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Chapter written for the section titled ‘Teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education’
Section Editors: Padma M. Sarangapani and Yusuf Sayed in ‘Handbook of Education Systems
in South Asia’. Editors-in-Chief: Padma M. Sarangapani and Rekha Pappu. 2020. Singapore:
Springer Major Reference Work.
Chapter 3
A cultural view of teachers, pedagogy and teacher education
Padma M. Sarangapani
Abstract: Research and theories pertaining to pedagogy in the South Asian region have taken a
cultural turn, leading to investigation and explanation of pedagogy that goes beyond visible
behaviours and conceptions of teacher skills and competencies. This enables research to engage with
the region’s cultural and political history and contemporary political economy of teaching and reform.
It also enables researchers to be reflexive, given the normative nature of education theory and
practice.
This chapter is based on a review of literature from and concerning teachers and teaching in South
Asia. The research has been themed into six areas significant to understanding and characterising
pedagogy: (i) textbook cultures; (ii) indigenous ideas of pedagogy; (iii) educability; (iv) pedagogic
cultures of public and private schools; (v) teacher voices on good teaching and professional identity;
and (vi) pedagogic reform. The chapter concludes by reviewing research on professional development
and reflecting on responses to culture in professional development and reform.
Key words: culture, guru, indigenous, reform, educability, professional identity, teacher voices, good
teaching, textbook culture
Research and theorising on pedagogy in the South Asian region has taken a cultural turn, moving
away from conceptualising pedagogy as skills or applied science to situating teachers in their cultural
contexts and beliefs. This is firstly an acknowledgement of the need to factor in an understanding of
the culture of the society in which schools are situated, particularly when these are non-Western
societies (Clarke, 2003; Sarangapani, 2003a). This has sometimes led to an instrumental response to
‘culture’ as needing to be ‘dealt with’ as it is the source of problems, or ‘used’ as a resource. More
recently however, there is an acknowledgement of the value of conceptualising pedagogy as integral
to everyday life and as a part of folk culture. This enables examining, describing and proposing
explanations for the practices of teaching and learning that go beyond observable behaviours of
teachers to include what they think and believe and to situate teachers and pedagogy in the material
and discursive contexts in which they work, conceptualised as ‘institutions’ (Goffman, 1959) or
‘fields’: professional, official and cultural, (Bernstein, 2000; for a discussion of Bourdieu on field see
Webb et al 2002) .
Pedagogical work has consequences; reform is cultural, political and epistemic, and the teacher acts as
an agent embedded in professional and institutional contexts. The cultural turn in understanding
pedagogy allows for a complex conceptualisation of pedagogy in South Asia, drawing upon its
cultural and political history and engaging with the contemporary political economy of teaching and
its reform. It also enables reflexivity with reference to the research and its process, as researchers are
inevitably ‘translating’ across cultural discourse contexts; even descriptions may entail value
judgments, given the essentially normative nature of education theory and practice.
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In this chapter, I apply a cultural lens to review extant literature pertaining to pedagogy and teachers
in South Asia, mainly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and to a limited extent, Bhutan,
(see bibliography compiled by Singh (2018)) particularly from the last two decades. The research
includes historical, quantitative and qualitative studies documenting and analysing schools and
classrooms, the voices of teachers – attitudes, perceptions and beliefs about themselves and their work
– and a few theoretical ideas that attempt to explain. While some of the research is explicitly cultural
in its framing, in other cases I draw attention to the implicit cultural assumptions (usually of policy
actors, researchers or reformers), or present analyses of aspects of everyday pedagogic culture, and
interpret findings in relation to the theme in focus.
Bruner (1996) in his formulation of ‘folk pedagogy’ provides a cultural conception of pedagogy
involving beliefs that teachers hold regarding the nature of learning, aims of education and the nature
of knowledge. Alexander (2008) reminds us that pedagogy includes the observed behaviours/acts of
teaching as well as intentions. Both these formulations allow pedagogy to be understood not only in
the context of the modern school and classroom, but also in other settings, including non-formal and
in-formal sites within and outside the school. Lipsky’s (1980) conception of ‘street level bureaucrats’
is relevant to thinking about teachers in modern school systems. The conception of teachers as
agents, political actors or street level bureaucrats can inform analyses of their identity and
professionalism, their everyday practices within the classroom as well as within the institution, and
their response (and resistance) to policy shifts and changes. These conceptions provide us with an
alternative to viewing pedagogy as a set of skills or practices to be learnt and used, and related to this,
the idea of the teacher as needing to be managed – first to acquire the skills and then to use them, to
teach. They can also deflect attention from a ‘teacher centric’ explanation of pedagogy, as a practice
that is determined by teachers and carried by teachers into classrooms, towards regarding pedagogy as
emergent.
The themes into which the literature review has been organised draw attention to key features of
pedagogy and teachers in contemporary South Asia. The first theme is (i) textbook culture which I
identify as the dominant character of pedagogy of modern schooling in the South Asian region formed
as a result of colonial school education policy. The next two themes relate to indigenous/traditional
cultural pedagogical ideas that are influential in the modern school space: (ii) the idea of guru, and
(iii) the idea of educability. I then look at literature surrounding (iv) school culture that has emerged
recently from the quality debates and comparisons of government and private schools. This is
followed by the theme of (v) good teaching and teacher identity found among teachers (in their own
voices). The final section explores the literature concerning (vi) pedagogical reform in the region.
Finally, I conclude by drawing attention to what we have learned and identifying critical gaps.
Textbook culture
The dominant pedagogic culture found in India and the South Asian region is that of a textbook
culture as proposed by Krishna Kumar (1988). Its key features are the centrality and authority of the
textbook in defining pedagogy and curriculum, the absence of other resources, the powerlessness of
the teacher to decide what will be taught, or when or how, and the centrality of examinations. This
powerful description captures the essence of what is seen dominantly in classrooms of the region. It
also immediately draws attention to the institutional context and bureaucratic control of teachers’
work and identity. The textbook culture and its variations, captured in research across the
subcontinent echo the themes of teacher-centred classrooms, centrality of the textbook, strong framing
and pacing, and narrowly directed and cued questioning by teachers to prompt their students to recall
standard answers to textbook questions.
‘Textbook cultures’ are noted in mathematics and science classrooms where teachers emphasise
procedural knowledge, and keep students silent and busy (Mohammad & Harlech-Jones, 2008;
Vijaysimha, 2013) and in English Language classrooms where the emphasis is on the text and
grammar (Ali & Walker, 2014). Versions of the textbook culture involving teachers as authority
figures with emphasis on repetition, drill and word-for-word recall is also noted as widespread in
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government schools in India and Pakistan, accounting for as much as 55 to 75% of class time (Sinha
et al, 2016; Jhingran 2012, quoted in Dundar et al 2014; Mohammad & Brett, 2017; Mohammad &
Harlech-Jones, 2008), as well as in low fee paying schools (Sarangapani, 2018; Jain, 2018; Sankar &
Linden, 2014; Tooley & Dixon, 2003). What is now also apparent is that there is variation in
textbook cultures; they are layered and stratified. This can noted in both government and private
schools where rote learning and drilling is evident in classrooms for children of the poor while
‘answer in your own words’ is often found in classrooms with students from higher socio-economic
groups (Sarangapani, 2018; Jain, 2018).
Krishna Kumar’s characterisation points to the value of understanding pedagogy as a cultural
phenomenon. This involves not only what teachers do, but also their location in the larger social
context and the institutional context. It involves examining what they think, what they intend, their
ideas of learning, teaching, knowledge, aims of education, and learners, their agency and autonomy,
and their own identity as teachers.
Kumar’s (1988) equally influential explanation for the widespread prevalence of the textbook culture
is that it was the British colonial policies, including a centralised bureaucratic system, with English as
the preferred medium of instruction, textbooks with alien content and examinations, that directly led
to this pedagogical culture taking root in the formal school system and persisting even after
Independence. Traditional indigenous practices of rote learning of textual materials provided a ready
soil for this. Two indigenous pedagogical ideas that continue to be influential in the region are taken
up in the following thematic section.
The textbook-examination-rote learning-based pedagogy devoted to learning irrelevant and nearly
alien content in an alien tongue was identified as a defect of the system, and became an object of
critique and reform during the colonial period itself, leading to indigenous progressive reform efforts
(Sarangapani, 2015; Smail, 2014, also see South Asian Education Thinkers by Baniwal V and Sharma
R, this Handbook). This is taken up for further discussion in the final thematic section on pedagogic
reform in relation to ‘child-centred education’.
Indigenous Pedagogical Traditions
Indigenous knowledge traditions are varied and include performing arts, craft, religion, philosophy,
science, medicine and technology in both oral and literate forms (see the section on Indigenous
Education Traditions, in this Handbook). The importance of ‘guru’ in these knowledge systems as
well as South Asian culture in general, is unique and significant. Barth (1990) comments on the
regional cultural influence of guru, and notes “the remarkable penetration of Indian civilization into
South East, which involved neither conquest nor large-scale population movement” (opcit, 647). He
attributes the transportation of complex cultural systems in the region to ‘solitary gurus,’ (opcit, 646)
whose activities as systematic and perpetual educators were intended to give enable the cultural
reproduction of cumulated knowledge and shared standards. As a living indigenous tradition, it
gradually came to dominate the region and was even carried into Islam. Describing the guru’s
pedagogic characteristics and prowess, he writes:
the Guru strengthens his performance a) by the sheer mass of knowledge he commands; b) by
replenishing it with more items: borrowing from accessible colleagues, extending his competence to
more sectors; c) by creativity: inventing elaborations, involutions or refinements; d) or by subdividing
knowledge into increments, introducing requirements that ration out the teachings in smaller portions,
making a longer and slower course of studies. Nor will he be unfamiliar with e) strategies of
mystifying, complicating and interposing an elaborate ceremonial language of honorific or technical
terms.…they serve primarily to lengthen and enhance the relationship between Guru and pupil, and to
exclude outsiders from the circle of disciples. (Barth, 1990: 647)
Being an authority and having one’s authority recognised and accepted in society, enjoying a unique,
even sacred, personal relationship with and authority over students in all matters moral and epistemic,
and expecting to enjoy social status and autonomy—these expectations of teachers have widespread
acceptance in South Asian culture, and have also carried over into the identity of contemporary
teachers. As discussed in Kumar (2014) and Sarangapani (2003), these ideals draw not only from the
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Vedic guru, but also other traditions including the bhakti guru, and ustads, gurus and maulanas in
traditions of medicine, music, dance and crafts, to name a few.
Indigenous cultural ideas of teacher-as-guru, and related ideals regarding the purposes of education as
well as ways of teaching and learning, marked indigenous village schools which were widespread in
the region in pre-colonial times (Dharampal, 1983/2000), as well as indigenous religious schools
which have continued into modern times. The following description of the Bhutanese Monastic
education tradition summarises contrasting distinctive elements between ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ as
two ideal types of ways of learning: ‘traditional’ or indigenous knowledge and education is found in
religious centres such as shedras, dratshangs and drubdras and ‘modern’ is associated with schools
and universities modelled on Western institutions:
Across the region, the orientation in traditional education is religious, introverted and spiritual while in
modern education, the orientation is extraverted and human development oriented, secular and
scientific. While worldly goals may be pursued in the latter, they tend to be temporary and secondary
to soteriological goal of inner enlightenment, as education in the former is conceived of as a process of
edification. The former favours pedagogical methodology of passive reception as opposed to active and
progressive in modern education. The former emphasises faith, reverence and sanctity and includes
memorisation, debates, contemplation and exposition while modern education favours interest,
curiosity and rationality, and includes critical scrutiny, statistics, and experiments. (Phuntsho, 2000)
Similar contrasts are noted in other contexts as well. Researching pedagogies used in ‘Pakistan
Studies’ which is a part of the modern school curriculum Muhammad & Brett (2017:282) note the use
of transmission pedagogy in relation to theocratic discourse, which gives importance to religious
identity and Islamic texts, while progressive pedagogy which involves a constructivist view of
knowledge is favoured for liberal-democratic discourse. In the context of Sri Lanka, Ruberu (1974)
notes that colonisation greatly damaged indigenous institutions of education, primarily the temple and
pirivena institutions which were devoted to religious and secular subjects and village or verandah
schools which taught literacy with an emphasis on pronunciation, handwriting and good character.
“[Ye]t the basic principles of the system as well as its practices have remained permanently rooted in
the country to such an extent that they will persist and are cherished by the majority of the people”
(opcit: 115).
To summarise, the idea of knowledge as received verbal testimony, education as sacred rather than
worldly, ideal learners as showing obedience and reverence to a teacher, teachers as figures of
authority with the right to considerable autonomy over the child, and learning as a relatively receptive
process involving memorisation, discipline and even fear, are common across traditional systems and
they are deeply rooted in culture as cherished ideals (Sarangapani, 2003a; Clarke, 2003; Mili, 2018).
I have noted alternative and contrasting ideas regarding teachers and learning found in tribal
communities in Central India, in my paper on Baiga vidya (Sarangapani, 2003b).
Modern pedagogy is increasingly formulated, articulated, theorised and backed by a growing ‘science
of learning’. Traditional education pedagogies too need to be understood as being more than tacit
practices which are recognised by researchers as pedagogy; they have also been theorised and
formulated within South Asian Knowledge systems. This is not surprising, given the explicit
recognition accorded to gurus and the widespread indigenous institutions of education for a range of
religious and secular knowledges. These idea have a wide circulation in society as cherished sources
of theories, beliefs and practices, and may become coded into ‘folk pedagogy’ taking the form of
saying and idioms and becoming implicit in practices and ‘ways of doing things’, or formalized in,
indigenous ‘educational theories’ (Dasen and Akkari, 2008), and accessed as culture. While Bruner’s
(1996) conception of ‘folk pedagogy’ (an extension of folk psychology) is relevant in understanding
this, it is not sufficient as a characterisation of the culturally available, explicit and extensive ideas
and theories regarding pedagogy, teaching and learning. Modern pedagogical knowledge in contrast,
is mostly accessed by teachers and educationists through teacher education and professional
development programmes or through textbooks, or teaching, learning and assessment resources into
which they may be encoded. Needless to say, these are not watertight compartments—cultures
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interact and evolve. ‘Modern’ concepts like IQ seems to have become a part of folk pedagogy of the
region.
The ‘cultural turn’ in research on pedagogy and understanding of resistance or ‘barriers’ to pedagogic
reform has foregrounded the recognition of these widespread formal and informal cultural resources
regarding pedagogy and education and their influence in modern institutional sites and on teachers
(Little, 1990; Clarke, 2003). These cultural theories and resources are deeper than teachers’ ‘personal
theories’ which are acquired through autobiographical experiences and the ‘apprenticeship of
observation’ (Lortie, 1975). However research and practice from the region has little to offer in terms
of how imagining how such cultural ideals could be incorporated into or responded to in formal
education theory. Moreover, cultural ideas may also be deeply, and problematically, incompatible
with the modern democratic ideals enshrined in the imaginations of society of the newly formed
nation states of region, on matters such as equity and inclusion, and more specifically the right to
education. The next theme discusses ideas regarding ‘educability’ which are found to be dominant in
the region.
Educability
Negative attitudes and deficit perceptions of teachers and the education system towards children from
Dalit and tribal communities and towards girls are dominant traditional, cultural influences on
pedagogy in the South Asian region. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, where Islam does not officially
recognise caste, and also in India where caste references may have gone underground, the references
may be to ‘rural’ children, or children of the ‘poor’, or first generation learners. During early studies
in sociology of education in India, negative attitudes of teachers who were predominantly from higher
castes toward students from lower castes were widely recorded and reported in research (Ruhela,
1970; Gore et al (1967)). The teachers regarded these students as unworthy of being educated and
students reported experiencing humiliation and loss of dignity at the hands of these teachers.
Research on teachers working in Indian government schools frequently report that they have
stereotyped and ‘deficit’ perceptions of children from marginalised communities. They perceive of
themselves as working in ‘deficit situations’ and cite ‘inability of children to engage with schooling
on account of low IQ or ability’, ‘lacking in parental support and interest in schooling’, ‘lacking
concentration’, and ‘being disruptive’ (Iyer, 2013; Dalal, 2014; Majumdar & Mooij, 2015; Dyer et al.,
2004), ‘having nothing in their minds as they come from rural areas’ (Sriprakash, 2009). The problem
is constructed as psychological (individual child’s inability) or structural (poverty of child). Teachers
are reported as being preoccupied with the need to ‘reform’ the children or ‘domesticate’ and
‘civilize’ them into good behaviour, often using humiliation and harsh disciplinary methods (Iyer,
2013; Anitha, 2005; Sarangapani, 2018; Jain, 2018) or simply losing interest and neglecting their
classrooms.
That these are responses to perceptions of educability based on caste and social class of children is
evident as several of the researches cited above also note instances of labelling the children according
to their caste groups, and noticeable differences in schools located in multi-caste as opposed to single-
caste villages. There are also some reports of the same teacher adopting different pedagogies within
the class (attentive to some while ignoring others) and different disciplinary practices within the same
class. In one study it was noted that students who experienced humiliation and discrimination as a
part of their daily school experience came from weaker socio-economic classes of society (Sawhney,
2018). In another study, the simple change of ‘more politeness’ from the teacher was found to
increase the students’ self-esteem (Hassan et al., 2017).
Researchers also note that in addition to the influence of culture on the teachers’ perceptions of
educability, is the influence of the systemic conditions experienced by teachers. Near universal
enrolment in elementary education is being achieved during a period when state provisioning of
education is also thinning: there is growing segregation in schools following the flight of higher caste
children to private schools, leaving lower caste and poorer children in government schools. While
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more schools have been built, the overall infrastructure provision continues to be less than
satisfactory; many schools lack school heads and have single teachers. Surveys reveal that teachers in
the region are very dissatisfied with their working and service conditions in Bangladesh (Haq &
Islam, 2005, Tasnim, 2006), Bhutan (Dorji, 2008, Tashi, 2014), Sri Lanka (Lopes Cardozo & Hoek,
2015) and India (Majumdar & Mooij, 2015).
In addition to poor pay or lack of allowances, common problems they report include having a heavy
workload, working with limited infrastructure, lack of resources including basic textbooks, lack of
opportunities and monotony of the job. The prevalence of suboptimal conditions on account of
reduced government investment in schools, while increasingly catering to the poor, has been found to
have a demoralising impact on teachers. It also seems to legitimise their own deficit perceptions and
their attitudes towards the children and their communities and their (un)willingness to labour for them
(Majumdar & Mooij, 2015:67). Analysing influences on teacher attendance and absenteeism, Kremer
et al. (2005) find prevailing institutional conditions, more than any lump sum variable such as salaries
or training, as being significant.
Deficit perceptions regarding children with disabilities and negative attitudes towards inclusion have
also been noted across the South Asian region. These also may be attributed to cultural stereotypes
and prejudices carried by teachers into the classroom. For example, while research reports that
teachers seem to believe that Indian society is traditionally inclusive, and cite mythological stories in
which characters had disabilities (Bindal & Sharma, 2010), they also resist the idea of inclusion as
being an idea of Western origin (Das et al 2013,Tiwari et al 2015). Attitudes that function as barriers
to inclusion include fear of reducing overall academic performance and fear of negative effects on
students with higher abilities (Das & Shah, 2014; Sharma, Moore & Sonawane, 2009). Children with
severe disabilities are considered problems and therefore purportedly need segregation (Ahsan &
Sharma, 2018). Inclusion tends to be rendered in moral and ethical terms, requiring sympathy and
kindness; overall, teachers are found to hold stereotyped views of occupational options for these
children. Many also report that they lack capacity and resources to be inclusive (Sharma et al., 2009,
Mullick et al 2012).
There is a tendency in research reporting these findings to communicate a sense of crisis and
collapse of the system’s ability to address diversity and inclusion, on account of its teachers who are
portrayed as inadequate and immoral, and contributing to a culture of dysfunctionality of
government schools (Kingdon & Muzamil, 2003; Vasavi, 2015). This portrayal is also noticeable in
media (Vidya & Sarangapani, 2011, also see Framing Teachers in National Education Policy and in the
Popular Media, this section of the Handbook). These researchers are of the opinion that teachers lack
professional commitment as teaching was not their preferred job, that they lack professional identity
(knowledge and ethics) on account of weak or out-dated teacher education which does nothing about
their prejudices and negative attitudes towards children, and that they are unaccountable to
management and parents as they are politically powerful and the state is weak. Some findings that
provide us with a contrasting picture of government school teachers as ethical and competent
professionals are presented in the section on teachers voices.
The implication seems to be that private schools, can be expected to have more of a culture of
accountability that improves teacher efficiency and keeps them ‘on task’. However, there are
comparatively very few studies of pedagogy and teachers in low-fee paying schools. A recent
rigorous review of research found that low-fee private schools are responsive to user demands and
complaints, though there is no evidence that users exit schools on account of poor quality (Day
Ashley et al., 2014). Low fee paying schools also seem to value obedience among their teachers and
employ more young women, often without requisite qualifications (Sharma, 2017). A comparison of
cultures of private and government schools is taken up in the next thematic section.
It is instructive to note that in the 1990s, similar evidence and arguments was presented to claim that
para-teachers, (i.e. low-paid contractual teachers) rather than regular government teacher are
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responsive and able to produce better learning outcomes. Kumar, Priyam and Saxena (2001) noted
this build-up of discourse during the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP): “the general
climate of opinion that seems to have swung the tide in favour of para-teachers suggests that teachers
represent a critical failure in the system. Absenteeism is said to be a chronic problem…their teaching
methods are described as being inflexible and uninteresting while their salaries are considered too
high” (Opcit:566). Examining occupational struggles of teachers in the 1960s, Kale (1970) noted that
teachers were derided as ‘immoral’ and involved in private tutoring for pecuniary gain. The teachers
in her survey were however of the view that occupational failure was a societal problem and status
would improve if teacher pay improved. The implications of such portrayal of teachers as ‘deficit’
and ‘immoral’ on policy and governance relating to teaching profession are discussed in other the
chapters in this section of the Handbook, particularly Understanding Teachers and Teaching in South
Asia and Continuous Professional Development of School Teachers .
Pedagogic Cultures in Public and Private Schools
The quality debate in South Asia has peaked around comparisons between government, aided and
private (recognised and unrecognised) schools catering to the poor, and includes comparisons of
infrastructure, learning outcomes and teaching quality. The underlying thesis is that the market is
equally if not more capable of producing quality, cost effectively, as it makes schools more
accountable to their ‘customers’, and the absence of job security makes teachers more regular,
accountable and efficient. A related thesis critical of the state in South Asia identifies corruption in
recruitment, distortions created by government regulatory efforts including a lack of teacher
accountability leading to dereliction from duty, and overall poor quality, as major problems.
Teachers in government schools are reported to be generally absent more often than those in private
schools (ranges of differences reported vary from 2% to 8% and regional differences are noted,
Kremer et al. 2008). Teachers in private schools are found to be more frequently in the classroom, and
checking homework (Singh & Sarkar, 2015), although less qualified and paid less than their
government counterparts. Although higher qualification and professional training have only a small
effect on student achievement, membership in unions seems to pit teacher interests against interests of
students (Kingdon, 2006). Private managements are found to be are more likely to retain good
teachers and take disciplinary action (Kremer et al,2008); Aslam & Kingdon, 2011).
The research reported above paints a picture of a more industrious and accountable ethos and work
ethic in private schools. On the whole, research on school ethos, teachers and pedagogy in private
schools, and comparing pedagogic effort in government and private schools and across social classes
of clientele is limited. “Most studies stop short of claiming explicitly that teacher in private schools is
good per se” (Ashley et al., 2014:19) and find that teachers in private schools have “weaker job
security combined with a lack of organisation as an effective pressure group/union…. [T]his reliance
on greater teacher effort and poorer work conditions is potentially unsustainable” (opcit: 22).
Overall, across all school types, there seems to be lower incidence of active learning and student-
centric learning (up to 10% only, Sankar and Linden 2014). In classrooms where facilities are better,
more 'student-centric' activities are evident, in contrast to lower grades and in schools catering to
lower socio-economic groups where traditional instructional methods dominate (Sankar & Linden,
2014; Sarangapani, 2018; Jain, 2018).
The picture that emerges from Sankar and Linden’s (2014) study comparing government and private
schools across six states in India suggests when aspects other than learning outcomes are considered,
the picture regarding teachers and their knowledge, beliefs and competences, is mixed. They found
that, on the whole, government teachers had a positive attitude and understanding towards teaching
and learning, while more private school teachers believed that children learn best by memorisation
and being provided with answers (opcit: 88). In ranking difficulties they faced in teaching, many
teachers perceived that multi-grade teaching situations are a hurdle preventing them from using what
they know about teaching (opcit: 90). This was followed by lack of parental motivation (which was
ranked 1 in private schools) and irregularity of students. More private school teachers than
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government schools reported spending time on extra classes and paying additional attention during
class for remediation. Whereas in the State of Andhra Pradesh most teachers discussed student
learning with parents, this did not happen with frequency in the States of Madhya Pradesh or Uttar
Pradesh. Even after experiencing over a decade of ‘progressive’ curriculum and pedagogic reform,
seating in most classrooms was traditional (in spite of an explicit focus and point of intervention, as
emblematic of the position of the authority of the teacher).
In a study of 84 schools in Hyderabad and 48 schools in Delhi (Sarangapani, 2018; Jain 2018),
researchers extended quality mapping to engage with the variety of school types that are emerging in
economic niches. The study found a complex picture of pedagogy emerging in relation to social class
rather than the government vs private axis, and also variation within the private axis based on type of
management and size of school. Schools were found to be stratified by the social class of clientele.
Schools with heterogeneity in social class were either catering to ‘learning disabilities’ or students
from one community.
In the study, an understanding of pedagogy was synthesized based data pertaining to (i) teachers’ aims
for the students; (ii) their expectations regarding support from children’s homes (iii) methods they
employed for teaching (iv) methods they employed to ensure learning and (v) disciplinary culture (see
Sarangapani & Jain 2018). Educational aims and pedagogic forms were found to vary strongly across
schools according to the social class of clientele, suggesting a Bernsteinian (1977) class reproduction
and formation of consciousness through pedagogical work. At the lower end of the social spectrum,
pedagogy was mostly ‘massified’ with a focus on disciplining students and forming citizenship, while
at the upper end, where students had economic capital and cultural capital (i.e. English), pedagogy
focussed on ‘all around development’ of students and becoming an individual with autonomy. The
ethos in many of the low-fee schools was tense, as the entrepreneurs who were running these school
were anxious about recovering fees from parents, and consequently resorted to shaming children for
non-payment. In very small unrecognised private schools struggling for survival, teachers were
negligent, often arriving late, and management could not hold them accountable. Older mid-range fee
paying schools which were run by family trusts and teacher-entrepreneurs favoured textbook
pedagogies, and although not dialogic, children were heard asking questions for clarification and
answering questions in their own words. A unique class of schools was noted in Hyderabad called
‘corporate schools’. Here, successful technologies of teaching which included scripted lessons,
frequent tests and individual achievement analytics, were employed to ensure ‘coaching for success’
in competitive admission tests to engineering colleges.
What emerged as distinctive differences between government and private schools is that in the former
there was considerable pedagogical variation between teachers in the same school, with some
favouring progressive pedagogy and others favouring domestication and drill. In private schools, on
the other hand, pedagogy seemed to be a characteristic of the institution rather than the individual
teacher. A second distinctive finding was the occurrence of progressive pedagogies in mother tongue
found in government, aided and charitable schools catering to the poorest of poor. This finding
explored in more detail in the next section.
Teachers’ Voices on Good Teaching and the Profession
In this thematic section, I present a ‘worm’s eye view’ of what constitutes good teaching, identity and
the profession, drawn from research into teachers’ classroom practices and their own perceptions and
views. I also include pertinent research on community views of good teachers.
In their rigorous review of pedagogy, curriculum, teaching practices and teacher education in
developing countries, Westbrook et al. (2013) note this main finding:
teachers’ positive attitudes towards their training and their students is important, but it is when teachers
see pedagogy as a kind of communication with students that their teaching practices become
meaningful, leading to positive outcomes for their students. Three strategies have been identified from
a number of studies that prioritised communication with students and were inclusive in nature. Those
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three strategies are: teachers giving feedback and paying sustained and inclusive attention to all
students; creating an environment where students feel safe; and teachers drawing on students’
backgrounds in their pedagogic discourse. (Westbrook et al., 2013: 43, italics mine)
Research which presents portrayals of such ‘good teaching’ gives insight into the sources of practice
and motivation of such teachers.
