QUESTIONING UPON MORAL DEVELOPMENT AS AN UNIVERSAL THEORY

To begin with in brief what Kohlberg’s theory of moral development talks about then I will be looking at critically what critics have given their argument against his theory. Kohlberg has described six stages of moral development which are followings.
Obedience & Punishment: at stage 1 child thinks that if you do wrong thing, you will get punishment. For child rule seems to be made by elder or god.
Individualism & Exchange: at stage 2, children do not like to stick with any single authority. So they see that there are different sides to any issue. Since everything is relative, one is free to pursue one's own interests, although it is often useful to make deals and exchange favors with others. Both stages come under pre-conventional level 1
Good Personal Relationship: at stages 3, children emphasize that a good person must carry certain good behavior, care and sympathy for others. They emphasize being a good person, which means having helpful motives toward people close to them.
Maintaining the Social Order; at stage 4, children think as member of the conventional society. They should follow its values, norms, and expectations. And also their concern change toward obeying laws to maintain society as a whole so that society can exist in order.
Social Contract and Individual Rights: at this stage 5, people think that society is made of principles and laws, so principles and laws are social contract. They emphasize basic rights and the democratic processes that give everyone right to enjoy and abide the principles prevailed in the society. So there is a struggle for personal right and choice.
Universal Principles: at this stage 6, people think that to achieve social justice, there are made some universal principles which govern people. So these principles of justice which guide us towards decisions based on an equal respect for all.


Kohlberg’s theory cannot be considered as a universal theory because there are many loopholes. Kohlberg has said in his theory only emphasis justice to the exclusion of other values, and so it may not deal with the arguments of those who value, beliefs other moral aspects of actions. Kohlberg's stages are not culturally neutral, as demonstrated by its application to a number of different cultures. On the other hand, they progress through the stages in the same order; individuals in different cultures seem to do so at different rates. Kohlberg believes that different cultures do inculcate different belief but his stages reflect to underlying modes of reasoning, rather than to those beliefs

Here, I would support my argument what Simpson (1974) says that Kohlberg’s stages are culturally biased. Simpson says that Kohlberg has developed a stage model based on the Western Philosophical tradition and has then applied this model to non-Western cultures without considering that they have different moral outlooks. Kohlberg’s theory does not fit and suitable in Indian context because India is nation of diverse culture and religion. People morality and culture differs from religion to religion. So we can see that Muslim people imbibe different morality and culture on the basis of their religion which quite different from Hindu cultures. I would like to give example from Usha Menon’s paper which talks that Shweder’s classification of the Hindu moral code as duty-based moral code. She says that Hindus cultures evaluate the rightness and wrongness of their own thoughts, words and action are based in different conceptuality. Accordingly each person is supposed to live by code that is determined by many factors. They are followings; gender, occupation, family role, caste affiliation, phase of life.
She talks that the ultimate goal for all Hindu, according to texts on moral codes, souls be moksha or liberation, release from the ever-ending cycle of rebirths and redeaths. Besides it, other three goals of life in this world, they are, pleasure and the fulfillment of sensual desires(kama), profit and material prosperity (earth) and the performance of the religious and moral duties and rituals of everyday life( dharma).
She speaks that everyday practice is necessary for Hindus culture. She writes that self refinement makes upper caste Oriya Hindus to give attention to the correct performance of daily practice ( nityakarma). These are followings; defeating twice a day, bathing after each defecation, bathing every time after returning to home from any outside of works, offering prayers to their God in the morning and again before the evening meal and bathing before eating a meal, reciting everyday prayers . food is supposed to served by eldest wives of the family and in orthodox Brahman family people prefer to eat only at a time and in the kitchen either the room which is located in the center of the house so that they cannot encounter the inauspicious sounds of widows or untouchable people who works as scavenger.

Usha Menon also talks about moral emotions; lajya is one of the primary moral emotions which can be described by English word shame. It is cultivated by the Hindus upper caste as a sign of morality. Lajya also can be translated as modesty, being civilized, being respectful to elders, and seniors and not encroaching on others. According to her in indigenous understandings of lajya is considered to be a primary moral emotion because it teaches people how to behave morally, how to show consideration to others. It also shows how to regulate their conduct so that harmony can be maintained in the society. In this regards she gives example of the story that is told in the temple town of Bhubaneswar about the goddess Kali and her experience of lajya. Kali is regarded as the most violent and bloodthirsty manifestation of the Great Goddess of Hinduism. She is shown with her right foot placed squarely on the chest of a supine Siva, her husband and her tongue hanging out.

Another moral emotion she mentions that is Kshama ( forgiveness) given due consideration in Hinduism it is defined as ‘ a willingness to abandon one’s right to resentment, negative judgment and indifferent behavior towards one who unjustly injured us, while fostering the undeserved qualities of compassion, generosity and even love toward him or her.


Shweder, Mahapatra, and Miller (1987) assert in Usha Menon paper that conceptuality of morality is pervaded in Hinduism thinking. They say that American tradition is different from Hundus tradition and morality. They give an example of upper caste households of the young married women are told to be without lajya only with respect to the women of the conjugal family but she cannot behave same with the men. On the other hand she is advised to be modest with older men of the family, the husband’s father, his elder brother.

In Hundus religion, a Brahman widow in the temple town spends her days reading from the sacred books, refrains from wearing colored clothes and from eating non-vegetarian food because she is atoning fire sin of allowing her husband to die. According to Hindu ways of thinking, a married woman holds her husband’s life and his physical well-being within the palms of her hands. The source of her power over her husband’s life and his health can be achieved through her chastity of self- refinement. If person of the family is doing prayer in room called puja-ghar where child would not be scolded but child creating dirt during then child will be scolded. Later child learns that whether this behavior is appropriate or not depends entirely on the context. Therefore, it seems that the aspects of the life in the temple town that encourage Hindu moral understandings.

Another argument is given by Carol Gilligan (19977, 1982) who is critique of Kohlberg. Gilligan charges that Kohlberg's theory was earlier developed based on empirical research using only male participants. Gilligan argues that it does not properly describe the concerns of women. She observes that Kohlberg’s stages were taken exclusively from interviews with males. She has argued that Kohlberg’s theory is sex-biased. She also argues that the stages reflect a decidedly male orientation. For males, advanced moral thought revolves around rules, rights and abstract principles. For women, Gilligan says, morality centers not on rights and rules but on interpersonal relationships and the ethics of compassion and care. Women’s morality is more contextualized and it is tied to real, ongoing relationships rather than abstract solution to hypothetical dilemma. Gilligan's theory of moral development does not focus on the value of justice. She has developed an alternative theory of moral reasoning based on the ethics of caring.

Gilligan’s morality of caring framework, the argument is made for the need to treat issues of caring rather than to limit the scope of morality to the prohibition-oriented issues of justice. She gives an example that girls are often seen as developing a connected sense of self and associated morality of caring. On the contrary, we find that males are seen attached to their mothers. They are assumed to identify with their fathers and developing an autonomous sense of self and associated morality of justice. According Gilligan there are two types of moral perspectives,’’ all people are born into a situation of inequality and no child survives in the absence of adult connection. Since everyone is vulnerable both to oppression and to abandonment, two stories about morality recur in human experience’’

Here I would give some example for support from Joan G. Miller paper who talks that moral development differences on people cultural psychology. To give an example, whether abortion is considered a moral violation or matter of the woman’s personal judgment depends in part on culturally and sub culturally variable conception.
Another argument can be raised against to Kohlberg’s Heinz moral dilemma (stealing the drug) on the contrary we can find that in Buddhist conception of karma during childhood, children are told that negative karma would lead to bad result. For example, ‘’if you create negative actions (bad karma) ,then you will become sick or die and when you die ,then you will go to the animal world or hell world’’.

Another similar example can be seen because cultural work reflects cross-cultural variation exists in injustice reasoning contrast. Miller describes in his paper comparing moral judgment of orthodox Hindu Indian practice of sati custom. According to orthodox U.S people think that treatment of such behavior as an issue of moral harm, whereas orthodox Hindu Indians consider it as virtuous behavior. They believe,’’ sati is morally right… The wife dies with her husband in order to preserve her chastity and show her devotion to her husband.’’

Miller paper gives argument that apart from everyday practices and modes of social interaction that impact on children’s development of moral outlook. Although it also it provide insights into the affective and cultural grounded processes by which moral outlooks change at a societal level that affects the outlooks of adults.

Conclusion
Therefore, I can conclude by saying that Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is not universal because there are many reasons. First, Kohlberg's stages are not culturally neutral, as demonstrated by its application to a number of different cultures so it means his theory is culturally biased. Since, Simpson argues that Kohlberg has developed a stage model based on the Western Philosophical tradition and has then applied this model to non-Western cultures without considering that they have different moral outlooks. Second, according to Gilligan, Kohlberg’s theory is sex biased in which he had taken earlier developed theory based on empirical research using only male participants. Third, Shedder, Mahapatra, and Miller (1987) assert in Usher Menon paper that conceptuality of morality and American tradition is different from Hindus tradition and morality.

