Nov 18, 2016 - (ii) Occupational pattern and stability. (iii) Parenting ... partner Shanuga Cherayi for being with me over the course of this work and being ... education with near universal school enrolment rates while the state reports the.
TITLE OF THE STUDY
THE LIVES OF TRIBAL CHILDREN AT SCHOOL MILIEU IN KERALA: A Phenomenological Study
Justin P. Jose, PhD
Research Report Submitted to Rabindranath Tagore Centre for Human Development Studies (RNTCHDS), [A joint initiative of University of Calcutta & Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (Sponsored by UGC)]
2015-2016
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TABLE OF CONTENTS S. No
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Contents Acknowledgement Abstract INTRODUCTION RESEARCH METHOD Research Setting Study Approach Sampling Design Data Collection Methods (i) In-depth Interview (ii) Participant Observation (iii) Document Review Data Analysis Ethical Considerations FINDINGS Structural, Familial and Personal Factors (i) Structural Level Factors (ii) School Level Strategies (iii) Classroom Strategies Gendered Interactions Family Level Characteristics (i) Family Structure and Stability (ii) Occupational pattern and stability (iii) Parenting Quality (iv) Parental Substance Abuse Personal Characteristics Contexts of Triadic Interactions in School Milieu (i) Interactions within school premises (ii) Play Ground-Interactions Social relations between tribal students and teachers (i) Nurturing interactions with teachers (ii) Reducing Interactions with teachers (iii) Ambivalent Experience with teachers Interactions with Non-tribal Students (i) Reducing interactions with non-tribal children (ii) Ambivalent interactions with non-tribal children Strengthening Ethnic Identities (i) Self-enhancing experience (ii) Personal meaning making CONCLUSION Emerging hypotheses Implications & limitations References
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
As part of my Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, I conducted the study entitled “the Lives of Tribal Children at School Milieu: A Phenomenological Study.” I completed this work under the Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Rabindranath Tagore Centre for Human Development Studies, a joint initiative of the University of Calcutta and Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (sponsored by UGC). At the outset, I thank Professor Achin Chakraborty, the Director, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, for his support, encouragement and guidance. I thankfully remember Emeritus Professor Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Professor Uttam Bhattacharya and Professor Prasanta Ray for their inspiring presence. I also thankfully remember all professors, staff and scholars for their support and encouragement, which helped me for timely completion of this work. At last but not the least, I thank my beloved life partner Shanuga Cherayi for being with me over the course of this work and being supportive and caring.
Justin P. Jose
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Abstract This study examined the inclusive properties of school interactional milieu shape social identity and school participation of tribal children. Using phenomenological approach, the data were collected using in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and participant observation in a purposively selected 50 samples from Wayanadu district in Kerala. Thematic analysis strategy was used for data analysis. The findings reveal that the structural, familial and personal level factors considerably shape social interactional milieu within schools through complex interactions of its triadic actors such as teachers, tribal students and non-tribal students. The triadic interactions are characterized by social relations salience viz., friendships, support, integration, conflicts, disconnections, distance, sense of otherness, rejections and dominance in social relations. These social relationships salience lead to identity threat perceptions, identification of self with others and consolidating self and social images consistent with one’s own ethnic group. This invokes two potential coping responses viz., personal meaning making and avoiding distress and anxiety. This avoidance coping relates with increased school abstinence and dropouts whereas personal meaning making relates with consolidation of ethnic identity in tribal children. Key words: tribal children, school milieu, social interactions, meaning making, identities
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1. INTRODUCTION The school abstinence and dropouts are the serious national concern in elementary education in India, as about 40% of the children dropout from schools before they attain the age of 10 with a substantial social group bias (NCERT, 1998; 2005; Joy & Srihari, 2014). School dropouts, abstinence and poor quality of school participations are especially tilted towards historically marginalized social groups viz., dalits and tribes (Dreze & Sen, 2002; Dreze & Gazdar, 1997). Among better performing states, Kerala achieved 94% of literacy and performs better on health and other development indicators (Census, 2011; Human Development Report, 2005; Economic Review, 2011). It performs better on literacy, elementary and secondary education with near universal school enrolment rates while the state reports the lowest school dropout rates (0.53%) among other states in India. However, Kerala has historically failed to ensure benefits of this education to its tribal population, since tribal students are considerably abstaining and dropout from schools and engage in rural labour force (e.g., Economic Review, 2011; Human Development Report, 2005; Nithya, 2013; Menon, 2013). The literacy rate among the tribals is significantly less as compared to overall state literacy rates. Tribal students’ school dropout rates are significantly high, which lead to increased rate of social disadvantage in tribal groups (Menon, 2013; Paul, 2014; Joy & Srihari, 2014). The dropout rates are especially high among most underdeveloped and numerically significant Paniya and Adiyan tribes (Paul, 2014). There are multiple factors associated with dropouts. These include poverty, inadequate nutritious food and illness (NFHS-2, 2001; Krishnan, 2004; Gangadharan & Vinesh-Kumar, 2014; Philip et al., 2015); scattered tribal hamlets away from schools and cultural alienation in school curriculum (Cherayi, 2014; Paul, 2014; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008); bilingualism (Bagai & Nundy, 2009; Banarjee, 2013; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008); and inadequate number of teachers (Joy & Srihari, 2014; Bagai & Nundy, 2009). Increased school dropouts of tribal students are associated with the lack of parental support and interest, mother tongue inhibition, lack of school in the community vicinity, teachers’ absenteeism and attitude towards girls’ education (Sundaram & Tendulkar, 2003; Banerjee, 2013; Joy & Srihari, 2014; Menon, 2013). Parental alcoholic behaviour, 5
family study environment, non-tribal students’ attitude and behaviours to tribal students are the reasons for their dropouts. Tribal group affiliation act as a source of discrimination for tribal students at schools. The non-tribal students do not include tribal students as equal peers and share learning properties (Jose, 2016; Mohammad, 2014; Joy & Srihari, 2014; Kaul, 2001). Unlike the scheduled castes, the exclusion of scheduled tribes in Indian society is based on different set of socio-economic and cultural parameters and has little to do with the traditional notion of caste system. Tribals traditionally live in more remote areas, proximally with mountainous as well as forested areas of our country. This spatial location has historically divided and distanced tribal people from the mainstream Indian social life. Their traditional relationships with nature and dependent life style have considerably changed due to the accumulation of modernization efforts over these years (Sedwal & Kamat, 2008; Bagai & Nundy, 2009). There is a growing nationwide realization, that education as a means for integration and assimilation of tribal students in mainstream, life is an ailing project. It is because; education has a limited usefulness in overcoming prejudice, discrimination and marginalization of tribals in our society. The dominant discourses focus on ensuring access to schooling to tribals through enrolment and retention. Tribals’ increasing disinterest to education for social mobility is further aggravated due to the increasing availability of casual labour forces in rural and urban areas, owing to the trends started in 1990s as part of the globalizing Indian economy. More than 80% of the scheduled tribes in India are employed in informal sector (Sundaram & Tendulkar, 2003; Aerthrayil, 2008). Nonetheless, issues of socio-cultural identities and economic productivity have relegated to the backgrounds (Sedwal & Kamat, 2008). Equity in education needs to be viewed from social justice framework, which would go beyond the traditional concerns of equity in the context of school access, participation and learning outcomes to how educational experiences shape personal and social identities, self-worth and future life chances (Secada, 1989).