Metaphors are found to play a powerful role in capturing the complex work of teaching, guiding
teachers in negotiating day-to-day problems encountered in the complex environment of government
schools and difficult lives of children. The idea of the ‘guru’ was a powerful source of identity
persisting into modern times (Kale, 1970; Sarangapani, 2003) leading teaching to be constructed as
morally desirable, altruistic and requiring deference, devotion and obedience from students. This
construction was seen to enable teachers in a primary government school to forge a reciprocal bond
with students and demand from them discipline, attentiveness and engagement (Sharma and
Sarangapani, 2018). This idea was, however, was also found to be at odds with child-centred
education reforms which valued the idea of democratic classroom practices (Sriprakash, 2011).
Other powerful metaphors that describe the teachers’ bond with students, their aims and their
pedagogy include ‘patriot’, ‘patron’ (Sriprakash, 2009; Sarangapani, 2003) ‘guide’, ‘companion’ and
‘instructor’ (Sharma, 2018) with the metaphor of ‘mother’ also noted especially in early childhood
education teacher contexts (Gupta, 2003). These articulations of professional identity draw on culture,
autobiography and archetypal notions of family and friendship (also noted in Hayes, 2005, and in the
case of newly qualified teachers, Latha, 2018). Contrary to the assumption of some researchers with
deficit portrayals of teachers, that teachers are ignorant/choose to remain ignorant of local conditions
and the lives of students, teachers were found to know a great deal and exhibited understanding of the
interplay of social class, poverty, lack of justice, social schisms, conflict and violence in the lives of
their students and in society as a whole (Halai & Durrani, 2018; Sharma, 2018). Research citing
teachers explanations for the need for differentiated practices in the classroom also noted that they
drew on the metaphor of mother: ‘doesn’t a mother knows each child’s needs and feed her children
differently?’ (Latha, 2020).
Progressive or dialogic pedagogies in the mother tongue, aiming at developing student confidence,
resourcefulness, self-reliance and ability to make meaning and solve problems were seen to be used
by teachers in a study of government and aided schools and charitable schools in Hyderabad
(Sarangapani, 2018). These teachers justified teaching for these aims, saying that students they were
teaching would soon drop out of school and hence they need to be educated with life skills so that
they would be resilient and be equipped to begin work in the informal sector early. If the students’
economic condition suggested possibility of staying on and continuing in school, the teachers would
have worked towards the aspirational horizon of formal employment, where conformity, obedience
and fitting-in would be important. In such cases they adopted formalist textbook pedagogies and
strict discipline to enable students to remember material and pass examinations, and for citizenship
rather than empowerment (also noted in Majumdar & Mooij, 2015).
Motivation that teachers gain from their ‘liking of teaching’ and sheer enjoyment of interacting with
students in the classroom is also frequently found to be critical. Hayes (2010, 2005), echoing
Canagarajah (1993), noted the motivating quality of the interpersonal relationships with students in
the case of several teachers of English whom he interviewed in Sri Lanka. More than any
methodological ideas acquired professionally, teachers had developed contextually appropriate
instruction drawing on local knowledge and experience, with intuition about what works best for their
students, and were able to negotiate constraints of curriculum and professional orthodoxies. What
motivated several of these teachers was the realisation that their work has social value and provides
personal meaning (Hayes, 2005, 2010). This was even noted in the case of men who had become
teachers somewhat reluctantly as a second career. The satisfaction of teaching kept them in this
profession (Vijaysimha, 2013). Talib’s (1998) portrait of Maser Sahib ‘educating for life, through life,
in Jamia’s Nai Talim School in the 1930s and 40s, highlights his love for his students and the over-
arching aim of nation-building which guided his practices of experiential learning, keeping in mind
10
student motivation and interest. In all of these cases, we notice that the teachers’ own students are
their most important reference group (Nias, 1989).
Confidence in subject knowledge, and the innate capacity for reflection on autobiography and
experiences, also enable teachers to develop effective pedagogies. A case study research of one
science teacher in Hyderabad, India, showed that although she had no professional development input
on bilingual teaching, she switched codes and drew extensively on contextual knowledge to
emphasise meaning making. Her love of science and her conviction regarding science as practical and
relevant were infused in her practice (Yerra and Sarangapani, 2019). The study of a science teacher in
a community school in Pakistan noted that she did not see her role as confined by the curriculum and
exam preparation. She viewed science as essential for her students, to improve their health and
wellbeing and to enable them to aspire. This seemed to motivate her to find ways to bring the
curriculum alive, to persist and take personal risks (Upadhyay et al., 2005). A third research study of a
science teacher in a rural school in India is portrays him as ‘bricoleur’ : “making-do with what is of
available to conform to prescriptive discursive norms as well as engage in situated contingent and
collaborative pedagogical improvisation” (Sharma, 2008 : 813, emphasis mine).
Features that are found to emerge strongly from the teachers’ own points of view, as defining and
enabling their professionalism, are autonomy and self-regulation, collegiality and community/local
recognition. Being punctual in school was noted as a key marker of professionalism by teachers in
rural areas, (Khora, 2011), indicative of self-discipline. Qualities favoured by the community in
women teachers in Afghanistan were ‘Tarbia’; they were appreciated for their good manners and for
being clean and polite (Kirk and Winthrop, 2008). The women themselves found that this role,
although approached through traditional tropes, provided them access to home settings and enabled
them to act as counsellors and confidants. Rahaman (2012), researching women teachers in
Bangladesh, noted that generally women teachers had long days and struggled to balance work and
home, but they were proud that their students showed respect and valued the respect that the
children’s guardians afforded them. Sales (1999) found that in Pakistan, while teaching was generally
perceived as ‘safe and suitable’ as it was compatible with traditional norms and lifestyles,
contradictions emerged once professional development brought physical movement away from the
village or movement out of subordinate role of classroom teacher. Saigal (2008) found that
community teachers working in Non-Formal Education centres, valued the social status they gained
in their own community, and the acquisition of social skills and confidence to interact with people
outside the home, in public. Such gains seem to contribute to motivation to teach, in spite of low
salaries (Jerrard, 2016).
