[Reader-list] First posting: Tracing the history of Girl's Education (since 1921) in a Small Town through the life of its first Woman Teacher

[rinchin etc]

Hi, my name is rinchin. I live in bhopal. This my first posting.



My reasearch project for the fellowship deals with tracing the history of
girls education through the eyes of a 90 year teacher who taught and then
ran the first school for girls in Haat pippaliya.  a small town in the malwa
region of madhya pradesh.

* *

Haat Pipaliya is a small town in the Dewas (Malwa region) district of Madhya
Pradesh. The verbal history of Dewas accords the town a special status as
being the home of the oldest girls school and names its oldest surviving
teacher – Mrs HD James, more commonly known as "Bua to towns people or James
Madam to outsiders", as a legend in herself. She  continues to live in the
town at the age of 90 years.  A small chance meeting with her, where she
narrated small anecdotes about her school, her own interaction with others
in the town, small glimpses of her own life told us, that an account of her
life  in this town and in her school, is not simply a story of herself but
reveals the history of the town, of girls education, and that of education
of Dalit children.



It becomes difficult to distinguish if she speaks about herself, or events
that shaped the history of a little known town, its growing form a small
hamlet to a flourishing commercial hub, of the challenges of bringing dalit
and other girls into the school. She leans over and conspiratorially
discusses all the strategies she employed to "lure" the communities to send
their children to the baithak under the tree and later to the little kuchcha
one room school. How she dealt with being treated as an " untouchable"
herself by the other upper caste communities. Where she could teach the
children, but not eat in their homes. She frowns as she sinks into the
memories of social distances, untouchability, the value of education and
gender imbalances, and slowly recounts the history of these in the small
town, a space which comprised the entire world to its residents, over almost
a century.  It was a biography that had to be written. Her life history
would reflect her context, the journey of her school and the town that she
has lived in for almost 70 years.



The project therefore is :

*Tracing the history of Girl's Education (since 1921) in a Small Town
through the life of its first Woman Teacher***

This study attempts to look at three lives – the life of the teacher and
through it the life of the school, and the life of the town. All these lives
and their biographies are closely intertwined, each covering a journey
through time from 1921 to 2006 - a time that  saw the country's
independence, urbanization, popularization and the commercialization of
education and  changing gender and caste relations among many other macro
and micro processes.



*James Madam*

The journey of her life from 20 year old, when she came into the town as a
young semi educated tribal Christian  teacher , latter married a tailor ,
the town pastors son. her experience of teaching, educating herself,
settling into a new family, a new town and region, her interaction with the
town and its people town. Her experience of the  caste and gender taboos.
The narrative will capture her life till the present times, where she lives
the age of 90 behind her school.
**
*Method***

*The life history method will be used to capture James madam's biography.
This will be supplemented by interviews with her family, old students and
residents of the town, of different generations. These will be
recorded as  their
oral narrative on tapes, with photographs and illustrations of all our
interactions with her as well of old photographs or pictures that can be
found with her or others.***

* *

**

* *

*The School *

Exploring the founding visions of the school, recording the growth and
change which occurred in it over time. The many generations of students that
have passed through its rooms, what accounts can we find of them, through
their teacher and of their teacher through them. At that time it was the
only school now there are at least ten other primary and middle schools,
some government, some schools with specific community affiliations and some
private schools. How have all these other changes impacted the outlook
towards education and particularly girls education

* *

*Method***

*In such a context, where does the school stand in relation to its
counterparts. What is the profile of the students and teachers today and  how
does it compare with the profiles of the  more than 10 other schools, many
of which are community affiliated. In what way do the present
attitudes of  people
about  caste and gender, reflect its heritage ( of being home to the
districts oldest  girls, mixed caste school) and how does the town perceive
it today. A mix of open ended interviews and narratives will be documented
and transcribed.***



*The Town*

Located in the Malwa region, in the tribal Baghli bock, the town evolved
from a small " *kasba*" into one of the most flourishing towns of Baghli
tehsil.



*Method***

*The history of the town will be built to reflect the changes demographic,
geographic, economic and social. It will look at the the process of
commercialization, urbanization, other settlers, expansion of the town,
changing occupations and livelihood patterns. This will be based on
secondary data and old census and town records of the town and oral
accounts.  ***


Output

The output would be a *written and visual  (pictures and sketches) bilingual
life history of  James Madam, her school and the Haat pipalliya. *

* *

 Materials that would be generated through the research project include the
main research document which would be a *bilingual biography of James Madam
containing transcripts of interviews with her  and  that of students and
residents of the town, photographs and sketches. Audio tapes of her recorded
interviews. *

* *

* *All material will be such that it is relevant to the schools and people
of the the area, (in terms of language and presentation) as well as to
others outside of the regional context.

**

**

**

**

**

**

**

**

**

**

**



*Objectives*

·       To trace the history of girls education since 1921, when the first
girls school was opened in the town, through the eyes of the a 90 year old
school teacher.

·       To trace the history of a town through the history of its first
school since 1921,through the narrative of the oldest school teacher who
worked in the school since 1926.

·       To examine how the town reflects it's heritage of being the home to
one of the oldest  girls school  in the district. To examine the attitude of
towns people regarding the school and what it stood for, in the context of
the changing space.

·       To chart the changes in economy, commercialization and changing
profile of the town, its growing into the  commercial hub of the small
tribal  block , as backdrop and context of the study.


Rationale

While speaking of education problems/issues related to gender and caste
still exist – what does not is an account of how they were dealt with. To
understand these and document them through the examples that are still
available would be a simple yet powerful way of understanding and capturing
the development and dynamics of smaller units and spaces which seldom find a
space in history.  To use  personal capture a personal life history of a
significant person in order to give it place within local written history as
well as seeing it as a documentation reflective of the time and space that
the life encompasses. This is the aim of the proposed study..



The interest of the study also revolves around how the changing times affect
the towns attitude towards the school and its teachers and  the fact that
the school primarily admitted dalit children, and only girls. And though the
Communities practised strict taboos, still allowed for their children to
study in this school, that had children of all caste.



In 1921  the first school began under a tree. It was a school only for girls
The study attempts to capture the interaction and response of the
communities (Jains , Patidars, Dalits and traders)  through their
interactions with and within the school and its non upper class staff. For
the first time the school spoke about educating girls, of children all
castes sitting and learning together with its Indian woman missionary
teacher who was considered  to be  untouchable.

Mode of Public Presentation

The document and its derivatives which include illustrations, photographs
and pictures will be published through children's magazines and wall papers
in schools. The study  itself will be shared with the students and teachers
of that area in meetings and *baithaks. *



Prints of the the document, published/unpublished as *reading material for
children and teachers along with pictures, illustrations and sketches
through children's magazines/ wall papers and stand alone documents.*


To share it with groups  working in the area and issues of education,
through circulating the written and visual text.

Do send in your comments and suggestions on the same.

Rinchin
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060124/3638a60f/attachment.html