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Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India

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Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 2010 Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India Cynthia Groff University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, and the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons Recommended Citation Groff, Cynthia, "Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 115. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/115 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/115 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India Abstract My research explores the language and education situation in the Kumaun region of North India from the perspectives of rural Kumauni young women and in light of their views on empowerment and their aims for the future. My questions address language and education issues in the Kumaun 1) in relation to national policies and local ideologies, 2) as experienced and negotiated by young women, and 3) as applied in a unique Gandhian educational context. Based at Lakshmi Ashram, a Gandhian boarding school serving disadvantaged girls, I used ethnographic methods, focusing on a group of Kumauni young women. National-level language planning through the Indian Census, Constitution, and educational policies minimize some diversity. Locally, discourses about language and dialect, or bhasha and boli, and mother tongue allow for flexible categories and identities. Medium of instruction also takes new meaning through informal multilingual classroom practices. Each language – English, Hindi, Kumauni, and Sanskrit – is valued in its place or environment and in relationship with the other languages. Meanwhile educational opportunities vary in quality and reputation, including a push for English education. While constrained by social and economic realities, Kumauni young women look for ways to improve their lives. Alternative values advocated at the Ashram, and negotiated by the young women, point to empowerment as involving high thinking, self-confidence, and progress within community. I conclude using the ecology of language and continua of biliteracy to highlight significant themes and exploring the issues of collaboration, community, and ecology in relation to language and education. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Nancy H. Hornberger Second Advisor Kathryn Howard Third Advisor Daniel Wagner Keywords language planning, language ideology, multilingualism, alternative education, youth, India Subject Categories Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics | Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/115 LANGUAGE, EDUCATION, AND EMPOWERMENT: VOICES OF KUMAUNI YOUNG WOMEN IN MULTILINGUAL INDIA Cynthia Groff A DISSERTATION In Education Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Supervisor of Dissertation: _______________________________ Nancy H. Hornberger, Professor of Education Graduate Group Chair: _______________________________ Stanton E.F. Wortham, Professor of Education Dissertation Committee: Kathryn Howard, Assistant Professor of Education Daniel Wagner, Professor of Education Brian Street, Professor of Language in Education, King's College, London Ajit Mohanty, Professor of Psychology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India © COPYRIGHT 2010 Cynthia Groff ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have much to be grateful for as I come to the end of this long journey – and move on to the next. Many have helped me along the way. I remember the warm hospitality of Vimla-Didi during my first visit to Lakshmi Ashram in 2000. Thanks for the many cups of kaRha [herbal tea] then and in the following years! I think of Neema- Didi, Kanti-Didi, Durga-Didi, Basanti-Didi and all of my other precious sisters at Lakshmi Ashram who allowed me into their lives. I also want to thank the members of my dissertation committee, especially Nancy Hornberger, whose inspirational work drew me to GSE and to the Educational Linguistics program. My colleagues have also been an inspiration to me, and have helped to shape this dissertation as we shared ideas and feedback through the dissertation seminar, the Educational Linguistics Forum, and the Working Papers in Educational Linguistics. I am also very grateful to my patient Hindi professors Surendra and Vijay Gambhir. My friends and family have also helped to carry me through. You know who you are and I thank you! Monica and Anika, I remember the many spontaneous meals at Kim's food truck, the fun, and the encouragement. I am especially grateful for Jonathan's endless support and for Daniel's timely arrival just hours after I attached the dissertation chapters and hit the “send” button. iii ABSTRACT LANGUAGE, EDUCATION, AND EMPOWERMENT: VOICES OF KUMAUNI YOUNG WOMEN IN MULTILINGUAL INDIA Cynthia Groff Nancy H. Hornberger Local and minority means of producing, knowing, and communicating are often undervalued in the face of modern development schemes, universal systems of education, and languages of wider communication. Through this research, I attempt to understand a local situation from local perspectives – specifically the language and education situation in the Kumaun region of North India from the perspectives of rural Kumauni young women and in light of their views on empowerment and their aims for the future. My questions address language and education issues in the Kumaun 1) in relation to national policies and local ideologies, 2) as experienced and negotiated by young women, and 3) as applied in a unique Gandhian educational context. The Kumauni people of the Himalayan foothills, numbering over two million, are one of several linguistic minority groups in the Hindi-speaking state of Uttarakhand. My research was based at Lakshmi Ashram, a Gandhian boarding school serving disadvantaged girls from throughout the Kumaun. I used ethnographic methods during nine months of primary fieldwork, observing interactions around language and education, starting conversations on these themes, and conducting interviews, focusing on a group of Kumauni young women. National-level language planning through the iv Indian Census, Constitution, and educational policies minimize some diversity. Locally, discourses about language and dialect, or bhasha and boli, and mother tongue allow for flexible categories and identities. Medium of instruction also takes new meaning through informal multilingual classroom practices. Each language – English, Hindi, Kumauni, and Sanskrit – is valued in its place or environment and in relationship with the other languages. Meanwhile educational opportunities vary in quality and reputation, including a push for English education and influenced, sometimes unexpectedly, by government policies. While constrained by social and economic realities, Kumauni young women look for ways to improve their lives. Alternative values advocated at the Ashram, and negotiated by the young women, point to empowerment as involving high thinking, self-confidence, and progress within community. I conclude using the ecology of language and continua of biliteracy to highlight significant themes and exploring the issues of collaboration and empowerment, community and ecology in relation to language and education. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION: MINORITY VOICES, AND LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION CHOICES . 1 Research Questions and Methods 6 Overview of the Chapters 7 CHAPTER 2 – CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: VALUING THE LOCAL AND DEALING WITH INEQUALITIES IN LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION . 11 Valuing the Local: Minority Voices on Development, Education, and Language Sustainable Development and the Lakshmi Ashram Development Context Emancipatory Education and the Lakshmi Ashram Education Context Language Resources and the Lakshmi Ashram Linguistic Context Language and Education Decisions and Implications 27 Bottom-up Language Planning Language Shift and Language Maintenance Mother Tongue and Medium of Instruction Language and Poverty Understanding and Dealing with Inequalities: Power Dynamics in Language and Education 33 The Ecology of Language and the Continua of Biliteracy Language, Education, and Dominant Discourses Contestation, Awakening, and Agency CHAPTER 3 – SETTING: LAKSHMI ASHRAM AND THE KUMAUN . 43 Setting and Participants 46 Lakshmi Ashram The Sadhana Program Kausani Government Intermediate College, Kausani Life in Kausani Estate The Village of Dholara The Kumaun and the Kumauni People 61 Kumaun in Uttarakhand Kumauni People Kumauni Women Kumauni Language vi CHAPTER 4 – METHODS: CONDUCTING RESEARCH IN THE KUMAUN . 75 Theoretical Influences on the Research Experiential Influences on the Research 80 Research Methods 84 General Procedures Preliminary Fieldwork Fieldwork Record-Keeping and Analysis Practical Influences on the Research 103 CHAPTER 5 – NATIONAL-LEVEL LANGUAGE POLICIES IN INDIA: KUMAUNIS AS LINGUISTIC MINORITIES . 108 Introduction:
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