo'; feysxhA ;gk alQyrk dsek;us ijh{kkesa mÙkh.kZ gksuk ugha gScfYdvk'k; ;g gS fd cPpsvius lh[kus dh {kerkvkSj Kku dks vkSj c<+kik,axsA fdlh ds Kku dk


46

vkadyu djuk dfBu gS D;ksafd Kku dh dksbZlhek ugha gksrhA bu cPpksa ds lkFk eSaus ik;k fddbZ ckrksa esa bUgsa eq>ls T;knk tkudkjh Fkh] tSls[ksrh&ckM+h ds laca/k esa] isM+&ikS/kksa dh igpku]feV~Vh dh ij[k ,oa [kkn lca/kh Kku tks eSausfdrkcksa ls fy;k Fkk] mldh rqyuk esa bu cPpksadk O;ogkfjd Kku vf/kd Li"V FkkA vr% eSa ;gdg ldrh gwa fd f'k{k.k lh[kus dh fujarj pyusokyh izfØ;k gSA ,d f'k{kd dk dk;Z flQZ Kkunsus rd lhfer u gksdj Kku ds vknku&iznkudks egÙo nsuk Hkh gksuk pkfg,A eq>s bl vuqHkols dqN ckrsa tks lh[kus dks feyha] tSls&

& ^foKku dh Hkk"kk@'kCnkoyh^ lh[kus ds fy,Hkk"kk ij idM+ gksuk cgqr t:jh gSA foKkudh gj d{kk Hkk"kk dh Hkh d{kk gksrh gSAt:jh gS fd Hkk"kk] foKku dks lh[kus ds chpvojks/kd u cusA

& foKku esa #fp iSnk djus ds fy, ftKklk dksc<+kok nsuk cgqr t#jh gSA

& t#jh gS fd cPps viuh ckr dks j[k ik,aA;g ns[kuk Hkh t#jh gS fd] os D;k ns[k jgsgSa vkSj mudk utfj;k D;k gSA

& cPpksa dks bl rjhds ls i<+k;k tk, fd mUgsaetk vk,A tc muds eu esa loky mBsaxsrHkh rks mUgsa foKku ds }kjk vius bu lokyksads mÙkj feysaxsA

& ge ftu rjhdksa ls i<+krs gaS] vxj cPps mllsugha lh[k ikrs gSa rks mUgsa mlh rjg lsi<+k;k tkuk pkfg, ftl rjhds ls os T;knkle> ik,A

igyk vuqHko gksus ds dkj.k esjs eu esa Hkh dbZloky mBs] f'k{kk dks ysdj] f'k{kk iz.kkyh dksysdj] f'k{kk ls tqM+s dbZ elyksa ij ,oa fdlizdkj foKku f'k{k.k dks ljy vkSj fnypLicuk;k tk,] vkfn eqn~nksa ijA ysfdu eSa pkgwaxhfd le; ds lkFk bu iz'uksa ds mÙkj eSa Lo;a[kkstwaA vkf[kj eq>s Hkh rks [kkstus o gkflyvuqHkoksa ds tfj, lh[kus dh dksf'k'k djrs jgukpkfg,A

¼,drk ikVhnkj ,oa Jqfr HkM+HkMs+ & fo|k Hkouf'k{kk lanHkZ dsan]z mn;iqj esa foKku Vhe esa dk;ZjrgSaA½


47

Radha has newly joined as a primary teacher in a

private school. As she enters class 5, she feels excited

and nervous. She wants to listen to students, know

more about them and work towards making

mathematics accessible to all. The principal assures

Radha that she will visit her class in the first week.

She is happy that the principal is interested in her

teaching. The principal comes and sits in her class for

a few minutes and then leaves. After the class, Radha

immediately goes to meet the principal and excitedly

asks, “how was it?” The principal tells her that she is

new and should learn to have a disciplined class,

students should attentively listen to the teacher. As a

teacher, she should be able to say the last word on

every (mathematics) problem. Radha’s class was just

the opposite! As time passes, the principal and other

senior colleagues observe Radha’s classes and find

them to be very noisy, slow in completion of textbook

exercises, and therefore not up to the mark. Radha

continues to receive similar feedback from other

observers but she does not have anyone to discuss her

struggles about teaching, the new curriculum, and

student difficulties. The fear of performance during

classroom observations by seniors leaves her

disappointed!

