Cultures of Learning: Mapping the New Spaces of Critical Pedagogy in India

This book looks at educational institutions and their role as sites of learning in times of moral and political chaos. It highlights the erosion of critical pedagogical traditions in universities in India and registers the ongoing responses and struggles as educational experiences.

This book develops a critical approach by redefining education from the perspective of learning as a political act to experience the complex network of learning activities beyond the confines of educational institutions. It also locates caste, gender and religious hierarchies in schools and universities in India. The book explores the extremely contradictory experiences of academic spaces that have resulted in the development of uncharted sites of learning. Being mindful of these multiple strands, the authors examine the culture of learning and reflect on the space for critical learning, activism, dissent and self-reflexivity in schools and universities in India. The goal of diverse experiences of learning is to derive new meaning to the conceptions of critical pedagogy as a political act for democratising education.

This transdisciplinary book will be of interest to students and researchers of education, sociology, history, political studies and public policy.

Suresh Babu G.S is faculty of Sociology of Education at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His major publications include ‘Education and the Public Sphere: Exploring the Structures of Mediation in Post-colonial India’ (Routledge UK, 2020), and ‘Contextualising Educational Studies in India: Research, Policy and Practices’ (Routledge, 2021). He has been visiting scholar (2015 & 2017) at the University of Cologne, Germany; former expert committee member for Tamil Nadu State Education Policy and consultant for SCERT Kerala school textbooks. Currently, he is a member of the editorial advisory board, Policy Press, University of Bristol.

Arunima Naithani is a doctoral research scholar at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her doctoral research focuses on social history, regional development, higher education and youth, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. She holds dual master’s (education and rural management) along with M.Phil. in Educational Studies. She has previously taught undergraduate students (sociology and psychology) and also holds professional work experience in the social development sector (NGOs and research consultancy). She continues to actively undertake research projects and her academic interests include education, urban sociology and digital technology.