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RESEARCH REPORT

LITERACY FOR MIGRANTS: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF LITERACY ACQUISITION BY GUJARATI NOMADS

CAROLINE DYER and ARCHANA CHOKSI

University of Manchester, Centre for Primary Education, School of Education, Oxford Road, Manchester M 13 9PL, U.K.

This research, financially support by the UK’s Economic and Social Research council, was con- ducted among the Rabaris of Kutch, a transhu- mant nomadic pastoralist group in Western India. Its underlying premise was that research into lit- eracy which adopts a sociological perspective can usefully illuminate literacy as a social phenom- enon (Barton, 1994) and the relationship between literacy and social power relations (Cook- Gumperz, 1986; Street, 1984, 1987; Stromquist, 1990; Oxenham, 1980). In this respect, nomads deserve close attention, for they are a highly independent group who value social apartness and for whom, until recently, any form of formal education has been irrelevant. We - a North- South collaborative research team (Choksi and Dyer, 1996) - were concerned to broaden aca- demic research into the interrelationship of edu- cation, literacy, and power and hypothesised that nomads’ unusual relationship with ‘mainstream’ society would be an insightful case study.

The major objectives of this study were to understand what literacy means to a nomadic group, to develop a culturally appropriate teaching-learning programme which would be offered by us as peripatetic teachers moving with the group; and social and other impact on its life of gaining literacy and numeracy skills. We would also document the migratory pattern of a nomadic group, its social organisation, structures, decision-making traditions, and nature and frequency of interactions with exter- nal literate and numerate conventions e.g. of the marketplace and bureaucracy. We intended, finally, to use research findings as a policy input for planning and execution of work under the National Literacy Mission and promote in the policy community an awareness of the hetero-

geneity of literacy needs of this and other non- mainstream social groups.

The work took on a rather different shape in the field. Two pilot migrations had been successfully completed by the end of the first year. Then we experienced the wettest monsoon in this arid zone for one hundred years. Albeit briefly, plague broke out, drastically curtailing travel. We could not carry out the peripatetic teaching as the migratory movements and group constitution changed owing to what was, for the nomads, a stroke of extremely good luck over the weather. Bound by the exigencies of the research schedule, instead of the seasonal cycle nomads were work- ing to, we worked for nearly four months in a sedentary setting with pastoralists whose eco- nomic activities were gradually diversifying as they merged into the wider economy. This anyway foreshadowed the drift towards sedentarisation which was apparent among those who are still migrating, and usefully broadened our initial aims as it furnished a good deal of data relating to existing models of school education and adult literacy, and the social conventions of the Rabari group.

In discussions, pastoralists almost always endorse ‘education’, but our work among migrant and semi-sedentary Rabaris showed that multiple confusions remain about what education, and literacy, actually are. By disaggregating the terms ‘education’, ‘literacy’and ‘empowerment’ we have constructed a sociological account of how, and whether, literacy can contribute to improving the position of a specified social group, the Rabaris of Kutch.

Rabaris firmly linked ‘education’ with changes in social identity, and not as a neutral technology. Their ambivalence about the appropriateness

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468 CAROLINE DYER and ARCHANA CHOKSI

of ‘education’ for the Rabari way of life depends on the extent to which individuals sense, and therefore resist or welcome, the non-Rabari values in which formal schooling is embedded. Almost invariably, Rabaris link being ‘unedu- cated’ with low social status, but not all of them look to education as a means of improving their status: some respond to a continuous process of disempowerment by external agencies by turn- ing to political means to seek state support. In either case, they do not link literacy with empow- erment in the political sense assumed by advo- cates of literacy; this role is given to formal schooling.

Rabaris view the absence of literacy/ education in their community as a consequence of the logistical difficulties of providing it. We initially shared this view, but found logistics only one of a complex range of issues relating to the relationship between education, literacy, and the ‘modernising’ world. Pastoralism as practised by Rabaris is based on a moral economy, in which economic transactions are governed by religious faith, trust and personal relationships, rather than the exigencies of the market economy. However, pastoralists’ sur- vival is increasingly conditioned by their ability to integrate into the contemporary market economy, with which their value system is at odds. The modes of adaptation which they have sought are in line with their value framework, but they can no longer make pastoralism as they practise it fit in with the ‘modern’ world. Raba- ris see little potential for success, and this pro- vides the impetus for considering ‘education’ (schooling for children) along with sedentarisa- tion and other major changes.