An Experience illustrating the teaching concern

The reality of Radha’s (pseudonym) classroomis not very different from several teachers whobegin teaching with enthusiasm and try novelpedagogic ideas in their classes. Teachers do notreceive the required support in classrooms forthem to be able to teach constructively (Takker,2012). Developing a culture of teaching does notinvolve seeking feedback and reflection on thecontent alone but also requires an engagementin teaching of peers. The school culture does nothave mechanisms by which teachers areencouraged to engage in their own and others’teaching. When teaching is observed by theschool principal or teacher educator, teachersreceive cursory remarks about improvingclassroom management and organisation. Thefeedback on teacher’s delivery or knowledge ofthe content is uni-directional (from teachereducator or senior teachers to the junior teacher)and does not involve discussion about teachingand classroom struggles of the teacher. Theimpression of classroom observations as events,where teachers prepare the lesson and teachereducator gives feedback, gets ingrained with time.We believe that the purpose of these interactionsbetween teachers and teacher educators requiresserious rethinking. Engagement with teachingrequires more deeper deliberations on ‘what’ is

Shikha Takker & Ritesh Khunyakari

Re-imagining classrooms as spaces for learning and professional

development of teachers and teacher educators

Abstract

In this article, we identify the potential areas of support required by teachers whileteaching in the classroom. We discuss two classroom episodes where the teachereducators did not engage with the struggles of the teacher and the demands of theteaching situation. The lack of support from teacher educators and persistence inroutinising classroom observations, has refrained teachers and teacher educators inutilising the potential of classrooms as spaces for learning of all. An explorationinto the beliefs of teacher educators indicates that they overlook critical aspects ofteaching and learning when observing classroom teaching. We conclude bysuggesting possible ways in which teachers and teacher educators can collaborateby reflectively engaging with learning opportunities arising from classrooms.


48

being taught in the classroom, and ‘how’ canlearning be made more responsive and engagingfor all. As we notice in Radha’s case, her goals ofteaching include listening to students andmaking mathematics accessible to all. In herattempt to listen to students, the classroombecomes noisy. The feedback she receives fromthe principal focuses on the disciplinary aspectsof classroom observation. The content of teachingand Radha’s struggles in making classroom moreinteractive are not discussed. Based on Radha’sexample where the feedback from the principaland her colleagues is limited, it is important toask what is the role of teachers and teachereducators in their growth as professionals.Further, how classroom observations anddeliberations around them are utilised aslearning opportunities for teachers and teachereducators. We intend to deliberate on these twoquestions in this paper.

Perceptions about teacher's role

Teachers are responsible for communicating thecurricular ideas into practice in the process ofeducating learners. Textbook is the key resourceavailable to teachers to comprehend thecurricular principles (in their own ways). It isimportant to ask about the perceived role of theteacher in planning and designing a newcurriculum. Do teachers have a (collective) voicein the process of curriculum development andrevision? Teachers’ voice and agency in shapingthe curricular discourse is compromised even inthe democratic processes of curricular reformsas in National Curriculum Framework (NCF)2005 (Batra, 2005), which envisions the largergoal of education as mediating socialtransformation (NCERT, 2005). The gap betweenthe theoretical principles, values, andsuggestions in NCF 2005 (proposed curriculum)and teachers’ perspective on theirimplementation in practice (enacted curriculum)needs to be bridged through the creation ofsupport structures at the ground level, and closeto the work of teaching (Takker, 2011). Further,teacher’s role in the discourse around thecurriculum and its implementation needs to bere-imagined. The revision of teacher’s role frombeing an implementer to a reflective practitionerrequires that teachers develop the tools for

deliberation on the content of teaching andmaking conscious connections with thecurriculum and aims of education. This is anotherimportant area which can be strengthened andutilised for discussion between teachers andteacher educators, with classrooms as sites forlearning. Classroom can serve as rich contextsfor deliberating about students’ backgrounds,bridging knowledge with students’ ideas, creatediscourses which encourage questioning, etc. Webelieve that there is a need to strengthen teacher’sidentity as a professional, thus utilising theirexperience in designing and revision ofcurriculum. A more practical concern remainshow and in what ways can teachers be supportedwhile they are teaching. We attempt to respondto this concern through use of anecdotalexperiences of working with teachers and teachereducators.

