How to imagine a mindset shift in Education?

Value-based educational changes are a very complex area of work, that too when your context is a government school. Imagine the processes that have long been around achieving (or mostly appearing to achieve) the pre-decided learning outcomes and one fine day you are asked to focus on how many and what kind of questions your students ask you!

The challenge is too layered to navigate through. At one level, the teachers (or the system) have been struggling to devote appropriate hours of teaching time in the classroom, and at the other level, the idea of integrating values in pedagogy seems alien. 

I have been knocking the doors of a government school in Uttar Pradesh for a few months (this is before lockdown) every day. Though it took some time to welcome my presence, it was finally accepted. All I wanted to do was create an enabling space where every child felt valued, heard, and accepted. 

I initiated with an experiment of creating a label-free classroom, where people don't call each other names. Apart from superficially dropping these unwanted adjectives, I wanted us all to see each other beyond the rigid identities of a 'strict' teacher, a 'lazy' student, and a 'hard-working' champion. 

When we wonder about social change, there are multiple ways in which it can be thought about. A mindset shift is an intensive and slow-moving (but moving) area of change.   

Set-up of a structured experiential workshop and in-depth discussion about the obvious, though, set the ground for us to sail but it seemed far from enough. 

It was difficult to let behind the idea that Ruksana is not performing well in Math because she is utterly 'careless'. There was no space for a 'maybe'. Maybe she has some problem at home, maybe she is finding the classless engaging, maybe we need to experiment more with our pedagogy, maybe. 

Though I was well aware of the idea of 'pearl fishing' to consciously look for the label-opposite qualities in an individual until we internalize it, I thought of doing it for myself first in the school. A simple act like making a virtual group of teachers and sharing an everyday-observation of one child where she is behaving in a way different than her label permits her to be has been an eye-opener.

I did nothing but posting about the incident where 'irresponsible' Shyam said no to her sister who came to fetch him before the school time just to attend the complete period (with a photograph). And believe me, this had to be done every-day, for months when you finally see the unexpected emerging. What emerges is to be observed, sometimes looked for, and not only seen.

For this place, I have felt a shift in how a teacher now scolds the child when she doesn't bring her homework. Now, this has become an irresponsible 'act' rather than an irresponsible 'child'. Do you spot the difference?

This is a long journey but I am glad we've begun!

                                                                         - Vasudha Kapoor, Director - Mera Gaon Meri Dunia