1st Edition

Education in a 'Ghetto' The Paradoxes of a Muslim-Majority School

By Farah Javed Farooqui Copyright 2024
    216 Pages
    by Routledge India

    In her compelling journey with a government-aided, Muslim-majority school of (old) Delhi, a manager discovers structures of power, politicking, conflict and harmony. This book explores how teachers, administrators and students of low-income and disadvantaged communities navigate limited opportunities and resources. It examines the socio-economic-cultural background of students, institutional rituals and practices, and the impact of power relations in neo-liberal contexts on the worker-children. It uncovers the power and privilege of those in authority and elucidates how bureaucratic systems in state-run schools tend to overlook the interests and circumstances of students, thus perpetuating their subalternity.

    Education in a “Ghetto” will be of interest to educationalists, sociologists, historians, political scientists, developmentalists or just about anybody interested in the interface of state, society, and education.

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    PART I

    School organisation and leadership

    1 An introduction to the School

    2 The many facets of power

    PART II

    The children’s context

    3 Children of labourers, working children, and vicissitudes of the market

    PART III

    Children, children’s groups, and teachers’ perceptions

    4 Different groups of children

    5 Religious education

    6 Maintenance of boundaries

    PART IV

    School functioning and changes

    7 The School Gender Committee and its many paradoxes

    8 Disciplining the children

    9 The ordinary school calendar begets significant changes

    Conclusion

    References

    Index

    Biography

    Farah Farooqi is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India. Previously, she worked for eight years at the Department of Elementary Education, Lady Sri Ram College, University of Delhi. Her research interests include education, school and community ethnographies, issues of identity, marginalization, ghettoization, and cultural politics.