Teachers and classrooms

In the context of formal education, classroomsare spaces where the process of teaching andlearning takes place. It is a meeting ground forstudents of different abilities, aspirations, andbackgrounds. The complexity and richness ofclassroom comes from the interactions betweenthe teacher, students and the subject-matter at asocio-cognitive plane. Teaching is an act ofcomplex, social and intellectual collaboration(Lampert, 2001) and the classroom space offerschallenging realities to teachers. In this space,the prime responsibility of making learningpossible resides with the teacher. A teacher isexpected to maximise student learning byplanning the learning experiences as well asreciprocating appropriately to in-the-momentsituations arising while teaching. However, aftera few years, a teacher tends to gets moulded intothe routines of teaching. Teachers get caught upin a vortex of framed responsibilities andmanagerial accountability such as maintainingregisters, completing the syllabus even if thenumber of teaching days are compromised,managing the cultural programmes, etc. Teachingoften ends up becoming a job aimed towardscompletion of the prescribed syllabus. In ourparticipant classroom observations, we haveoften found that teachers miss noticing potentiallearning opportunities for students while


49

teaching in the classrooms. Keeping in mindstudents’ backgrounds and prior knowledgewhen teaching content, probing an interestingstudent question or response, unpackingstudents’ thinking underlying procedures,thinking deeply about the content to be taughtbeyond the textbook, etc. are some of the examples.The institutional work environment has createda dominant culture of teaching, usually referredto as traditional teaching. This culture of teachingincludes beliefs held by teacher and parents, suchas children do not learn unless taught, mistakesneed to be corrected immediately, children shouldbe kept away from conflicts, etc. Teachers,constantly immersed in a work culture thatpropagates and reinforces such beliefs, eitheraccede to or passively imbibe such beliefs. Otherstakeholders such as the principal, parents,curriculum designers, teacher educators, etc.contribute by enforcing systems to ensure thatthe teaching happens in “prescribed” ways. AsDewan (2009) points out, it is not just the teacherswho do not want to teach the poor children andtake the responsibility of their non-learning, butthe academicians and administrators from statelevel institutions also do not value diversity. Thetraditional culture of teaching needs to bechallenged and alternate images of teaching needto be co-constructed with the teachers. This wouldrequire breaking off from the demarcated rolesoperating within the structure of schooling,where the students are expected to learn, teachersmake the learning possible, and teacherseducators are experts assessing teachers and theirteaching. This structural edifice marks the failurein acknowledging the worth of classrooms as avaluable resource for learning of teachers andteacher educators. There is a need forunderstanding the complexity of classrooms andutilising their potential for learning of students,teachers and teacher educators.

Observing classrooms: purposes and challenges

In India and elsewhere, teacher preparation (pre-service) as well as evaluation (in-service teachereducation) relies significantly on experiences ofclassroom observations (Batra, 2005;Lasagabsater & Sierra, 2011). Education officers,teacher educators and principals, with a certainteaching experience and training, make visits to

classrooms. In the case of in-service teachers, thisvisit is once or twice a year and the teacher whoselesson is to be observed is informed about theday and session for observation in advance. Theteacher’s performance of a lesson on a particularday then decides her/his identity as a ‘particularkind’ of a teacher and subsequently her/hispromotion. Classroom observations can vary fromtaking a passing look at the class or notebookwork to sitting in an ongoing class for a fewminutes by a teacher educator. The teachereducator ‘inspects’ a class and fills up a proformaon teacher’s performance. However, observationswith an exclusive evaluation orientation missesout opportunities for drawing insights from anunderstanding of student-teacher interactions, inmaking sense of how students’ thinking mediateswith content such that it shapes the learningdiscourse in dynamic, insightful ways. Also, anunderstanding from classroom observations inthis manner does not translate in any meaningfulway to support teacher in reflecting on herteaching practice. Scholars (Saginor, 2008;Wragg, 1999) in the field draw our attention tothis value of classroom observations in preparingteachers for their profession.

In pre-service teacher education programmes,practical teaching experience includes micro-teaching, practice teaching, peer teaching, etc. Asteachers teach, mentors or teacher educatorsobserve and comment about their teaching.Student-teachers are expected to prepare speciallessons for observation so that they can displaynot their routine but their best. The ‘best’ impliesexecuting the lesson plan closely aligned withwhat they had stated, have all the materials inplace to conduct an activity, manage to keep aclass disciplined, and achieve the objectivespromised in the lesson plan. When preparing toteach, the student-teachers need to develop aculture of talking about teaching and tasks entailedin it. Such a discussion is crucial for becomingreflective about teaching and discussingconcerns that arise later.

So what is it that teacher educators observe inpre-service and in-service teacher’s teaching?What kind of perceptions do teacher educatorshold about classroom observations? What aspectsdo they consider as significant? In order to


50

explore this understanding, let us begin bystudying an anecdotal experience shared by ascience teacher, Tarique. He has been teachingin a government school for over five years.

Tarique is introducing the idea of biodegradation

to seventh graders. He begins his class by asking

children to look around and list things around

them. Children say wooden chair, cotton clothes,

bananas, potato-chips, wooden duster, chalk

piece, plastic bottle, steel tiffin-box, slippers, etc.

After having about 20 different names on the

board, he picks up a plastic water bottle and asks,

‘what will happen to a bottle after you throw it in

a bin? Where does it go from our bins?’ Some

children say it goes into a big dumping ground

and that they have seen it. One girl said that she

has seen some old women, sitting at the end of a

street and separating all junk. Tarique then asks

‘why do they separate these things and how do

they know which thing to put where?’ In groups,

children discussed different criteria for

classification. The criteria used included nature

of material, breakability, edibility, etc. Tarique

then asks children to imagine, ‘what will happen

to these materials if they had been there in a very

old house, unused for several years?’ Children

respond, ‘the colour may fade, the thing may

break into pieces, will become soil, etc.’ Tarique

asked ‘Does that happen with all the materials?

How do we know which one will become soil and

which will not?’ Children were certain that glass

and plastic bottle will not become soil while peels

of fruits and vegetables, potato-chips, will mix

and become soil. They were not sure of the old

clothes. Later, Tarique tells them that objects that

completely mix with soil are called biodegradable

materials and others non-biodegradable.

Students shared some of their observations about

materials and how they look when they are old.

They decide to find old things around and note

down how they looked. Together they identified

empty spaces in the classroom to keep some objects

and observe them over time. The items they

agreed upon were bananas, potato chips, cloth

piece, iron key and chalk piece.

After observing the session, the teacher educatorremarked that it was an activity-based classroombut the teacher did not use any teaching aids.Students were making a lot of noise. More thanthat, they were asking unnecessary questions like,would a (rubber) chappal (footwear) be degradableor non-degradable, is their tiffin-box which ismade of stainless steel, biodegradable or not?Tarique (also a pseudonym) wanted to discuss astudent’s experience of seeing an onion kept overseveral days in a plastic bag, developing blackand green spots. He was not quite sure aboutthis observation. When he later sought aclarification from the teacher educator, he wasadvised to use textbook examples rather thanwasting time in making students think about somany objects around them. Tarique was asked toinclude more structured written work and focuson his classroom management skills. He was toldto teach more content in reference to the textbook.

Role of techer educators

Do we notice some similarity in the way Radhaand Tarique received the feedback? What kind ofan impact would it have on them? What is it thatteacher educators expect to see in teachers’classrooms? Intrigued by these thoughts, weasked teacher educators in informal interviewsand sessions in workshops to elaborate on therole they perceive for themselves and what theyobserve in classrooms. These teacher educators

included District Institute of Education andTraining (DIET) faculty, education officers, in-

service teacher educators, teacher leaders, andprincipals of different schools (henceforth, we

refer to all of them as teacher educators). Teachereducators have the task of observing classrooms

of in-service and/ or pre-service teachers andprovide feedback. So we asked them individually

and in groups about what do they observe in aclassroom. Here is a consolidated list, exhaustive

of responses from all the teacher educators:

a) infrastructure: availability of blackboard andchalk, desks in order and facing the blackboard and teacher, sufficient light, air, etc.

b) student behaviour: disciplined, giving answersto teacher’s questions, not talking to eachother unless asked, maintain neatness in


51

notebook work, taking turns (no massanswering), copying correctly from the boardand in time, listening to teacher carefully,following instructions, etc.

c) teacher behaviour: asking questions fromstudents, correcting students’ mistakes,using language (mostly English) clearly,taking care of bright children as well as slowlearners, ability to draw the attention ofstudents in proper ways, fulfilling theobjective of the day’s lesson, classwork andhomework, asking questions to individualstudents; and

d) others: proper activity along with lecture,considering the need for using lab (shouldbe avoided mostly as it is chaotic), use ofteaching aids, correction of notebooks,tracking students’ performance, completionof activity in time.

The conversations with teacher educatorssuggest that they pay a lot of emphasis onbehavioural patterns and physical attributes ofclassroom. The idea of physical space is limitedto desks, light, and board in the classroom. Onlyone teacher educator mentioned that she actuallychecks whether the ladies toilet in the school isfunctional and then goes for classroomobservations. When we explicitly asked thisquestion to other teacher educators, they said thatthis is not their concern. They are expected tofocus on the classrooms not elsewhere. Even thephysical infrastructure, which emerged as aprominent feature being observed is quite limited.The tacit protocol for observations does notinclude aspects which may have bearing onlearning, like the students’ socio-economicbackground, their regularity in school attendance,peer interactions during the class, etc. On probingabout the kind of oral and written comments orfeedback they provide to teachers, it came up thatthey rarely engage in any discussions withteachers. The feedback is usually handed over tothe teacher-in-charge of that section or school.Occasionally, a copy of this feedback sheet isgiven to the teacher who was observed.

Many of the teacher educators talked about thesignificance of time management. They felt that,teaching an idea, such as decomposition of objects

around us or the multiplication with tens and

halves should not take the whole of one lesson(30-40 minutes). There should at least be three or

four different topics (or types of problems) withsome written work in every class. It is no surprise

that the feedback given to teachers does notinclude much on the content of what is being

taught. For them the content to be taught shouldbe visibly present in the textbook (exercise, page

and question number). Also, there is a preferencetowards disciplined classrooms where children

sit in order, take turns while talking, completetheir class work quietly, and follow the

instructions given by their teacher. Severalteacher educators believe that if students respond

to all the questions posed by the teacher, thenthey are not learning anything new.

Interestingly, many of the beliefs that areattributed to teachers, such as correction of

mistakes, emphasis on (correct) answers,disciplined classroom, use of teaching aids, etc.

seem to be consistent with beliefs of teachereducators. The content (subject) matter, nature

and form of student-teacher and student-studentinteractions, teacher’s thinking and decisionmaking in class, students’ questions, teaching

difficulties, opportunities to learn from diverseopinions and experience, etc. are completely

missing from the teacher educators’ discourse.An interesting and illustrative example to notice

is the concept of ‘bio-degradable’ in Tarique’s

case. Biodegradation seems to be perceived as a

consequential culmination with soil.

Opportunities for exploring degradation by

microbes (as in the case of onion) or degradation

of iron (through a process of rusting) actually

would have allowed for a substantiation of

knowledge across diverse examples. All of this,

received a precocious termination because of a

structured arrangement of evaluation with no

opportunities for critical reflection and insights

about the act of teaching. It is important for us to

ask here why decisions which are central to

teaching are missing from teachers educators’

reflections on classrooms. Perhaps, an

authoritarian outlook towards teacher educators’

engagement with teachers and a narrowly scoped

understanding of student-teacher interactions


52

which largely involves managerial practices (e.g.disciplining) and completion of syllabus hasrobbed the profession of teaching to draw uponand benefit from the emergent contexts oflearning embedded in student-teacherinteractions.

Nature of interactions between teacher andteacher educator

The assessment of a teacher by teacher educatorwithout any interaction presents a unilateralmode of feedback. Also, why is teacher educators’learning from these classroom observations notdiscussed? The top-down approach of learningis evident as students learn from the teacher andteacher from the teacher educator. Adopting atop-down approach, it seems, will create multiplelevels of cadres for training of each group. Re-envisioning the classroom spaces would requirestudents, teachers and teacher educators to drawupon the relevant experiences of classroomteaching. We believe that a potential way to utiliseclassroom teaching experience as a learningresource would be through communities ofteachers and teacher educators talking about thedilemmas of classroom teaching. We need toacknowledge and utilise the work of teachers andteacher educators as opportunities for learning.

