INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND SCHOOL REFORM IN POSTCOLONIAL INDIA Mousumi Mukherjee MA, MPhil, Calcutta University; MA Loyola University Chicago; EdM University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Policy and Leadership Melbourne Graduate School of Education University of Melbourne [5 June 2015] Keywords Inclusive Education, Equity, Democratic School Reform, Girls’ Education, Missionary Education, Postcolonial theory, Globalization, Development Inclusive Education and School Reform in Postcolonial India i Abstract Over the past two decades, a converging discourse has emerged around the world concerning the importance of socially inclusive education. In India, the idea of inclusive education is not new, and is consistent with the key principles underpinning the Indian constitution. It has been promoted by a number of educational thinkers of modern India such as Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Azad and Tagore. However, the idea of inclusive education has been unevenly and inadequately implemented in Indian schools, which have remained largely socially segregated. There are of course major exceptions, with some schools valiantly seeking to realize social inclusion. One such school is in Kolkata, which has been nationally and globally celebrated as an example of best practice. The main aim of this thesis is to examine the initiative of inclusive educational reform that this school represents. It analyses the school’s understanding of inclusive education; provides an account of how the school promoted its achievements, not only within its own community but also around the world; and critically assesses the extent to which the initiatives are sustainable in the long term. Methodologically, the research reported in this thesis involves an ethnographic case study of the school. Interdisciplinary in its approach to data analysis, the thesis utilizes both international and indigenous theoretical resources, taking into account both local experiences, as well as transnational processes. It suggests that while the school has been enormously successful in establishing a program of reform that is inclusive in many respects, consistent with both global designs and local conceptions of inclusive education. However, it represents a model that is hard to sustain in light of the changes in its leadership, the context of a highly competitive education system in India, shifting student and parent aspirations, and the emerging neoliberal pressures under which most Indian institutions now have to work. ii Inclusive Education and School Reform in Postcolonial India Table of Contents Keywords .................................................................................................................................. i Abstract .................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures and Tables ...................................................................................................... vi List of Images ........................................................................................................................ vii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ i Statement of Original Authorship ............................................................................................. i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. ii Chapter 1…................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3 Converging Global Discourse of Inclusive Education .............................................................8 Inclusive Education within the Indian Context.......................................................................11 Barriers to Reform ..................................................................................................................16 The Case: Delphine Hart School ............................................................................................18 Research Questions .................................................................................................................24 Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................................24 Chapter 2…............................................................................................................... 27 Global Design and Local Histories ......................................................................... 27 Introduction .............................................................................................................................27 Recent Debates on Inclusive Education..................................................................................28 Shifting Focus of Global “Policyscape” .................................................................................31 Local Histories of exclusion in the South ...............................................................................34 Postcolonial Conceptual Dilemmas ........................................................................................39 Beyond Provincializing ...........................................................................................................42 Possibility of a “Southern Theory” .........................................................................................44 Tagore’s Humanist Philosophy of Education .........................................................................47 Contemporary Relevance of Tagore .......................................................................................54 Chapter 3…............................................................................................................... 61 Accounting for Success ............................................................................................ 61 Introduction .............................................................................................................................61 Missionaries and Progressive School Reform ........................................................................63 Indian Education and Development ........................................................................................66 Inclusive Education and School Reform in Postcolonial India iii A Success Story in the Middle of Doom and Gloom ............................................................. 69 From an Exclusive to an Inclusive “School for All” .............................................................. 72 School Success Promoting “Education for All”..................................................................... 73 Evidence of School Success from Academic Research ......................................................... 79 Chapter 4…. .............................................................................................................. 87 Research Design and Methods ................................................................................ 87 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 87 Research Methods .................................................................................................................. 88 Vertical Case Study Design ................................................................................................... 89 Micro-Level Understanding ................................................................................................... 93 Subaltern Reason and Embodied Knowing ............................................................................ 95 Double Consciousness and Intercultural Dialogue .............................................................. 100 Volunteer Work as Research Practice .................................................................................. 101 A Relational Approach ......................................................................................................... 104 Global-Local Forces, Connections and Imaginaries ............................................................ 107 Chapter 5…. ............................................................................................................ 111 Conceptualizing Inclusive Education ................................................................... 111 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 111 Interpreting Local Needs ...................................................................................................... 111 Role of School Leadership ................................................................................................... 120 Educating the Heart and the Mind ....................................................................................... 125 Values Education Curriculum .............................................................................................. 130