Our literacy classes bridged the gap between conceptual acceptance of a need for literacy, and the realities of accepting the social and other changes that becoming literate would imply; they presented a point of intersection between the ‘modernising’ world and the nomadic value framework which that world threatens. We adapted and trialled the REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy Through Empowering Community Techniques) methodology (Archer and Cottingham, 1996a, 1996b) for a three month literacy course among semi-sedentary Rabaris. REFLECT introduces generative words through discussion generated via mapping and matrix exercises, which pro- mote conscientisation and community- determined agendas for development action.

Participants’ interest was captured by its inter- active and contextual nature; within two months, they had learned the alphabet and were compe- tent in the skills they had identified. These skills conferred higher status on them than their non-literate peer group and their objective of using literacy to enhance their social status was achieved. The conscientisation agenda was how- ever conditioned #by Rabari social norms of gender separation, not speaking in front of elders, and extreme individualism, which com- promised the participatory approach by prevent- ing participants from ‘performing’ as REFLECT requires. The potential pedagogical implica- tions of participants’ socialisation is a neglected aspect of literacy methodology design.

REFLECT relies on contextuality but this can be limiting as well as limited; pastoralists urgently need information to assist them in developing a more ‘business’ orientation if their vocation is to survive, but refuted efforts to make them aware of facilities which they perceived as irrelevant to their context. Rabaris do not link literacy with change. Adults identified their literacy needs as bus destination boards and tickets, signing their names, and reading and writing letters. For them, each literacy activity - such as reading a bus ticket, or a bus board - is complete, and discrete in itself. They do not connect these activities within an overarching conceptual framework; nor understand reading as a source of knowing more of the world around them. Overall, their use of literacy was limited to what was appropriate in their own daily lives, and required to cope with tangible aspects of the ‘modem’ world (such as buses) that had penetrated the local environment. Their understandings of literacy are conditioned by what they observe as non-practitioners, so they see literacy as a set of identifiable skills rather than an educative process. We question the extent to which literacy work can be emancipatory in conditions where there is so little evidence of other uses of the written word.

The process of sedentarisation is gaining momen- tum, and gradually undermining and even delegiti- mising a social identity that is closely bound up in the Rabaris’ traditional occupation. The notion of literate nomads was central to our research, but in the view of others, including Rabat-is, education and pastoralism seem mutually exclusive, and dif- ficult to conceptualise. Our literacy classes, even though they were designed for the group, implicitly questioned a social identity already under siege, and Rabaris’ resistance to applications of literacy

RESEARCH REPORT 469

that went beyond immediate skills must be seen also as a strategy of bounding a potential threat. Raba- ris’ mistrust of what is not their own challenges lit- eracy facilitators, and conditions how literacy finds a place in their lives.

Pastoralists who seek any form of education think of schools and that, in effect, demands sedentarisation. Once sedentary, they feel their need for education would be best served by gov- ernment subsidies towards setting upmore Rabari- only schools. The example of the existing school illustrates that the education thus offered contrib- utes to the further devaluation of their traditional occupation (and eventually, to its demise) while failing to equip school leavers with a viable alter- native. Peripatetic literacy teaching that aims to use literacy to open channels of information. thereby facilitating Rabaris’ transition to a mar- ket economy, might do more to sustain their eco- nomic viability, but runs counter to what Rabaris have come to see as ‘progress’.

REFERENCES

Archer, D. and Cottingham, S. (1996a) Action research report on REFLECT- the e.vperiences of thee REFLECT pilot projects m Uganda, Bangladesh. El Salvador. Overseas Development Administration Serial No. 17.

Archer. D. and Cottingham. S. (1996b) The REFLECT Mother Manual: a new approach IO adult literay,. Action- Aid. London.

Barton, D. (I 994) Literaq: An Introduction to /he Ecology’ cf Written Language. Blackwell. Oxford.

Choksi. A. and Dyer. C. (1996) ‘North-South collaboration in education research’. In Qualifative Educational Research in Developing Countries, eds. M. Crossley and G. Vulliamy. Garland. New York.

Oxenham, J. (1980) Literacy: Writing, Reading and Social Organisation. Routledge and Kegan Paul. London.

Street. B. (1984) Literacy in Theor), and Practice. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Street, B. (1987) ‘Literacy and social change: the signilicance of social context in the development of literacy pro- grammes’. In The Future of Literacy m a Changmg World. ed. D. Wagner. Pergamon Press. New York.

Stromquist. N. (1990) Women and Illiteracy: the interplay ol gender subordination and poverty. Comparatirr Edmatron Review, 34( I). 95-l I I.