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BUILDING TEACHER QUALITY IN INDIA

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

Series Editor: Alexander W. Wiseman

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Series Editor from Volume 11: Alexander W. Wiseman

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION AND SOCIETY VOLUME 41

BUILDING TEACHER QUALITY IN INDIA: EXAMINING POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND IMPLEMENTATION OUTCOMES

EDITED BY

ALEXANDER W. WISEMAN

Texas Tech University, USA

AND

PREETI KUMAR

Independent Researcher, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Editorial matter and selection copyright © 2021 Alexander W. Wiseman and Preeti Kumar. Individual chapters copyright © 2021 the respective Author/s. Published under an exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80071-904-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-903-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-905-7 (Epub)

ISSN: 1479-3679 (Series)

Contents

About the Editors

Alexander W. Wiseman, PhD, is a Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy in the College of Education at Texas Tech University, USA. He holds a dual-degree PhD in Comparative & International Education and Educational Theory & Policy from Pennsylvania State University, a MA in International Comparative Education from Stanford University, a MA in Education from The University of Tulsa, and a BA in Letters from the University of Oklahoma. He taught secondary English in both the United States and Japan before returning to higher education. He conducts comparative educational research on educational policy and practice using large-scale education data sets on math and science education, information and communication technology (ICT), teacher preparation, professional development and curriculum as well as school principal’s instructional leadership activity, and is the author of many research-to-practice articles and books. He serves as senior editor of the online journal, FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education, and as series editor for the International Perspectives on Education and Society volume series (Emerald Publishing).

Preeti Kumar, PhD, is an independent researcher and educational consultant. She holds a PhD in Comparative and International Education from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA. She completed her MEd in Learning Disabilities (including Autism and MR) from Georgia State University (USA), a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management of Learning Disabilities from SNDT Women’s University (Mumbai, India), and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Bombay (India). She has extensive experience as director of a special education department, teacher, learning support specialist, and early childhood education specialist in Nigeria (Lagos), the USA (Atlanta, Georgia), and India (New Delhi). Her teaching expertise lies in all academics and inclusion for high incident special education students for K-12 grades, multicultural education, national and international policy studies, teacher quality, and gender studies, not only in the USA but internationally in both public and private education settings. She is currently working on the curriculum development for Adolescent Multicomponent-Intensive Training-Reading Program (AMP-IT-UP) with the developer. She has served as an Assistant Editor of the Forum for International Research in Education (FIRE) and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for many academic journals.

About the Authors

Supriya Baily is an Activist, a Scholar, and an Educator. Her work, spanning 30 years, began as a teenager in India as a community organizer and leader. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Education at George Mason University, focusing social justice issues in education, the marginalization of girls and women in educational policy and practice, and the role of teacher education to address educational inequity. Prior to joining academia, she worked for development and social justice organizations leading to her lifelong interest to the better understand the processes of agency and voice that promote grassroots transformation in marginalized communities. She is also the Co-Director for the Center for International Education and is currently the Vice President of the Comparative and International Education Society, where she formerly served as Treasurer.

Nirupam Bajpai is Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development and Director, South Asia Program at the Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute at Columbia University. Between July 2010 and August 2014, he served as the founding director of the Columbia Global Centers | South Asia. Over the last three decades, he has been working at different US universities beginning in 1992 at the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Harvard University from 1995 to 2002 and since July 2002 at Columbia University. A macroeconomist by training, his research interests include sustainable development, primary health and education, ICTs and disruptive technologies, globalization, emerging markets, global competitiveness, and macroeconomic policies in developing and developed countries. He is considered to be a leading development advisor of his generation. For over three decades, he has been studying the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and globalization and advising governments, including working towards combining economic development with environmental sustainability to promote the mitigation of anthropogenic climate change. Since October 1999, he has had the high honor and privilege of informally advising three successive Prime Ministers of India.

Jyoti Bawane is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Educational Studies, Indian Institute of Education, Pune, India. She has a doctorate in education and specializes in the area of teachers and teacher education, educational policy and practice, dynamics of schooling, online teaching, and learning. She has conducted several research studies, published papers, and contributed chapters relating to her specialization at both the national and international levels. She has authored a book on Ashram Schools: Teacher Context and Challenges (Manak Publication, 2012), and recently co-edited a book on Theory and Praxis: Reflections on the Colonization of Knowledge (Routledge, 2020). She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University and Erasmus Scholar at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Reetu Chandra, PhD, is a Gold Medalist (PG). She works at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, India. She has been working in the area of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for almost two decades. She is the part of the development team for “The Preschool Curriculum” and “Guidelines for Preschool Education.” She is the member of various Core Groups on ECCE formed at the National and State level under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, Government of India. She is also a National Resource Group member for the latest initiatives of the Government of India “NISHTHA” and “School Health and Welfare Wellness Ambassador Initiative under Ayushman Bharat.” She is continuously engaged in the development of resource material, program evaluation, organisation of conferences and training programs on ECCE. She has conducted live shows on Swayam Prabha and PM eVidya TV Channels, developed Audio–Video programs/spots, conducted research, written books, and contributed chapters. She has presented papers in seminars/conferences and published papers and chapters in national and international journals and books. She is an editorial board member and reviewer for international journals. On a study tour for program evaluation, she has visited the University of Minnesota in USA, University of London and Cambridge University in UK sponsored by DFID. She has received a national award for a video program on ECCE for best production in 2014. She is also a TEDx speaker.

