Dynamics of Inclusive Classroom explores the challenges and possibilities of rendering classrooms more inclusive by contributing to a better understanding of educational needs of socially diverse children in India.

The contributors to this volume show how, in a world of rapid social, political, economic and educational changes, social diversity, inequalities and social exclusion/inclusion are subjects of great import. Part of this process is the significant increase in the number of children from socially diverse backgrounds in the classroom. This increase calls for a better understanding of their needs and for processes that render classrooms more inclusive.

In India, the increased enrolment of socially diverse students requires us to give special attention to issues of inequality based on caste, class, religion, gender, language and region, which affect children’s learning processes and outcomes. This volume is based on a great variety of research, drawn from academic analyses, policy formulation, and classroom practices. Collectively, the contributors argue that, in order to render Indian classrooms inclusive, the country needs to formulate a school education policy that would result in pedagogical preparedness to deal with the increased enrolment of historically marginalised and oppressed children from diverse backgrounds. Through case studies and field examples, the authors also demonstrate the processes and practices through which learning can be made inclusive and democratic in Indian classrooms.

This book offers fresh insights into diversity and contemporary educational practices in India and will be of considerable interest to students, scholars, practitioners and policy-makers involved in education, development studies, social work, sociology, history, and public policy.

Manoj Kumar Tiwary is an Educationist, Research Fellow and Consultant for national and international organisations, Patna, India.

Sanjay Kumar is a scholar, activist and secretary, Deshkal Society, Delhi, India.

Arvind Kumar Mishra is Assistant Professor, Zakir Hussain for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

List of Tables and Figures
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Section 1: Alignment of Inclusion in Elementary Education
1. Inclusive Elementary Education in India: The Journey
R. V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar
2. Social and Regional Inequality in Elementary Education in India: Retrospect and Prospect
Madhumita Bandyopadhyay

Section 2: Social Diversity and Learning Performance Disparity
3. Education of Equitable Quality: All Children Reading
Dhir Jhingran
4. Social Diversity and Learning Achievement: Contextualising Policies and Practices for Primary Schools in Rural Bihar
Manoj KumarTiwary and Sanjay Kumar

Section 3: Children in Unconventional Learning Settings
5. Rights, Mobility and Social (In)Justice: The 2009 RTE Act and Mobile Pastoralist Children’s Education Deprivation
Caroline Dyer
6. Educationally Excluded Street and Working Children: Financial Literacy and Life Skill Based Education as a Way Forward
Shushmita Chatterji Dutt

Section 4: Learning English in the Labyrinth of Contrasting Technologies
7. The Technology and Politics of Teaching English
Nita Kumar
8. The Road to English: The Slow Migration of the EWS Child to Elite India
Peggy Mohan

Section 5: Pedagogy, Teacher Agency and the Operation of Stereotypes
9. Cultural Marginality and Reproduction of Stereotypes: An Insider’s View on Practices of School
Vikas Gupta
10. Becoming a Critical Pedagogue: Teacher Agency and Critical Theory
Smriti Singh
Conclusion: Situating India’s Inclusive Education in the Global Episteme of Diversity, Inequality and Democracy
Arvind Kumar Mishra

Contributors
Index