Contextualizando la Educación en Trabajo Social en India

Professional Social Work Education is commemorating 75 years of its contribution in addressing social problems and social welfare in India. While engaging layers of social realities, social work tries to create academic rigour, tests out new models and demands a statutory professional regulatory system. This article provides an overview on the issues, challenges and concerns of social work education in India. The first part details the historical development, the second part brings out various debates, the third part discusses the future concerns and challenges for social work education in India and it ends with a discussion.La educación para el Trabajo Social profesional en India, celebra 75 años de su contribución al abordaje de problemas sociales y bienestar social. Mientras se ocupa de estratos de la realidad social, el trabajo social procura crear rigor académico, pone a prueba nuevos modelos y demanda un sistema legal de regulación profesional. El presente artículo proporciona una visión de conjunto de los temas, desafíos y preocupaciones de la educación para el trabajo social en la India. En la primera parte se detalla su desarrollo histórico; en la segunda se sacan a relucir varios debates; en la tercera se discuten las futuras preocupaciones y desafíos para la educación para el trabajo social; y se termina con unas conclusiones.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 295203

Perspectives of early childhood education in India and Finland

The article introduces experiments based on the project called FINDIgATE (2016-2017) which aim was to view how children’s educational systems work in India and Finland. The aim of this article is to present early childhood education and its influence on child´s wellbeing in Indian and Finnish perspectives. One important approach in Finnish ECEC is child-centred approach which takes into account on child´s wellbeing and we argue that child centric approach would be needed in India as well. In this article child-centred approach is defined as pedagogic choice and delimitation which emphasizes children's ideas and children's enthusiasm, learning and perception, and supporting all of it with the right methods and choices. Child-centred approach strongly belief in the children's abilities and potential. This approach is included as a key element on children's voluntary and planning activities, which regulates goals, content as well as self-realization (Kinos 2001 30,38). Respect and equality of the child's individuality are in the background of the child centric thinking. Every child is accepted such as they are and every child is as valuable and important. (Hytönen 2002 14). Early childhood education in India is a complex one whereas in Finland it is considered as a basis of public services, which is organized with national core curriculum. Finnish early childhood education´s aim is to promote child's holistic growth, development and learning. Local curriculum is based on national core curriculum, which provide a common basis as references to the legislation governing early childhood education and care as well as instructions for preparing and developing local curricula. In the Indian context, the existing market is determined by socio-economic factors, regions and size of population since Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is unregulated in India. Finnish educational success story and its positive impact on child´s wellbeing provides possibility to implement Finnish educational models. But when compared to India with huge population, regional variety and the number of children in school age, would it be possible to compare and understand the difference between India and Finland? Could Finland success in educating children and taking care of child´s wellbeing be taken as a model to adopt? Can a child be seen as a holistic human being, whose well-being and development as a whole person taken into account are some of the questions addressed in this article. Though challenging, it discusses on how Child-Centred approach is both beneficial and rewarding. References: [1] Hytönen, J.1992. Lapsikeskeinen kasvatus. Helsinki: WSOY. [2] Kinos, J. 2001. Lapsilähtöinen varhaiskasvatus. Teoksessa: E. Hujala (toim.) Puheenvuoroja lapsista ja varhaiskasvatuksesta: Varhaiskasvatus 90 Oy. Jyväskylä: Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy, 30-38

Innovative Personal Learning Environment as a Mediator for Cross-Border Education Exports and Skills Development

The focus of this paper is on educational collaboration between India and Finland and how the use of educational technology could help in establishing mutually beneficial relationships. This study is carried out under the Eurostars/Tekes funding scheme, in a project called TRIBA and in collaboration with a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) company called Claned. A Personal learning environment helps learners to take control and manage their own learning. PLEs support learners to set learning goals, manage and process learning content, and communicate with other learners (Litmanen & Autio 2016). The goal is to achieve fruitful collaboration between organisations, content providers and educators that recognises the individual needs of learners and at the same time recognize the requirements from working life. Formal education is typically based on traditional classroom teaching, fixed deadlines, assessment tasks and criteria defined by teachers. The trend is moving away from traditional education towards self-directed learning and the inclusion of technologies in ways that meet their needs and preferences (Prensky 2005). It is noted that many of the students graduating from formal education lack the skills required by the working life. Recent studies showed that on an average, only 42% of employers felt that new hires were ready for work. In India almost 83% of educational institutions believe that their graduates are ready for the market, but only 51% of employers agree with that. (Mourshed, Farrell & Barton 2015; Raina 2015.) Alternative ways for educating people with relevant skills is required. Currently there are plenty of online learning possibilities where to choose from which MOOCs are the most popular. The “education for masses” works some of the time but the approach does not come without pitfalls. A recent review of MOOCs (Hew & Cheung 2015) found out that nearly 90 % of students starting a course drop out due to lack of motivation or engagement, having insufficient prior knowledge about the topic or experiencing the assignments and materials as ambiguous. Technological advancements in countries like India has posed both opportunities and challenges. In a complex social and cultural environment, learning and its outcome is not asymmetrical. Some are fully exposed from younger days whereas others have limited or no exposure to such online tools. Moreover online platforms have either not developed fully or they are non existent in many languages. Hence, these structural barriers and social realities will have a long lasting impact on the usability of such platforms. In this paper we present a case where we examine the possibilities for PLE to act as a facilitator for bidirectional education exports between Finland and India, with emphasis in sectors that are identified as country specific expertise areas with high growth potential

Education Technology Transfer to Developing Countries

Many companies and educational organisations in Finland are interested in the possibilities of exporting education to new countries. The Finnish school system has a good reputation all over the world. In this article, we will concentrate on India, as one of the authors is originally from India and he is currently working in the education sector. Professor Adaikalam represents the Loyola College Chennai, faculty of social work, and he addresses the topic from the Indian culture’s point of view