Transcultural Networks and Connectivities: The Circulation of Mathematical Ideas between India and England in the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century has been characterised as a period in which mathematics proper acquired a disciplinary and institutional autonomy. This article explores the intertwining of three intersecting worlds of the history of mathematics inasmuch as it engages with historicising the pursuit of novel mathematics, the history of disciplines and, more specifically, that of the British Indological writings on Indian mathematics, and finally, the history of mathematics education in nineteenth century India. But, more importantly, the article is concerned with a class of science and mathematics teaching problems that are taken up by researchers—in other words, science and mathematics teaching problems that lead to scientific and mathematical research. The article argues that over a period of 50 years, a network of scholars crystallised around a discussion on mathematics proper, the history of mathematics and education. This discussion spanned not just nineteenth-century England but India as well, involving scholars from both worlds. This network included Scottish mathematicians, East India Company officials and administrators who went on to constitute the first generation of British Indologists, a group of mathematicians in England referred to as the Analytics, and traditional Indian scholars and mathematics teachers. The focus will be on the concerns and genealogies of investigation that forged this network and sustained it for over half a century.

Intensive Teaching: Examining Teachers’ Professional Pressures and Pedagogical Practices at an Elite School

This article asks the following questions: What pressures do teachers face from parents and senior administrators? How do the pressures teachers face from parents and senior administrators affect how they teach students? Specifically, how does this affect the methods they engage in to generate ‘good’ student outcomes? It answers these questions by analysing interviews with 24 high school teachers at an elite international school in Bangalore, a city in southwest India. This article argues that the pressures teachers face from senior administrators and parents to produce high-achieving students result in them engaging in intensive teaching practices. These practices represent teachers’ attempts to produce students capable of earning high grades and entrance into competitive colleges and universities. This article extends our understanding of the factors that shape teachers’ pedagogical practices by making explicit connections between affluent parenting practices and the professional roles of teachers at elite schools. As such, this article makes important contributions to the literature on the sociology of education and teaching.

Governance, Performance and Quality in Higher Education: Evidences from a Case Study

This article explores the link between modes of funding, governance and performance in higher education with the help of a case study involving three engineering colleges in West Bengal, India. It examines the major factors driving performances in the selected higher education institutions. It explains how the ability to adopt and implement performative policies depends on the objective functions, mode of funding and the reputation of the institutions. The findings suggest that the obsession with performance and its linkage with funding may not necessarily lead to a sustained and inclusive improvement in quality in the higher education sector. On the other hand, institutions driven by an objective of maximising prestige may ensure quality without any performative governance policies in place. The findings are contextualised in the larger debate about implementing neo-liberal policies for the improvement of quality in the higher education sector at the national and global level.

Philippe Ariés, Childhood and the Everyday

This commentary navigates the oeuvre of Ariés’ writings on childhood, family, private life and death, with a focus on interrogating ‘who is a child?’ Departing from the intellectual history prevalent at the time, Ariés deployed the psychogenic approach to study the cultural history of childhood and family. He examines the quotidian experience of aesthetics and other documents of culture to reveal ‘what was thought about' viz. the mentalities’ of childhood and family spanning a vast canvas from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. Ariés provocatively proposes that childhood is a modern construct, highlighting that children were not always seen as precious, dependent and in need of adult protection. The magnitude of his intellectual adventure continues to be debated, particularly in childhood studies. The commentary includes an analysis of Ariés’ methods and insights about childhood that unsettle the narrow prisms that refract how we see, understand and educate children.

Non-Partisan School: A Conservative Education Initiative in Brazil

The main goal of this article is to analyse the Non-Partisan School movement (EsP, or Escola sem Partido) which articulates social and political actors around a conservative agenda for education in Brazil. Based on Ball’s studies, this article analyses political governance networks using a free software, GEPHI, using a qualitative network methodology. The article analyses some relevant social actors in this conservative initiative. The research shows that the Non-Partisan School, though presented as an initiative against ideological indoctrination, is in fact the result of a strong combination of ideological, conservative and partisan interests. The article shows that EsP is a conservative agenda among other movements in the struggle for ideological hegemony in the educational field.

Begging and Stigma: Life and Experiences of Children From the Boom Boom Maatukarar Community in Tamil Nadu

The experiences of people from marginalised communities have always been different in all shared social spaces. This article attempts to unpack the experiences of children from marginalised Boom Boom Maatukarar community of Tamil Nadu inside the classroom. It sheds light on the stigma and discrimination faced by children from this community in order to access school and attain education, which is supposed to have an equalising effect on unequal societies. It also explores the power of stigma and how it acts as an abstract and concrete factor that affects the life and experiences of children from this community.