Research Interest Groups (CESI)
(Disciplinary RIGs)
RIG 1: Sociology of Education
RIG Sociology of Education aims to strengthen and build a credible academic platform of scholars who are engaged in and with sociology of education in India. It seeks to identify contemporary trends in sociology of education in India and provide an opportunity for members to engage in deliberations over theoretical, thematic, conceptual, and methodological issues. It particularly encourages young scholars researching in the field of sociology of education to share their research within the RIG and offer unique opportunity to seek feedback. RIG thus provides an academic meeting place for the emerging scholars as well as the senior researchers in the field of sociology of education to collaborate, interact and discuss their research work and ideas.
So far RIG Sociology of Education has organised a two-day virtual conference on ‘Sociology of School Choice in India’ from 10 to 11 September 2021 in collaboration with Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, JNU, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, IIIT Delhi, and School of Arts and Humanities, O. P. Jindal Global University. It proposes to organise seminars, open sessions, lectures, roundtable discussions, and workshops for scholars in sociology of education.
Dr. Rajshree Chanchal
Ambedkar University (Convenor)
Dr. Saheed Meo
Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad (Co-convenor)
Email: [email protected]
RIG Sociology of Education aims to strengthen and build a credible academic platform of scholars who are engaged in and with sociology of education in India. It seeks to identify contemporary trends in sociology of education in India and provide an opportunity for members to engage in deliberations over theoretical, thematic, conceptual, and methodological issues. It particularly encourages young scholars researching in the field of sociology of education to share their research within the RIG and offer unique opportunity to seek feedback. RIG thus provides an academic meeting place for the emerging scholars as well as the senior researchers in the field of sociology of education to collaborate, interact and discuss their research work and ideas.
So far RIG Sociology of Education has organised a two-day virtual conference on ‘Sociology of School Choice in India’ from 10 to 11 September 2021 in collaboration with Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, JNU, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, IIIT Delhi, and School of Arts and Humanities, O. P. Jindal Global University. It proposes to organise seminars, open sessions, lectures, roundtable discussions, and workshops for scholars in sociology of education.
Dr. Rajshree Chanchal
Ambedkar University (Convenor)
Dr. Saheed Meo
Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad (Co-convenor)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 2: Economics of Education
Economics of Education as an area of research is at least 60 years old. While education received considerable attention in the works of earlier economists such as Adam Smith, Alfred Marshal, Leon Walras, and Milton Friedman; it became one of the key areas of interest for economists since the early 1960s. The first phase of modern research on education by eminent economists like T. W. Schulz, Gary S. Becker, Sherwin Rosen, Edward Denison, Jacob Mincer and many other well-known economists established Economics of Education as a discipline of study. Currently, there are many specialised centres of Economics of Education in some of the leading universities of the world. Also, we find a significant number of high-quality publications in education economics in several leading economics journals worldwide. Recently, there has been a big upsurge of teaching and research in the discipline which has laid out several highly promising and pressing issues for further investigation. In fact, with the increased importance of knowledge, technology, skills and information in the modern economy, the role of education and human capital in economic growth and development has become more important today than it has been during the past 60 years. Likewise, as new research in economics of education moves toward producing casual evidence, economists worldwide use advanced empirical methods and produce several new ideas. Economics of Education as a discipline witnessing enormous conceptual, theoretical and empirical advancements, presents itself as a research area marked with relevance, significance and excitement for present and coming generations of economists.
The Research Interest Group (RIG) on Economics of Education intends to provide a platform to economists interested in studying education from different conceptual and empirical perspectives and would like to engage themselves in producing new and exciting increments in the discipline. The RIG envisages acting as a network in mentoring emerging scholars in economics of education and would share the excitement that continues in research on this area. This academic forum under the umbrella of CESI would be a unique opportunity for economists to interact and learn from scholars of education with an interdisciplinary bent of mind.
