Education that is Multicultural: Inclusive Education 1

Blog #11

January 11, 2017

This blog is authored by Study Abroad in India student Christina Singh who is currently pursuing her Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education at the City College of New York.


The Step by Step school is a private inclusive school welcoming to all children who need support. The school is made up about 50 professionals who are all committed to inclusion. One core belief of the Step by Step school is that "students learn best in a respectful, supportive community of trust where each student's learning needs and abilities are understood and accommodated as fully as possible." At the Step by Step school, inclusion is well executed - inclusion of children as well as inclusion of communities.

As we entered the gates of the Step by Step school, I could tell what we were about to see was going to be different than the Pratham community-based centers. The grounds of the school were well groomed and lined with pots of plants. Children's art work hung on the pillars leading the way into the school. Upon arrival, an image of Mother Saraswati greeted us at the door. Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, musi c, arts, wisdom and learning. As we walked through the school children's art work was displayed on the hallway walls. The hallways were long and extending into different directions. As we peeked into one classroom, we saw children engaged in story time. We passed by the computer room where children were playing mathematical games. In the art room, children were painting pottery they had made from clay. We entered a special education classroom specifically designed for autistic children. The classroom teacher told us that he set up his classroom in a way that would support the children and allow them to complete classwork without verbal instruction. He told us that the reward for the children was completing the actual task. This made me think about the extrinsic reward system in America where a child would get a sticker or star for completion of a task.

Tagore's Theory of Inclusive Education promotes the idea that "education is a relational process between the child, teacher peers and nature (environment)" (Mukherjee, 2013). At the Step by Step school, this is well represented as we saw the school and parents sensitize and raise awareness about children with special needs. Professionals at the Step by Step school help students to reach their full potential academically as well as holistically, along with the help of parents and communities near and far.


Education that is Multicultural - Economics and Education: India's changing socio-cultural and economic profile

Blog # 10

January 10, 2017

This blog is authored by Study Abroad in India student Jasmine Kasheboon Khoury who is studying for an undergraduate degree in Anthropology at the City College of New York.

Today was our 11th day in New Delhi, India. Our time here is coming to an end. Therefore, during today’s discussion we all took time to talk about our childhood experiences and our families. Through this conversation, we discussed how our identities have been formed and how we navigate between our own cultures and the assimilation into American culture. We evolve and form our own identity, making the decisions of what we want to hold onto within our culture and what we need to let go of on the basis of survival. With time everything changes. India is changing with time and this was shown to us through the presentations by faculty of The New Delhi Institute of Management.

The New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM) gave us a very warm welcome today with a beautiful and tasteful lunch, presentations, interactive exercises, and of course, tea! We started off our visit by sitting in a circle with students currently studying in NDIM. About six of them told us about what they are studying, plan to do with their majors, and even their views of America. One of the students said that he is very influenced by American culture and that Paris Hilton is his Goddess. Another student told us a phrase translated from Hindi stating: “Delhi is full of people with hearts.” After this beautiful interaction, we sat in on three faculty presentations on the topics of Digital Marketing, Demonetization, and History of India.

The first presentation discussed how digital marketing was a way for people to connect. Through digital marketing there is a difference between stories and narratives. Narratives are meaningless, but stories have meanings and one-way to give something a meaning through social media is: hashtags. We see the use of people connecting and showing support through social media by talking about their experiences through hashtags like, #BlackLivesMatter, #ImWithHer, #Aleppo etc. Digital marketing has also made it easier for people to connect globally through Facebook, LinkedIn, Snap Chat, and Twitter. With the recent ability to “See Translation” of posts put on Facebook people can read posts/news in different languages.

Our second presentation focused on Demonetization which is the stripping of currency making it no longer a legal tender. Recently in India, 500 and 1,000 rupee bills were no longer worth any money as of November 8, 2016. These made up 86% of the currency that was suddenly unavailable leaving only 14% of currency still available in other smaller bills. Fourteen lakh crore was invalidated out of the sixteen lakh crore leaving the country with only two lakh crore in useable currency. The government has since printed new bills of Rs 500 and 2000 which are now being available to people. In India, this has happened twice before in 1946 and 1978, and now in 2016. Demonetization is done to stop the Black Market and counterfeiting. This move was made to help the common man because now the richer people have had to declare all their money and pay taxes on it. However, at the same time, interest rates have fallen and tourism has been affected during this transition because tourists have had less cash available to purchase gifts. The government is benefiting from this because taxes are being recovered and more money is going towards the government due to the penalties towards people who are part of the Black Market.

Our third presentation showed us the underlying philosophy of India; Unity Within Diversity. India is made up of many diverse states that come under the umbrella of one country: India. India is experiencing more feministic viewpoints, success within the IT industry, increased focus on education, and structured chaos. Education has become even more important and families do whatever possible, some families even selling their land and possessions to ensure that their children receive quality education. Two million phones a month are being sold creating a larger social network. And the strong cultural mindset of “jugaad” – the ability to make bad situations workable situations - is an innovative attitude that is widely experienced in India. All of this success and change is allowing the middle class to explode and poverty lines to decrease. India is changing.




