Language Textbooks and Politically Active Citizenship: Assisting or Hindering the National Project?
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Author | Kishore Darak |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023018762823 |
| Subject Matter | Teaching–Learning Politics in India |
Teaching–Learning Politics in India
Language Textbooks and Politically
Active Citizenship: Assisting or
Hindering the National Project?
Kishore Darak1
vidyaarthyanvar sanskar karaave mhanoon ashaa gadya paathanchi nivad karanyaat aali aahe [These prose lessons have
been selected precisely to inculcate samskaras on students].
Translation by the author2
Introduction
Printed textbooks3 are the primary and many a time the only source of school knowledge in India.
Textbook content is regarded by teachers and learners as highly sacrosanct and unchallengeable.
So much so that teachers generally appear to surrender their professional autonomy to textbooks.
Students too seem to habitually ignore their own natural curiosity and inquisitiveness vis-à-vis textbook
content. These observations almost become an intrinsic phenomenon of formal schooling as various
qualifying examinations emphasize assessment of only the textbook content knowledge. Previous policy
documents ranging from the Kothari Commission Report (1964–1966) to National Curriculum
Framework 2005 (NCF)4 have time and again cautioned educators against this colonial practice of
confining educational interaction in schools to the content of textbooks. Albeit their advice that higher
worth should be assigned to individual and collective thinking, the post-independence educational
practices have hardly moved in a direction of respecting the policy recommendations. Krishna Kumar
captured the phenomenon aptly: ‘Structures of pedagogical transaction, once established, do not give in
to change easily. Colonial pedagogy outlasted colonial rule—in independent India, curriculum continues
to be textbook bound’ (Kumar, 2004, pp. 37–38).
Note: This section is coordinated by Rajeshwari Deshpande. E-mail: rajeshwari.deshpande@gmail.com
1 Independent Researcher and Educational Consultant, Pune, India.
2 From Vidya Pradhikaran video conversation created with the purpose of training teachers of 6th grade [Vidya pradhikaran alias
Maharashtra State Academic Authority, formerly known as Maharashtra State Council for Educational Research and Training
(MSCERT), Pune]. For the video, visit retrieved on 12 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdhwX_31_g8
3 Increasing digitization has altered the printed-on-paper form of textbooks; now there are digital and e-versions of textbooks and
other education media. But in the context of this article, the word textbook implies a textbook that is printed on paper.
4 Chronologically speaking, NCF came into enforcement 5 years before Right to Education Act. But NCF has been later notified
as a curriculum document under RTE, making it not simply a suggestive document but imperative one under the RTE.
Studies in Indian Politics
6(1) 132–139
© 2018 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2321023018762823
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
Corresponding author:
Kishore Darak, Independent Researcher and Educational Consultant, Pune, India.
E-mail: kishore_darak@yahoo.com
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