These examples of the construction of ‘good teachers’ and their discourse on teaching strongly
suggest the importance of cultural and personal theories, and experiences as key sources of ideas and
practice. This includes folkloric valorisation of role of teachers and education in nation building,
personal theories drawn out of autobiography and reflection, experiences of key influential and
memorable teachers (both positive and negative), and experiences of being the student of a subjects
(their own knowledge of subject matter). These beliefs, regarding aims of education, learners,
pedagogy and identity, lead to the formation of norms and practices that were aligned to progressive,
child-centred education. We can also notice the relative absence of ‘modern’ professional
development ideas drawn from pre-service or in-service teacher education aimed at reforming
pedagogy, and the greater importance given to cultural sources in these articulations. This could have
implications for how professional development is structured and delivered.
Several researchers have questioned the quality and relevance of the content of mainstream pre-
service training in South Asia, as well as its ability to develop, form and inform practice on account of
its highly ‘theoretical’ content of ill-defined or commonsensical theories or over-reliance on outdated
and discredited psychological theories such as behaviourism and IQ, and a behavioural objective and
skill approach to the formation of practice (Westbrook et al., 2009; Batra, 2015). The suggestion is
that pre-service in its current form, either does not contribute to professional identity formation, or
else creates only conservative identities that perpetuate status-quo, conformity and the textbook
11
culture. Ill-suited to the realities of classrooms pre-service learning may soon be given up as being too
ideal, or else ‘washed out’ (Zeichner and Tebachnik, 1981).
Research on newly qualified teachers (NQT), however, draws attention to the more complex character
of teacher development and the role of multiple sources of pedagogical ideas including innate
reflectivity. NQTs in Pakistan were found to be ‘open, reflective and intelligent’. Contradictions
faced by them during the period of transition seem to have stimulated them to think more deeply
about quality of teaching and learning. They were also found to come across, as determined to remain
true to pedagogic beliefs such as encouraging students to participate and including less confident
students. The overcrowded and cramped conditions in which they found themselves working
discouraged them (Westbrook et al., 2009).
Research on NQTs from conventional programmes in South India (Latha, 2020) were found to seek
collegial support from their classmates and NQT peers to negotiate the environment of the school.
The used the vivid metaphor of ‘mother-in-law’s home’ while speaking about the process trying to fit
into the predefined pedagogical culture of school. Autonomy was found to be a critically important
aspect of their professional identity. Those who were in private schools felt that while they were not
loaded with non-teaching tasks, their professional judgment was not valued or respected by
management, and this was a source of frustration. Professional development is found to carry over
into the classroom in cases where the school head is oriented (Khamis & Sammons 2004).
Collegiality has been observed to be key to enabling smooth day-to-day functioning (Majumdar &
Mooij, 2015; Latha & Sarangapani, 2018).
There is limited research on what a more robust preservice teacher education curriculum is able to
achieve. In Batra’s (2015) comparative study of teachers from conventional teacher education
programmes with a four year programme for elementary teacher preparation, it was found that the
latter felt they had a responsibility to find solutions to problems common in government schools such
as frequent absenteeism, and to enable children to engage by making the class meaningful through
appropriate language or contextually relevant resource concepts and theories. The curriculum of this
pre-service teacher education programme had included theories, concepts and professional discourse
for understanding stereotypes regarding educability, gender and. In another study, students in the final
year of this 4-year programme were found to espouse the view that professionalism derives from
having autonomy and being responsible for children’s learning (Aggarwal, 2014).
Pedagogic Reform
In this final thematic section, I review literature pertaining to reforming pedagogy in government
primary schools to make them more child-centred and child-friendly as opposed to teacher-centred.
This has been an influential part of internationally funded (and centrally driven, in the case of India)
aid programmes in the region since the 1990s. Guthrie (2011)1and Tabulawa (2013) note that the
push for adoption of Child Centered Education/Approaches (CCE or CCA) is an example of travelling
policy transported by multilateral loan and aid agencies. They argue that Western progressive
educational ideas are being grafted onto non-Western, developing societies that have formalist
pedagogical cultures, and this has lead to contradictions, distortions and rejection from the lack of a
paradigmatic fit.
Smail (2014) and Sarangapani (2015), examining India, have argued that while it is true of the South
Asian region that since the 1990s, CCE pedagogic reforms have been riding on aided programmes,
reforming pedagogy is also an indigenous agenda, with a longer history with critique of the colonial
educational policy and practices from the late 1800s, onwards. These indigenous reform agendas,
involving efforts to shift to meaningful and contextually relevant education in vernacular languages,
have most recently been given shape in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 (NCERT,
2005) and the Right to Education 2009 (GOI, 2009) in India.
This fact, of India having an indigenously developed reform process favouring progressive pedagogy
and curriculum, notwithstanding, researchers have noted resistance from teachers and community to
12
such changes, effectively creating ‘barriers’ to adoption and reform, whether indigenous or imported.
South Asian society and culture is not monolithic but complex with diverse and contradictory cultural
layers and thrusts that shape reform processes, as is apparent in the controversies surrounding both
these policies in India. For example, the NCF 2005 was critiqued by left-leaning intellectuals for
suggesting that more autonomy be given to teachers and that there could be greater inclusion of local
knowledge in the curriculum (Sarangapani, 2010). Several child-centred provisions in the Right to
Education (GOI 2009), including no-detention and age appropriate enrolment, were critiqued in the
Bhukkal Committee report (GoI,2014) and have since been rolled back (Rai and Majumdar, 2019).
While corporal punishment is banned across the region, in Bangladesh and India teachers are found to
be apprehensive of this. They cite community support for corporal punishment in the fear that
children may develop a casual attitude in its absence (Tiwari, 2014). The Bhukkal committee (opcit)
cites the need for ‘fear’ in order for students to take their education seriously. Younger teachers are
found to be more in favour of banning corporal punishment (Malak et al 2015); older teachers on the
other hand seem to feel strongly that it is necessary for keeping discipline, even if they do not actually
use it (Khora, 2011). With increasing inclusion in schools, teachers also express anxiety over their
own inability to handle unruly children, and having problematic relationships with the community
(Nawani, 2013).
Studying teachers who had received in-service professional development as a part of the District
Primary Education Programme in a South Indian state, Clarke (2003) noted that teachers used CCE
terminology from the training but their practice had not changed. They approached teaching as a duty
and were engaged in tasks which were generally characterised by revision for producing ritual
understanding. The hierarchical structure of Indian society and the cultural notion of ‘knowledge as
discovered’ seemed to operate as cultural barriers to appropriating meaningful activity-based child-
centred pedagogy.
Recent research on multi-grade multi-level programmes which have enjoyed widespread support from
bureaucracy in several Indian states shows how teachers reinterpret its features from their own belief
frameworks (Sriprakash, 2012, Sarangapani and Mehendale 2013, Singal et al 2018). Teachers are
found to believe that its ‘step-by-step’ approaches are unsuitable for brilliant children and that these
have been recommended in government school only because children are lagging. Recommendations
for using play or engaging activities are interpreted through a compensatory lens as a requirement of
children with low IQ or dull students, while also raising concerns regarding discipline. Forming
groups which is supposed to be on the principle of the nature of the activity, is reworked based on
their perception of the amount of support from teachers that the student needs.
In two case studies of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in which Integrated Communication Technology
(ICT), along with formal norms and requirements was used to ‘hard-wire’ interactivity and
collaboration, second order effects of increasing interactivity were noted, yet students were found to
retain beliefs that teachers are responsible for student learning and group work does not facilitate
learning (Anderson & Hatakka, 2010).
Changing practices to make students more autonomous and being willing to take responsibility for
their learning, is found to be difficult, both on account of teachers who feel that they are losing their
role as teacher and sense of control, and on account of students who seem to resist the changes.
Canagarajah (1993), in the case of English Language Teaching (ELT) programmes notes that
interpretation of change and resistance is fraught with ambiguities as it involves power dynamics of
ELT between the centre and the periphery – academics versus development workers. While English
occupies a dominant and desirable yet irrelevant status in the lives of students, their rejection of
efforts to engender communicative competence or increase its relevance, and their preference for rote
and textual learning, also carries elements of subversion. It raises questions regarding the contextual
and socio-cultural relevance of policy (Ali & Walker, 2014) and draws attention to the politics of
reform and the political agency of teachers and students.
13
Conclusion
The six thematic areas which have been discussed above are based on available literature on pedagogy
and teachers from and within the South Asian region. Other thematic areas which are also potentially
salient in the region, but which have not been taken up in this review, include: perceptions of
educability in relation to gender, and bureaucratic culture and teachers. Research on teachers in areas
of conflict and involved in peace building, school culture, nationalism, religion and ideology, and
socialisation and acculturation in the spaces of the playground and morning assembly, which are
pedagogic sites as well, were not taken up as ‘teacher as pedagogue’ was the focus in the chapter.
This chapter argues that the cultural view enriches our understanding of the layered currents that
shape pedagogy, while directing our attention to the multiple worldviews operating in and shaping the
South Asian region. By no means are colonial, indigenous, cultural, folk and modern, nation state
sufficient as cultural lenses. More recent influential cultures include the market, the neoliberal and
neo-colonialism of aided programmes, and the rise of populist communitarianism. The relatively
minor role of both pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes in constituting and
shaping pedagogic culture and teacher identity is noticeable. This is partially a gap in our
understanding on account of the lack of research. But equally it is on account of a dominant view
taken in professional development education that pedagogy is formed from the application of skills
and knowledge rather than the view that pedagogy is culturally formed and informed action
The quality and content of in-service professional development for teachers through which pedagogic
reform is introduced have been critiqued for having thin and reduced pedagogical theory, invoking
‘feel good’ maxims (Dhankar, 2003) and failing to engage with teachers beliefs, creating a best ‘naïve
constructivism’ (Singal et al, 2018). They are also found to focus on knowledge and skills, rather than
dealing with attitudes and developing professional will (Dyer, 2005) or providing opportunities for
networking with colleagues, which school heads are found to value far more than ‘expertise’
(Hargreaves, 2017). Technology use is also found to reify the transmission model and reduce teachers
to compliant learners through the process of interpellation, reminding us of the power asymmetry
within which professional development takes place (Anwaruddin, 2015).
The question, of course, is now that we have ‘found culture’, what do we do about it? Increasingly,
research concerning ‘what sticks’ in pedagogic reform points to conceptions that are more cultural in
nature and culturally sensitive. This includes the idea of an incremental and evolutionary approach
suited to the constraints of teachers (Johnson et al, 2000), recognising a broader range of pedagogical
alternatives for excellence (Vavrus, 2009), greater reciprocity in relationships (Saigal, 2012) and peer
networks (Majumdar & Mooij, 2015). Mohammad and Harlech-Jones (2008) point out that in a
situation where teachers lack basic content knowledge, the achievement of professional education lies
in developing a dialogic relationship of trust. Rather than favouring autonomy, they suggest
professional development should enable teachers to experience change and satisfaction in impacting
student learning. Rizvi and Elliot (2005), find that teachers participating in reform processes do
demonstrate confidence and belief that they can bring about positive changes in their schools. They
suggest that theories of personal teaching efficacy may suffice as a professional filter through which
new ideas and innovations must pass before teachers internalize these and amend their behaviour.
An alternative response could involve re-engaging with contemporary education theory, through a
creative and generative engagement with the vernacular and its conceptual resources. This would
involve dialogue and growth, rather than only focussing on translating ‘modern/western’ ideas into
non-western languages and cultures (Sarangapani, 2010). This is an enterprise that holds the potential
not only to be more fruitful and relevant to field engagement but also the potential of intellectually
exciting new inquiries as we reconsider the future of education for inclusive growth in the new
millennium.
14
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