The use of structured proformas is inadequatefor capturing the diverse yet shared needs ofteachers. The diversity of different classroomscan be captured by teacher educators through avariety of modes, such as, studying audio-videorecords, notes of classroom discourse, students’writing and records of response during theirteaching, etc. There is a need for teacher educatorsto engage groups of teachers using these artefactsof teaching. Through discussions with teachersabout the challenges they face in differentcontexts of teaching, teacher educators canexpand their knowledge base and reflect on theexperience of teaching. Together with teachers,they can engage in the process of identifyingconnections in content, develop ways to supportstudents’ learning by addressing difficulties instudent learning, sharing strategies to teachingdifficult concepts, appropriate sequencing, andinter-relations among concepts and domains.Such interactions will promote sharing insightsabout the nuances of classroom contexts,

learning, subject matter, and the learners.Exploring ways to support classroom teachingwill in turn enrich the experience of teachereducator visiting different kinds of classrooms.

Reimagining classrooms as spaces for teachingand learning

Classrooms are imagined as spaces for activeinteraction between students and a teacher. Insuch an imagination, conceptually the classroomappears to be a flat-land, a level-playing field,which is largely governed by subject knowledgedealt in the class and the concerns of the studentsengaged in learning. This contemporaryimagination envisages classroom as an ‘object’or ‘site’ where learning is monitored. Instead oftapping the value of classrooms for learning, thereis an overemphasis on pedagogic transactionsover content, deliverables or outputs over theprocess of learning, right answers overconnections with learners’ knowledge, and aninterest in judging students and teachers in anenvironment of learning more than theircontribution by participating in a classdiscussion. As evidenced from the cases of Radhaand Tarique, the imagination of classrooms as asite need some kind of a re-envisioning. Perhaps,the landscape metaphor is indicative of thedynamic nature of components within a systemprone to transformational changes by an uneventopography of a classroom. Classrooms ought tobe looked at as authentic resource for learning ofstudents, teachers and teacher educators. Movingfrom ‘classroom as a site for practice’ to‘classroom as a resource enabling learning’reconfigures the essence of classroom spaces. Theteacher’s experiences of dealing with classroomrealities and the teacher educators’ experiencesfrom diverse classrooms will widen the scope fornurturing learning from each other. Motivatedby this idea, we have directed our efforts indrawing teacher educators’ attention to thesecrucial aspects.

We are in a process of developing and trying outsome tasks to initiate building of a community ofpractitioners. One of the initial efforts has beento identify artefacts of practice and designingtasks around the artefacts for focused discussionswith teachers and teacher educators. We often


53

engage them in discussions using shortclassroom video clips. The focus in on student’sknowledge, teacher’s decision making, strugglesof individuals in a classroom setting, etc. Weencourage deeper engagement of teachers andteacher educators, going beyond commenting (orsuggesting) to discuss different ways of dealingwith situations. Often, it works well when thereis a mixed group of teachers and teachereducators. We believe an appropriation of thiskind creates a mutual learning environment andsharing of ideas and resources. Such a learningambience encourages an organic building ofassociation, not coloured by authority comingfrom a power position but for a pragmaticengagement with teaching per se. An atmosphereof mutual learning, trust, and commitment tomake learning meaningful can connect Radhaand Tarique with other teachers and teachereducators who share similar concerns and senseof purpose.

References

Batra, P. (2005). Voice and agency of the teachers:Missing link in National CurriculumFramework 2005, Economic and PoliticalWeekly, 4347-4356.

Dewan, H. K. (2009) Teaching and Learning: The

Practices. In Sharma, R. & Ramachandaran,

V. (Eds.). The elementary education system in

India. Exploring institutional structures,

processes and dynamics. New Delhi: Routledge.

Lampert, M. (2009). Learning teaching in, from,

and for practice: What do we mean?. Journal

of Teacher Education. Sage Publications. 1-14

Lasagabaster, D. and Sierra, J. (2011). Classroom

observation: desirable conditions established

by teachers. European Journal of Teacher

Education, 34(4), 449-463.

NCERT (2005). National Curriculum Framework

2005. National Council of Educational

Research and Training, New Delhi, India.

Saginor, N. (2008). Diagnostic classroom

observation: Moving beyond best practice.

California: Corwin Press.

Takker, S. (2011). Reformed curriculum

framework: Insights from teachers’

perspectives. Journal of Mathematics Education

at Teachers College, 2, 29-34.

Wragg, E. (1999). An Introduction to classroom

observation. London: Routledge.

Documents

Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators · 2020. 4. 3. · VTTE has been fortunate in having teachers, teacher educators, researchers who have contributed to it and shared their