Globalization, Decolonization, and Education in India: Engaging Identities and Cultures in Urban Contexts

• In Event: 30.021 - Immigration and Multicultural Urban Educational Policies and Their Implementation in India, Korea, Japan, and Singapore

Abstract

Objectives

This paper draws on postcolonial and globalization theories, analyses of recent educational policies, and research to examine identities, cultures, decolonization, and education in urban contexts in a globalized India.

Theoretical frame and perspectives

Scholars have noted the ambivalent, relationship of the colonizer and the colonized (Bhabha, 1994; Fanon, 1952/1967; Gandhi, 1998) and the effects of capitalist ideology across the globe (e.g. Alexander & Mohanty, 1997; Appadurai, 1996; Prashad, 2006). Transnational forms of (re-)colonization occur through the spread of Westernized imperialism through the globalization of the labor and financial markets and new technologies. Given that the last two decades have been marked by individual monetary gain (often read as “wealth” and “success”); the facile, virtual proximity afforded by digitization; the spread of western-style capitalism and corporatization across nations; and the effects of consumerism, debilitating economic collapses, and environmental depletion – all in a context of increasing global interdependence – not only is U.S. education shaped by high-stakes testing and privatization (Kumashiro, 2008; Taubman, 2009) but also such issues are reflected in recent educational policies (e.g., the 2005 National Curriculum Framework [NCF] and the 2010 Right to Education Act [RTE]) and debates in India.

Inquiry, Data Sources, Methods

Scholars (Gonzalez, 2004; Hall, 1999; Lipman, 2005) have called for research that attends to globalization, shifts in global power relations, and multiplex hybrid identities and cultures, even as it focuses on equity, social justice, and quality education. According to Hall (1999), “Critical to the study of globalization and shifts in global dynamics of power are concerns with the interrelationships among power, knowledge and identity” (p. 123).
I draw on two studies conducted in urban India: Akash Kapur’s nuanced, ethnographic work, India Becoming: A Portrait of Life in Modern India, and my 2014-15 Fulbright-funded research project (Examining the Intersections of Globalization, Privatization, and Education after Two Decades of Economic Liberalization in India). Kapur reveals how rapid urbanization in India is influencing identities and cultures in terms of gender, culture, socioeconomics, and community. For my project, focused on education, I interviewed 24 students (female and male from diverse linguistic, regional, and socioeconomic backgrounds in India) enrolled in a master’s program in education at a top, higher education institution and observed the seminar sessions where they presented their field research projects. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed. I also maintained detailed field notes and researched scholarly and media reports.

Findings, Significance and Implications

Thematic analyses of data revealed how identities, cultures, and education policies and practice are shaped by privatization and capitalist expansion in an increasingly urbanized India. The prevalence of consumerism, loss of indigenous languages, the resurgence of the domination of English, and an emphasis on STEM fields over others are among the key issues that emerged. Implications for resisting re-colonization in contexts shaped by global corporatism include cultivating the ability (of students and teachers) to read the world in critical, self-reflexive, recursive ways. Such curricular and pedagogical work needs to occur in relation to larger efforts to dismantle structural inequities in power in transnational contexts.

Author

• Nina Asher, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities