Inclusion of the ‘Uneducable’

Image description: Three adolescent girls looking at the camera and smiling. The girl on the left have tied a pink bandana over head, wearing a violet sweater with stripes. She has also put her hands over the middle girl’s shoulder. The girl in the middle is wearing a grey and pink jacket, looking at the camera and smiling. The third girl on the right is waring a purple sleeveless jacket with polka dots showing the similar hand gesture of letter “v”.
Image description: Three adolescent girls looking at the camera and smiling. The girl on the left have tied a pink bandana over head, wearing a violet sweater with stripes. She has also put her hands over the middle girl’s shoulder. The girl in the middle is wearing a grey and pink jacket, looking at the camera and smiling. The third girl on the right is waring a purple sleeveless jacket with polka dots showing the similar hand gesture of letter “v”.

Inclusion of the ‘Uneducable’

Brief

An action-research project exploring discriminatory behavioral nuances that made students feel ‘excluded’ at a primary school in Katwaria Sarai, an urban village in New Delhi, India.

Introduction

By showing how various elements in the schooling system interact to give rise to discrimination, the study emphasized how it can be traced back to a student’s early learning ability, ethnic background, and socioeconomic status.

Process

The team began by interacting with students, the school administration, teachers, and parents, culminating in a series of activities and workshops based on a four-phase iterative design model Insights gained from each phase determined the next.

 Phase 1: An observational exercise in which we  shuttled between the role of a teacher and a student to observe the school environment from both perspectives.

Phase 2: to understand a student’s imagination of their school and neighbourhood. Here a three stage art based participatory research activity was designed, which allowed the participants to explore and depict their surroundings(neighbourhood and school) as they see it. 

Insights

The workshops demonstrated the following:

Prototype

Image Description: A silver digital camera being held in the hand. The image is cropped in a way that only the hand holding the camera and the camera is visible.
Image Description: A silver digital camera being held in the hand. The image is cropped in a way that only the hand holding the camera and the camera is visible.
Five kids holding an exhibit that they have created for the research activity we conducted. The exhibit represents their imagination of their neighbourhood. The exhibit is made of thermocol which contains trees and other buildings.
Five kids holding an exhibit that they have created for the research activity we conducted. The exhibit represents their imagination of their neighbourhood. The exhibit is made of thermocol which contains trees and other buildings.
A classroom with the paper cutting of the creatives made by the students of the class. The students are posing at the camera with the research assistants.
A classroom with the paper cutting of the creatives made by the students of the class. The students are posing at the camera with the research assistants.

In an attempt to create an inclusive environment for a class, we integrated mathematical concepts with local games. The activity was termed ‘Apna Khel Samjhao (teach your game) which aimed to inculcate an appreciation for textbook concepts through fun exercises! 

By: Bhabesh