Aspiring India: the Politics of Mothering, Education Reforms, and English
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Aspiring india: The Politics of Mothering, Education Reforms, and English Leya Mathew University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Mathew, Leya, "Aspiring india: The Politics of Mothering, Education Reforms, and English" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1885. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1885 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1885 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Aspiring india: The Politics of Mothering, Education Reforms, and English Abstract This dissertation is an ethnography of aspirational mobilities emergent under contexts of profound material and social change. To explore the unprecedented expansion of educational aspirations in post market reform India, specifically surging parental desires for English-medium schooling, I conducted fieldwork at a low-fee private English-medium school and a neighboring state-funded Malayalam-medium school in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Further, to record state responses to non-elite educational aspirations, my fieldwork was distributed along diverse agencies that supported and regulated English learning in Kerala and across the country. This dissertation makes two key arguments. Firstly, transitions from a previously austere socialist economy to a consumption saturated society has radically altered gendered everyday lives and unsettled entrenched social hierarchies. Negotiating these changes, non-elite mothers are reimagining possible futures for their children. Since social recognition and economic security was and continues to be entangled with higher education and English proficiencies, this has intensified desires for English-medium schooling from the earliest grades. Secondly, intensifying non-elite desires for English learning reveals how educational systems in India are geared towards meeting the aspirations of privileged citizens. Analyzing the provision of English language learning in state-funded and private school systems, I argue that emergent emphases on conversational skills defines “knowing” English as predicated on the ability to socialize in English. While this shift benefits internationally mobile elite Indians, it marginalizes non-elite learning communities whose pedagogic resources are skewed towards literacy rather than orality skills. To conclude, aspirational mobilities in contemporary India are diverse and even oppositional, and dependent on aspirational locations as well as the resources that groups are able to mobilize. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Kathleen D. Hall Keywords Anthropology, Aspiration, English, Liberalization in India, Mothering Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1885 ASPIRING INDIA: THE POLITICS OF MOTHERING, EDUCATION REFORMS, AND ENGLISH Leya Mathew 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 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation: _______________________________________ Kathleen D. Hall, Associate Professor of Education and Anthropology Graduate Group Chairperson: ______________________________________ J. Matthew Hartley, Professor of Education Dissertation Committee: Kathleen D. Hall, Associate Professor of Education and Anthropology Ritty Lukose, Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University John L. Jackson, Richard Perry University Professor of Communications and Anthropology ! ! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research and writing of this dissertation was made possible by the community, inspiration, and support of many individuals and institutions. I gratefully acknowledge funding from the following sources: Preliminary dissertation research was made possible by a summer travel award from the Center for Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. I am also thankful to the American Institute of Indian Studies, whose Junior Fellowship funded part of the dissertation fieldwork. A write-up grant from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation was crucial to the completion of the dissertation. This project has benefited much from the guidance and support of my committee. I owe profound thanks to Kathleen Hall, whose intellectual generosity, critical scholarship, and meticulous attention to detail has shaped my work in many ways. In particular, she helped me navigate the uneasy and often unacknowledged spaces between anthropology and education. Ritty Lukose engaged the project with systematic rigor and encouragement. John Jackson knew me before I began the project and provided professional and personal support throughout. The project was sustained by the generous and critical engagement of many teachers, colleagues, and friends. Raghu Eraviperoor taught me how to do ethnography. Sanal Mohan modeled what it meant to be a mindful scholar. Nancy Hornberger guided me through the fields of bilingualism, applied linguistics, and TESOL patiently. Devesh Kapur’s enthusiasm and interest was greatly encouraging. Stanton Wortham made theorization accessible and Yasmin Kafai taught me invaluable lessons in analysis. M.A. Khader and R. Meganathan provided much needed support and advice. Mary Ann ""!! ! Chacko read many drafts and gave of her time selflessly. Mariem, Ansu, and Lalu were unflagging in their support and critical in their engagement. Special thanks is due to Ramón Monrás-Sender. Fellow graduate students provided friendship and conversation, among them Matthew Tarditi, Arjun Shankar, Gabriel Dattatreyan, Audrey Winpenny, Karishma Desai, Sofia Chapparo, Mariam Durrani, Julia McWilliams, Emmerich Davies, Roseann Liu, Kathy Rho, Talar Kaloustian, Mustafa Abdul-Jabbar, and Scott Cody. I cannot thank Leny and Betty enough for their friendship and love. Ajay Raina has been with me and this project throughout and his keen insights, both personal and professional, have been a tremendous source of sustenance. Last but not the least, the mothers, grandmothers, children, and teachers who taught me everything I try to articulate in the dissertation, who for reasons of confidentiality have to remain anonymous. """! ! ABSTRACT ASPIRING INDIA: THE POLITICS OF MOTHERING, EDUCATION REFORMS, AND ENGLISH Leya Mathew Kathleen D. Hall This dissertation is an ethnography of aspirational mobilities emergent under contexts of profound material and social change. To explore the unprecedented expansion of educational aspirations in post market reform India, specifically surging parental desires for English-medium schooling, I conducted fieldwork at a low-fee private English- medium school and a neighboring state-funded Malayalam-medium school in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Further, to record state responses to non-elite educational aspirations, my fieldwork was distributed along diverse agencies that supported and regulated English learning in Kerala and across the country. This dissertation makes two key arguments. Firstly, transitions from a previously austere socialist economy to a consumption saturated society has radically altered gendered everyday lives and unsettled entrenched social hierarchies. Negotiating these changes, non-elite mothers are reimagining possible futures for their children. Since social recognition and economic security was and continues to be entangled with higher education and English proficiencies, this has intensified desires for English-medium schooling from the earliest grades. Secondly, intensifying non-elite desires for English learning reveals how educational systems in India are geared towards meeting the aspirations of privileged citizens. Analyzing the provision of English language learning in state-funded and private school systems, I argue that emergent emphases on conversational skills defines “knowing” English as predicated on the ability to socialize in English. While this shift benefits internationally mobile elite Indians, it marginalizes non-elite learning communities whose pedagogic resources are skewed towards literacy rather than orality skills. To conclude, aspirational mobilities in contemporary India are diverse and even oppositional, and dependent on aspirational locations as well as the resources that groups are able to mobilize. "#! ! TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................ vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Conceptual frameworks Methods and settings CHAPTER 2 ASPIRING ................................................................................................. 35 Practice of ethics Interrupted ethics CHAPTER 3 UNDERMINING ...................................................................................... 67