Inclusive education and school reform in postcolonial India

© 2015 Dr. Mousumi MukherjeeOver the past two decades, a converging discourse has emerged around the world concerning the importance of socially inclusive education. In India, the idea of inclusive education is not new, and is consistent with the key principles underpinning the Indian constitution. It has been promoted by a number of educational thinkers of modern India such as Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Azad and Tagore. However, the idea of inclusive education has been unevenly and inadequately implemented in Indian schools, which have remained largely socially segregated. There are of course major exceptions, with some schools valiantly seeking to realize social inclusion. One such school is in Kolkata, which has been nationally and globally celebrated as an example of best practice. The main aim of this thesis is to examine the initiative of inclusive educational reform that this school represents. It analyses the school’s understanding of inclusive education; provides an account of how the school promoted its achievements, not only within its own community but also around the world; and critically assesses the extent to which the initiatives are sustainable in the long term. Methodologically, the research reported in this thesis involves an ethnographic case study of the school. Interdisciplinary in its approach to data analysis, the thesis utilizes both international and indigenous theoretical resources, taking into account both local experiences, as well as transnational processes. It suggests that while the school has been enormously successful in establishing a program of reform that is inclusive in many respects, consistent with both global designs and local conceptions of inclusive education. However, it represents a model that is hard to sustain in light of the changes in its leadership, the context of a highly competitive education system in India, shifting student and parent aspirations, and the emerging neoliberal pressures under which most Indian institutions now have to work