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Evidently, tribal children are afraid of talking about unequal treatment they face at schools in the forms of verbal abuse, physical punishments, avoid touching by teachers from dominant castes. Children from the dominant castes do not invite or include tribal children to play with them and intermingling is extremely limited outside the school milieu (Kaul, 2001). Studies show primary teachers openly expressing their biased opinion about the ‘ineducability’ of tribal children. Middle and secondary school teachers, although less, express such biased opinions (Subramanian, 2005). In addition, poor quality of infrastructure and teaching, foreign, non-contextualized and culturally insensitive teaching curriculums that do not reflect the socio-cultural reality and lived experiences of tribes have cumulatively contributed to community disengagement with schooling at large (Sedwal & Kamat, 2008). Poor quality of elementary education that did not help the educated tribes to acquire rewarding job opportunities with demonstrating effect on others which demoralize them, from educating their children. The existing studies are predominantly situational analyses addressing policy questions and programmatic requirements. Such studies have examined the access barriers to schooling among dalit and tribal children in terms of patterns, types, severity and nature of discriminations, distancing, differential treatment and social exclusion at schools and their relationships with school participation, abstinence and dropouts (Thorat, 2002; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008; Nambissan, 2009; Bagai & Nundy, 2009; Banerjee, 2013). Such studies have used diverse methodological approaches but overlooked interactional milieu within schools (Jose, 2016; Collins & Coleman, 2008). Further, little is known about how structural, familial and personal level factors of triadic actors shape school interactional milieu. The nature and characteristics of triadic interactions and relationship salience within school milieu between teachers, tribal and non-tribal students are critical to examine in order to address this knowledge gap (Jose, 2016). In addition, it is interesting to explore how triadic interactions and relationship salience shape social (ethnic) identities in tribal children, and resultant coping responses viz., personal meaning making and avoidance coping strategies finally leading to identity consolidation and poor school participation.
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Besides, the schools reproduce dominant ideas about gender, introduce gender based differentiating or categorization of roles and tasks (Holloway & Volentine, 2003). The caste and gender intersections significantly contribute unique and context specific vulnerability in school going girls. Social norms as well as the familial situations constrain parents to restrict their girl children to restrain from schools. Nonetheless, the role of gender within school milieu is overlooked even in the background of multiplicity of research evidences on gender and education (e.g., Bagai & Nundy, 2009; Nambissan, 2009; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008). Evidently, mainstream gender norms regulate school interactional milieu, where gender norms specific to tribal groups receive little attention and respect in school interactional milieu. As a result, tribal children are forced to follow the dominant mainstream gender related norms (Bagai & Nundy, 2009; Jose, 2016). In order to address the conceptual concerns, this study explored the structural, familial and personal factors constituting school interactional milieu, which further determine the nature and characteristics of social relationship salience,
shaping ethnic identities in tribal
children , invoking coping response and school participations. This study is useful in three important ways. First, it would procedure conceptual understanding about the problem under the study, which in turn guides research so that the results shall be durable in evolving strategies for inclusive schools. Secondly, the results would further help teachers and school counsellors to develop appropriate classroom as well as student management strategies enabling inclusive classroom for children from tribal and other marginalized social groups. Finally, inclusive education is a national priority (NPE, 1986), policy makers are likely to benefit from the results since these findings explain the ways in which marginality is reproduced within school interactional milieu. More importantly, the results from this study is likely to guide educational policy makers in Kerala to understand the role of school milieu that continue to marginalize despite the enabling programmatic and policy practices. Hence, using phenomenological enquiry, this study explored the structural, familial and personal factors shaping school interactional milieu; patterns and nature of triadic interactions among teachers, tribal and non-tribal students; relationship salience and coping responses; and finally the related outcomes in tribal children. 8
2. RESEARCH METHOD 2.1. Research Setting: This qualitative phenomenological study was conducted in two state-funded schools and adjacent tribal hamlets at Periya in Thalapuzha village panchayat, located in Wayanadu district of Kerala. Among these schools, one was a lower primary school where children from 1st grade to 7th grade were studying. The other one was a high school, where students from 8th grade to 10th grade were studying. In both schools, about 18% of the students were from tribal communities. The tribal students in these schools were belonging to Paniya, Adiya, Kattunayka and Kurichya tribes. In addition, all tribal students with less than 70% school attendance were listed out and considered them as abstinence along with dropout students of the academic year 2015-2016. 2.2. Study Approach: Using a conceptual framework of school interactional milieu to tribal children, I used qualitative phenomenological strategy to this enquiry as a philosophy and as a methodology (Creswell, 2009; Fouche, 1980). The epistemology of this position underlines the existence of multiple socially constructed realities that allow thick-description of interactions among triadic actors within school milieu (Jose, 2016; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Grounding within this framework, my aim was to explore and describe tribal children’s experience of being the actors of school interactional milieu and their lived experiences with self-in relation to the school milieu that induce and sustain marginality. During this process of exploring the lived reality of tribal children within school milieu, I as a researcher frequently introspected myself, making myself aware of my worldviews and philosophical and theoretical orientations, which were placed aside in order to outreach study participants’ lived experiences and constructions of social reality within school milieu (Nieswiadomy, 1993; Mouton, 1996). This strategy helped to initiate an interactive process with study participants, which included seeing, hearing and reading (Rallis & Rossman, 1998). By considering researcher as a key instrument to data collection, I actively engaged, observed and explored behaviours characterized through triadic interactions as part of this enquiry (Miller & Crabtree, 1999). As Morse (1994) guides, I asked a central research question: how do tribal children’s lived experiences shape their everyday school life within school milieu? In order to address this central question, I raised five additional 9
sub-questions that address the research purpose: First, I examined what are the structural, familial and personal factors shaping the school interactional milieu. Secondly, I explored the patterns and nature of triadic interactions among teachers and tribal and non-tribal students; thirdly, I explored the social relationship salience within interactional milieu; fourthly, I described how tribal children cope with environmental demands within the school milieu? Finally, I related the outcomes with the nature of coping strategies. 2.3. Sampling Design: Using phenomenological approach helped to describe the data from a holistic perspective (Creswell, 1994), in view of the complexity studied (Rallis & Rossman, 1998). The data collection therefore needed to be naturally occurring (Hammersley, 1992). This study had multiple sources of observation and data collection, which included semi-structured in-depth interviews, review of literature and participant observation. The combinations of these primary data collection methods viz., semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant observation and review of previous research are typical for in-depth qualitative inquiry (Shadduck-Hernandez, 1997). As Creswell (1994) suggested, purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit the participants for semi-structured in-depth interviews from the selected schools and near-by tribal hamlets. These included tribal and non-tribal students, parents and teachers from two selected schools. I continued to conduct in-depth interviewers until obtaining data saturation (de Vos, 1998). For participant observation, I observed everyday school interactional milieu in selected schools for a period of three calendar months. I selected the schools through the following eligibility criteria. First, school should represent minimum of 15% to 49% of the tribal schoolchildren but excluded the schools with tribal children’s proportion is more than 50% since such school interactional milieu were expected to be more tribal children friendly. In a similar way, I excluded schools exclusively for tribal schoolchildren like Ashram schools. Table-1 shows the sub-group wise sampling details Type of observations Semi-structured in-depth interview 10
Units of observation Tribal children Non-tribal children
Sample size 10 10
Participant observations Total units of observation
Teachers Tribal parents Tribal dropout children Community activists School
10 06 06 06 02 50
