"This book focuses on primary education in India and interrogates what schooling means and does to children from weaker sections of Indian society and which values underpin the school system. It examines whether the concept of "education for all" is just a mechanically conceived policy target to chasing enrolment and attendance or whether it a larger social goal and a deeper political statement about the need for attacking entrenched social inequalities, and above all an affirmation of the idea that schooling has a liberating potential. Drawing on original data collected in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the authors first present the multiple ways in which social class impinges on the educational system, educational processes and educational outcomes. In the second part of the book, issues around autonomy and accountability are explored via an analysis of the position of teachers within the educational hierarchy, and by looking at the various possibilities of making teachers accountable. The last part centres on the learning process, with a particular focus on the classroom. The conclusion includes recommendations that are related to the necessity for a larger debate and normative framework, which includes private schools as possible partners in the pursuing of a public good for which a public entity should take some responsibility, and in conjuncture to that, the necessity to move from government action and responsibilities to a broader concept of public action"-- Provided by publisher.

Inequality in Education: Comparative and International Perspectives is a compilation of conceptual chapters and national case studies that includes a series of methods for measuring education inequalities. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on global trends in the distribution of formal schooling in national populations. It also offers a strategic comparative and international education policy statement on recent shifts in education inequality, and new approaches to explore, develop and improve comparative education and policy research globally. Contributing authors examine how education as a process interacts with government finance policy to form patterns of access to education services. In addition to case perspectives from 18 countries across six geographic regions, the volume includes six conceptual chapters on topics that influence education inequality, such as gender, disability, language and economics, and a summary chapter that presents new evidence on the pernicious consequences of inequality in the distribution of education. The book offers (1) a better and more holistic understanding of ways to measure education inequalities; and (2) strategies for facing the challenge of inequality in education in the processes of policy formation, planning and implementation at the local, regional, national and global levels.

The present volume seeks to review education in India through a matrix of nation-building, democratization process, identity, power, social and economic divisions, and social hierarchies. The book revisits the vision of education of some of the great Indian philosophers and leaders, deconstructs some of the seminal documents on education in India, brings out the significant role played by the people’s movement in shaping education, and analyses the trends and progress in the implementation of educational programmes and policies. Please note: This title is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives or Bhutan)

This book offers a cutting-edge contribution on the importance of secondary education and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of its growth in India. Secondary education, long neglected, faces countless challenges and will require tremendous financial resources, millions of additional trained teachers, and vast infrastructure in terms of buildings, laboratories, libraries, ICT facilities, etc. The book examines these critical issues, with particular reference to the situation in India. It analyses the status quo of secondary education and discusses the strategies and approaches needed in order to universalize it. Including 20 chapters authored by eminent scholars in the field and from across the country, this book gathers the outcomes of a seminar organized by the Council for Social Development on Universalization of Secondary Education. The target audience includes policymakers, practitioners, administrators, education planners, researchers, teachers, and teacher educators with an interest in the future of secondary education.

Examining the complex linkages between gender and education in the Indian context forms part of a wider matrix of inquiry related to understanding gender and its intersections with class, caste, religion and region. The sixteen essays in this Reader by eminent scholars offer critical feminist perspectives covering many issues related to these linkages, examining ideologies, structural contexts, knowledge, pedagogy and experiences through a socio-historcal lens. They point to the range of sources and methods that can be used to uncover the linkages between gender and education such as quantitative data, literature, autobiographies, oral histories and ethnography. This book is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print versions of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many educational institutions implemented social distancing interventions such as initiating closure, developing plans for employees to work remotely, and transitioning teaching and learning from face-to-face classrooms to online environments. The abrupt switch to online teaching and learning, for the most part, has been a massive change for administration, faculty, and students at traditional brick-and-mortar universities and colleges as concerns regarding the pedagogical soundness of this mode of delivery remain among some stakeholders. Not only that, but the switch has also revealed the inequities in the system when it comes to the types of students universities serve. It is important as institutions move forward with online instruction that consideration be made about all students and what policies and strategies need to be put into place to help support and meet the needs of all constituents now or when unprecedented situations arise. The only way this can be done is by documenting the experiences through the eyes of faculty who were at the frontline of providing instruction and advising services to students. The Handbook of Research on Inequities in Online Education During Global Crises brings to light the struggles faculty and students faced as they were required to switch to online education during the global COVID-19 health crisis. This crisis has revealed inequities in the educational system as well as the specific effects of inequities when it comes to learning online, and the chapters in this book provide information to help institutions be better prepared for online education or remote learning in the future. While highlighting topics such as new educational trends, remote instruction, diversity in education, and teaching and learning in a pandemic, this book is ideal for in-service and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the inequalities within the educational systems and the new policies and strategies put in place with online education to combat these issues and support the needs of all diverse student populations.