Synopses & Reviews
Conceptualized within a socio-cultural constructivist and postcolonial paradigm, this book explores a definite tension between "Western" theories of child development and the "Indian" ways of being and thinking. It also provides a richly descriptive and relatively unexamined account of the culturally complex relationship that exists in urban India between formal teacher education programs, national policies, early childhood classrooms, and the urban, middle-class experiences of children and early childhood teachers. The hallmark features of this book lie in the rich examples, research anecdotes, and postcolonial perspectives on the voices of teachers explicitly describing their classroom practice. This book is truly one of the first of its kind, and, now in its second edition, offers a timely response to educational initiatives of the twenty-first century.
Review
"Amita Gupta has given us an extraordinary book. She shows vividly how we in the West can learn, not only from our own traditions of developmental theory, but from the teaching practices of many in India. This study displays the extent to which the colonial tradition, in which the subordinated peoples of Asia, Latin America, and Africa draw from the fruits of so-called Western Civilization, can be reversed. The post-colonial world may be on the brink of civilizing us and Gupta shows how it might happen in one of the most vital sectors of education, early childhood. She demonstrates that traditional practices are not necessarily conservative, and in this very important instance, are surely progressive, if by that term we mean that children's needs come first and that teaching is, first of all, a way to validate how children teach themselves.”--Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center "Amita Gupta gives an instructive outlook on the pedagogies that are nowadays used in Indian middleclass homes and in private schools... she succeeds in describing and analyzing from a Vygotskian perspective how the Indian early childhood educators concerned are trying to prepare their students for citizenship in the 21st century.”--Jacques Carpay, Professor Emeritus, Educational Studies, Free University Amsterdam
“Amita Gupta's book looks at the teaching practices of early childhood practitioners in urban India and positions them within a socio-cultural, post-colonial context. She reminds us, as Gandhi observed, that what counts in the West as marginalized is in fact dominant in the non-West. In the age of globalization, this book provides a different mirror in which early childhood practitioners can reflect upon their work.”—Susan Semel, Professor, The City College of New York and The Graduate Center of CUNY
Review
"Amita Gupta explores the cultural philosophies that underwrite Indian educational theory, drawing attention to the relationship between Indian thought and Western theories of early childhood education. Gupta's richly descriptive and sophisticated book contextualizes Indian educational pedagogy within its broader cultural and historical context, and in doing so, she provides illuminating and useful insights that are relevant to all concerned with global education." - James Davison Hunter, LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory, and Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia, USA
"Amita Gupta has given us an extraordinary book. She shows vividly how we in the West can learn, not only from our own traditions of developmental theory, but from the teaching practices of many in India. This study displays the extent to which the colonial tradition, in which the subordinated peoples of Asia, Latin America, and Africa draw from the fruits of so-called Western Civilization, can be reversed. The postcolonial world may be on the brink of civilizing us and Gupta shows how it might happen in one of the most vital sectors of education, early childhood. She demonstrates that traditional practices are not necessarily conservative, and in this very important instance, are surely progressive, if by that term we mean that children's needs come first and that teaching is, first of all, a way to validate how children teach themselves." - Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center, USA
"Amita Gupta gives an instructive outlook on the pedagogies that are nowadays used in Indian middle-class homes and in private schools . . . She succeeds in describing and analyzing from a Vygotskian perspective how the Indian early childhood educators concerned are trying to prepare their students for citizenship in the twenty-first century." - Jacques Carpay, Professor Emeritus, Educational Studies, Free University Amsterdam
"Amita Gupta's book looks at the teaching practices of early childhood practitioners in urban India and positions them within a socio-cultural, postcolonial context. She reminds us, as Gandhi observed, that what counts in the West as marginalized is in fact dominant in the non-West. In the age of globalization, this book provides a different mirror in which early childhood practitioners can reflect upon their work." - Susan Semel, Professor, The City College of New York and The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, USA
"This book is unique in drawing connections between education and an Eastern worldview, using the early education of children in India as a touchstone. In this edition the author enhances her use of the framework in this book as a lens for examining education and planning research, gives us deeper insight into her research methodology, and updates the changes she sees in the global conception of early childhood education. It is a very important contribution to our work in the United States in early childhood education. We need to be able to look across cultures to find best practices in this field that unlock futures for children, and Amita Gupta's book provides the vehicle for doing just that." - Nicholas Michelli, Presidential Professor, PhD Program in Urban Education, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, USA
"Both accessible and thought-provoking, this work has provided an opportunity for my graduate students to reflect and reconsider taken-for-granted principles in early childhood education curriculum and pedagogy within the history and diverse cultural context of our local environment." - Sirene Lim, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
"This is an important book for early childhood educators and academics across the globe. Based on original empirical research and drawing on postcolonial perspectives, it offers unique insights into contemporary policy and practice in early childhood in India, which in turn require us to reflect carefully on our own cultural practices and assumptions. The author writes in a highly engaging and accessible way, successfully combining theory and practice in ways which inform and challenge the reader. In the global village of early childhood education, this is essential reading!" - Sue Rogers, Head of Early Years and Primary Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
Synopsis
Conceptualized within a socio-cultural constructivist and postcolonial paradigm, this book explores a definite tension between "Western" theories of child development and the "Indian" ways of being and thinking. It also provides a richly descriptive and relatively unexamined account of the culturally complex relationship that exists in urban India between formal teacher education programs, national policies, early childhood classrooms, and the urban, middle-class experiences of children and early childhood teachers. The hallmark features of this book lie in the rich examples, research anecdotes, and postcolonial perspectives on the voices of teachers explicitly describing their classroom practice. This book is truly one of the first of its kind, and, now in a revised edition, offers a timely response to educational initiatives of the twenty-first century.
Synopsis
This book presents previously unexamined connections between teaching practices and specific philosophical ideas, locating the prior beliefs and practical knowledge of early childhood practitioners in urban India within a broader social and historical religio-philosophical context.
About the Author
Amita Gupta is Associate Professor of Education, The City College of New York, USA, and a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar. She has extensive cross-cultural experience with school administration, teacher education, and classroom teaching in urban schools in the United States and India. Her research and scholarship is focused on the interdisciplinary, comparative, and international examination of early education and teacher preparation and is characterized by the themes of globalization and cross-cultural perspectives on teaching and learning. The integration of these themes also appears in the graduate courses she teaches on curriculum design, child development, and social studies. She earned her doctoral degree from Columbia University, serves on editorial boards and school boards, and has published extensively in books and journals.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Leslie R. Williams
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
1. Conceptualizing and Setting the Stage
2. The Sociocultural Context of Education: Core Concepts of the Philosophy Underlying the Indian Worldview
3. Educational Systems in India: Past and Present
4. Aims of Education Contextualized within the Socio-cultural Context of Urban India
5. Image of the Teacher: Roles and Responsibilities of the Early Childhood Teacher in India
6. Image of the Child: What Is Developmentally and Socially Appropriate for Children Growing Up in Indian Society?
7. Learning to Teach: A Sociocultural-Historical Constructivist Theory of Teaching
8. Contextualizing and Demystifying the Challenges of Large Class-Size in India
9. The Early Childhood Curriculum: Socio-culturally Constructed and Enacted in the Postcolonial Third Space
10. Aligning Teacher Education and Early Childhood Classroom Practice: Balancing Vygotsky and the Veda
11. Postcolonial Research in Early Childhood Education: Reflecting on the Process
12. Epilogue