Dr. Binay Kumar Pathak (Convenor)
Mahindra University, Hyderabad
Email: [email protected]
Economics of Education as an area of research is at least 60 years old. While education received considerable attention in the works of earlier economists such as Adam Smith, Alfred Marshal, Leon Walras, and Milton Friedman; it became one of the key areas of interest for economists since the early 1960s. The first phase of modern research on education by eminent economists like T. W. Schulz, Gary S. Becker, Sherwin Rosen, Edward Denison, Jacob Mincer and many other well-known economists established Economics of Education as a discipline of study. Currently, there are many specialised centres of Economics of Education in some of the leading universities of the world. Also, we find a significant number of high-quality publications in education economics in several leading economics journals worldwide. Recently, there has been a big upsurge of teaching and research in the discipline which has laid out several highly promising and pressing issues for further investigation. In fact, with the increased importance of knowledge, technology, skills and information in the modern economy, the role of education and human capital in economic growth and development has become more important today than it has been during the past 60 years. Likewise, as new research in economics of education moves toward producing casual evidence, economists worldwide use advanced empirical methods and produce several new ideas. Economics of Education as a discipline witnessing enormous conceptual, theoretical and empirical advancements, presents itself as a research area marked with relevance, significance and excitement for present and coming generations of economists.
The Research Interest Group (RIG) on Economics of Education intends to provide a platform to economists interested in studying education from different conceptual and empirical perspectives and would like to engage themselves in producing new and exciting increments in the discipline. The RIG envisages acting as a network in mentoring emerging scholars in economics of education and would share the excitement that continues in research on this area. This academic forum under the umbrella of CESI would be a unique opportunity for economists to interact and learn from scholars of education with an interdisciplinary bent of mind.
Dr. Binay Kumar Pathak (Convenor)
Mahindra University, Hyderabad
Email: [email protected]
RIG 3: History of Education
History of Education Research Interest Group promotes innovative and critical research in the field and encourages young scholars to explore new dimensions of historical research in education. It aims to bring together national and international scholars in the area and provide a platform for further collaborations to address acute lacuna in scientific historical research. It proposes to organise conferences, and round tables as well as workshops for young scholars. The group is led by Dr. Parimala V. Rao and Prof Mazhar Husain, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Rigs History of Education was inaugurated by two eminent historians of education-Prof Gary McCulloch, Brian Simon Professor, UCL Institute of Education and Prof. Marcelo Caruso, Humboldt University, on 10 December 1919. On 10 December 2020, the first Foundation Day lecture was delivered by Dr. Catriona Ellis on ‘Educating Future Citizens: The introduction of compulsory education in the Madras Presidency in the 1920s and 1930s.’ In 2021, two distinguished lectures were delivered by Dr. Jana Tschurenev, a historian at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Göttingen, Germany, on ‘Indianising Montessori: Experiments in ‘Child Education’, the 1920s-1970s,’ and Dr. Hayden Bellenoit, a historian at the US Naval Academy, ‘The Freedom Movement in corridors and classroom: missionaries and India’s religious tapestry, 1870s-1930s.’
Dr. Parimala V. Rao
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Convener)
Prof. Mazar Hussain
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Co-Convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 4: Psychology of Education
Historically, the nature and the scope of the field of ‘psychology of education’ have been shaped by the theoretical and methodological developments within the discipline of psychology as well as within its sister disciplines. Although the nomenclature ‘psychology of education’ and ‘educational psychology’ are used interchangeably to refer to this particular area of research, in practice, books and courses of study bearing the nomenclature ‘educational psychology’ mainly draws on mainstream psychological theories and methods. In view of this background, we prefer to use the nomenclature ‘psychology of education’ to refer to the field of study that draws from various social science disciplines such as psychology, sociology, political science, and philosophy (among others) to employ a critical lens for understanding complex problems in the context of education. In addition to viewing education as playing a crucial role in the development of human beings and their social world, this interdisciplinary field broadens the meaning of education by conceptualizing education also as a site of social and political struggle, emanating from the prevailing power and status asymmetries of macro-social social reality. Combining insights from the emerging perspectives in psychology and education, some areas that may be of interest to members include concerns around gender, caste, social class, and ethnicity; intergroup relations and education; political ideology and inequality; micro- and macro-politics of schooling; early childhood education; life-span development; cultural construction of concepts such as intelligence and achievement, attribution processes, pedagogy, social policy, etc. The goal of such research would be to shift our focus from doing research in the empiricist-positivist paradigm to move towards a social justice agenda for psychology of education.
This RIG aims to develop a forum/space that provides opportunities for discussions, dialogue, and partnership across a range of research interests. We invite scholars, researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders interested in the psychology of education in its broadest sense (including micro- and macro-level perspectives) to be part of the group.
Prof. Arvind K. Mishra
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Convenor)
Divya Padalia
Kamla Nehru College, University of Delhi (Co-Convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 5: Politics of Education
The Politics of Education Research Interest Group of CESI focuses on understanding, examining and researching education as a political entity. The RIG is interested in examining core conceptual issues related to the linkages between education, nation and democracy. This RIG will be attentive to the embeddedness of modern education in the politics of nation-states, framing of national and regional identities and citizenship formation. Besides nation-state, this group will be interested in the activities of a multitude of actors such as multilateral agencies, global and national civil society, political movements and market. Members may undertake/present theoretical and empirical studies about education as a site concerned with power, negotiation and struggle over both material and symbolic resources, access to these resources, the meaning and nature of public good and framing of public sphere. They may examine ways in which the larger political processes, actors, identities, ideologies and institutions influence education and vice-versa. Central to the inquiry are the historical and emerging structures of institutions, their relation to the state, and politics of knowledge, equality and social justice. The political character of educational policy will be of significant interest to this group. Activities aim to focus on shifts in policy, processes and practices of education in a comparative frame, with a focus on, but not restricted to, the Indian context.
In 2020, Politics of Education Research Interest Group, organised a series of three webinars on the National Education Policy 2020.
Dr. Manish Jain
Ambedkar University, New Delhi (Convener)
Prof. Nandini Manjrekar
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (Co-Convenor)
Email: [email protected]
(Thematic RIGs)
RIG 6: Higher Education
The continued disruption in the academic activities in the higher education institutions caused by the Pandemic has in fact ended up accelerating the process of transformation the higher education sector has been undergoing for the last couple of decades. One of the major drivers of this transformation is the meteoric rise of online education which was embraced as an alternative perforce to tide over the crisis phase. However, it seems likely that online education would continue to remain embedded in the university functioning as indicated in the UGC circulars and the NEP 2020. Institutionalization of the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) as recommended in the NEP 2020 entails bestowing of more freedom to the students in terms of choices of courses across the institutions and over time will actually reinforce the tendencies for the growing dominance of online education. This aspect of this university transformation has a huge potential to facilitate construction of a higher education market as the HEIs too are being urged to be autonomous and independent. An increasing use of AI and automation is also rapidly changing demand for skill and a majority of the HEIs are not in a position to cater to the rising demand of these new employment-oriented courses from the students who are veering towards these new to make themselves employable. The focus on multi-disciplinary approach which would further enlarge the basket of courses will lubricate this process of market construction. The suggested reforms in the mode of funding will not only infuse competition among the HEIs for funds including research, the HEIs will have to undertake major governance reforms at the institutional level. Whether this trend towards marketization will foster commercialization would depend on how the private sector will be regulated. It is time that we deliberate on the possible implications of this structural change for the very objective of higher education, inclusive expansion with pursuit for excellence. The other issue is what happens to the public good character of higher education in the face of internationalization with both the forces of competition and cooperation gaining strength both at the national and global levels. As our upcoming event, we propose to organize a workshop and/or a panel discussion on this issue of transformation of the Indian higher education sector.
Prof. Saumen Chattopadhyay
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Convener)
Dr. Subir Maitra
Rabindra Bharati University (Co-convener)
Dr. Emon Nandi
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (Co-convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 7: Education and Marginal Groups
This RIG will explore the contact between education, state and the margins. Education practices have always been affected by the core-periphery distinction, as marginal groups for long have been shown to be excluded from educational practices and policy. Generally, we attribute this exclusion to the failure of the education system and the state. This RIG will take a different route to argue that margins instead offer us a unique perspective to understand educational practices themselves and by extension the contact between state and the education. As Veena Das in her work ‘Anthropology in the margins of the state’ writes—this is not so because in the margins we capture some exotic practices but because margins are the necessary entailment of the education system itself and by extension the state. Margins and marginal groups are thus not just sites of deviations from the normal but instead are sites from where ‘normal’ itself can be deconstructed and its economy and power relations understood. Margins thus are treated as those exceptions that throw open the structure of the rule itself, they tell something about how the rule is functioning that does not become visible by just looking at the rule without its exception. In the same way, margins are those sites that throw open for us the processes through which education and state interact with one another and how these practices are shaped in the current ecosystem. This RIG proposes multidisciplinary reading sessions fortnightly, picking readings not only from education but also from disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and philosophy to explore key ideas to develop a perspective. Furthermore, we would have workshops and conferences whose purpose would be to create new knowledges in this area of interest.
Prof. Jyoti Dalal
Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi (Convener)
Dr. Ruchira Das
Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi (Co-Convener)
Dr. Charles Varghese
Indira Gandhi national Tribal University Madhya Pradesh (Co-Convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 8: Methodologies and Methods in Educational Research
Educational Research is key to the advancement of education as an area of knowledge and praxis. The interdisciplinarity of education brings together theories and methods of various social science disciplines. The Research Interest Group on ‘Methodologies and methods in educational research’ therefore aims to facilitate conversations on:
- Nature of education as an area of study and inquiry
- Nature of educational inquiry which will include - nature of varying research questions of interest in the field of education and the ontological and epistemological assumptions on which the different questions are grounded.
- Methodologies for different types of educational research ranging from large-scale survey data to in-depth exploration of educational experiences.
- Concerns around ethics and reflexivity in educational research
- Challenges ahead- a prominent one in the current times being the challenges posed by the pandemic on educational praxis as well as research.
Through this group, we will also try to facilitate panel discussions, seminars, and methodology workshops on- specific methodologies, methods of analysis, and debates around methodological philosophies and ethics of research.
Prof. Shivali Tukdeo
Mahindra University, Hyderabad (Convener)
Dr. Sriti Ganguly
O.P Jindal University, Haryana (Co-convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 9: Teachers and Teacher Education
Research Interest Group on ‘Teacher Education’ focuses primarily on issues around the education of teachers. Education of teachers needs to be contextualized and understood in the broader frame of realities of teachers and their work as well as the philosophical and epistemological background of school education. The group would probe the perspectives and perceptions of teachers and bring the voices of school teachers to the foreground. School teachers would be especially encouraged to take up research on their own lives and work. This is crucial since there is a dearth of researches around teachers and their work in a hegemonic educational structure. Another area in which much research is needed is – the education of teachers. The group would encourage members to undertake collaborative empirical researches to critically examine the preparation of teachers at pre-service level as well as while they are in-service. These could focus on themes such as - examining the setting-up and working of private teacher preparation institutes in the backdrop of market-driven agenda; critically analysing the curriculum of preparation of teachers from the vantage point of access, equity and quality of education; understanding the pedagogical discourse of teacher preparation; an inquiry into the work of teacher educators. Broadly speaking the group would focus on the work and lives of teachers and the education of teachers at all levels while situating these in the larger socio-economic and political contexts. Critical examination of how the larger political ideologies influence the work of teachers and shape teacher education would also be undertaken.
Another area of focus in this Research Group would be - School Leadership. The role of school heads is increasingly seen as crucial to enhance the quality of teaching and learning and for creating a conducive environment to ensure the overall quality of the schools. Besides, teacher leadership is gaining importance in terms of creating teacher mentors and coaches for ensuring high-quality teachers and teaching. Teacher leadership focuses on within-school professional development of teachers that moves beyond the traditional approaches to induction and other short-term training programmes.
The group would promote discussion and research in the areas pertaining to teachers, teacher education and school leadership by organizing panel discussions, seminars, workshops, film screenings, talking circles thereby giving an opportunity to field level functionaries, scholars and academicians to discuss the issues, challenges and share their innovative ideas to improve the education system at different levels. Networking and collaboration among scholars, teachers, teacher educators, educational leaders working at different levels in the education system and policy planners as well as community members would be encouraged and possibilities of collaborative research would be facilitated.
Dr. Smriti Sharma
Lady Sri Ram College, University of Delhi (Convener)
Dr. N. Mythili
Tech Mahindra University (Co-convenor)
Dr. Kishore Darak
Tata Trusts (co-convenor)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 10: Educational Policy, Planning and Management
Research Interest Group-Educational Policy, Planning and Management encourage young scholars to undertake research in diverse aspects of educational policy, planning, management and allied disciplines, including comparative education. This group gives an opportunity to field level functionaries, scholars and academicians to discuss the issues, challenges and share their innovative ideas to improve the education system at different levels. This group provides a platform to build academic networks among researchers, policy makers, planners and field level administrators. It proposes to organise discussions on research methodology, seminars, workshops and panel discussions in the field of educational policy, planning and management.
