Being Chhota Bheem in School: Implications for Education

Abstract

The thesis of this paper explores two notions of childhood, one that pervades school pedagogy and curriculum, and the other which we encounter in the larger popular media. In the contemporary context, a certain notion of childhood is central to school education. In other words, pedagogical practices and curriculum in school education carry within them a pervasive notion of childhood. This perception of childhood gets transmitted and manifested both at the classroom level and other tacit contexts through ideas such as discipline, hierarchy, punishments, and moral values among others. A notion of childhood is also communicated to children through family relationships and practices. However, a dominant and conscious sense of childhood is communicated to children through popular media like literature, television and films. The representation of childhood in these mediums also carries within it a sense of gender and moral values. This paper discusses implications of this phenomenon of learning in the context of curriculum reforms in school education.