Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra State Tribal Education Coordinator,

Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority Department of School and Mass Education, Orissa

RUPANTARTeacher Training in Tribal Areas

Why Rupantar ?

•About more than 60 % teachers in tribal areas are non tribal

• They have a different view about tribal people and culture

• Schools in tribal areas are dominated by the non tribal values

Teachers attach their own cultural values and attitude in the classroom

Teachers are dominant and students and parents live in culture of silence

Many teachers have a little knowledge about tribal culture and language

With all these in mind teachers run the schools.

Mismatch of values, culture and language Gap and invisible conflict in the mind of

the teachers and the children Teachers superiority is established Children’s wisdom is neglected Learning is blocked Poor retention, poor achievement National goal is not achieved

Result:

We have to understand the school type and classroom situation as a teacher

Let us see the situation..

How

barrier

A child centered classroom is successful when

a child speak and understand in her mother tongue, since the child see her world in her language,

experience of the child is reflected in the learning and teaching.

School for the child..

Space for children’s creativity through learning activities

Learning is interesting and meaningful, connected with the experience of the

child, exploring Children have the freedom to speak and

interact with out fear and hesitation

Learning for the child..

Scope for learning from the environment and culture

Most important for the child is language of thought and language of speech

Two questions: In which language does the child see her

world and identify the objects, and express her feelings?

Is it similar or different from book language?

Culture and Language

Does the state curriculum and text books responsive to the educational needs of tribal children?

Does the teacher training module contain tribal education as the special focus? How many sessions is given for tribal education

Does it fulfill the training needs of tribal area teachers?

Can we put blame on the community if they are not responsive to the school?

As a teacher in tribal areas we have to know :

If I don’t know the language of the children,

Am I really competent enough to teach them? Why the tribal children are non responsive, in

spite of my efforts? Is my classroom suitable to meet the need of

tribal children effective and responsive ?

Knowingly or unknowingly, do my behaviour and language hurts the children and discourage them to come to school?

Asking the Self:

Attitude of teachers on tribal children: Tribal children lack intelligence Tribal language is inferior to the state

language Tribal girls are weak in mathematics Tribal children are docile Tribal children should not use their

language in the classroom

Attitude

· Do the teachers have training on importance of mother tongue in early primary classes?

· Do the teachers have training on acquisition of second language skill?

· Do our teacher- training Institutes have adequate academic facilities to impart tribal education below the district level?

Training Need:

We have to be responsible for the children irrespective of tribal and non tribal

we have to rethink on our established ideas and thoughts on tribal people and children and to change our mind set

We have to prepare for a school where tribal children can get better opportunity

What to do?

Knowing the situationGP : RALEGUDA GP; Malkangiri

Block

102 CHINTANDOLI NPS 50 17 67 50 17 100 100 100.00

103 DHULIPUT PS 63 35 98 63 35 100 100 100.00

104 MONDAPALLI PS 55 12 67 55 12 100 100 100.00

105 NARIDIPALLI PUPS 33 29 62 33 29 100 100 100.00

106 SARKUBANDHA PUPS 38 27 65 38 27 100 100 100.00

107 SUAPALLI PS 44 32 76 44 32 100 100 100.00

108 SUNAMGOI NPS 24 17 41 24 17 100 100 100.00

TOTAL 307 169 476 307 169 100 100 100.00

PODAGHAT GPKhairput BlockMalkangiri

BALIGUDA NPS 37 32 69 37 32 100.00 100.00 100.00

BANKTIGUDA NPS 22 15 37 22 15 100.00 100.00 100.00

GOBARKUNDA PS 22 18 40 22 18 100.00 100.00 100.00

SIKHPALLI CLY PS 16 14 30 16 14 100.00 100.00 100.00

AMLABHATTA PS 30 18 48 29 18 96.67 100.00 97.92

TUNGABAHAL PS 27 21 48 27 20 100.00 95.24 97.92

SIKHPALLI PUPS 37 28 65 36 26 97.30 92.86 95.38

PODAGHAT SS 80 61 141 78 56 97.50 91.80 95.04

JAMUGUDA PS 19 26 45 18 21 94.74 80.77 86.67

PUSPALLI RS 119105

224 97 83 81.51 79.05 80.36

KALAPALLI PUPS 44 62 106 32 50 72.73 80.65 77.36

PUSPALLI CLY PUPS 21 23 44 14 20 66.67 86.96 77.27

TOTAL 474423

897 428 373 90.30 88.18 89.30

Knowing the strength of tribal society, culture and language

Knowing the traditional knowledge system Knowing how the local knowledge can

be put in to the school curriculum Creating new knowledge from the

foundation of local knowledge Process of learning of tribal people Children’s folklore( oral tradition, games,

dance, music, art and craft etc.)

What could be the training Content ?

Content: Syllabus: NCF( 2005) Culturally appropriate curriculum Mother tongue as medium of instruction Method: Activity based/experiential Child Centered Participatory

Teacher Training Content

Specific methodologies for language training Discovering learning methods from the tribal

communities( counting system, units of measures etc. language learning process)

Community process of learning( How do they learn?)

Learning from the elders ( process of story telling,specific learning style of singing and dancing, games, material culture)

Training Method

That starts from tribal culture; connected to life experience

Strengthening self esteem expanding the existing knowledge and skill

system of the community/ learners

Creating a community based pedagogyPractical use of knowledge Devising an interactive and reflexive learning

teaching process by the teachers

Tribal Pedagogy

Quality tribal education involves competent and qualified teachers who are:

Familiar with tribal culture and language as well as the state/ national culture and language

Respect to tribal values and concepts regarding education and who engage in an interactive process with tribal communities and teachers

Quality Tribal Education:

Using and creating responsive and experiential teaching methods and learning materials in cooperation and consultation with the tribal community

Trained in mother tongue education/ multilingual teaching methods and language training methodologies

Contd..

Open to continuous assessment of their work and teaching practices trained in teacher training programmes and facilities organized in cooperation with tribal people’s organization( jati mahasabha)

tribal teachers should take the initiative/leadership in tribal education with state support, so that community involvement will be effective. Linda King: 2005)

Now Let’s break our myth..

Thank you

Why Rupantar ( Transformation) Concept:

Attitudinal Training makes the teachers sensitive to issue concurring the psychology of tribal children. Analyse and reflect on their emotions and actions, which could have affected children psychologically.

Orissa Teacher Training programme on Tribal Education:

Indirect attempt to discover the inherent values, beliefs, practices, assumptions, biases and prejudices with a view to change them.

Methodology:

Change in attitude. Moving beyond the boundaries of the

textbook and understanding the child. Linking the background of the child with the

textbooks teaching methods, thereby leading to better teacher community interaction and teacher- pupil and community interaction. `

Implications:

1.      Identification and sensitization of teachers on attitudinal issues and to develop training strategies ans training skill

2.      To assess the attitude of teachers towards tribal children as learners and also as a cultural group. The attitude objects are language, culture, children, and parents, teaching methods.

Objectives:

1.      Identify the current social bias, which stands against tribal education and its reflection in the textbook and transactional strategies.

2.      Examine the beliefs, assumptions and stereotypes of the teachers about tribal children and their culture and make them examine these beliefs and assumptions.

Contd…

1.      To acknowledge that it is not the tribal child, rather the school and the class room transactions, which create problem in the growth of the tribal children and learning outcomes.

2.      To make the teacher non-judgmental, less ethnocentric and dismissive.

3.(a) To tune the school and the teacher towards identifying the potentials of tribal children so as to know how the tribal children learn in their social atmosphere.

(b) To understand and make use of the tribal language, culture, and customs in the learning processes of the children.

Contd.

1.      Identify strategies to link the language resources of tribal children with the medium of instruction at school and to know the process in which a child learns language.

2.      Develop basic approaches towards language, arithmetic, EVS, using the knowledge base from the natural and cultural environment of tribal children.

Contd.

1.      To make use of tribal folklore in the learning process to make the classroom contextual (in language, EVS and mathematic).

Identify the concepts, skills, information’s, attitudes required by the teachers to understand and make the school suitable to tribal children

Contd.

1.      To remove the ethnic stereotypes beliefs and attitude embedded among the teachers regarding tribal children, language & culture.

2.      Sensitizing the teachers on each of the attitudinal objects (language, children, culture & customs) and analyse the implications these have on teachers- pupil interaction.

Expected Outcomes:

1.      Listing out the attitudes which have serious implications on transactional strategies adopted by these teachers and working backwards on the beliefs.

2.      To discover the hidden potentials of tribal knowledge, and link that up with the textual materials and evaluation system.

Contd

1.      To develop the planning skills for conducting attitudinal training programme among the TRG

To gather knowledge during the training on how to prepare the learning- teaching materials in tribal languages

Contd.

Initial Attitudinal Assessment on language, mathematics, tribal children, tribal society

consolidation of the assessment of individual teachers and discussion

Discovering the training group and accordingly devise training stretegies

Session Plan:

This is a four day Training programme: Day I: understanding tribal children

from tribal context( likes and dislikes,daily life of a tribal child)

Experience of the child in her environment which bear enormous learning potentialities

To know the learning style of Tribal Children in their socio- Cultural context.

Day I

knowing the teachers Quality : Remember your childhood and state any

one characteristic/ incident for which you still remember your teacher?

Remember and state one incident with your teacher during primary school, which had hurt you most?

Day 2

Out Come: Teacher sensitization. -   Self-recognition of a good teacher. -Self-assessment by individual teachers. Developing introspection in teachers.

Contd.

Understanding Local Knowledge learning of language from social context

and l;earning of language in classroom context: gap and bridge

Oral tradition and children;s folklore( songs, tales, myths, legends, traditional

games, riddle, food preservation process,forest, agriculture, family and village, festivals, music etc)

Day 3

Analyzing a tale, song, game, riddle and discovering learning style

Creating new knowledge from the culture for classroom transaction

Learning how to prepare a lesson from the text drawn from the community

( tales, songs, pictures,etc)

Understanding the learning style in tribal society

Problems of tribal girls: teacher/ community perception on girls education

Role specification for girls in home/ school Attitude and behaviour of teachers on girls

in classroom that affects the girls Parental attitude on girls schooling

Day 4

Analyzing the social strength of tribal society

Group solidarity Having a land and a language Cultural expressions Village as a large family Shared understanding of life Collective decision Sustained efforts

Knowing the community: