Developing the Discipline

In India, education and more so elementary education has, historically, not been recognised as a professional field, as is evident in the profile of functionaries involved whether decision makers or teachers. Specific training in elementary education does not constitute a necessary qualification for teachers, teacher educators or other functionaries involved in planning and implementing educational programmes. Such training or education is also not offered by any university in India for joining the field of elementary education, besides existing teacher training programmes.

On the other hand, the practice of education both internationally and nationally has led to the development of a considerable body of knowledge in both the theory and practice of educating children. Different innovations1 have informed the understanding of what is worth teaching and how it can be taught. Areas of background knowledge such as critical pedagogic concepts, links between philosophy and education and the aims of education have been recognised as specialised fields of research and learning. Additionally, there is an increasing emphasis on improvements in the quality of elementary education by both government and non-government institutions through programmes that focus on pedagogic and curricular renewal. There is therefore a growing need for ‘professionals’ to conceptualise and implement educational programmes in India, which in turn requires good quality academic programmes to develop professionals for the field of education.

Collaborative Post Graduate Programme in Elementary Education

To begin addressing these issues, a Masters' level programme in elementary education has now been instituted at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS) in collaboration with five other organisations, known as the Collaborative Post Graduate Programme in Elementary Education, or CPG-Edu (Elementary). The collaborating institutions are the Homi Bhaba Centre for Science Education, Mumbai; Eklavya Foundation, Bhopal; National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore; Digantar Shiksha Evam Khelkud Samiti, Jaipur and Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur. Each of these institutions has considerable field experience in the area of elementary education. In the last two decades they have focused on educational reform either through independent initiatives or state led programmes. Their perspective has been governed by the need to provide quality elementary education to children going to government schools, who also happen to be children from poor economic backgrounds. Through their reform activities the organisations have developed expertise in the areas of curriculum and pedagogy, capacity building of functionaries and research in elementary education.

The ICEE has supported the CPG-Edu (Elementary) at TISS, and it is expected that this course will allow those working in elementary education to undertake a course of professional study during the course of their work, in particular, those from government institutions such as DIETs and SCERTs, and those working for other academic and voluntary organisations, and teachers. To facilitate and encourage the participation of working professionals, the course is structured as a distance course facilitated by a web-based moodle system, and a period of contact each semester. The web-based system allows for continuous faculty-student communication, dissemination of reading material, and submission of assignments. Across various compulsory and optional papers, students will engage with education, sociology, economics, history, philosophy and psychology as disciplines in which to have foundational knowledge. Other papers introduce major debates, theories, and concepts using case studies, original writing and research papers in an effort to enable the learner to problematise and understand education in the Indian context including society and culture, in order to imbibe sensitivity towards the marginalised, underprivileged, disabled and discriminated in our society.

More details on the course can be found at www.tiss.edu/maee.htm

Prominent examples of such innovations in the Indian education system are a) Mahatma Gandhi's Basic Education b) Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme of Eklavya and c) Digantar's Alternative Elementary Education Programme.