This is the first of two articles on the life and mathematical legacy of the Indian mathematician Ramanujan, who died one hundred years ago. Here, the story of Ramanujan's life is related. His cultural and social background are briefly described and his educational experiences are outlined. Attention is then drawn to the deep nature of his…

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of teachers' "entitled attitude" that manifested itself as resistance to change in the midst of a curricular reform in the Indian school context. For teachers long socialized into a teacher-centered culture, the change expected was nothing less than a paradigm shift in the Kuhnian sense. However,…

Maria Montessori arrived in India in 1939 to conduct the first training course on the Asian continent. Thus began Montessori's extended stay in India. She wrote and published "The Absorbent Mind," crystallized the Elementary curriculum, and developed the theory of "Planes of Development" as the basis for the curriculum from…

This paper presents constructions of 'work' through a comparative charting of the manner in which young people across rural India, urban India, and the urban UK account for their educational and work trajectories. The comparison grounds an interrogation of the individualisation thesis and the reflexive biography, an influential analytical…

Thomas Munro, a Scottish highlander, came to the Madras Presidency in South India as a soldier in the army of the East India Company in 1780. He rose to the position of its governor 40 years later in 1820 and died in India in 1827. His rise was not through military campaigns but peaceful administrative policies. During his stay in India, he…

Cosmopolitanism is often seen as a western concept associated with liberal individualistic values. It is also associated mostly with the urban educated middle-class. However, cosmopolitan thinking has been also prevalent in the East. Scholars in the twenty-first century are increasingly arguing that, there are multiple ways of thinking about…

This article attempts to dwell on four aspects specific to Mahatma Phule's work in education: (i) Mahatma Phule's own social and educational background which undoubtedly had a fair degree of influence on his subsequent social activism. (ii) The article will also attempt to explore Phule's educational activism in terms of his founding and…

In this article, the author profiles Dr. Elisabeth Caspari (1899-2002). As a teacher of teachers, Caspari traveled extensively for 50 years, sharing the wisdom she had gleaned from her training under Dr. Maria Montessori in Adyar, India, and from 4 years of frequent association with Montessori and her son, Mario, in Kodaikanal. The threads of…

This article focuses on social agents' own understandings of socio-economic mobility and social achievement, exploring the possibilities offered by the tool of "family" life history in the context of formerly Untouchable communities in western India, Maharashtra. While arguing in favour of family life histories as both resource and…

This volume contains a collection of selected papers submitted to the 19th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) held in June 2021. The 19th BCES Conference theme is "New Challenges to Education: Lessons from around the World." The book includes 40 papers written by 66 authors from 15…

Many girls involved in sex work in Asia do so because they are compelled by economic circumstances and social inequality. Some enter sex work voluntarily, others do so by force or deception, sometimes involving migration across international borders. Nepalese girls involved in sex work via trafficking are the focus of this article, which aims at…

Biographies of five men who dedicated their lives to fighting for the independence of India are presented. Mohandas K. Gandhi, born in 1869, spent his life in non-violent resistance to the many injustices being perpetrated against the poor and needy of India. Born in 1876, lawyer Mohammad Ali Jinnah was close in ideas, hope, and spirit to Gandhi.…

Charles Trevelyan's contributions as a member of the General Committee of Public Instruction to bring English-style education and Christianity to India is examined. Emphasis is placed upon his organizing role and attempts to secure publicity for his reforms. (DE)