Multicultural Education and critical pedagogy

1. Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra
Ex State Coordinator,
Multilingual/Multicultural Education Programme
Government of Odisha India
Director , Folklore Foundation, Odisha, India
E mail: mkmfolk@gmail.com
URL: www.asgporissa.org/mahendra
Multiculturalism , Community Knowledge and Critical
Pedagogy :
South Asian Perspective
May , 14, 2012 ,
Han yang University
Seoul,South Korea

2. There is no human activity from
which every form of intellectual
participation can be excluded
Antonio Gramsci

3. Consider, Out of 600 Billion of World Population, Half of
Them are Literates
Half of Them are Non -literates !!
Is it not true that the literates
are
unknown about the complete
truth of human knowledge?
Is it not true that our
knowledge
is incomplete with out them!!!

5. MULTICULTURAL INDIA
 Indian culture is the constituent of many
races, languages and religions.
 The caste system in Indian society has created
many distinct identities among different social
groups.
 People maintain their caste symbols through
their own caste myth, epics, customs and
folklore.
 Therefore culture in India is diverse and
complex in its structure and function

6. THE PRESENT REALITY
 Rationalized Mother tongues 1576
 Other Mother tongues 1796
 Languages 122
 Scheduled languages 22

7. LINGUISTIC DIVERSITIES
 India constitute 16 % of world population
 The Census of India (1961) recorded 1652
mother tongues with a much larger number of
dialects which have been classified into 300 to
400 major languages
 But only 22 of these are “official” languages
(Constitution of India) along with
English (the associate official language).

8. CONTD..
 22 major languages ( 21 modern Indian
languages and Sanskrit as classical language)
 184 languages with having more than 10,000
popn( 1991)
 24 scripts used for writing Indian languages:
 11 major scripts are used to write the major
languages;
 13 minor scripts are used for writing some minor
and tribal languages.
 North East India, have chosen Roman script.

9. COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE
• Mostly oral in nature
• Functional in domestic and community
domain
• Expressed in their own language
• Two context of oral tradition
– Sacred ( mythic/ritualistic)
– Entertainment ( songs/tales/proverbs / epics
etc)

10. COMMUNITY RESOURCES
• Each of the community member irrespective of
age and sex are the owner of oral tradition
• Priests : sacred narratives/ myths/mantras/
chanting
• Professional epic singers (cast bard)
• Amateur singers/storytellers among the
community
Even in modern society their oral tradition is still
in living tradition, we don’t try to find them.

11. ETHNIC ( TRIBAL )LANGUAGES
 623 tribal communities, with a total
population of 84.3 million.
 This constitutes 8.2% of the total population
(1028.6 million) (Census of India, 2001).
 The majority of these 80 million people live in
rural, often remote, and economically
underdeveloped areas.

12. SOCIAL-DICHOTOMY
 1 .Urban – pura- Royal-
2.written –
 3.power
 4.sound economy
5.mobility –
 6. rapid change-
 7.Language - Sanskrit
8.Upper caste /class
scripted knowledge
 1.Rural- Palli –people –
 2.oral
 3.subjugation
 4.poor economy –
 5.static –
 6. less change
 7.Language –regional /
local, ethnic minority
languages
 8. experiential /oral
knowledge

13. MANIFESTATION OF CULTURE
 Cycle of Oral , written and oral- and
– live performance
 Rich experiential knowledge in
practice
 High philosophy of culture where life
is
transcendental
 Adaptability of new with old and
 Coexistence of past and present

14. GENRES OF COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE
• Children's song
• Lullabies, play song, labour song, forest songs
• Ritual songs , love songs,
• songs in social and
• religious ceremony
• Prose and Poetry Narratives :
• Tales, legends and myths
• Epics/caste genealogies
• Proverbs and sayings
• Semi Literary Narratives

15. RELIGIOUS BELIEF
• An integrated worldview where man,
nature and spirit are inseparable
• They form the epistemic world associating
the visible with the invisibles
• Life and plant are interchangeable(
reflected in folktales and myths)
• Belief on life after death(Duma) underworld
and rebirth of ancestor( past connected to
the present )

16. DANC,MUSIC,ART AND CRAFT
 Dance and music
 Art and craft
 Weaving clothes,
beads and making
ornaments
 Play and group dance

17. A Snare To Catch Rabbit
RURAL TECHNOLOGY MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD
• Caging the tiger/ fishing /
• • Catching the
• animals/birds and
• hunting
• • Processing the forest
• products
• • Melting the iron/
• preparation of liquor
• • Using herbal medicine

18. INDIAN VILLAGE
 Village as a large family
 Village headman as the organizer
 Village priest as the protector of the
 subjects
 Village shaman as the mediator of the
Goddess and the human being
 Customary law

19. SPACE FOR THE MARGINALIZED
 Marginalized are secluded from the sacred
centers
 They live in a secluded place
 Visible social barrier ( well, tank, temple)
 Traditional culture has perpetuated this in
the society
This inequalities has to be broken by voicing
the marginalized

20. FOLKLORE IS THE OUT COME OF
MULTICULTURALISM
 Folklore has the roots of social justice
 Therefore it is created by those who are
marginalized and the oppressor s
 It believes in humanization( reflected in folk
tales ethics and morals)
 It is a shared knowledge
 It is intergenerationally transmitted through
collective memory

21.  From
 Colonial to Democratic Multicultural
Education

22. COLONIAL VERSES LIBERAL EDUCATION
Current education represents the colonial
western model.
Those who are educated in this system are
also the victim of “Native Colonialism”
Due to colonialism, war and authoritarianism,
many local cultures have been eroded and thus
the knowledge system of the country has been
destroyed by the outsiders.
• You are a human ,I am a human why do you
threaten me ?( Kirpi Melaka –a nonliterate girl
from Kondh tribe) She has not studied in any
university or college. where she got this ideology?

23. POST COLONIAL EDUCATION
• Dream
• • Basic Education
• • Vocational skill
• • Spiritual and moral
• education
• Self sufficient
• • Head, hand and
• heart
• Village self rule
• Reality
• • Much emphasis on
• Higher education
• • Reading and writing
• skill
• • No vocational skill
• • Head only, no hand,
• no heart
• • state authority

24. INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION
For us
• Village is college
• Society is university
• A farmer is a professor of agriculture
• An old woman is a store house of knowledge
But the gap is that
• Our college could not represent the villages
• Our University could not meet the social needs
of the society.

25. SIX NOTICEABLE DEMAND FOR
EDUCATION (UNESCO 2000)
( FROM SOUTH EAST ASIAN PERSPECTIVE)
1.The world is swiftly changing towards
Globalization
2. Three is a need to counteract the deepening
social inequalities and increasing
marginalization and violence.
3. Need to recognize that diversities between
individual and communities is a valuable
resources that is different from social
inequality

26. Contd..
• 4.Need to educate individuals for a better
citizen
• 5.Addressing increasing broader spectrum
of issues
• 6. Co existence of advantages and
disadvantages resulting from the impact of
technical progress on the environment and the

27. • For Paulo Freire Education means
• • A critical understanding of reality
• • Making a commitment to Utopia and
• changing reality
• • Training those who will make change
• • Dialogue

28. POST COLONIAL EDUCATION
 Focus on the relationship among culture
,power and domination
 Culture has to be viewed as a domain of
struggle where the production and
transmission of knowledge is always a
contested process ( Joe Kincheloe)

29. DID IT HAPPEN IN INDIA ?
NO
 Do we know that these colonial mind set ..
 Influence the school ?
 Curriculum and content ?
 Teachers attitude ?
 School management ?
 Classroom behaviours ?
 Learning of children ?
 if this is so , how can we get democratic
education in a democratic country?

30. HOW COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE MATTERS IN
PEDAGOGY
• Ensures ethnic identity
• Explores local knowledge that is unwritten
• Unravel the secrets of the universe
• Maintain bio diversities for a sustainable
development
• Create a world of shared understanding of life
by mutual respect and togetherness
• Higher human values like gender equity,
community living, customary law, integrated
worldview, maintain natural law, respect individual
freedom

31. MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION CAN ADDRESS
THE FOLLOWINGS
 Study coexistence of races, languages and
values due to Inter-state migration suggest
solution for social harmony,influence
educational policy
 Eco pedagogy by accepting the indigenous
knowledge , and fighting global disaster
 Human Rights
 Peace and conflict resolution
 Equality of opportunity by ensuring individual
freedom and foster democratic values

32. ROLE OF TEACHERS
Believe that only objective knowledge given in
the classroom through curriculum is not enough
Students are subjects and cannot be the
object of learning
active participation of teachers and students
can only make learning meaningful
teachers should be ready to learn from the
learners and end the hierarchy, and establish
mutual learning process

33. TEACHERS ROLE
• Teacher is a researcher of his own school
and community environment
• No school is possible without a community
• community’s culture matter in student
centered pedagogy
• Learning is a joint productive activity
• Community has a lot to contribute in
connecting re al world of the children with
the curricular learning.

34. TWO SITUATION.
The teachers says
Situation - 1
This children don’t know the book language .How
can I teach them ?
Situation – 2
I don’t know the language of the children . How can
they learn ? Am I really capable to teach them ?
Now..
If the children don’t know the school language , are
they responsible or the school is responsible?

35. AS A TEACHER IN TRIBAL AREAS WE HAVE TO
KNOW :
 Do 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
for tribal education in the module)
 What are the training needs of tribal area teachers?
 What are the learning needs of tribal children?
 What are the hopes and fears of children in the
school?

36. TRAINING NEED:
  Do the teachers have training on importance of
mother tongue in early primary classes?
  Do the teachers have training on acquisition of
second language acquisition skill?
  Do the attitude and behavior of teachers affect the
schooling of tribal children?
  Do our teacher- training Institutes have
adequate academic facilities to impart tribal
education below the district level?

37. ASKING THE SELF:
Am I really powerful enough to address the
tribal children in the classroom, if I don’t know the
language of the children?
Why the tribal children are non responsive, in spite
of my efforts?
Is the training which is imparted is sufficient or
suitable to me to make the tribal children
effective and responsive in the tribal area
schools?
Knowingly or unknowingly, do my behaviour,
language hurts the children, and discourage
them to come to school?

38. KNOWING THE SOCIO – HISTORICAL
PROCESSES
 As a teacher do I know the socio-economic
and cultural background of the students?
 Am I concerned with the community as a part
of knowledge and resource provider?
 As a teachers how do I connect me with the
system , whether as a passive teaching
machine or an active thinker of the politics of
education.
 Is the current curriculum help to meet the
basic needs of the most marginalized person of
the village where I teach ?

39. TRIBAL PEDAGOGY
 That starts from the situation of the tribal culture;
connected to life experience
 Strengthening self esteem and expanding the
existing knowledge and skill system of the
community/ learners
 Creating a community based pedagogy
 Practical use of knowledge
 Devising an interactive and reflexive learning
teaching process by the teachers

40. FROM COMMUNITY TO CULTURE AND
CULTURE TO CURRICULUM
It is not a good enough explanation to say that
the decisions were taken at the state level.
If we are to ensure participation of children of
all groups in our secular education,, we will
have
to discuss our curricular choices with
others who are legitimate stakeholders in
education. ( NCF 2005 )

41. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
 bottom up approach - student and community
must understand the type of education they
require to meet their realities of life.
 State ideology must be democratic and
should not consider teachers and students as
the objects of learning and finishing the school
syllabus.
 schools should be made free for innovation
and multiple experimentations to meet the
context sensitive issues of multiculturalism.

42.  Teachers have to take part in the critical
political discourse to restore democracy
and not just domesticate the given
knowledge of the text book to the students
considering them as the objects of learning
. Students are intellectuals and they
equally share the knowledge while learning
and teaching

43. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
 Learning should be a joint productive
activity
 It should be meaningful
 It should be connected to the realities of life
 It should eliminate discrimination by
respecting the students irrespective of race,
gender, religion and language
 It should be the blend of theory and practice
 Scope to accommodate innovation and
ready to accept the change for better

44. ASIAN WORLDVIEW
Asian world is still not isolated the mind from
the matter. Sacred trees are still in some
where in South Korea and China and India
and Thailand.
We are not detahced from the nature and our
environment . Our environment is simply not
the objects but it is the bearer of knowledge
for us

45. One faith : We belong to the earth
Another faith : The earth belong to us.
We cannot create another earth at the cost
of our resources,
we cannot create unrest in the name of
power game,
we must foster the sustainable world in
peace and mutual harmony.

46. MY IMAGINATION
 If I have to search the South Korean Knowledge
system where from should I get it ?
 From the written canons?
 From the existing community knowledge that is
unwritten ?
 From the urban western educated intellectuals ?
 From the socio- historical processes in which Korea ha
witnessed the dehumanization across the decades an
urges for a value base Korean epistemology that will
contribute to a greater mankind?

47. MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION CAN DO IT
 Understand the Korean knowledge system from
the existing community from its cultural resources
( both traditional and modern )
 Restore ecology of the land through restoring
the knowledge of ecology through eco pedagogy
 Research and documentation of Korean oral
tradition and folklore from the rural communities
and study the continuity and change.

48. WHAT WE CAN DO ? WE..
 Document the family history of the
people affected as well as the social
history of colonization from the
collective memory and understand the
gain and loss that has taken place so far.
 Creating a pedagogy of democratic values
where the future generation have an
equilibrium between the technologized
world and value based world.

49. POSSIBILITIES
Documentation of traditional Korean
knowledge system to understand the socio-
historical dynamics of the people ( what do they
know, what do they think of their own self and
about the others, what is their cultural attitude to
the nature and culture. What they have gained
and lost in their culture.
Study on modern multicultural categories and
its implications in the society .
Develop a critical understanding on Korean
cultural system for future scholarship

50.  I am thankful to Prof Cha for his affectionate
invitation to me to come to the great cultural
land of Korea and share my thoughts with you
all.
 I am also thankful to the teaching staff, and the
students of the department who have been
very kind enough to provide me all sorts of
support.
 I wish that Odisha and Korea will have a long
term relationship to foster knowledge and
wisdom.

51. Thank You
mkmfolk@gmail.com