Neha Chheda is an Educator in India. She has been a member of the core team which set up Shishuvan School (ICSE Board) in Mumbai, India in 2001. During her tenure of 15 years at Shishuvan School, she took up the role of Head of Primary Department (8 years), Principal (4 years), and Executive Director (3 years). She then went on to be a Director, and Lead Assessor at Adhyayan Quality Education Services. From raising the standard of education in one school, she is now working on raising the bar with schools across the country. Adhyayan has worked with 450 schools across India and with over 8,000 government schools. She personally has completed more than 1,200 classroom observations, trained more than 150 principals and over 500 teachers in processes for continuous improvement. She is currently the lead in developing and implementing Professional Growth Programmes for leaders and teachers in schools and school networks. She works with managements of schools on good governance practices, and has undertaken school improvement projects for state board, ICSE and setting up international board schools in India.

Susan L. Hillman, PhD, is a Professor of teacher education, and a mathematics teacher educator in the Elementary Education program at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, USA. Primary responsibilities include teaching undergraduate mathematics methods and seminar courses. She has worked with schools, teachers and educators in India since 2000, and with Adhyayan as an International Associate since 2012. She has facilitated professional development with teachers and educators (in the USA and in India) supporting the teaching and learning of numeracy through engaging in best teaching practices. Her research interests include self-study of teacher educator practices, school improvement related to quality of education, continuous improvement of teaching practices, and using digital technologies for teaching and learning mathematics. Recent publications and conference presentations address self-study of mathematics teacher educator feedback and questioning practices as part of relational teacher education, as well as school improvement in India. She is principal investigator on two research projects based in India. Both are long-term projects focused on studying the impact of the school collaborative review process on the quality of education in India, and investigating the impact of the Professional Growth Programme for Teachers in India.

Radhika Iyengar has been working in the areas of sustainable development and environmental education at the Center for Sustainable Development since 2011. At the Center, she collaborated with scientists, health experts, environmentalists and others on various topics such as education on COVID, mental wellbeing and environmental science education. She has been working with Governments and NGOs in multiple-countries advising on designing education and environmental education programs. Her current research includes testing for high fluoride content in water sources in Central India. She received the prestigious Earth Frontiers grant in 2020 on community-based education on fluoride testing. She has over 15 years of experience in international education development. She has recently co-edited two books, Teacher Education in South Asia with Palgrave Macmillan and Interrogating and Innovating Comparative and International Education Research with Sense Publication in 2019. Her latest article is on “Education as the Path to a Sustainable Recovery from COVID-19” in UNESCO’s Prospects Journal. Previously, she received a distinction from Teachers College, Columbia University on her PhD dissertation. She recently received an Early Career Award from Teachers College, Columbia University. Currently, she is the Chair of Environmental and Sustainability Education Special Interest Group at the Comparative and International Education Society.

Jyotsna Jha presently heads the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), located in Bangalore, India. CBPS is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization that focuses on research in gender, education, social and economic policies, budgeting, decentralization and governance issues. She did her doctorate from Jawaharlal University, New Delhi in 1995. Trained as an economist, she has significant experience of working on development related issues. Prior to joining CBPS, she worked as an adviser to Social Transformation Programmes Division at Commonwealth Secretariat in London, which allowed to undertake research and policy advocacy in a large number of countries. She has served as a member of the Global Advisory Committee for UN Girls Education Initiative – UNGEI for four years. She has also been a member of several national committees and Task Forces in India. She has led a number of research initiatives and has five books, and several chapters and papers to her credit. She has written extensively on the issue of equity in education, in particular on gender and education.

Sudeshna Lahiri is an Associate Professor at the University of Calcutta (India). Previously, she served in Banaras Hindu University (2004–2007). She has been the recipient of Major Research Projects funded by the University Grants Commission (India); and ICSSR; a team member of Mega research project launched by NIEPA; and academic partner with the University of Glasgow to assist a project awarded by The Scotland Asia Partnerships Higher Education Research Fund. She is an active correspondent for the Indian Educational Abstract, NCERT, India. Her research areas are teacher performance appraisal and environmental psychology. She has been awarded a Stipendium Hungaricum Fellowship (2015–2016); Fulbright- Nehru Visiting Lecturer Fellowship (2012–2013), and International Visitor Leadership Program (MRP: 2010–2011) by the US Department of State. She is the Coordinator of the Erasmus+ICM programme between Department of Education, University of Calcutta and Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary (since 2017). She has published research papers, chapters in books and edited books. She is a member of the Research Advisory Committee in a couple of universities. She has developed of e-content for MOOCs and delivered lectures for Dl.Ed and Masters in Arts (Education) programs. Her international academic visits include South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, UK and Hungary. During her studentship, she recorded Science talks for All India Radio (AIR).