Education that is Multicultural: Vocational Education and Skills Development

Blog #9

January 9, 2017

This blog is authored by Study Abroad in India student Claudia Lara who is studying for a Masters degree in Early Childhood Education at The City College of New York. She has an associates degree in Deaf Studies, a bachelor's degree in Linguistics and is currently teaching 3 year olds in a preschool in Queens, NY.


Throughout our first week in India, we visited institutions that have taught us how different communities in India are being encouraged to continue their education. We are starting this week by visiting Skill India which is a skills development corporation for marginalized communities. As we learned in previous visits, the key to helping students succeed is to keep them engaged throughout process from education to employment. Skill India intends to help those who have dropped out of school by providing vocational training through hands-on activities.

Hearing "hands-on" made me think of activities related to the topic being taught however, seeing the classrooms made me realize it is more than providing activities. All the classrooms were different;  those training for hospitality had a replica of a hotel room for practicing, those training for a position associated with retail were standing in their classroom. Every setting aimed to provide real life experience to prepare them for the job position they would like to get.

As the article “Origins of Alternative Education in India: A Continuing Journey” by Deepti Mehrotra mentions, several schools have introduced alternative teaching methods that are different from the mainstream method (Mehrotra, p. 25). Besides introducing different hands-on experiences, Skill India has also introduced new equipment in the classrooms. The Institute has created and patented a touch screen projector which facilitates teaching. The projector has different features like graphing, browsing, and writing tools. It also has the option to live stream and record which can be played in centers that do not have teachers. Every setting and materials in Skill India was customized to fit students' career interest. Walking around the vocational centers made me wonder why classrooms in New York are not adapting to more realistic situations.


Education that is Multicultural: Tea and Family

Blog # 8

January 8, 2017

This blog is authored by Study Abroad in India student Wendy Barrales who is a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a founding teacher at Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy.



Icebergs are often underestimated in size. What is visible to the eye is only a small part of an immense structure. Culture is similarly misunderstood. We assume that our knowledge of tangible outputs--- food, clothes and music--- tell us enough about a particular culture. But just like icebergs, when we dig further and look beyond the surface, we begin to see the complexity and depth of its values and foundation. Prior to arriving in New Delhi, we discussed this idea of culture as a reminder to push our understanding beyond what meets the eye. At yesterday's afternoon tea with Professor Gupta's family, we got to see below the iceberg and soaked in the values embedded within family.

Unlike British afternoon tea, featuring scones with clotted cream and small cucumber sandwiches, Indian tea time is vibrant and flavorful. The color and smells wafting from the table were intoxicating as we impatiently waited to try some pohe (a flattened rice with turmeric green peas and fresh cilantro). We had an incredible selection of samosas and bread pakoras accompanied with spiral orange sweet jalebis and white squares of milk based burfi to settle our sweet tooth cravings. Not only were we expanding our understanding of Indian cuisine, but we were also part of a beautiful moment of family togetherness.

As we sipped tea, Professor Gupta's auntie shared a wealth of knowledge from her experience within the field of education. She has a sharp sense of humor and infectious energy causing all of us to gravitate towards her. Two of our classmates wore traditional Indian saris and she gave us a small description on the traditional clothing for various parts of India. Lastly, we shared a few laughs about the complicated relationships we have with our mothers, a topic of conversation that is relatable and universal to us all.

The warmth we felt yesterday provided us all with a comforting sense of familiarity despite being miles from home. Our understanding of the culture iceberg was broadened that day. Not only did we see how values play out within a family setting, we were also able to see how similar and alike our cultures can be. There are some things in the world that transcend countries and cultures, and the warmth we felt in that home was a universal feeling of love.






Education that is Multicultural - Visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra

Blog # 7

January 7, 2017

This blog is authored by Study Abroad in India student Puiyee Cheung who is a graduate student at the City College of New York pursuing her Masters degree in the Bilingual Education and TESOL Program.

We went to the Taj Mahal today! It was interesting to see it in cloudy weather- the haze added an air of mystery and timelessness. The Taj, was built by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan for his late wife Mumtaz Mahal between 1632 – 1648 AD. Along with the incredible design and symmetry, I was most fascinated by the materials they used; Makrana marble – which is translucent and nonporous – so that it looks differently depending upon the light, especially in the moonlight! There is incredible inlay work, which includes 4.3 million pieces of semi-precious stones such as: Turquoise, Lapis lazuli, and Malachite. It took over 22 years and 20,000 workers to complete; legend has it that the Shah cut the hands off the workers so that they wouldn’t be able to build another Taj.

In its presence, I found myself thinking about romantic gestures, and how different they can be: gifts, quality time, affirming words, acts of service, and physical touch. And depending upon the person some gestures are more appreciated and deeply felt, a notion that was popularized by Gary Chapman in his book The 5 languages of love.

In the spirit of this course – and how important relationships are in the classrooms we’ve visited, can we as educators be more effective in building relationships with our students? And consider that perhaps children like adults need and experience love differently as well? In The 5 Love Languages of Children, G. Chapman and R. Campbell, explains how different children can be, and that our language may be totally different from theirs. Thus by discovering their primary language, we can more effectively convey feelings of respect, affection, and commitment that will hopefully resonate with their emotions, behavior, and ability to learn in the classroom.

 

Photo by: Jasmine Khoury