In this article we describe evolving educational aspirations and practices of female high school students and their families in the context of rapidly changing education and employment markets in Kolkata. We interviewed 35 families of girls attending two government high schools. The families are from lower middle-class and lower income…

The North East Region of the country is unique due to its socio-cultural features, geopolitical factors, and abundant untapped natural resources. However, despite being endowed with such uniqueness, the region remains underdeveloped, backward and alienated from the mainland. Since its inception, Indira Gandhi National Open University registered…

This article is concerned with the relationship between education, aspiration, and social mobility in Chhattisgarh, central India. I am interested in how the ideology of education as an intrinsic "social good" squares with the everyday experiences of marginalized "adivasi" (tribal) girls. My aim is to understand why education…

In contrast to the phenomenon of minority overrepresentation in special education in developed countries such as the United States, a paradoxical situation occurs in many developing countries, whereby majority populations are underrepresented in the educational system. The author examines some of the prevailing and traditional societal and…

India is now in the throes of a higher education revolution, and its colleges are churning out thousands of professionals each year. Despite the fact that 35 percent of its population still cannot read or write, the country has successfully positioned itself as one of the world's foremost producers of math, science, and technology graduates,…

In India, putting a child through engineering or medical college is, for many middle-class families, a life's mission in a way that is almost unknown in the United States. Though middle-class families in India have long steered their children into professions like engineering and medicine, the trend has taken off over the past decade. It's been…

Major obstacles threaten the future of Ethiopia. Global publicity regarding the drought of 1986 has left the world with images of starving and orphaned Ethiopian children. Such conditions do still exist in parts of this nation, in which 45 percent of the population falls below the national poverty line (The World Factbook, 2003). In a nation of…