Puja Minni has worked as a Researcher in the field of Education since 2012 and has a number of publications, including book chapters, journal articles, reports and conference papers. She holds two Masters degrees: one in Economics (Bangalore University, India) and another in Public Policy and Administration (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA). Her research interests include school education, use of technology in education and teacher management. She has also worked as a Consultant with National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Committee, looking at child labour issues. She has worked with Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), Bangalore, India on wide range of research projects in school education, public health, teacher management and public expenditure review. Her recent publication, along with other authors, looks at Teacher Management processes across South Asia. Currently, she is working as an independent researcher.

Shreya Sandhu is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Studies in Sociology of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She has previously taught core and interdisciplinary sociology courses at Miranda House, University of Delhi and is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hindu College, University of Delhi, India. Her research interests include the political economy and education, Indian education policy, school reforms, girlhood studies, teacher support system, and quality of education. She has critically analyzed and presented on the contemporary Aam Aadmi Party led government’s Delhi model of education at various national and international conferences like the Comparative Education Society of India (CESI), All India Sociological Conference and Graduate Seminars. For her on-going doctoral work, she is exploring neoliberalism and higher education with a specific focus on teacher labor markets to understand academic culture in Indian higher education institutions.

Rohit Setty’s work centers on intellectualizing teachers’ education in India and abroad. He works with faculty and research centers across India on textbook reform, teacher education curriculum reform, and ways to carry out teacher education. He writes for Indian popular press, academic journals in the USA, and publishes in internationally edited volumes. He serves as a co-editor for the series South Asian Educational Contexts in South Asia Education Policy, Research and Practice, and currently works as a board member for several non-profits, such as Children’s Lovecastles Trust, APPEAR India, and the Dharma into Action Foundation. He earned his PhD in Teaching & Teacher Education at the University of Michigan. During this time, he was a Fulbright Fellow in India where he designed and developed professional learning environments for government schoolteachers. He has taught in Virginia, Japan, and New Zealand as a secondary school teacher and has worked with in-service and pre-service Social Studies teachers across Michigan and in India over the last 20 years.

Haein Shin is Education Technical Adviser at the Center for Sustainable Development of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. For the past 10 years, she has worked on the implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation and content development of projects in Myanmar, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of these projects, mainly focusing on literacy, digital literacy, employment readiness and life skills, and environmental activism, is to build sustainable and resilient communities. As a community educator, she worked across health, environment, and small business sectors to bring youth education programming on sustainability and gender issues. She has developed and curated curriculum contents for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to merge science knowledge and civic engagement, and created curriculum merging job readiness, life skills and digital literacy. She has conducted qualitative data studies involving over 350 participants on the process of education technology uptake to inform teacher training. Taking findings from her research, she trained ministry education officials on classroom teaching methods using technology including Virtual Reality. She received her Master of Arts in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University and her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the College of William and Mary.

Rajashree Srinivasan is a Professor at the School of Education, Azim Premji University, India. Her research interests include pedagogic practices in teacher education, children’s learning and development, and peace education. She currently teaches courses on child development and teacher professional development in the Masters of Education and teacher education programs. She has worked on a collaborative project that aimed to develop a plan for India’s University Grants Commission to increase inclusivity in higher education country-wide. She collaborated on a project on liberal arts education with the Institute of Higher Education Policy, Washington. Her recent publications include a co-authored chapter titled, “Parent–Child Relations: Changing Contours and Emerging Trends,” in the book Childhoods in India: Traditions, Trends and Transformations and two articles, “Pedagogic Practices of Teacher Educators” and “Towards an understanding of the work of teacher education professoriate in India”, published in the journal, Higher Education for the Future.

Shamim C. Suryavanshi is an independent Educational Consultant with more than two decades of experience in the field. She has taught in secondary schools and B.Ed. colleges; both private as well as government systems. One of her pioneering contributions has been with the Aga Khan Education Service, India (AKES, I) where she led implementation of progressive innovations such as reflective practices, group problem solving, creation of an enabling environment of informed and skilled leadership, and sustainability through outreach under the European Commission funded Program for Enrichment of School Level Education (PESLE). Over the years, she has worked with various stakeholders in mainstream as well as the NGO education sector across India and in countries like Pakistan, China, and Nigeria. Her knowledge and understanding of the field culminated in the form of her cross-national doctoral study that compared pre-service teacher education in an Indian university with that in a Chinese university when she was based in Hong Kong. She continues to publish and present papers on teachers, youth, cultures, and societies as she supports individuals and organizations aiming to make a difference in the world through quality education.