Cultural context, Care and Education of Young Children in India

Nandita Chaudhary, Ph. DUniversity of Delhi,

India

Tere! Tere hommikust!

नमस्ते�!

Hello and Good Morning!

Culture

• Culture: Socially inherited past human accomplishments (Cole, 2005)

• Selective valuation and focus on specific elements• Culture is not destiny, active interaction between

individuals and culture (Valsiner, 2008)• Temporality is critical. Culture is determined by the past

as well as an imagined future, both teleological (socially-guided development) and teleogenetic (self-guided development) (Tateo & Marsico, 2013)

• Erroneously used to distinguish between ‘cultured’ and ‘uncultured’ people; the primary assumption behind colonisation (apart from the economic)

Education

• The process of nourishing or rearing a child

• To ‘educe’: to evoke or elicit from a latent condition

• Become conflated with schooling

• Culture and Education: both process and product

• Should culture or education be imposed?

• The overlaps between the terms Culture, Education and Care are evident

Care

• Primarily a domestic term, recently become a matter of planning and intervention

• Care of the young child has become appropriated by the State, National and International NGOs

• Also inherited the political overtones of ‘Culture’ and ‘Education’

• Model is driven by the ‘Northern’ ideal of cultures of affluence (Burman, 1996)

Cultural difference and history

• Primitive society was taken as evidence of ‘older’ ways of living and Europe was believed to have developed faster towards a common future for humanity (Tylor, 1874)

• The assumption is that all societies will move along the same social evolutionary path

• The majority world is erroneously constructed as an older way of life, a natural experiment

• Little evidence to support the assumption of intellectual superiority of modern society (Scribner, 1976)

• Conflation of history and culture is problematic

Country, culture and childhood

• Diversity and variety characterise human life

• Global model of childhood is unitary; emerged from a specific cultural ideology

• The majority world: larger families, more children, poorer conditions, fewer resources, multiple caregivers, apprenticeship by children at home and work

• “Thinking locally and acting globally” places entire populations at an instant disadvantage (Gergen, Gulerce, Lock & Misra, 1996)

• United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child (1990)

India: Country

• 7th largest in size, 2nd largest in population (1.2 billion people)

• Extensive coastline; Geographical and ecological diversity

• Largest democracy in the world

• Diversity and freedom, clearly articulated principles in the Constitution

• Politically, India has fluctuated between socialist principles and capitalistic policies

India: History

• Ancient civilisation (Indus Valley)

• Frequent travelers in search of spices, silk, coffee and craft

• 200 years of British rule

• As an independent country India is only 66 years old

• Deeply scarred and divided by the partition of 1947, the problems from which still linger

India: Culture

• Ethnic, economic, linguistic, religious, regional, culinary, and sartorial diversity

• For instance, 28 official, 850 counted languages and around 1,500 if dialects are included (Devy, 2013)

• May not be wrong to say that people of every religion of the world are found here

• There are many Indias: Urban, rural, small town and tribal

• Akin to a time-machine where ways of living can be as diverse as the history of mankind: pastoral, nomadic to the technological age

• Indian society is guided by principles of: Plurality, Familism, Patriarchy, Hierarchy

Family life in India• Strong and life-long affiliations with family

• ‘Familism’ characterises the Indian sense of self (Roland, 1988)

• Filial (particularly mother-child) stronger than conjugal bonds

• Kin terminology is elaborate and popular, ‘fictive kinship’ is constantly encountered

• Although predominantly patriarchal, patrilocal and patrilineal, a few strongly matriarchal communities exist

• British rule and law significantly affected and strengthened patriarchy in India

• The joint family, co-residence of multiple generations is a dominant, idealised form of family life

Childhood in India

• Childhood is also diverse, dependent on ethnic, ecological, economic and cultural factors

• Children are the binding force in family life rather than conjugality

• Sibling relationships are strong and care of children by older children is frequent and assumed to be natural

• Co-sleeping with others well into childhood

• Mothers: Mamta, mother and child emotional bonding

• Multiple caregivers: Mother’s centrality does not preclude involvement and attachment with others: men, women and children

Mamta

Mamta: A mother’s love

• “Selfless love of a mother towards her child”

• Origin – Sanskrit word: Mamatva – Love for the self

• Implicit meaning: That you love the child as much as you love yourself?

• The self could become dissolved in love for a child

• Not insignificant that there are many strategies for urging the child away towards others

Childhood in India (continued)

• Threats of physical punishment, occasional spanking, teasing, use of rewards and fear-inducing strategies are common

• Feeding of children is believed to be essential to prevent wastage of the primarily home-cooked food (children are believed to be clumsy eaters)

• Family and community activities display continuity and inclusion rather than separation between children and adults except in urban schools

• Children’s conduct is guided by age, gender and relationship to the ‘other’. Conduct remains dependent on Des (Place), Kaal (Time) and Patra (Person) (Pattanaik, 2013)

Childhood in India (continued)

• The notion of individual identity is mediated by context (Chaudhary, 2004)

• School is universally valued and children are out of school not on account of lack of motivation, but circumstances. India does not have enough schools for all its children

• Conservation of resources, food, water, energy, objects is a serious focus

• Respect for elders is highly valued

• Toilet training is a non-issue

Socialisation for competence

• ‘Socialisation for competence’ in family life and cultural activity is a central theme; over and above protection and care

• Children are trained to deal with variety, uncertainty and change

• The predominant model is neither pædiatric nor pædogocial (LeVine, 1994), but relational

• The ‘apprenticeship model’ discussed by Rogoff (1993) is resonant with the experience of Indian childhood

Care and Education of the Young Child

• Non-formal education through institutions is not universally accepted

• Pre-school primarily viewed as preparation for school

• Play among children is considered natural: “Children’s work is to play”

• Clear preference for strategies for organised play with young children and provision of specific play material for ‘learning’ is seen only among urban, educated families

• Rural, small town, tribal families tend to leave children free to play, interact and learn in the natural environment with little adult involvement

Some scenes

Two illustrations

• Contexts of care

• Care of children by children

Contexts of care

Four models (Chaudhary, 2013)• One child cared for by one caregiver• One child by many caregivers• Many children by one caregiver• Many children by many caregivers

Distribution of families by context of care (N=58)

One by One Many by One One by Many Many by Many

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

One child, one adult

Many children one adult

Many children one adult

Many children many adults

Many children by many adults

• Children learn to get along with many people

• House-work and children’s care is shared

• Provides the elderly active engagement in family dynamics and a purpose in life, along with authority and continuity of culture. “What better care can I expect for child than the one I had when I was growing up”

• Family life is not always smooth-sailing. Conflict among adults is evident, but children’s care is an over-riding concern

Video: A Pinch of Salt

Care of children by children• Care of children by other children was mostly in the

vicinity of adults

• Children are affectionate and playful partners along with providing protection and care, but can also be stern

• Younger children learn from older children, they in turn learn to care (apprenticeship in family life)

• Learning from other children is characterised by a larger ZFA (Zone of free movement) relative to ZPA (Zone of promoted action) Valsiner (1997); rather than the comfortable adaptive teaching by a caring adult. Children have to struggle to learn and get along

Recent challenges to Indian society

• Politically motivated divisive forces are weakening community feeling and social harmony

• Modern jobs and technological advancement is increasing mobility, placing a strain on traditional care settings, both for young children and the elderly

• State intervention is weak

• Heightened tensions between groups: increased incidents of anonymous and violent crimes

• Will the Indian extended family and kin relations survive these transformations is a matter of conjecture (Trawick, 2000; Uberoi, 2008)

• My research has shown the high resilience and adaptability of the Indian model of family life (Chaudhary, 2013)

Cultural psychology and meaning-making (Valsiner, 2008)

• Cultural processes are inextricably linked with and not outside of development of the individual.

• Context and person cannot be separated, culture belongs to person as much as person belongs to culture

• Looks towards (re)appropriating conceptual tools from diverse sources, thereby expanding the base of knowledge

• Integrating inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural approaches is critical to the development of the human sciences

• Make available an ‘outside view’ that increases reflexivity for a ‘critical self-hood’

In conclusion: Considering humanity

• Diversity as basic and tension between universal science and local differences has to be tolerated (Burman, 2003)

• We need ‘the other’ to mediate self-knowledge (Valsiner, 2003)

• Practices that promote arrogance and superiority are fundamentally anti-human

• Any singular model of culture, care or education cannot apply globally; an unexamined universalisation of standards marginalises the majority world

• This does not imply that education and care are inaccessible for scientific study or meaning

• Care and education of young children need to emerge from within culture, espousing the immediate context as primary, though not exclusively; gradually emanating outwards towards ‘other’ ways of living

Aitäh!धन्यवाद

Thank you!