Understanding of History among Tribal and Non-Tribal Children and Adults

It has been observed that historical understanding (HU) is a cluster of various mental abilities, about which there is no substantial body of literature available (Dixit and Mohanty, 2009). In view of the problems and issues in the existing body of literature on HU, this study sought to explore aspects of HU in two cultural groups. Two studies were undertaken. Study 1 explored the developmental pattern of HU among 9-to-14- year- old children from two cultural groups- 30 Santali (a tribal community in India) and 30 non-tribal-urban children. The Test of Historical Understanding (Dixit and Mohanty, 2009) was used to assess development of HU in children, followed by an interview about their idea of history and past. The results showed significant effect of age and cultural groups on the test performance. In order to further explore the socio-cultural context of Santali children's HU, Study 2 was undertaken. It examined the notions of history in a group of 25- to 70-year- old Santali adults. Santali adults were interviewed to find out their notions of history, sources of their knowledge about past, and their trust on those sources etc. Their responses showed common culture-specific features. The HU of Santali adults was found to be mediated by their levels of schooling. The highest educated Santali adults showed most inclination and sense of community history. The findings of this study have implications for the teaching of history in a multicultural context, curriculum designing at elementary school level and social interactions

Exams: Fearsome Tool of Exclusion

The killing of a second grader by an older student in Ryan International School, Gurugram, is disturbing. Even more shocking is the finding that just prior to this murder, a few children had brought poison to the school to kill others in order to postpone the forthcoming exams. We may conveniently categorise this as a murder by a juvenile and an instance of increased violence among children. However, while violence is just one aspect of this unfortunate incident, the main reason is something that is embedded deep in our society and our education system. This is a matter of learning, merit and their demonstration in the form of scorecards. It is also about what is valued in our society. Learning is a very personal and personalised process. Still, the subject matter that is taught and the pace at which a child is tested is decided by the boards. It has to be institutionalised and certified as an essential requirement of a developed society. These modes and pace of learning are assumed to be uniform for all the children in our existing system

Development of Historical Understanding: Socio-Cultural Influences (NIAS Wednesday Discussion Report)

Dr Shalini Dixit is an Assistant Professor at School of Social Sciences, NIAS. She works on Cultural and Cognitive Processes in appreciation of History, Critical aspects Educational Psychology , Cultural Processes, Social Psychology, and Gender Issues with Social Psychological perspective

Generating Self-Reflection: Findings from Self-Development Workshops in Teacher Training Curriculum

Teacher education and development practices across the globe today, insist on having reflective practices at their core. Given that self-reflective process rests upon psychological education, it is widely agreed that student-teachers should be provided opportunities for self-learning through reflection and assimilation of new ideas. However, self-development being a subjective concept, there is lack of established methods for training teachers for self-reflective practices leading to self-development. One such method is the self-development workshops recently added to pre-service teachertraining in India. The present paper analyses the effectiveness of the self-development workshops in teacher education curriculum. Drawing data from self-development workshops, based on Rogerian approach, as part of a teacher training course, the paper traces and documents the intra-personal and interpersonal growth of its participants

Past alcohol consumption and incident atrial fibrillation: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study.

BackgroundAlthough current alcohol consumption is a risk factor for incident atrial fibrillation (AF), the more clinically relevant question may be whether alcohol cessation is associated with a reduced risk.Methods and resultsWe studied participants enrolled in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC) between 1987 and 1989 without prevalent AF. Past and current alcohol consumption were ascertained at baseline and at 3 subsequent visits. Incident AF was ascertained via study ECGs, hospital discharge ICD-9 codes, and death certificates. Of 15,222 participants, 2,886 (19.0%) were former drinkers. During a median follow-up of 19.7 years, there were 1,631 cases of incident AF, 370 occurring in former consumers. Former drinkers had a higher rate of AF compared to lifetime abstainers and current drinkers. After adjustment for potential confounders, every decade abstinent from alcohol was associated with an approximate 20% (95% CI 11-28%) lower rate of incident AF; every additional decade of past alcohol consumption was associated with a 13% (95% CI 3-25%) higher rate of AF; and every additional drink per day during former drinking was associated with a 4% (95% CI 0-8%) higher rate of AF.ConclusionsAmong former drinkers, the number of years of drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed may each confer an increased risk of AF. Given that a longer duration of abstinence was associated with a decreased risk of AF, earlier modification of alcohol use may have a greater influence on AF prevention

Gifted with Disabilities: The Twice Exceptional in India

The ‘twice-exceptional’ is a segment of the population in whom extraordinary abilities coexist with disabilities. For a country like India with a large and diverse population of over 1.3 billion, which constitute about 10 –15 per cent of the gifted population, the twice-exceptional children are estimated to be about 1.2 million in the age group of 3 –18 years. The number of children in this specialised group is large; identifying them and providing them with appropriate services needs attention. The twice-exceptional child will need a unique environment that will simultaneously harness his/her gifts and also provide support to overcome the challenges whether they are learning difficulties, developmental disorders, or handicaps of a perceptual, physical, or psychological nature. In the absence of any initiative for the twice-exceptional children in India, the paper discusses the need for recognition of this invisible population. Drawing from the experiences of other countries, the paper provides a framework for identification and interventions that India can undertake to address the needs of our twice-exceptional children. The paper concludes with the possible policy directions in tracing this unique population in Indi

Education for Sustainability: A Study of Curriculum, Teachers' and Students' Understanding (NIAS Report No. NIAS/SSc/EDU/U/RR/21/2020)

The study reported in this document reviewed textbooks and observed 35 teachers from two different schools in Bengaluru. Findings suggests that the school curriculum has provisions for teachers to talk about sustainability in a meaningful way. However, teachers appeared unprepared to teach about sustainability. Using Bordieuan analysis the study proposes that teachers do not possess a habitus for sustainability and suggest ways to build the same

Situatedness of School Choice among Muslim Students: An Intersectional Approach

So far research on school choice sets (decision about choosing a school from an available set of schools) has primarily regarded parents as key actors. Moving beyond, this article emphasises that children are important actors as they inform parental decisions to co-produce certain choice sets. This article foregrounds how school-going Muslim children’s experiences interact with their families to produce school choices across public and private schools in Bangalore, India, while accounting for their marginalisation at the intersections of religion, class and gender. Data were collected from 4 school sites using 21 focus group discussions with 190 children and in-depth interviews with 56 children, 14 teachers and 3 parents and analysed using an intersectional framework. Our findings suggest that factors like heterogeneities in social class, differential levels of religious discrimination/exclusion in schools and a need to protect their faith through education and the complex overlap between these were crucial in shaping choices

Potential of Geospatial Technologies as a Cognitive and Spatio-visual tool for Mapping the Past

A major challenge in understanding the past is that it is not available for exploration at present. The sections of history that deal with geographical associates of human endeavours also pose a challenge to the readers and learners about the scale and experience of a past landscape. Despite the cognitive and reasoning capabilities of individuals, views of an entire landscape cannot be achieved by normal eye view. Geospatial technologies provide immense potential for accessing historical landscape and past realities. The tools are helpful in twin ways. Firstly, they enable learners to understand the existing information about landscape by providing synoptic and 3D views through interactive visualisation tools. Secondly, they enable researchers to look for clues to the past settlements in a landscape in ways that are not otherwise possible, i.e. “see” through infrared lens and integrate evidence gained from observations made across different times. The present paper discusses some of these advantages that we gain by applying gospatial technologies to normal human perceptions

Women in leadership: Achieving sustainable future in a post-COVID-19 world

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst episodes ever faced by humankind during the last hundred years or so. Its impact on humans has threatened the existing social system, which in turn affects sustainable development of the society. India and the world today have been facing daunting challenges of managing natural hazards and climate change. As we are navigating ways to recover from this health disaster and build a resilient society, there is an opportunity to address issues of sustainable development. Foundations of building such a society must be based on bringing women to the forefront of decision- making and implementing new structural solutions. In what follows, we argue that the efforts to mitigate climate change and inequality have to consider women empowerment as the central agenda, failing which either aspect of sustainability cannot be achieved