Prof. Kumar Suresh (Convener)
National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA)
Dr. Jyoti Sharma
University of Jammu (Co-convenor)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 11: School Education
CESI’s School Education Research Interest Group focuses on issues related to school education through deeper examinations and research. Over a period of time the Indian school education system has shown an exponential growth in terms of enrolment and number of schools in the backdrop of the agenda of universalisation of school education, this RIG will intend to examine the issues of access, equity, quality and the other challenges associated with education for all. This group will be interested to probe the realities of the formal schooling system and the hegemonies that continue to exclude a large chunk of children from the marginalised communities by examining the pedagogic practices and processes. Members may undertake theoretical and empirical studies about school education as a site for early segregation, discrimination, identity formation and silent exclusion. The market agenda of education offers multiple kinds of schools ranging from public funded to private low fee, elite private and the schools run under PPP model. The group through different activities may examine the ways under which the larger political processes, private players, market, ideologies and institutions influence the landscape of school education. This research interest group will focus on the issues related with curriculum frameworks in context to embedded ideological and political motives. The overemphasis on the learning outcomes and the push for digital education market in school education have posed multiple challenges, this research group will focus on the studies related to it. This group will also try to address the larger issue of inclusive education by suggesting the measures for developing inclusive pedagogies and practices to build culturally responsive school education. Finally, through different activities, the group will try to focus on all contemporary issues and the current discourse on school education.
As its forthcoming activities RIG school education will be organising Extension lectures on ‘School Education and digital teaching’ in December, 2021. A seminar on Issues and Challenges in School Education in India will also be organised in 2022.
Prof. Satvinderpal Kaur
Punjab University, Chandigarh (Convener)
Dr. Vijitha Rajan
Azim Premji university (Co-Convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 12: Comparative Education
The thematic group on Comparative Education is an area for exploring global, national, regional, and local issues of education concerning cultural, economic, and political dynamics as a multi-disciplinary field in educational research. It is a platform that explores the strong relationship between education and society regarding educational policies and practices in the global context. Comparative Education as the Research Interest Group (RIG) is an attempt to build the research capacity of the scholars in exploring the issues related to education through theories and methods applied in the field across regions and countries with specific cases in the light of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2030 with special reference to the Indian context.
RIG intends to provide scholars to reflect on developing capacities to engage with key questions in comparative education including equality, equity, transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness in educational provision. It would be critical in identifying and critically analyze with a reflection on educational policy options and potential drivers of change with the analytical and research skills to research in this field. Relations between education and social contexts with an overview of comparative education theories and methods systematically applied in the field in diverse milieus with special reference to gender, class, and ethnicity impact the outcomes and quality of education needs to be at the centre stage. The scholars through various activities in the form of webinars, seminars, and workshops may examine debates about education from the comparative perspectives. Research on practices related to educational governance, planning, and management in policymaking in terms of institutional structures, curricula, and modes of regulation and governance on comparative methods would identify convergent and divergent trends within education to provide scholars an awareness and experience with an international perspective.
Prof. Renu Nanda
University of Jammu (Convener)
Kajal Kalsi
University of Jammu (Co-Convener)
Email: [email protected]
RIG 13: Education and Technology
The introduction of digital technologies (aka Information and Communication Technologies or ICT) in education has led to greater impetus in the centralization and the privatization of education. This has impacted teaching-learning processes, teacher agency, and education system as a whole. Emerging trends like artificial intelligence threaten to take such centralization and privatization further. RIG 13, “Education and Technology” aims to interpret and develop an understanding of technology considering the social transformatory aim of education. How digital technologies can be imagined to empower marginalized groups to benefit from education, how it can be appropriated to support education as a public good, how it can support decentralized and participatory models in education according centrality to the role of the teacher, are questions that the RIG will engage with. Promoting an understanding and exploration of participatory technology models such as open educational resources or free software and their pedagogic implications will be a focus area.
The RIG aims to strengthen and build a credible academic platform for scholars engaged with building an understanding of the role of digital technologies in education. It seeks to develop a critical understanding of the role of digital technology in education, study contemporary trends, and provide an opportunity for members to engage in deliberations over theoretical, conceptual, policy, and programmatic aspects relating to education and digital technologies.
The RIG seeks to engage national and international scholars in the field of education and technology, and encourage them to share their research for deliberation and debate. It proposes to organise conferences, open sessions, panel discussions, lectures, as well as workshops and courses for scholars, teachers, and teacher educators, and work with national and international networks. During 2022, the RIG plans a series of talks by scholars working in the area, as well as short courses on education and technology for faculty working in higher education institutions.
Gurumurthy Kasinathan
IT for Change (Convenor)
Email: [email protected]
RIGs Coordinator:
Dr. Saheed Meo
Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad
Email: [email protected]