This study was based on 48 in-depth interviews and two participant observations in selected schools have been conducted with tribal children (n=10), non-trial children (n=10), teachers (n=10), tribal parents (n=6) and tribal dropout children (n=6) and community activists (n=6). There are multiple factors determining sample size in qualitative study. These include study purpose, degree of heterogeneity in participants, number of selection criteria, multiple samples within study, types of data collection methods used, budget and time availability (Charmaz, 2006; Mason, 2010). In this study, the data collection was an iterative process wherein I kept on conducting interviews until obtaining data saturation alongside with concurrent data analysis (de Vos, 1998). 2.4. Data Collection Methods: In-depth interviews, participant observation and document reviews were used for data collection. Tribal and non-tribal students were interviewed at schools. All in-depth interviews were audio-taped with informed consent from respective study participants. Interviews with dropout tribal children were conducted at their homes alongside with interviewing their parents. Interviews with teachers were conducted at schools. Informed consent was obtained from each study participant before the interview. Participant observation was staged in two schools for a period of 40 working days. Using multiple forms of data collection methods helped to explore multiple views and perspectives on the triadic actors in the triadic interactions (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; p.4), because; this study is based on the belief that there are more than one truth (Burns, & Grove, 1993; p.60) while researcher’s perspective is one among many (Rossman, & Rallis, 1998; p.10). (i) In-depth interview: In-depth interviews helped to explore multiple views and perspectives on social reality under observation; therefore interpretive views of the three actors in triadic interactions (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; p.4). This was because; this study was based on the belief that there is more than one truth (Burns & Grove, 11
1993; p.60) while researcher’s perspective is one among many (Rossman & Rallis, 1998; p.10). Qualitative in-depth interview helped in exploring the participant’s perspectives on the phenomenon of interest. This interview process unfolds participant’s perspectives as how participant viewed the phenomenon of interest (the emic perspective) rather than researcher’s perspective (the etic perspective). (ii) Participant Observation: The participant observation method was used to explore triadic interactions within school milieu, which is based on the assumption that, there are multiple perspectives on the phenomenon under the study therefore; the focus was to explore these multiple perspectives and to examine how these perspectives contributes to the phenomenon (DeWalt, & DeWalt, & Wayland, 1998). My effort was to observe different aspects of the phenomenon as an “insider” while living inevitably as an “outsider” (Bogdewic, 1992). As Bogdewic (1992) and DeWalt and Wayland (1998) suggest, the researcher belongs to the study area and has previous research experience with tribals, thus participant observation was performed with relatively less duration. (iii)Document Review: Knowledge of history and contexts surroundings of the phenomenon of interest, are primarily from document reviews. Interviews were supplemented with document reviews in order to gather and analyze documents produced in everyday events or constructed specifically for the research at hand. Hence, archival data had been routinely collected to summarize the history and socio-economic and cultural contexts of a (tribal and non-tribal) groups or organization (Shadduck-Hernandez, 1997). In the study, the second form of observation unit was review of literature and position papers in order to build a historical and socio-cultural understanding of the population. 2.5. Data Analysis: All data from both in-depth interviews and field observations were transcribed and later translated in English. All translated interviews were subjected to ‘line-by-line’ reading concurrently with open coding. Initial open coding was followed by merging, deleting or substituting codes, which helped to emerge meaning units. Once units were emerged, I looked for meaning units for essence of description characterized by similarities, differences, and relationships (Moustakas, 1994). This helped to arrive at patterns of meaning across categories. An external 12
data analyst was consulted for agreement on qualitative inferences developed out of the categories and patterns of similarities, differences and relationships arrived at. There was an effort to arrive at consensus through modification, corrections, deletions and reframing of meaning units as part of the consultation. 2.6. Ethical Considerations: All participants were oriented and educated about the purpose of the study. An informed consent was obtained from each study participant orally. I obtained informed consent from teachers for interviewing minor children at schools and parental consent was obtained for interviewing dropout children, who were interviewed at homes. Further, I obtained permission from the school management for participant observation.
3. FINDINGS: 3. 1. Structural, Familial and Personal Factors (i) Structural Level Factors: There are multipronged strategies in place to improve tribal students’ school participation, reduce school absenteeism and prevent early school dropouts. These strategies are evolved through structural, school and classroom level preparedness over these years. Four important projects address the issues associated with school dropouts and poor school participation of tribal students. The Gothravelicham project, Breakfast project, Gothra Sarathi scheme and General Midday Meal Scheme are the projects designed to promote tribal students’ school participation, reduce school abstinence and prevent dropouts in Wayanadu. Gothravelicham Project: In association with District Panchayat and Gram Panchayats,
the
District
Education
Department
has
been
implementing
Gothravelicham project exclusively for tribal students since 2008. The project aims at universal school enrolment of tribal students, ensure quality education, vocational training, provide learning equipments, uniforms, prevent dropouts, generate awareness, mainstream tribal students and continued support for higher education. This project components were teachers and tribal volunteers’ home visits to tribal students, parental awareness, learning materials in tribal language, counselling and career guidance, tribal festivals, tribal museum, learning materials and uniform, distribution of bicycles, remedial teaching and learn and earn units. 13
Breakfast Project: Wide spread poverty and resultant malnourishment coupled with traditional eating habits like skipping breakfast in the morning, alcohol dependence in parent were contributed towards avoiding breakfast in the morning. This was found to act as a significant barrier to tribal children’s regular school participation. In order to address this issue, the breakfast project was initiated at the district level exclusively for tribal students. Under this scheme, all public funded schools in the district provide breakfast to tribal children soon after they reached schools and the routine school activities begins only after breakfast. Gothra-Sarathi Project: Realizing the remoteness of schools at many places, District Education Department has implemented district level Gothrasarathi project under which tribal children living more than 1 kilometer are provided with transportation facilities. Other Schemes: All public funded schools in the district provide midday meal to all students, which included tribal students whereas breakfast project is complementing to the midday meal scheme. These critical structural interventions cumulatively address the concerns such as hunger, malnutrition, distance from schools, support and assistance for cloth, learning materials, awareness generation among parents, remedial teaching and nominal incentives for sending tribal children to schools. (ii) School Level Strategies: Teachers devise diverse strategies at school and classroom levels to ensure school participation of tribal students. These are mostly home
visits,
parent-teacher
associations meeting,
special
Parent Teacher
Association (PTA) for tribal parents and coordinating with health workers and tribal volunteers. In addition, teachers in some designated model school made efforts for inclusive classrooms. Home visits: Teachers closely monitor tribal children who considerably abstain from schools. If a child abstain from school consecutively for five working days, teachers visit their homes, meet their parents and enquire why child was absent for these days. Most of the time, parents’ answers are “he/she does not like to go school’ ‘It does not matter, whatever I say, he does not go’ ‘when I force him to go [school], he runs out of home and come back once school going time is over’ to cite a few examples. 14
Parent-Teachers Association: In schools, teachers often organize school ParentTeachers Association (PTA) meeting, especially after quarterly and midterm evaluation results are declared. Conventionally, this is a platform where parents, students and teachers gather for discussing learning related concerns of students. However, in all schools the involvement of tribal parents were extremely less or even rare. In a lower primary school, the teachers made special effort to bring tribal parents for PTA but they come but remain silent. Evidently, they felt disempowered to participate in par with parents of non-tribal children. Whereas, considering this, the school started organizing special PTAs for tribal parents. Teachers reported that such an approach was much more efficient since exclusive PTAs give more confidence to tribal parents to involve, participate and discuss the issues pertaining to their children. Tribal Parent-teacher Association: These included listing out children considerably or frequently abstain from schools, visiting their homes, consulting parents, and persuading children to come schools. Multipurpose Workers: In some schools, teachers seem to coordinate with multipurpose workers working in tribal areas to make home visits, educate tribal parents and inform teachers about abstaining children. (iii) Classroom Strategies: In a model Lower Primary School (LPS), that prioritizes inclusive schooling, tribal students received priority to occupy leadership positions in school as well as in classrooms (e.g., school/class leaders). Teachers observed that when these children were included in leaderships, their quality of participation considerably increased and such children started enjoying classroom learning process and activities therein. These teachers designate tribal children as coordinators in classroom projects where these children responded with more interest to participate in classroom activities. Memberships in different study clubs in school like nature club, history club and science clubs, where children from the marginalized groups were encouraged to actively participate and take leadership positions, tribal children found enjoying performing their roles seriously. In this school, teachers routinely change students’ seating therefore, all children were exposed to mixed seating arrangements. 15
However, a teacher observed that mixing makes distress in students especially in tribal students, although the teachers at large believe that mixing children have positive benefits. Local Self Governance Institutions and SSA have considerably contributed to improve the physical infrastructure and common facilities in public funded schools in Kerala (State Planning Board, 2011). In 2009-10, the dropout rate among scheduled caste students was 0.58% and in scheduled tribes, the dropout rate was 2.33% (Kerala State Planning Board, 2011). The strategic interventions at structural, school and classroom levels considerably changed the school infrastructure, exclusive facilities for tribal children like transportation, breakfast, awareness generation in tribal parents, incentives for sending children to schools, study materials, school uniforms, periodic homes visits and special parent-teacher meeting for tribal parents. Such enabling interventions have improved tribal children’s school attendance and dropouts (Haseena & Mohammed, 2014). Nevertheless, tribal students considerably abstain from school days and continued to dropouts from schools at differing grades. Economic Review (2011) revealed that sizable proportion of tribal children continue to abstain and dropout from schools. This accounts about 3.99% boys and 3.05% girls with an overall dropout rate of 3.53% whereas overall dropout rate was 1.2% in general population. Interestingly, despite these consistent enabling efforts, significantly high proportion of tribal children continued to abstain and dropout from schools. 3.2. Gendered Interactions School milieu has structured through conventional mainstream gender norms that guide, regulate and reinforce gendered social interactions and relationships among triadic actors within schools (Jose, 2016; Howe, 1997). Explicit evidences of gender norms are evident within and between group (tribal, non-tribal students and teachers) interactions on gender lines. In tribal society, gender norms are traditionally more fluid and flexible in comparison to mainstream society, which accord freedom and equality to women and girls with men in social relations including social interactions of everyday life (Aerthayil, 2008; Kalidasan, 2016). Thus, the components of sex and sexuality do not become a prominent regulating force 16
during social interaction between man and woman (Aerthayil, 2008; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008). In contrary, when school is considered as a cross-section of the society, where socio-cultural worldviews of the dominant social groups constitute the basis for structuring interactional milieu (Delamont, 1990; Howe, 1997), whereas the socio-cultural worldviews, normative and value systems of the marginal groups are disregarded and unarticulated within school milieu (Jose, 2016; Cherayi, 2014). The findings reveal that teachers who structurally own power and influence within schools shape interactional milieu that substantially reproduce mainstream gender norms, value systems and socio-cultural worldviews, which are applied to tribal children. For an instance, intimate cross-gender social relations like friendship, mutual support, interactions and exchanges are the usual norms between boys and girls within most tribal communities (Kalidasan, 2016). This positive ‘between gender’ social relations are valued and less regulated in tribal groups whereas in school milieu, such interactions are strictly regulated, monitored and largely non-legitimized. As a result, inter-gender engagement and interactions receive less-acceptance from mainstream students as they internalize such interactions from the mainstream painting of gender norms. Moreover, tribal children in school milieu, often find it conflicting with their communal gender norms that constrict and limit them from availing support. Additionally, the results suggest that the mainstream gender norms are used to suppress tribal students from accessing social support resources available within this interactional milieu. The adults (teachers) de-legitimize intergender engagement through devaluing and ridiculing between and within gendergroup interactions. A 15 year-old Kurichya girls at 10th grade said: Though I am feeling bad in such [discriminating] situations, I pretend that I don’t bother in such matters. But boys are very good, though they are from other [nontribal] communities, they used to talk me. But when I talk with some boys my teachers used to scold me, they are showing this in a different way that I am a bad girl who talks only with boys and I have some love affair with them!..”
3.3. Family Level Characteristics (i) Family Structure and Stability: Economic subsistence of tribal families in contemporary Kerala has increasingly been characterized by their rapidly deteriorating dependence upon nature, 17
occupational migration, detribalization, landlessness and reliance on local labour (Jose et al., 2010; Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011; Aerthrayil, 2008). Evidently, family structure where a child is born provides both advantages and disadvantages that subsequently affect his/her cognitive, behavioural, health and learning outcomes in children (Magnuson & Berger, 2009). The children born to two married biological parents had lower risk of being a high school dropout, pregnant teen, and idle; these children also had better adult outcomes (McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). Tribal family factors with direct implications on family structures have been the excessive reliance on manual labour, dysfunctional families, single parenthoods and women headed families due to desertion, death and occupational migration. The findings reveal that tribal families are inherently poverty ridden, hence their source of subsistence dependent on locally available pool of coolie labour with minimum wages. As a result, parents engage in work so that family may sustain financially. Nonetheless, this happens at the cost of leaving their children unattended during day hours, resulting inadequate parental attentions and quality parenting, which further influence their children’s early school dropouts. The tribal children’s lives are intertwined with nature, which is attached with free exploration of forest, rivers and neighbourhood premises. Children who experienced the joy of unrestricted physical mobility in the absence of parental monitoring, it is difficult for them to confine themselves to the four-walls of classrooms. Instead, they aspire for exploring and engaging themselves with nature and derive happiness and joy. Schools, on the other side, provide structured milieu that foster learning, engagement with other children, restrict physical mobility even within school premises (constrained by time tables), which are behaviourally difficult for these children to modify and suit oneself to the demands of such highly structured milieu. Hence, tribal students default in academic assignments, inviting scolding and other forms of punishments from teachers, and sometimes teasing from fellow (non-tribal) students that reduce their motivation to go school regularly. The family stability is more important than family structure per se since children who are born to traditional families enjoy stable parenting over life course. The single parenthood, especially women headed families are evident among tribals alongside with unwed mothers which received little attention (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011; 18
Jose et al., 2012; Praveen, 2012). In addition, marital desertion, separation and death of spouses have contributed to their share to disturbing natural functioning and stability of family systems (Jose et al., 2012). The children from dysfunctional families through separation, outside the wedlock pregnancies and single parent women families abstain from schools than children of intact families. A tribal activist said: Tribal children have a different space at home and in their community. They go anywhere they like since no one restricts them! Their space include forest, river and neighbourhood. In the morning, both parents go for coolie work. Then, the children roam around the forest and community premises. The parents do not control them in their activities. So, since childhood, children enjoy unrestricted freedom to do anything as they like. But when they go school, they cannot sit for a long-time in their classrooms as they never used to do so! In classes, they have to listen the teachers and must follow the rules and regulations. They have to do the homework and other activities, if they did not do the homework, they hesitate to go school as either they have feel that other students might tease them or they have an inferior feeling that they are not good enough like other students (Field note, 18th Nov, 2016).
