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Conceptualizing the State-Nation Via Education Reform: from Multicultural to Intercultural Citizenship

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Conceptualizing the State-Nation via Education Reform: From Multicultural to Intercultural Citizenship by Neville Gustad Panthaki A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Neville Gustad Panthaki 2016 Conceptualizing the State-Nation via Education Reform: From Multicultural to Intercultural Citizenship Neville Gustad Panthaki Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto 2016 Abstract Transnational movements of sociopolitical culture defy the integrity of the nation-state. Its organizational principle of singularity, and struggles to accommodate increasing diversity within homogeneity, are challenged by the increasing prominence of alternate and multiple ways of being and knowing. Nation-state education systems organized to deliver citizenship values, fail to rectify the fracture between their quest for multicultural participation and their promotion of conformity within a single ‘national’ identity. Systems of education are products of their respective sociopolitical systems. Hence, notions of citizenship (inclusion) and democracy (participation) must be reformed to facilitate genuine education reform. The nation-state is a sociopolitical project that confines pedagogical reform within the framework of a paradigm. Education reform can only be achieved by substituting the concept of multi-cultural, with inter-cultural citizenship, thereby transforming the unidimensional nation-state into a pluralist state-nation. The state-nation is an ideal-type conceptual framework which is predicated upon a constant (re-)negotiation of categories and their corresponding ii belonging-identities, so that all boundaries remain liminal and permeable rather than immutable and exclusionary. India has witnessed the longest sustained attempt at education reform, as well as the largest in size and scope, by any national government, international organization or non- government organization. This dissertation examines the participation of statist, civil society and multi-national participants, within the context of education reform in India. It also explores the capacity of the state-nation model of education reform to contribute to an Indian education diplomacy that could influence global Education For All (EFA). Intercultural citizenship as the root of the state-nation, has the potential to become an avenue for South-South dialogue and a means to create alternate notions of ‘modernity’, ‘development’, and ‘globalization’. De-linking education from the nation-state and viewing it in relation to the state-nation, makes possible a profound and far reaching ‘reform’ of ‘education’ from a social justice perspective. iii Acknowledgements No action undertaken by an individual can succeed without the involvement of a collective group of people, and the harmony of the individual within their environment. It is not only material and physical aid which is rendered to the individual by this collective, but more importantly, an intellectual and spiritual strength which is generously offered. This interdependence of life creates the opportunities, allows respite, and renews the courage and vigour of the individual to complete their work. Life is a fellowship journey and communion of spirits. No one walks alone. Many are unaware of this phenomenon of spiritual reciprocity. Others deny its existence. It would be arrogance for me not to bow before this truth. Interdependence and multiplicity are part of natural design and human excellence. Acquiring this wisdom is the goal of education. It is through this process that education becomes transformative citizenship. It leads to greater participation and interaction by way of service. Education leads to spiritual strength. In this respect, I acknowledge my debt. In Vedic lore and other South Asian traditions, a student pays homage to those who have aided in the process of knowledge acquisition. This is termed guru dakshina, and was usually paid for by the success of the student translating into righteous action in the aid of others. One could term this, the South Asian version of paying it forward. It is said that those who are true teachers, parents, guardians, relatives, loved ones, and friends, desire only your greatness. They are mindful of the wisdom that reciprocity and service, represent, love and worship. Reciprocity is the greatest gift and simultaneously the greatest reward. Therefore, I commit myself to honour the people who have contributed to my success, by my “good thoughts, good words, and good deeds”.1 1 A central concept of Mazdayasni Daena (Zoroastrianism). iv With awareness from Social Justice Education2, I also acknowledge my complicity, knowingly or unknowingly, in the plight of indigenous people upon whose land I am a settler. I thank them and honour the spirits of their people. I also pledge that my future research will continue to acknowledge the plight of the marginalized communities who are unintentionally objectified within my dissertation. I shall endeavour to create spaces for the wisdom of their multiple ways of knowing and being. 2 The department to which I was affiliated at OISE. v Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………iv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………...vi List of Acronymns………………………………………………………………………….ix Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: Historical Overview and Literature Review ........................................... 12 An Inheritance of Education: The Cosmopolitan-Secularism of South Asian Pedagogical Traditions in Indian Space................................................................................................. 12 Dharmic Traditions ........................................................................................................... 13 Vedic Traditions ....................................................................................................... 14 Buddhist Traditions ................................................................................................... 18 Persian Convergence ......................................................................................................... 22 Well-Being as an Intercultural Pedagogy of Well-Knowing .................................... 23 India as a Location for Heterodoxy .......................................................................... 26 The Fracturing of Knowledges ................................................................................. 28 National Education ............................................................................................................ 30 Deculturalization, Sociopolitical Fragmentation, and British Imperial Education ... 30 Democratizaing the Imagined Nation by Reconceptualizing National Education ... 33 Prioritizing the Nation-State While Negotiating State-Nation Education ................ 38 Cosmopolitanism as Indigenous and Intercultural ............................................................ 47 Chapter Three: Conceptual and Methodological Framework ....................................... 50 The State-Nation: An Ideal-Type to Re-Conceptualize Citizenship for Democracy ........ 50 The Indian Constitution as Cosmopolitan-Secularism: An Alternate Statehood .............. 53 Indigeneity as an Anti-Oppression Framework: An Adivasi Studies Approach to De-Colonization ................................................................................................................ 61 Communalidad As An Intercultural Alternate Citizenship ............................................... 67 Death Democracy, A Palliative Care Pedagogy for Inclusivity........................................ 73 Evoking the Ideal-Type of the State-Nation ..................................................................... 85 vi Chapter Four: Indian Government: Post-colonial Reform and Expansion .................. 88 Nation-State Legitimacy Through Education ................................................................... 88 The Quest for Identity 1947-1968 ..................................................................................... 90 National Education Policies 1968, 1986, 1992 ................................................................. 99 Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Equity, Access, Excellence Post-1991 ....................................... 107 New or Renewed Directions? National Education Policy 2016 .................................... 114 A Summary of Indian Government Policies Concerning Education .............................. 116 Chapter Five: Indian Civil Society: Non-Government Actors ..................................... 124 Avenues for Activism and Democracy ........................................................................... 124 Pratham: Massification of Quality .................................................................................. 126 The Azim Premji Foundation: Transformative Pedagogy .............................................. 138 Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA): Democratic Empowerment .............................. 154 A Summary of Civil Society Involvement in Indian Education ..................................... 162 Chapter Six: International Organizations: Global Liberalism ...................................
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