Sociological and Anthropological Studies of Education in India

This website is designed to be a repository of sociological and anthropological studies of education in India. By ‘sociological and anthropological studies of education’ we refer to scientific enquiries into pedagogic sites and relationships in society which include, yet are not confined within, formal education institutions and the interaction therein. We hope that this space will evolve to be a virtual hub for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and activists who value the potential of ethnographic inquiry and other interpretative approaches like interviews, archival research, discourse analysis, and participatory action research, to interpret the complex nature of educational institutions, processes, relationships, and aspirations. 

This virtual hub and repository is a continuation of the International Workshop on Educational Transformations and Societal Change in Liberalizing India held from January 9th to January 11th, 2020. The workshop was funded by a Spencer Foundation Conference Grant awarded to Dr. Mary Ann Chacko and Dr. Leya Mathew, Ahmedabad University; Dr. Karishma Desai, Rutgers University; Dr. R Maithreyi, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust; and Dr. Vidya Subramanian, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Designed as part of a field-building exercise, this workshop brought together education scholars, economists, anthropologists, geographers and historians who have advanced understandings of societal change in post-reform India. Read more about the workshop here. We gratefully acknowledge the Spencer Foundation for the funding that made the creation of this virtual hub a possibility.

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Call for Entries

SASEI invites scholars to share their learnings from sociological and ethnographic fieldwork related to the study of education in India and South Asia more broadly. These articles are intended to provide insights into the unique dilemmas and discoveries encountered during fieldwork. We also welcome submissions with original photographs/photo essays or other documentary material of relevance.

SASEI invites scholars to write a short explanation of a theoretical concept that has been central to their work. This could be a theoretical concept you have borrowed/adapted for your research, a new concept you have coined to capture the complexities of your specific research context, or a concept you have engaged with in your teaching. Similar to an encyclopedia entry, the keyword entry is intended to provide readers with a critical introduction to the concept.

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Aspiration Shaming

In my research with non-elite mothers in India, I used the term “aspiration shaming” (Mathew, 2018) to refer to two simultaneous emergences. Unlike in...

Reflections on the Unpredictable nature of the Field

Even after finalising and conceptualising the research framework beforehand, the field can present unforeseen challenges. It can quickly turn into an...

Technical Rationality

Technical rationality manifests in multiple realms of society and human action. For example, in the realm of authority and domination, rationalisation...