(ii) Occupational pattern and stability: As discussed earlier, changes in the socio-economic relations during postindependence period, the tribals became increasingly landless and displaced from their traditional livelihood (Aerthrayil, 2008). As a result, tribals joined the cheap unskilled labour force in the village economy, whose sustenance is solely based on manual labour available in agricultural and allied sectors. Tribal men and women participate in this workforce. The seasonal migration of tribal households to secure availability of jobs even in neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamilnadu poses substantial challenge to tribal children’s regular school attendance. This was because when parents migrates to other locations within the state or even to neighbouring states, they prefer to take their children along with them since children would otherwise be left unattended at homes. A teacher said: “Before tribal parents used to come with their children and they used to wait till the evening when the classes end, for taking their children with them. We tried to convey them that children will come after the class or otherwise you come by the evening. They never listen! They say that if they [children] need anything, then we must sit here. That much sensitive they were. They give more importance to the relationships in the family and community. They are very caring and supportive [but] educating 19
children is not a priority for them rather they want to make their children comfortable as wherever they are…” (iii) Parenting Quality:
Poverty contributes to parental stress, depression and irritability leading to disrupted parenting and poorer long-term outcomes in children (Utting, 2007). Since childhood, most tribal children are left unattended due to the structural weakness of family shaped by poverty, thereby compromised quality of parenting. Thus, tribal children prefer to remain at homes as they enjoy, to a large extend, unrestricted freedom by exploring and playing in forest, hunting birds and swimming in rivers. Inadequate parental attentions, implicitly allow these children to remain away from schools. Some parents persuade their children to go school regularly but they resist going to schools. Some children turned violent against their parents when parental pressure becomes immense to send them schools regularly. For instance, a boy studying at 7th grade stoned down his father as he was compelled to go school. Inconsistent parental positions influence children to abstain from schools. For instance, in one tribal family, father wants his children to be regular in schools whereas mother does not want them to go school, as she does not find it useful. However, young children’s relationships with their mother affect their development more than their relationships with fathers whereas adolescents’ relationships with their fathers significantly shape their achievement and developments in schools (Utting, 2007).
A mother said: My children are not interested in going school. Most of the day, all children (in the hamlet) who abstain from school gather as a group, move around village premises, riverside, forests, they fish, they hunt birds, and play. When I ask them to go school, they get angry (Munkopam), they run out of home, fighting with me. When teachers come home [but] they ran away!
A father said: When I become strict with children to send them school, mother and her family members do not support me. They do not know the importance of education. I wished for good education but my parents did not send me school. I know my children need education to live in these days, but [children’s] mother and her family lead a traditional life. They ask what would we get out of education? If I force my children to go school, I will get isolated in my family.
A father said: “…One day when I scolded my child for not going to school, he picked a piece of stone and thrown to my head. See now I am an ageing person. My eye site is getting 20
poorer. If they throw stone, I would not be even able to avoid it. So I do not want to mess up with them now. If they go school, I would rather relieve out of tension”.
(iv) Parental Substance Abuse: Alcoholism is widespread among tribals, both in men and women. Unlike the mainstream society, women in tribal communities enjoy gender equality in important ways whereby women also enjoy relatively equal social sanction to use alcohol and other addictive substances such as chewing tobacco in their respective communities. Parental substance dependence simultaneously expose the children to these substances especially tobacco products and alcohol, which result in children in their younger ages to experiment with alcohol and tobacco and develop dependence. Tobacco use is initiated often during childhood by parents. As children grow-up, they engage in manual labour available in neighbourhood, earn money and enjoy independence even afford to buy alcohol and tobacco. As evidences suggest parental alcohol behaviour substantially influences children’ early exposures to addictive substances, which increase their school abstinence as well as early school dropouts (e.g., Jacob & Johnson, 1997; Zucker, 1994; Brook et al., 1990; Patterson et al., 1992 for review). 3.4: Personal Characteristics Evidently, some tribal children lack motivation to go school though most of them are not dropouts. Many abstain from schools with tokenistic school participation. Such children go schools occasionally due to parental and teachers’ compulsions. In some instances, teachers and tribal students reach to a consensus that they go school occasionally, when there is an inspection by district education authorities. Otherwise, they abstain from school most of the days in a week and receive school attendance even in their absence. More importantly, as children grow older into later childhood and adolescence, they cognitively appraise and associate their relative subordinate position within school milieu that distances, discriminates, exclude and marginalize them. Their newly gained self-awareness that school milieu is no longer a safe and nurturing place for them. Instead, this milieu continued to induce and sustain intense psychological distress and anxiety whilst going to school is associated with the memories that induce anxiety and distress, thanks to their previous stress provoking experiences 21
and memories. As a result, abstaining from school helped them to manage temporarily with these anxiety and distress. A teacher said: “Children do not have restrictions at their homes and in community. In tribal families, both parents use alcohol. Children do the same in their younger age with their parents. At this stage, parents do not know the consequences of alcoholism in children as they used to use alcohol when they were young. So, they don’t feel anything wrong about that…”
3.5. Contexts of Triadic Interactions in School Milieu 3.5.1. Interactions within school premises In a cultural event day in school, all students of the school gathered in a common school auditorium, which was the main venue for the cultural event. The students were free to choose their peers on the ground, since all students have chosen their seating positions as per their choice. Some boys and girls were sitting together, engaging in conversations, sharing happiness and warmth. Nonetheless, gender segregated seating pattern was predominant where boys are seating together so do the girls. They actively engaged in school cultural events. Children form small groups consist of 2 to 8 members actively involves in usual conversations. These groups formation has an evident social group influence due to the sense of belongingness and affiliations these categories shared in school milieu. The ethnic and religious orientations significantly shape the clustering of students in different groups within school milieu. Muslim students are likely to segregate on gender line but remain as groups while walking around school premises and engage in conversations in school milieu. Nonetheless, Muslim boys and girls are segregated on gender-lines and form separate groups. This was evident since dress pattern highlights Muslim religious identity (e.g., veils on girl’s head, white hats upon boys head etc). Invariably, the tribal children formed groups with size of 2-8 members. Paniya and Kurichya boys were sitting as separate groups in the school venue. Consistent with mainstream gender norms, these groups have formed, including tribal students since I found parallel gender segregated groups for Paniya and Kurichya girls. These separate groups of Paniya and Kurichya students on gender line whereas Kurichya students hesitate to engage with other tribal groups.
