Research Question

Field Experience Reflection on Guiding Questions

When I began my journey through the Teachers for Global Classroom fellowship I had so many different ideas about a focus question or questions to guide my field experience. Not knowing what country I would travel too made it challenging at first to narrow down my area of interest.

Finally, I thought about the schools where I have worked in California and Georgia in addition to the schools I have worked visited or worked with in Guatemala, Mexico, Palestine, and Panama. The same questions kept coming to mind: Is school accessible for all children? Are there gender equity issues present?

I knew these were universal questions that could be researched in any country that I visit. When I was selected to go to India, I knew those questions would be relevant as well.

During my three weeks in India in July 2017, I visited nearly a dozen schools. I was warmly welcomed at all places and was, in fact one of the first Americans to visit many of these schools. From the youngest students to the veteran teachers, they were all eager to hear about my schools and to tell me about theirs.

There was a consistent air about every school I visited. Teachers were well respected and students were well behaved. It was the same at every school. Everyone was polite; everyone was curious, as was I.

Is school accessible for all children?

My first question, on the surface, was seemingly easy to research. I asked the question to as many teachers as I was able. The answers were consistent from person to person and from school to school. In the areas I visited, there was no problem with people attending school. Schools are free, uniforms are provided. But, as in many countries, there are certain fees associated with attending – especially the elite schools. While this prevented some students from attending the elite schools, they were still able to attend a government (public) school.

In both the urban and rural schools this was the answer I received. In one conversation, I learned that about 15% of the population that does not go to school. When I inquired, I was told it was because in much of the rural parts of India, it’s not feasible to build a school and, even if there was a school, it would be too dangerous for students to get there because of wild animals.

This made sense, particularly in northern India where the population is much less dense.

I also learned that the percentage of students attending school had risen dramatically since the independence of India 70 years ago. Current attendance rate is 85% of the population. That seemed good, especially when I reflected on the extreme poverty of India.

Then I recalled a conversation from an orientation to Indian education from a week earlier. There are approximately 450,000,000 school-aged children in India. That means more than 60 million children do not attend school – nearly the entire population of school-aged children in the United States.

When I explored the statistics further, I found that the 85% that attends school, according to UNESCO, refers only to primary school. The numbers for secondary school are far lower. The percentage of students attending secondary school drops to between 50% – 60% (separated for female and male students).

According to Indira Subranania of The Teacher Foundation in Bangalore, there is a shortage of space for college students. To meet the demand for seats, India would need to build 10,000 more colleges. This indicates that there is a lack of accessibility to higher education.

From my limited investigation, I can conclude that there are some accessibility issues in India.

Lingering questions about the accessibility to school relate to urban compared to rural attendance as well as low vs high socioeconomic settings. We did not visit any high poverty communities so I was not able to speak with educators about the role that poverty plays in accessibility. However, my experience in Mexico and Guatemala lead me to conclude that in areas of extreme poverty, school attendance would be lower since all family members would be needed in order to sustain the family with food and shelter.

As I was researching the percentage of students who attend school, I obtained information that assisted me with answering my other question.

Are there gender equity issues present?

The UNESCO and United Nations population statistics confirmed what I had suspected: More boys attend school than girls. For primary school there was little difference. The registration rate for school was nearly identical with 98.8% for boys and 98.5 for girls. The difference shows up, however, in the actual attendance rate: 85.2 for boys and 81.4 for girls. The disparity in percentages for secondary attendance is even greater: 58.5 compared to 48.7 for boys and girls respectively. According to Indira of The Teacher Foundation, literacy rates are 72% for men and 62% for women. Another indicator of gender inequality.

Based on my work in developing countries over the last 30 years, boys are encouraged to go to school while girls are needed to help around home. They take care of younger siblings as well as household chores. Some will work to bring in money.

While visiting secondary schools I noticed that nearly all of the top grades – primarily 11th and 12th were segregated by gender. When I had the opportunity to speak with girls about the idea of gender equity, they said they believed they had the same opportunities as boys. When questioned by teachers or staff members, the girls always said that there was no difference in the way boys and girls were treated.

But I was not convinced that the girls were sharing their true feelings.

While I have no hard evidence, I have anecdotal support for my feelings. When I spoke to all-female classes and shared that my wife was a doctor, the girls always cheered. That never happened in any of the all-male classes. I was also asked about opportunities for girls in engineering and medical fields in the girls’ classes as well.

After my visits, I began to wonder if a female teacher from the US would have elicited a different answer from the girls than what I received. I wondered if they told me the answer they thought I wanted rather than what they actually believed. I speculated that if I had had more time to visit and develop relationships with the students, would I get different answers. I especially wondered this after being interviewed about my visit by a group of five upper grade female students. Their questions were straight forward at first: the typical Who? What? Where? questions.

As the interview progressed, I noticed that it became much more of a conversation rather than a Q & A session. In fact one of the main speakers put down her notepad and actively questioned about how to go about effecting change in her country in regard to pollution. She felt comfortable asking how to make a difference. I had to wonder if she has had this conversation with her male teachers or if it was different because I am a foreigner in her country.

I wish I had been able to spend more time with her so I could further understand her thoughts and opinions about gender equity issues. I suspect that she would tell me there are issues.

This encounter with the idea that ‘everyone is equal in India’ only served to remind me that the same is often said in the US, while there is an obvious gender gap. One only has to look at the comparable salaries for men and women to see that there is a significant gender equity issue in our own country.

Application to Classroom Practice

As I reflect on my classroom practice, I am reminded of the importance of creating a gender-balanced classroom, meaning avoiding stereotyping roles, encouraging equal participation in all subjects and activities. Providing as much support with female role models as male in our literature is as critical as showing experts in all subject areas.

I am also reminded that I need to continue to have similar expectations from the girls as the boys and squelch any of the “we’re better than you” conversations.

Visiting India has given me so much to reflect on and so much to think about as I continue to improve my practice and advance my career in education.