Resilience and Learning: Reimagining Educational Participation in Conflict-Affected Manipur, India

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: It Takes a Community: Education, Culture, and Collective Resilience in Conflict and Recovery Settings

Proposal

Students’ early formative years of schooling play a crucial role in shaping their understanding of educational participation, their engagement within and outside school, and their overall holistic development, both personally and academically. At a time when the quality of education is being critically examined and opportunities for educational advancement are being explored, the state of Manipur in India has often experienced both latent and violent conflicts. These conflicts have significantly disrupted students’ engagement with school and their access to opportunities, limiting the realization of student’s maximum potential.
Studies on participation often conceptualize it as social engagement within certain academic spaces or activities in uninterrupted learning environments. However, this perspective overlooks the complexities faced by students in conflict-affected regions.
This empirical qualitative study explores students’ schooling experiences and their reflections on the nature of participation and learning. It traces a reflective journey through a series of life experiences from early childhood memories of schooling until pre-university. It examines how students make sense of participation, how they navigate conflict situations to ensure learning does not become a burden, and where constraints emerge that challenge conventional understandings of participation.

In-depth, unstructured interviews were conducted with five university students who completed their schooling in Manipur and are currently pursuing higher education in Delhi, India. A thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and meanings within their narratives. The findings reveal diverse trajectories in their educational journeys, with additional learning demands emerging at each transitional phase. Cultural and language barriers often led to delays in their initial college years and were accompanied by socio-emotional challenges as they adapted to academic environments shaped by conflict.

Author

• Themhorchan Shadang, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi , India