What the resource is: This is one of eight short
Teachers TV programmes in the series
Going to School in India. The series, which has won a number of awards and been shown at many film festivals, was created by a former British teacher, Lisa Hydlauff, and is based on her DVD first published March 2007, which in turn was developed from her earlier book. The book, DVD and Teachers TV broadcasts are supported by a
website, which is not linked from the Teachers TV site. The title of this programme may be somewhat misleading, as it follows a young boy in Mumbai attending school, which is actually located in a bus.
The aims of the resource:
Both the press release and the programme synopsis state that the publications came about when a seven-year-old child, Oliver, asked her, "What is it like to go to school in India?" Being unable to find suitable resources to answer the question she promised the child that if she ever got the chance to find out she would let him know. The extent to which this story is apocryphal, or the link between it and the route from classroom to these publications is not made clear. What is clear from the section of the press release used in the Teachers TV's programme synopsis is, however, that the videos have been devised to show that children in India attend schools in a wide range of settings and that, "Every day, millions of children in India fight the odds to go to school in city classrooms, mountain fields, or desert tents. The one thing they have in common is the desire to be educated". The videos therefore do not purport to be objective, but have a clearly stated and unambiguous message. These may be messages with which we may or may not agree, but they are messages of which we need to be aware.
Key findings or focus:
Each video is approximately ten minutes in length. According to the Teachers TV site, the videos are designed for use at key stages 3 and 4. However, it is apparent that they were originally designed for use with five to eleven year-old children; an additional hyperlink to a primary school's website appears to support the author's original focus on this earlier age group.
In this particular episode of the series, we are presented with what we are told is a typical school day in the life of Saddam, a boy who lives with his mother and three brothers under a plastic sheet on a busy street corner in Mumbai. Saddam's school is on a bus which visits the area each day. We see Saddam and a number of children engaged in reading, solving problems and playing musical instruments. The narrative of the video is given by a cheery voice over which we are to assume is Saddam speaking, or at least a narrator speaking his words. Whether this is the case or not is unclear. The optimistic note of the video is further supported by the use of generic Indian background music.
The quality, authority and credibility of the resource:
Viewing the video I was reminded of a comment made in an article by Stephen Scoffham that, "teaching children about distant places is often treated as if it were a relatively straightforward and an unproblematic matter" (Scoffham and Dorman, 2007). Before visiting a school in India recently, I worked with some Year 4 children in a local primary school, and asked what kinds of questions the children might like me to try to find answers to. The list included; "Do you wear uniforms?" "How big is your family?" "Do you have a father and if so what work do they do?" "What sacred animals do you have?" "Do you have clean water?" "What sport do you like?"
The implications for ITE tutors/mentors and trainees/students:
Video, photograph packs, films can be a tremendous resource, but they do present the teacher with difficulties. As Scoffham again notes, in Unit 10 of the QCA Geography schemes of work, A Village in India, readers need to be "aware of bias and stereotypical images which can sometimes be found in locality packs". Thus the unwary can fall into the trap of assuming that a video simply captures the total reality of a situation rather being a particular selection and a re-presentation constructed by an author. As professional educators we always need to be wary of intended and unintended motives; for example, to what extent do the images of school life presented in Excellence and Enjoyment represent an objective view of work in English primary schools?
Whilst press releases are poor sources of evidence, the press release for the series tells us that, "Heydlauff is also the director of ‘Going to School', a non-profit organization in India that makes media for children to make going to school relevant to children's lives and, most importantly, lots of fun". The videos are therefore clearly partisan in nature and intent. They carefully construct a particular view of Indian school children, and equally, a particular view of education. These may be views which we as individuals subscribe to, but they are views non-the-less. The linked website, for example, shows images of Kerala on which cartoons characters have been drawn. It is true that there are rice boats on the backwaters as is shown, but these are now used for tourist excursions. It is also true that there are some remaining Chinese fishing nets on use on the river banks; but alongside these stand hundreds of trawlers. So viewers beware. Whenever we use such a resource we need to recognise that what we are presenting is incomplete and partial. We have to avoid the 'zoo mentality' which stresses exotic difference and underpins poor practice.
On reflection, this may in fact be why the material is noted by Teachers TV to be suitable for use by pupils at Key stages 3 and 4. In this context, the videos would be particularly useful as source material for work in a critical media studies session. With the development of new Web 2.0 technologies it may be that we can begin to use technology to help children to communicate directly with their contempories in other countries.
PostScript:
As for the answers to the Year 4's questions posed above? Well, I could report back to them that the school had 2,500 pupils. The average family size of the class I worked in was 2. 90% of the pupils' fathers worked in Dubai to send money home for their families. They wore different uniforms depending on the day of the week. They had lots of pet animals, mainly birds. As for their favourite sport, the answer was a universal "Cricket!" However, this is simply another experience and cannot be said to be representative of the complexity of education in India. Neither can these videos. It is important therefore that, as with any other resource, they are used with care and insight.
Reviewed by:
Peter Dorman
References:
QCA (1998) Geography at key stages 1 and 2 Unit 10: A village in India.
online document available at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/geography/geo10/?view=Download
Scoffham, S. and Dorman, P. (2007) "Multiple Perspectives: profound understandings", Primary Geographer, Autumn 2007: 31-33
Scoffham, S. (2006) Problems with distant places. Paper presented to the Conference in Primary Geography Education Research, Charney Manor, Charney Bassett, Oxfordshire 23-25 February 2007