. References
Joan G. Miller; Cultural Psychology of Moral development.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Harvard University Press: Cambridge.
Kohlberg’s; Stages of Moral Development
Usher Menon;Morality and Context: A Study of Hindu Understandings

RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE TO THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION

Language is a means of communication and social mobility in the plural society. Language is an arbitrary and redundant because it is necessary for making communication success. On the other hand language is highly rule governed system. No language can tell its universality. Language learning is a natural phenomenon. Our thoughts ideas are constituted through language. All the language can be written into single Roman script. Language has no difference in its structure but it has differences in terms of social and cultural context. Language is a pattern system of arbitrary sound signals. It is characterized by structure dependence, creativity, displacement, duality and cultural transformations. All the language in the world which is remarkably similar in their main design features. It is fact that there is a relation between thought and language

Language of teaching is characterized by its rational usage which is one of the sociolinguistic variables in the actual speech activities. Child learns language because child has some sense of grammar (innate language) and on the basis of his/her observation of sentences and interaction from the people of society. Child develops his thought in own language then express it to parents, teachers and friends. Language plays a very vital role in education and day-today life. If people have no their own language whether primary or secondary, they cannot express their feeling easily. And also without language, no subject can be taught and learnt in educational domain. So children language can be used a resource for learning of knowledge in the classroom ( Agnihotri)

According to Vygotsky there are two role of language which mainly functions. Firstly, language as communicative or cultural tool which we use it for sharing and developing the knowledge. Secondly, language also enables organized human social life to exist and continue. He suggests that both physical manipulation and social interaction are necessary for development. He views that language is a mechanism for thinking, and a mental tool. It means language makes abstract thinking possible. It is the language that allows the child to imagine, manipulate, create new ideas and share these ideas with others. Language makes child free from the confines of the immediate and the concrete surrounding. As we know that learning frequently happens in shared situations. Language is crucial tool for appropriating other mental tools. So, to share an activity there must be happening talk about that activity. Unless we open our mouth (talk), we will never be able to know others meaning.

From the moment when child goes to school between five and seven years, on the average the child can achieve academic skills and achievement in education. This is very good age for a child to learn mastery over secondary language. I am reminded of what Brunner says language as an instrument of thought. Child can acquire literary skills in school and can understand a theoretical framework for conceptualization. If a child finds the range of contextual support available for expressing or receiving meaning,, the more cognitive involvement can be internalized.

If we see the relevance and pervasiveness of language through every nook and corner of the country, gave to the Indians living in different linguistic regions of the country to establish contact with each others. It is difficult to imagine how in the absence of language , the people of various provinces, speaking different languages and possessing diverse cultures could have come together under a single banner during the years of India’s long struggle for freedom with help of language. It is language which united the people of various sub-nationalities living in India and made them Indian nationals. In this way language is the single most powerful force which bring about nationalistic and patriotic feelings and sense of common nationality in India. The present unity among diverse regions and races of India is thus the gift of language to the country.


There is a great deal importance of language study and language teaching in schools, colleges and university. There are many important objectives of language teaching carries. Literally, it is to equip students with the ability to become literate, read and write with common understanding. Teacher must be aware about meta- linguistic and should try to promote and encourage giving them opportunity to express in their own language in the classroom. Teacher may also try to equip students with polite strategies and negotiate them with their communicative encounters with bearing and prestige. In this way, being a sincere teacher, he/she should always try to enhance open scope for bilingualism and appreciate their native language (resource) during the classroom transaction. Now, it becomes necessary for students to pay full attention in the class in order to listen what is being said and make their own sense in their language (L1). Here child’s primary language becomes relevant as resource in the classroom situation. I am reminded of what Mahatma Gandhi ji says ‘’ the mother tongue is as natural for the development of man’s mind as mother’s milk is for the development of the infant’s body.’’

Moving ahead, we can see second importance of teaching of language is to develop student’s abilities to manipulate and interpret the cognitive demand of text. In this way the power of words is the power of thought. Chomsky believes that language is already there in the human mind, hard-wind in the form of a Universal Grammar. And another cognovits Piaget views that language is constructed through an interaction with the environment like any other cognitive system. On the other hand Vygotsky opines that child’s speech is essentially a result of an interaction with society. Subsequently, child can use his innate language faculty hypothesis through teaching of language and child can learn and comprehend others subject with help of language.

Now, teacher in language classroom must develop some sort of habit of reading among students, while giving them some sort of assignment. Subsequently students’ habit of reading will lead learners to construct their own independent school of thought. They can understand the things by drawing some inferences from text and with help of their prior knowledge. Besides this, relevance of language study will reflect in students writing work which inhabits a rich control of grammar, vocabulary, subject content and punctuation also the ability to organize the thought coherently.


Conclusion
There is a great deal importance of language study and language teaching in schools, colleges and university. First, it is to equip students with the ability to become literate, read and write with common understanding. Second relevance of teaching of language is to develop student’s abilities to manipulate and interpret the cognitive demand of text. Third relevance of teaching of language will reflect in students writing work which inhabits a rich control of grammar, vocabulary, subject content and punctuation also the ability to organize the thought coherently. Therefore, in language teaching class, we must actively encourage the use of native language for inter-state communication as resource. This way, bilingualism instead of becoming a millstone round our necks, will open glorious avenues for an overall cultural evolution of India and Indians.

REFERENCES

Cummins, J. and swain, M. 1986. Bilingualism in Education. London: Longman. ( Chapter8,138-161)
Bruner,J.S. 1966. Towards a Theory of Instruction. Harvard University Press. ( Chapter 5,102-112)
Allen,J.P.B and Burren,P.V.1971.(ed.) Chomasky : selected Readings. London: Oxford University Press. ( Chapter 1,1-22)
Vygotsky,L.S.1962. Thought and Language. Cambridge: The MIT Press. ( Chapter 6&7,82-153)
R.K. Agnihotri. Towards a Pedagogical Paradigm Rooted in Multilinguality. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1(2),1-10

MAKING AN UNDERSTANDING ABOUT MACRO THEORATICAL PERSPECTIVES OF KARL MARX

Karl Marx basic thrust is liberally sprinkled with democratic principles, humanism and youthful idealism. He refused the abstractness of Hegelian philosophy which talks about the naïve dreaming of utopian communists. Rejecting that philosophy, Marx had laid the groundwork for his own life’s work. When Marx went to France where he saw industrial revolution was emerging in which working class (proletariat) were being exploited by capitalists (Bourgeoisie). Marx believed that the class struggle was the driving force of social change. Marx came to know that the capitalist society is based on masses production. From there he took his first hand experience and wrote Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844).

Marx believed that society is based on two structures; superstructure and base structure. In this way superstructure (religion, education, culture etc.) is determined by base structure (economy, labor force, etc.) He made his assumption that only way out of exploitation of labor force only could take place through class struggle in society which would lead to blood revolution because of two reasons; Surplus Value and sense of Alienation.

Concept of Surplus Value: as Marx already said above that capitalist society is made of mass production. He argued against Capitalist which produces nothing. It is labor force which produces wealth and money. He saw that worker did hard work in working hour and got paid meager amount. Their value of wages went in form of profit by capitalist. The workers were getting only 25% out of 100% and rest of the profit became the part of industrialists. The industrialist observed that there was no consumption of production of goods in the market so they decided to reduce the number of labor in order to save their surplus value. Now, workers found difficult to sustain and survive their family nourishment and livelihood. There was living in utter poverty due to unemployment. Subsequently, they made unity among themselves to overcome of this crisis and destroy the dominant of capitalism.

Concept of Alienation
The theory of alienation refers it as a result of modern industrial society or capitalism. Term ‘Alienation ‘denotes to dehumanization, lack of emotion and sentiment. Marx believed that there were four stages which led to alienation among working forces of industry against bourgeoisies (industrialists and capitalists). They are as follows; alienation to production, alienation to colleagues, alienation to nature (surrounding and world), alienation to himself.

Alienation to Production
This was a first stage when workers realized that we were part of the industry and result of it productions would happen. However, we are not able to purchase or consume it. The emotion and sentiment which they had with products now began to lose which led to alienation towards production.

Alienation to Colleagues
This was a second stage when workers felt that their life had become a part of machinery. They had to work for long hours in the industry but value of wages were paid in form of meager amount. They had no time to share their feelings with colleagues. Eventually they had grown up sense of alienation amidst workers due long hours of pressure.

Alienation to nature
This was a third stage when workers found themselves in confinement of industry. They began to feel suffocation due to long and hectic schedule of works. They found no time to interact with their surrounding and society. They had no time to think about community and its welfare. In this way, hectic schedule of work and made their life mechanical and due to less payment their lives of full of stress which led alienation towards the nature.

Alienation to himself
This was a last stage of alienation when they themselves realized modern industrial life made their life limited and burden of life. They saw that their value of wages which was being exploited by the industrialists. They found that there was no relation between products and them for which they worked hard. There was no use of goods in their life. They found their life confined in the boundary of industry, and their life had become part of machinery which resulted alienation themselves.
It is, therefore, apparent that prevailing dominant of capitalists and their surplus value and utter poverty led to class struggle among working forces which resulted in form of blood revolution and downfall of capitalists.

References
Ritzer,G. (2000).Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim: A Biographical Sketch, Modern Sociological Theory,5th Edition, Boston; McGraw Hill.
Marx: Sociology, Social Change, Capitalism. Edited by Donald Mcquarie,Published by Horizon Press, New York.

Where is The Teacher?

Apparently, there is a apathy prevailed among the people towards teaching profession and teacher. Teaching is not yet considered a profession because it is poorly paid compare to others job (Doctors, Lawyer, Engineer, etc.) though six pay commissions has come into operation in many states. The basic thrust behind it may be also one cause that teachers are not well trained in schools. They do not know what to teach and how teach effectively. They have come in this profession by chance because they could not realize their ambitious dream. Since Kothari Commission has given the emphasis in the report that training of teachers demand our urgent need attention which enables teachers providing basic skills and competency to become a professional teacher. But so called District Institute of Education Training (DIETs) are not working properly who are meant for to hold the responsibility of pre-service and in-service training for teachers. This has to change, hopefully.

SAFFRON AGENDA AND BRAHMANICAL HEGEMONY IN GUJRAT TEXT BOOK

This is an attempt to examine Gujarat state textbook. The portions of chapters in this book are given very small in size because of it I will be critically looking at three lessons. When we open the school text book of Gujarat state, as they cannot demonstrate direct into classroom so what they do is that they narrate history, nationalistic term and symbol to make students feel proud of it through these textbooks.
The English textbooks produced by Gujarat State Board of gives emphasis on national unity and richness of Indian’s cultural heritage. Each text book opens with the national pledge on the beginning page so that children learn to say early in their school lives: “I love my country and I am proud of its rich &varied heritage” it reflects the post-colonial Indian identity that it has unity in diversity in its culture, religion, linguistic variety. It tries to strengthen the national identity in children mind that India is our (one) country we should always love each other and be loyal towards the nation. As Geetha paper states ‘’in the context of Indian Nationalism, this is particularly important, since from very early times, nationalists drew upon Hindu mythology, religious symbols and feeling, to forge a sense of national unity’’

The intention behind this to indoctrinate children for the sake of national interest and development when they will grow up, they will be obedient citizen and will protect the nation. I am reminded of Althuesser’s IRS (Ideological State Apparatus) schools are tools which impart knowledge and encourage positive attitude towards the state ideology. In school teachers deliberately attempt to inculcate in their pupils an unshakable commitment and loyalty towards state through core objectives of textbook. Those children are drilled by their teachers in such tender age that do not raise the objection to the claim of ideology of state textbook, such as ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. Although children memorize this but never understand what it is meant for. As Manish Jain argues for the same in his paper that ’the curriculum, textbooks and pedagogy of civics practiced even today fails to develop conscious and active citizens. Since civics curriculum gives prime importance for the maintenance of order, following law and obeying the state, it leaves no space for questioning the structures and institutions of state’

Textbook of Social Science std. 5th lesson 1 st’ History of Village’ this chapter describes the history of the village saying that 500 years ago located at the bank of river . Dhunaji rehabilitated that village after his victory over it according to Hindu tradition. ‘‘Since then Rajput, Brahman, Patel, Koli and other people belong to other castes have been living there’’. This lesson prepares a mental image that Hindu used to very brave and victorious. If we ask children about the history of Mogal emperor they do not know. Why? The reason is simple because it is not included in their textbook except Hindu brave king. In words of Shalini Advani ‘it is easy to find out in text book ideology of bourgeois society run through all text, emphasizing social order at all cost’.

Next chapter7 in the same book,(page 17) Eklavya” which describes that students should learn the basic values of Indian culture .This story suggests that in Indian culture Guru’s place is considered to be very high . This lesson reminds me similar instance as Pratima Kale in her article defines ‘the set of attitude, values and expectations associated with the teacher is symbolized in the Indian tradition by word ‘Guru’ ’ She says that Guru was a Brahmana and his students were a selective group drawn from the Brahamana, Kshatriya and Vaisya families. This way this lesson invites a lot criticism. One can say that Eklavya was discriminated by his Guru(Drona) on basis of caste. Being born in a lower caste, Eklavya was refused by Drona to teach him archery. Lower castes were supposed to do only manual labor and mental labor for upper caste. It is obvious that at time education was considered only to get upper caste and it was under control of Brahman cal hegemony. After all when he became an expert of archer then Drona orders him to give his right thumb as Guru-Dashing. Drona deliberately did so that Eklavya can never do practice. This presents the indigenous tradition of India Varna system of caste that was in practice. Now, time has changed and education is considered necessary for all citizens which play a vital role in a development of nation. But one may ask that can Hindus constitute a nation, when they cannot nurture fellow-feeling beyond the boundaries of their respective castes? The simple answer is likely to be never.

Social Sciences standards 6th lesson11, (page 48) Rights and Duties”, which describes students to know their right and duties as citizens. This lesson mentions that” an ideal citizen is one who follow the rules and regulations of our country prevents those who harms the welfare of country, and do not act to ruin the pride of the country” , this is a process of inculcation of duty to respect the national symbols, (mark of the nation, stand, salute the national flag& sing national anthem and national song Vanda Mata ram right from the childhood. Rubin Saigon’s article rightly points that creating critical, agency oriented citizenship but a confirming the submissive citizenship in which the state has all rights and citizen all the duties. Manish join’s paper also noticed that The figure of 'citizen' was also shaped by the nationalist struggle against the colonial power and the subsequent transformation of the nationalist project into post-colonial agendas of power and domination’
Let us move now, Social science standard7(page 49)chapter entitle ‘Great Revolutionaries of India’. This chapter describes history such as the freedom struggle and national leaders. The students watch picture about the important people involved in the revolutionary activities of the Indian independence movement through the bioscope on the occasion of the Martyr’s Day. The class teacher starts the bioscope picture after imparting the revolutionary slogan:
‘’ Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna ,Ab hamare dil mein hai,
Dekhana hai jor kitna Baju-e-katil mein hai. ‘’
Bismil
After that the teacher tells students to remember courageous people who had laid down their lives and become martyr then there are many chapters in Gujarat text book have been provided for patriots, social reformers with their movement which glorifies the national heroism and asserts grandeur of national-hood.


At the same time there were others we were overlooked belonging to backward castes and have been excluded from the Social Sciences of Gujarat textbook such as Perior , Jyotiba Phule ,Savitribai Phule, Birsa Munda.

If we look at critically this iconic representation of images on the home page of the text book, which belonging to the particular ideological group. Today, the story of reform movements of the early 20th century clearly shows has become fashion for textbook. This textbook poses the question of how these images of male social reformers, political leaders and revolutionaries have attained and produced different meaning-secular, religious and political in the society. This iconic value of the image and its cultural effects depends on the person to person who is seeing it. In this way, it can be said that giving over a period of time images of social, religious, political reformers and revolutionaries have transformed these into icons of veneration through adopting the semiotic paraphernalia of deified ‘Great Leader’.
To sum up,
In order to bring the conclusion to an end,let me encapsulate the thing what I said above. As we have gone through Gujarat state textbooks, which apparently shows National Pledge as unity in diversity and nation values, ‘History of village’ as saffron agenda, ‘Eklavya’ as Brahmanical hegemony, ‘Rights and Duties’ as national citizenship and loyalty towards state. ‘The Great Revolutionaries’ as iconization of images with particular group ideology. Given the current political conjuncture, saffron agenda , when national ideals have been rendered contentious, the teaching of nationalism assumes certain urgency and exclusion of Dalit and female role is dire need of public debate. There appears a haste to defend the ‘right’ sort of Nationalism from the ‘Hindutva’ variety.

. REFERENCES
Pratima kale (1970) The Guru and The Professional: The dilemma of the Secondary School Teacher in Poona ,India in Comparative Education Review,Vol.14,No.3 (Oct. 1970) pp. 371-376.
Louis Althusser; Lenin and Philosophy and others Essays, Monthly Review Press 1971
Young, M. [1971]. An Approach to the Study of Curricula as Socially Organised Knowledge,, London: Coller Macmillan Pub.
Acharya,Poromesh(1996) Indigenous Education and Brahminical Hegimony in Bengal in Nigel Crook (ed) The Transmission of Knowledge in South Asia,OUP,London pp.99-117.
Acharya,Poromesh ,Education: Politics and Social structure, inR.Ghosh and M.Zachariach(eds), Education and the Process of Change, New Delhi: Sage,pp.65-79.
Acharya,Poromesh: Politics of Primary education in West Bengal: The case of Sahaj Path, Economic and Political Weekly,June 13,pp.1069-75.
Rubin saigol; His Rights/HerDuties: citizen and Mother in the Civics Discourse.in R.Saigol,R. Symb0olic Violence: Curriculum Padagogy and Society, Lahore: SAHE.
Shalini Advani; Educating the National Imagination ,Economic and Political Weekly, August 3.
Sudipta kaviraj; (1998).The Modern state in India,In Doornbos and Kaviraj (edit). Dynamics of State Formation: Europe and India Compared, London: Sage.
Goethe; English History of the India National Movement
Manish Jain; Evolution of Civics and Citizen in India
Paper presented at the South Asian Conference on Education, Department of Education, University of Delhi, 14-18 November, 1999.
http://www.tasveerghar.net/2007/Sujithkumar Parayil( Associate Professor in aCulture and Media Study) at T.I.S.S ,Mumbai

A DOCUMENTARY REVIEW ON ICT HARVEST

ICT Harvest a film is made by Swati Desai a creative consultant. This film is made with financial support from HIVOS and Comet Media Foundation 2007.From 2002 to 2007, NIIT an IT Training and Developing Organization undertook a study investigation what children did when left themselves with a computer and a high speed internet connection. This film looks at a school that took part in this project .The fast internet connectivity is gone but the school tries to continue the programme within its available resources. This is also the story of a teacher who discovered his vacation with ICTs and persisted to keep these efforts alive.

Summary of content

Shamashuddin Attar is a high school science teacher at village of Shirgaon, south of Maharastra. NIIT decides certain school to have demonstration of Kioas.It shows that how children work with computer without any training and tutoring. What they do when they left with computer and internet. There is a little village located near Goa. It lies between the Arabian Sea and the Sahayadri hills. In this remote place in 2002 NIIT and ICICI bank installed a kiosk centre in Shirgaon Collegiate High school Sinhudurg district, Maharastra, India. Their aim was to see how these children can use the kiosk till two hours before the school starts. There are first two computers into twenty children share each. Free public computer kiosk for children. This facility is for use by children under 15 years of age. There are no instructors or teachers. All activities at this kiosk are continuously monitored from New Delhi.

Neither computer has a mouse. They have a finger touch joystick four of the six buttons are meant to direct the cursor. The remaining two are the right and left clicks of the mouse. Seeing the number of children visiting the kiosk NIIT installed 50 to 60 games on the computers. First of all, the children just had fun on the computers. Later, the crowd at the kiosk increased. They began playing games and tiring of them opened other programmes like paint brush.

Earlier student had heard about computer on TV and in books. Students knew nothing about the internet. When this kiosk has installed students are thrilled to learn something new.Arun Chauhan an ex student said that when he was in the 7th since that time the kiosk came and he became a regular. At first he had no idea what to do because never having seen a computer before. Later he began to use the internet. He learnt a lot of new things. Many children now started using the internet. They first learnt how to visit a website and search for it.

Computer lab, the software package had its links to sites in Marathi, Hindi and English and related to children’s school subject. Children could not use the computer lab in the school for long hours. There were over 60 students using the few computers. Children could not learn much .Their teacher could only give them a demonstration. In comparison with computer lab, the kiosk was always open. Whenever the children had time they could do anything.

Children learnt very soon how to open browsers, click on link and open sites. They would pick up on the sites related to their school subjects. Thus while searching websites; they stumble on the Google link. Despite their poor English they realize that what research meant and start searching for games. They discovered a whole list of such websites. They realized something new that there is a thing like search engine.

Children searched also about things for books and websites. Some of them were interested in like astrology. Whenever children get into stuck they approach to Attar sir, who then guides them. They really enjoy themselves jostling for a place at the kiosk. As there are just two computers and so many students are over there. While surfing one day some children come across the New Scientist magazine. Now they are interested in DNA and genetics since childhood. Reading these articles they get to more interested .They have made up their mind and thinking to pursue Biotechnology.

Earlier when the internet was fast they formed a chat group with kids from kiosk in Kashmir. They chattered for half an hour everyday and even sent each others games. But when the net slowed down, they kept postponing their chat until they stopped. Now younger children at school find that the kiosk was shut for the holidays when it restarted the v-sat connection was dropped .Now it takes so long to open a site that they lose interest in surfing. They now just play games which also soon bore them. Students feel that they are not getting the benefit as they got previous time from the kiosk.

As teacher Attar feels that he should keep himself abreast on new topics. He downloads information from the net to present to students. He teaches students through presentation that suit them. Things from the syllabus which he is unable to show he downloads from net and presents it. These presentation which he downloads from the net or record it from TV get the children really involved. He has built up a collection of over hundred CDs. All that is available in English, he is putting them into Marathi. And in this way he is building an archive which is of perpetual use for the school.

The fact is that in 1991 when he took this job he had not even seen a computer. In 1995 the school was donated some computers. He was told since he was a science teacher. He had to teach computers as it was a science too. He said he knows nothing about computers.’’ Do a course in holiday and teach the children’’ they said. So he started learning. Today he can do everything, setup, installing even maintain just by practice and observation. He said no one needed to teach me even his son is able to format his computer. Earlier he knew very little English even Hindi was poor. He could just understand what is your name? In chat room he used to ask do you know Hindi. If they did, we chatted. If not we looked for someone else.

When he came to this village, people walked 4 k.m to fetch water. With rain water harvesting today there is no problem. He looked up his village in Google earth’’ this is my village and here is a small lake’’. He saw that that lake water would only flow down wards. He used satellite picture to follow the water. Collecting at spot where it seeped into raise the ground water level. He planned to dig a well in his school area. From this satellite picture he got the distance between the earth and camera. He measured the distance of a canal leaving the lake and the potential spot of the well from the same camera height. After that he calculated the height difference between two spots. There was a difference of fourteen feet between the lake and the spot for the well. He deduced that by digging fourteen feet deep he would find out the ground water level. Finally, he found out the water at sixteen feet. He realized that if he had no access to the internet then he could have never learnt what he has today.

Analysis and evaluation of the movie

This is really one of the greatest movies among inspirational movies. There are many things which strike me noteworthy . Teaching through computer technology which expands mind and brain. How children learn? It has been clearly manifested through movie that learning does not always happen in classroom rather outside of the class. There was no trainer or tutor for teaching computer. But children learn by observation and doing. It can be also called learning by trial and error. We also find interesting that children have consistent enthusiasm and passion for learning. Learning proves more effective if children did when left to themselves with a computer and a high speed internet connection. Children can not learn more only through computer demonstration. We can not also avoid importance of high speed internet connection. As we see that devoid of high speed internet connection loses children interest towards learning. Hence high speed internet connection play a conitive[urge to learn] role in children learning and understanding.

I appreciate and accept that ICT provides children what they want to learn and study. ICT has come up an exploratory idea in which children get space for study and discover how to learn, what to learn for them in what way they like. ICT teaching pedagogy seemed to me based on non authoritarian.ICT allows students exactly what they want to study, space what they want to do.

Another interesting aspect that make me to think of the teacher [Attar] who discovered his vocation with ICT[ Information and Communication Technology] and persisted to keep these effort alive. Earlier he knew nothing but later through his sincere effort he became the master of computer. He did not give up his positive hope and at last became successful computer teacher.

I agree but not completely because there are many loopholes in it also. When children at school find that the kiosk was shut for the holidays when it restarted the v-sat connection was dropped .Computers were running over there but devoid of high speed net connection. Now it takes so long to open a site that they lose interest in surfing. They now just play games which also soon bore them. Students feel that they are not getting the benefit as they got previous time from the kiosk.

Conclusion

In order to bring the conclusion to an end, I can say that ICT Harvest by Swati Desai is indeed a creative and motivational movie. The aim of NIIT to investigate what children did when left themselves with a computer and a high speed internet connection. The fast internet connectivity is gone but the school tries to continue the programme within its available resources. They found out that learning comes through trial and error rather computer demonstration. This is also the story of a teacher who discovered his vacation with ICTs and persisted to keep these efforts alive. Finally he brought what opt was thought could accomplish and paved a new path of success.

PROBLEMS OF ELEMENTARY TEACHERS AND ROLE OF TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Many of parents ignore the way that a teachers approach to their work. Teaching is deeply related in the teachers’ accumulated learning of experience .But people do not recognize the important moral and social purposes what teachers want to fulfill through their teaching. In this way teachers who are devalued, discarded and disregarded become bad teacher. Teachers are people too. You can not understand the teacher or teaching without understanding the person the teacher is [Goodson 1992].

The role of the teacher is very respecrable in society but it does not get its real due. There are many issues which teachers are currently facing. In school context , there is an imbalance in the teacher student ratio. School teachers have to perform many duties than teaching. they have to collect data for the census elections which takes teachers away from the classroom. apart from it, corruption in the system leads to bribing of officers for promotions for the transfers. Administrative problems including problem of promotion, incentives, placements and settlement of pensions are faced by teachers.

Some teachers become the teachers ,although they are not supposed to be teachers. They are bound with their duties, with the kinds of situation they have become. There were many factors which made them a teacher such as the times in which they grew up, value system of education belief , unemployment and so on so.


The teacher’s sex is another concern in the sense that the way teaching and work in general for men and women are often bound with very different kinds of lives and interests.

There is misconception among people regarding teaching, we judge people those who fail rather than those succeed. When teachers are new to the job, their incompetence can be excused. Teaching takes time in becoming competent. Due to this they are not given due respect. on the contrary,if teachers become old, people of society have notion that he/she is old so can not teach well.


As the Chattopadhyaya Committee (1983-85) had recommended that teacher education should be 4 or 5 year training after class12th pass out. Whereas in reality as Poonam Batra (2005) points out in her paper that teacher training is offered in a piece-meal and ad-hoc manner which hardly promotes habits of independent thinking, collaborative learning and the capacity to adapt to the changing needs of children and society. Hence, it leads to the problem of dissatisfaction in the work they are engaged.


Elementary teachers’ major concern pertaining to teaching pay scale for which they are paid less as comparison with others job. They do not get satisfied with this meager money. Whatever teacher get is not sufficient for their livelihood. Hence they always appear reluctant towards their duties [teaching]

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Another here is misconception among people regarding old teachers. They are regarded as bad teacher especially bad old teachers. School principal or administrator waits for them to leave, retire, or die! ‘If only I could get some new teachers …’ or wait until my new teachers arrive…’On the contrary once when they were 25 or 35 it was likely were bright and ideal for their pupils.

REFERENCES

Batra,Poonam (2005); 'Voice and Agency of Teachers-Missing Link in National Curriculum Framework 2005'' EPW,October 1.

Kale,Pratima (1970); '' the Guru and the profesional -The dilemma of the Secondary School Teacher in Poona, India' Comprative Education rewie,P.376