22
During leisure, tribal boys and girls were moving around the school premises as separate but gender based groups. Their movements in comparison with other social groups, was less frequent. Interestingly, tribal children move around the school premises as groups rather than individuals. It was difficult to find a tribal student freely conversing with teachers at school premises, through these days were more or less free from structured school days for academic activities. In contrary, it was evident that children of other social groups frequently engage in interacting with teachers, being jovial with teachers. A teacher said: “You know these are tribal children, they do not come to us and talk. If something needs to communicate, we need to call them and ask…”
In contrary, non-tribal children, though majority were sitting in the event venue, individually and in small groups were moving around the school veranda, conversing with teachers and actively engaging in event organizing related duties including serving tea and snacks to visitors and guests. The students of dominant social groups like Hindus, Muslims and Christians actively involved and enjoyed ‘Mappilapattu’ and ‘Oppana’. Their active involvement was observed in terms of clapping, singing, dancing (mere body movements while sitting) and conversing upon the content of performance. The tribal students were silent and their body language showed they were disinterested (such as turning away the face from stage etc, looking each other on face, ignoring etc). Further, a group of tribal boys were playing ‘Kallu’ (a traditional form of game) during Mappilapattu was performing on the stage. Interestingly, when folk songs began, these children actively engage through stopping ‘Kallukali’, started clapping, moving body with rhythms and enjoyed involving in. 3.5.2. Play Ground-Interactions Tribal children preferred in-group engagement in playground, involve in games and play with culturally shared understanding and meaning. This is especially true in small grade tribal students. As they progress in grades, they engage in commonly shared games like Kabadi, cricket and food ball, which have more general acceptance. In such games, there are out-group engagements where tribal students, 23
though less in frequency, used to engage with non-tribal students in the playgrounds. However, such engagements are characterized by inequity in power positions. Tribal children are subjected to peer victimization since they face with blame for group failure. Tribal students, especially in higher grades appraise these discriminations are based on their tribal group affiliation; thus develop a sense of ‘otherness.’ This differentiation of self as ‘we vs. they’ substantially shape ethnic tribal identity. A 17 year-old Paniya boy said: “…Sometimes some students tease us that we belong to Adivasi community, we are unhygienic and something they tell...It happens during the playtime. The community students were in a group but we do play with other students. Unnecessarily they blame us! they never compromise If any problem arises. I used to quarrel with them! Why should we compromise or sacrifice? If they cannot manage the situations, they blame our Adivasi community…”
A teacher said: “…Non-tribal students have usual conversations with tribal students. They [tribal students] never say about their likes and dislikes including their interesting plays. They simply listen what others say. After we [teachers] take initiative, they [tribal students] started to talk each other about these matters…They [tribal students] are very sensitive in nature, so we need to make them comfortable then only we can reach them…”
3.6. Social relations between tribal students and teachers Tribal children’s experience with teachers are characterized in three important ways, namely positive nurturing interactions, negative reducing interactions and ambivalent interactions. (i) Nurturing interactions with teachers: The committed teachers outreach tribal students though they are less in numbers. Such teachers found to nurture and address the psychosocial and emotional needs of tribal students and constantly engage and intervene in academics, personal and familial aspects of students’ life. These teachers develop an inclusive and equitable attitude, acquire specialized knowledge and regard for tribal culture and their way of life, in relation to its marginalizing potentials. The teachers frequently use positive reinforcement as a strategy to motivate tribal students in their academic efforts and achievements. Tribal students recognize such teachers who have personal regard for themselves. A 14 year-old Paniya girl said: 24
“…My teacher is good, she knows me, she never scolded rather she is very supportive. I wanted to become a teacher after my studies”.
A 17 year-old Paniya girl said: “I like all my teachers. They are very good. They help me in my studies especially in English, because I am weak in English. Actually, I don’t like this subject but what to do without studying English, I won’t be able to complete my plus-two! In other subjects, I am good at studies. This is not my statement, my teacher says”.
(ii) Reducing Interactions with teachers: As students achieve high grades in schools and attain their teen ages, the teacher student relationships often characterizes through tensions and conflict salience. In teen age, students look for more freedom and acceptance as persons who constantly improve autonomy. Teachers need to be extra-ordinarily flexible enough to show acceptance and being inclusive (Jose, 2016; Cherayi, 2014; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008; Kaul, 2001). The findings reveal tensions and conflict salience in the relations between tribal students and teachers. Teachers use coercive strategies to manage tribal students in classroom such as scolding and insult in front of other students whereas students aspired for personalized mentoring in a manner consistently ensuring respect, privacy and personal autonomy. Teachers seemed relatively less sensitive to these psychological needs for privacy and respect for ‘self’ in students, including individualized feedback on learning related activities. Tribal children were more susceptible to negatively appraises tensions and conflict salience in teacher-student relations, partially due to the social distance between non-tribal and tribal social groups. Tribal students consider themselves responsible for their inadequate academic performance; nonetheless, they do not prefer teachers shouting, scolding and other forms of aggressions, especially without ensuring privacy. A 17 years old teen girl said: “I know she is doing it [scolding in public] because I took leave!”
A 15 year old, 10th grade Kurichya girl said: “Two teachers are very supportive but they used to scold me when I take leave on school days. I feel so sad when they scold me before my classmates. I know that they are good, they are scolding because I took leave. But if they scold me when I am alone I don’t have any issues, unfortunately they scold me always in front of my class mates. I felt hurt many times”.
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(iii) Ambivalent Experience with teachers: Some tribal students are ambivalent in comprehending their experience with teachers in the school milieu. Teachers seemed to be supportive in academics but poorly understood them within their sociocultural milieu. Teachers constantly involved in providing advice and educating about the occupational prospects if acquire educational qualifications. When teachers engage in these roles, they seemed to be appealing to tribal students. Nonetheless, the teachers constantly engage in comparison of tribal students with better performing students (who are often non-tribal students), which further aggravate sense of inferiority and ‘less good self’ in relation to ‘others’. Further, tribal students form poor comparative self-image within school milieu through comparing self in relation with others, during teacher-student interactions. A 15 year-old Kurichya girl, at 10th grade said: I do not know why I am taking leaves quiet often. Actually, I don’t want to go in this school. I told my parents that I need to change this school. They are telling you are studying in 10th standard. So this is your last year in the school, next year onwards you can go some other school and till then I have to manage there!
A teacher said: “No…no… tribal students have no confidence, especially when they are in a [mixed] group [therefore] they perform relatively less well. [But] when they are in their own groups, they always move in groups [so] other students do not involve much with tribal students…”
A father of Kurichya girl said: “You know she [daughter] is having everything here. Whatever she asks I used to bring for her. I wanted only one thing that she has to study well. But, she keeps on saying that she is not going to the school and wanted to change the school.”
3.7. Interactions with Non-tribal Students (i) Reducing interactions with non-tribal children: The social relations in school milieu between tribal and non-tribal students are extremely inequitable and social dominance oriented (Jose, 2016; Thorat, 2002; Sedwal & Kamat, 2008). Evidently, there was not a single instance where a tribal child articulate his or her positive engagement with non-tribal children within school milieu, though many teachers were able to express their inclusive and considerate attitude to tribal children. The tribal and non-tribal students interactions within school milieu is characterized through extreme forms of inequity, social discrimination, dominance orientation and 26
devaluing tribal origin in such a way that reinforce tribal students’ inferior social position within school milieu and beyond. The expression of separate [ethnic] identity expressed in terms of ‘We [tribal] vs. They’ have frequently surfaced in conversations. The nature of social relationship salience viz., social disconnections, distance and conflicts embedded within school milieu significantly shape and solidify tribal identity in tribal students. A 15 year-old Kurichya girl, at 10th grade said: “I can’t do well enough like others,” I feel isolated in school, so I would not talk anyone… I just want to finish [schooling] as soon as possible.”
A 17 year-old Kurichya girl said: “…I don’t like the attitude of my classmates. They [non-tribal] are thinking that ‘we are tribes; we are different people and [are] good for nothing! They have an attitude that we are not able to perform in studies. I feel they are not considering us are human being!”.
A 14 years-old, Paniya girl said: “…In school, I feel isolated and lonely! I think a lot about my life, I want to go from this place and settle some other place where no one can recognize us! Then I won’t get these teasing and blaming anymore.”
A 17 year-old Kattunayka boy said: “…I have many friends [but] I am not close with anyone in the school. I really like to be in the school, especially the atmosphere, friends and teachers. I don’t know why, but often I get afraid in the school without any reason…”
A 17 year old Paniya boy said: “…we are not slaves! I don’t understand what people are thinking about us. Sometimes, I also think we are good enough like other people that’s why we are born in forest and lives in such worst situations…”
(ii) Ambivalent interactions with non-tribal children: Tribal children’s relations with non-tribal children show considerably ambivalent and confusing to them. Tribal students report they have friendships with all students in schools but at the same time, they reiterate that all intimate, considering and personally meaningful friendships they enjoy are from their own in-groups. With non-tribal students, though they report they have friendship, such claims seem to be superficial since any such claim was followed by a direct intimation that they do not share intimacy and warmth with students of other social groups. There is an evident in-group preference among tribal students and this preference is exclusively for one’s own tribal group while they exclude students of other tribal groups from intimately engaging with trust. The 27
students perceived and internalized socio-cultural distance between non-tribal students, which is largely shaped through the social interactions occur within the school milieu. A 14 year-old Paniya girl said: “…My friends help me in my studies. They like me very much and I also like them very much. I have many friends in my school. Everyone is my friends. But a few are close to me. I talk to them and we use to have fun. All my close friends are from my community…”
A 14 year-old Paniya girl said: “I have only few friends in school, I don’t feel comfort to make friendship with everyone. I think I have some starting problem, but my friends are very good, I really enjoy with them. Sometimes some students make problems to me, they tell some stupid stories to teacher”.
A 17 year-old Paniya girl said: “…I have friends from other community, I am a bit afraid of getting close to them [non-tribal students]. I don’t know, but in previous school where I have completed till 10th standard, my friends teased me when they get angry on me or in some matters”
A 17 year-old Paniya girl said: “…Once I get into a job, I will go from here. We will stay a place where no one can recognize us. But I don’t know any place other than this. Anyway, let us hope for the best!”
3.8. Strengthening Ethnic Identities The schooling available to tribal children devalues their cultures, histories and undermines their sense of self and community identities (Sedwal & Kamat, 2008). Teachers and non-tribal students are insensitive to the socio-cultural needs of tribal children at schools (Banerjee, 2013), which included the significant amount of coping resources need of tribal children in order to accommodate the formal school systems, peer-groups, content of learning, pedagogy and integration with non-tribal community environment in schools (Jhingram, 2000). Evidently, tribal students increasingly recognized their sense of otherness from the dominant non-tribal teacher-student dyad within school milieu, because of the socialization within the school milieu is structured in a way, which consistently reinforce the sense of otherness. As Phinney (1991; 1992) postulates, this sense of otherness induces the formation of ethnic tribal identities that unfolds a process of identification of self and others, who share same/similar social group memberships and develop a sense of belongingness, commitment and pride for being a member of tribal groups. 28
The identity formations within school milieu is shaped through dominant normative and value systems that are inherently biased against tribal norms while favour dominant groups. This influences tribal children to develop a sub-ordinate and often inferior social identity. Nonetheless, this does not mean that children always identify and affiliate self negatively. Children who enjoy involved parenting and family support reject this discriminatory and evaluative consensus of the dominant groups either completely or partially. Those children who completely reject these negative attitudes develop relatively more positive self-concept and self-identity in relation to their respective social groups (Verkuyten, 2005; Major & O’ Brien, 2005). Tribal children who negatively perceive the ‘otherness’ seems to internalize negative selfimage and internalize the discrimination as the result of their personal failures. As a result, these children are likely to develop devalued tribal identity. A 17 year-old Paniya boy said: “Sometimes, I think we are good enough like other people that’s why we born in forest and lives in such worst situation. You know sometimes teachers also support them [for undue claims]. I was fed up with that school that is why I left from there…”
Additionally, since tribal identities are personalized as inferior and sub-ordinate, it devalues and disgraces them, which in turn induce their psychological distress. As an effort to manage this distress, they distance self, anticipate and avoid distress inducing situations, which are potentially stress provoking, leading to disgrace attached to tribal group affiliation. Many tribal students frequently use avoidance as coping strategy to reduce potential anticipated threat to self. Parents remain unresponsive to children’s discriminatory experiences and levels criticism against students for abstaining from schools. Further, tribal students found passive to some explicit attributes of tribal ethnic groups like skin colour and physical structures that are not amenable and uncontrollable to individuals. However, the implicit nature of tribal life like family relationships, food habits and life styles are concealed within school milieu. As Verkuyten (2001) suggests, students need considerable level of parental and familial support to cope effectively with social identity based discrimination since social support substantially buffers the negative effect of ethnic identity. (i) Self-enhancing Experience:
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During late childhood and in adolescence, tribal children began to cognitively appraise their relative social positions within the social structure, including at schools. Formation of ethnic tribal identity through identity exploration, affiliation and attaching emotional significance, tribal children abstain from schools as a way of self-enhancement. It is because when these children are in schools and exposed to non-tribal students and teachers, they feel less powerful and influential due to their internalization of identity related negative attributions. As a result, they abstain from schools in order to feel powerful, in control of self, feel relaxed and enjoy life. In homogenous groups, they enjoyed acceptance, respect, inclusion, therefore felt control over situations, and above all, expressing self whereas in schools, they are deprived from all these psychosocial resources. As a result, the feel less control over self and environment, anticipate anxiety and distress resulting poor confidence, less acceptance, fewer chances to expression of self. Tribal children increasingly abstain from schools as a way avoiding distressful and anxiety provoking situations as well as to enhance self by engaging with one’s own group with adequate psychosocial and emotional resources needed for self-enhancement. A 16 year-old Paniya girl said: “I feel powerful when I am with children of my community. They accept, they respect, [and] they include….so I feel good and happy. When I give idea [of new game], they accept. But here [in school], I do not feel that much confident to talk about my idea. So I speak less’ [16 yrs old, 9th grade Paniya girl]
A 16 year-old Kattunaikya boy in 10th grade said: “Yah! I have friends in school [but] most of them are from my community itself. We go school together. Most of the students in school belong to Adivasi community; only few are from outside”.
(ii) Personal meaning making: Humans have a natural inclination to understand and make meaning (Frankl, 1963), thus it is a fundamental aspect of human experience in the forms of linguistic units. These meaning shape participants’ view of reality with which actions are defined. Social analysts consider meaning as social reality, culture, norms, understanding, definition of situations, typification, worldview and so on. The meanings are transbehavioural since they do more than describing behaviour-they define, justify, and interpret (Lofland & Lofland, 1996). The meanings are cognitive categories upon which we view reality and define associated actions (Dewey, 1933). Life experiences 30
generates and enriches meaning and give explanation and guidance for experience (Chen, 2001). Increasing self-awareness alongside ageing older within school milieus, tribal children engage in meaning making through self-evaluations, which rate ‘self’ as relatively less-privileged, leading to poor self-confidence, increased sense of aloneness, isolation, sense of inability and severely compromised agency. In addition, as tribal children ages over time into later childhood and adolescence, they engage in searching selves within respective tribal groups. It results in developing self-awareness within children to associate self, and form affinity, which is attached with emotional significance and personal meaning. One’s identification of self with one own ethnic or tribal group substantially develops tribal identity in children. This evidently increases psychological and social disconnections and selfimposed social distancing through developing and frequently using avoidance as a coping strategy to preserve potential threat to self. Many tribal children aspire to disconnect from school milieu through dropout and prolonged abstinence from schools. This is in a way, avoiding stressful school interactional milieu, thereby feel empowered and connected to tribal community. It seems to help in coping with sense of loneliness, isolation, improve concept of self in relation to community; thereby improve confidence. In short, abstaining from school partially and in dropout completely provide a sense of complete re-unification of self with inclusive parent community, settling down perceived threat to self
that they previously used to
confront in school interactional milieu. Hence, it is evident that abstaining from school and school dropout are the two avoidance coping strategy tribal children frequently used from potentially stressful and threatening school milieus.
31
Figure-1 proposes a conceptual framework of tribal children’s systematic exclusions from school system Distal Factors Structural characteristics Enabling interventions School level strategies Classroom strategies Gender, Normative/value systems Family characteristics Family structure & functions Occupational structure Parental behaviours Aspirations/invol vement Parenting quality
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Personal characteristics Age Gender Tribal group Motivations Modelling Addiction habits
Proximal Factors
Awareness of self within the milieu
Coping
Outcomes
Increased school abstinence School Milieu Classroom School premises Playground Interactions with teachers: Nurturing Ambivalent Reducing Interactions with Nontribal students: Reducing Ambivalent
Identity threat responses Identification of self with ethnic groups
Avoiding distress & anxiety
Increased school dropouts
Ethnic identity Consolidating self and social images consistent with ethnic group images Affiliation & commitment to ethnic groups
Personal meaning making
Identity/Selfenhancing experience
4. CONCLUSION As the conceptual framework explicates (see figure-1), the results reveal the structural, familial and personal factors considerably shape social interactional milieu within schools through complex interactions of its triadic actors viz., teachers, tribal and non-tribal students. These triadic interactions are characterized by social relations salience viz., poor friendships, poor social support, poor school integration, conflicts, disconnections, distance, sense of otherness, rejections and dominance in social relations. These social relationships salience lead to identity threat perceptions in tribal children, which simultaneously results in identification of self with others as well as consolidating self and social images consistent with one’s own ethnic group. This invokes two potential coping responses viz., personal meaning making and avoiding distress and anxiety. The avoidance coping is likely to associate with increased school abstinence and dropouts whereas personal meaning making is likely to associate with consolidation of ethnic identity in tribal children. 4.1. Emerging Hypotheses: Situating within the preliminary results as explicated in the conceptual framework (see figure-1), we evolved five important hypotheses for further research using diverse methodological approaches such qualitative and ethnographic to large sample based cross-sectional survey designs and mixed method studies. These are as follows: Structural, familial and personal factors act as distal factors, which shape inclusive potentials of school milieu within the structural backgrounds. Social relationship salience (viz., peer acceptance, friendship, school integration, conflicts, social disconnections, social distances, sense of otherness, social rejections, and social dominance) within school milieu are likely to result in anxiety and psychosocial distress in tribal children. Social relationship salience significantly shape ethnic tribal identity (threat) perceptions and internalizations in tribal children, leading to consolidation of ‘self-and-social images,’ ethnic affiliation and commitments Identity
threat
perceptions
in
school
milieu
significantly
influence
psychological distress and anxiety in tribal children leading to unhealthy ways of coping and exclusionary personal meaning making in tribal children. 33
Tribal children use school abstinence and dropout as ways of coping with stress and anxiety induced within school milieu. 4.2. Implications and Limitations These findings are preliminary in nature, which helped to evolve some of the important hypotheses, which potentially guide future research towards inclusive school for tribal and other socially marginalized schoolchildren in the state. There is a need for large-scale cross-sectional surveys covering students of all social groups at elementary and secondary school levels that operationalize, measure, quantify and explain the social relationship salience such as peer acceptance, integration, conflicts, disconnections, distance, sense of otherness, rejections and dominance within school milieus and their associations with dropouts and abstinence. Such surveys should also consider examining the level of psychological distress and anxiety in children of socially marginalized groups face within school milieu and explain how school dropouts and abstinence is used as ways of coping with these anxieties and distress. There is a need to strengthen the enabling factors at structural, familial and personal levels. Nonetheless, such strengthening should occur concurrently with adopting strategies to break identified barriers within school milieu for inclusive classroom, playground and school premises. Such strategies include, though not limited, aiming at attitudinal changes in teachers and non-tribal students. In order to achieve these, first we need our teachers in the schools located in tribal areas to be sensitized and trained in developing inclusive attitude to marginalized students. Hence, these teachers would be more inclusive in terms of showing acceptance, respect, emotional warmth and respect for privacy. It further needs to connect tribal children with school activities, placing them in leadership positions, consistently reinforcing them with, and provide equal opportunities and handholding platform for tribal children. Moreover, teachers have critical role to building an inclusive classroom as well as school ambiance where tribal culture and ways of life have fair representations within in school milieus. The educational policy makers at state need to consider developing guidelines to ensure proportional representations of children from the marginalized communities in leadership positions within classrooms, different clubs, school parliaments and students’ committees. 34
Secondly, students from non-tribal communities need greater amount of sensitization in order to make them aware of how their-own discriminatory attitude to tribal children restrict their opportunities and choices, grounding in the need for equitable values. Teachers in usual classrooms can outreach significantly to these children on the historical nature of the marginalization of tribal children, need for non-tribal students being inclusive; thereby strengthening inclusive classroom for tribal children. Teachers in elementary and secondary schools should encourage students in general to explore the surrounding communities of their respective schools, their ways of life, historic sense of marginalization and exclusions.
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Collins, D., & Coleman, T. (2008). Social geographies of education: looking within, and beyond, school boundaries. Geography Compass, 2(1), 281-299. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative and quantitative. Creswell,
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