Understanding the Constraints to Pedagogic Change in the Indian School Context From a Sociocultural Perspective

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Sesion 4
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Change in Schools and Teacher Education (Table 1)

Abstract

Using a sociocultural lens, this paper pushes towards a nuanced understanding of what a shift from teaching as knowledge transmission to teaching as promoting learning means to teachers. It also unravels the circumstances which impede change in pedagogical orientations of teachers. Juxtaposing two classroom episodes in two different Indian school contexts I examine:
1. What constrains or facilitates the development of students’ ability to think critically, pose questions and thus learn to learn meaningfully in schools?
2. What are the constraints to changing the long-standing transmissive culture of schooling?
This can begin to offer the field of education some ways of rethinking relationships among students, teachers, researchers and policy-makers and move towards inclusive pedagogic practices beyond the status quo.

Author

• Tara Ratnam, Independent Researcher