Decontextualized schooling and (child) development: Adivasi communities’ negotiations of early childhood care and education and schooling provisions in India

Does the early childhood education and care in India contribute to children's skill development?

“…Parents often mention that children must be developed and prepared for formal schooling to succeed academically (Donner, 2006;Ghosh, 2019). In the absence of 'adequate' formal education in ICDS, private ECEC provisions are seen by the parents as the possibility through which school readiness could be achieved (Maithreyi et al, 2020(Maithreyi et al, , 2022Sriprakash et al, 2020). Besides, parents' preference towards English medium education as the superior option leads to a rise in private preschools (Donner, 2006;Maithreyi et al, 2020).…”

How creativity is oppressed through traditional education

“…Self-regulatory processes for teacher-directed learning may include the learner skills of acting meekly, accepting instruction, collecting and organizing information, understanding information as intended by the instructor and remembering the information. Thus, in order for an educator to successfully operationalize teacher-directed learning, information is commonly communicated as "correct", irrespective of its context (origin or application context are not considered): in other words, the information is decontextualized (Langer, 2017;Maithreyi et al, 2022). This may act too, deliberately or not, disable learners from thinking critically about the correctness or fittingness of information in differential contexts.…”

“…Thus, in order for an educator to successfully operationalize teacher-directed learning, information is commonly communicated as “correct”, irrespective of its context (origin or application context are not considered): in other words, the information is decontextualized (Langer, 2017; Maithreyi et al , 2022). This may act too, deliberately or not, disable learners from thinking critically about the correctness or fittingness of information in differential contexts.…”

Refusals for liberating childhood from the trap of schooling?

“…Historically, refusals of schooling are part of the wider resistance against attempts to "civilize" and "develop" colonized subjects by inscribing and reifying gender norms sustained through logics of assimilatory pedagogy, morality, and age-based differentiation (Crossouard et al, 2022;Maithreyi et al, 2022). This was done by introducing a workschool divide that privileged school over work and emphasized a linear school-to-work trajectory, from formal schooling as a child to paid employment as an adult (Abebe and Bessell, 2011;Dunne and Humphreys 2022).…”

“…There is mounting evidence that the school system has failed children and young people worldwide (e.g., Ansell et al, 2020;Cooper, 2022;Maithreyi et al, 2022;Serpell, 1993;Stambach, 2000;Woldeyes, 2017). However, being done away with schooling or undoing its damage is not straightforward.…”