ERIC Number: EJ1422936
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1718-2298
EISSN: EISSN-2200-2014
The Politics of Participation: Dis-Citizenship through English Teaching in a Suburban Indian Village School
Usree Bhattacharya
Journal of English as an International Language, v11 n1 p71-85 2016
Ramanathan (2013a, 2013b) urged scholars to expand the notion of citizenship beyond its typically bounded understandings, towards conceptualizing it as "being able to participate fully" (p. 162). This view highlights the "processual" aspects of citizenship, shifting away from the more categorical meanings that underpin the term (Ramanathan, 2013a; Ramanathan, 2013b; Ricento, 2013). Dis-citizens' ability to participate in different processes is more limited. This theoretical perspective casts new light on the opening statement of an influential Indian language policy report, "The Teaching of English" (NCERT, 2006), which contended, "English is in India today a symbol of people's aspirations for quality in education and a fuller participation in national and international life." India's premier educational research body's imagining English as a benchmark of "participation" in Indian life merits further analysis. This ethnographic case study explores this concept of participation through the examination of the English literacy experiences of students in an English-medium village school. Involving eight focal children from an "anathashram" (orphanage) in suburban New Delhi, the data draws on extended fieldwork at the school in 2011, entailing participant observation supplemented with audio- and videorecording, and interview exchanges. The analysis reveals how the English literacy practices are implicated in the production and reproduction of discitizenship, in order to demonstrate how "English-medium" schooling functioned to exclude the focal children from "fuller participation in national and international life.
Descriptors: Citizenship, Suburban Schools, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Foreign Countries, Literacy, Language of Instruction, Educational Quality, Language Planning, Aspiration, Language Attitudes, Access to Education, Equal Education, Student Attitudes, Collective Settlements, Student Characteristics, Indo European Languages, Residential Care, Poverty, Elementary Secondary Education, Translation, Multigraded Classes, Communicative Competence (Languages), Rote Learning, Memorization, Barriers, Educational Opportunities
English Language Education Publishing. Site Skills Training - Clark, Centennial Road, Clark Freeport Zone, Clark, Pampanga 2023, Philippines. e-mail: asianefl@gmail.com; Web site: https://www.elejournals.com/journal-of-english-as-an-international-language/; Web site: https://www.eilj.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: India
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A