Constructing School Knowledge

"Constructing School Knowledge is a challenging and thought-provoking read. The book offers an in-depth analysis of children's experiences and preception of their own learning at a Government Primary School in India...[It] will be of particular interest to anyone involved in Primary Education in both "developing countries" and the UK. I feel that any work that brings a "different perspective" and helps to challenge our traditional assumptions on educational issues is to strongly welcomed". (Educational Review). "The book is overwhelming based upon field experience...Sarangapani does a splendid job, and her work is certainly enriched with the help of diagrams, tables, maps and photographs". (Progress in Development Studies). Mention 'government run primary schools in India' to anyone and the immediate response: 'monotony, uninterested teachers, dysfunctionality, rote memorization and little learning'. The author of this unusual book argues that it is important to move beyond these obvious if basically true images, not only to re-examine our common perceptions of these schools but in order to devise more appropriate intervention strategies. Using the tools of an anthropologist, Padma Sarangapani explores the process and meaning of rural schooling as constituted by the teachers and children themselves. It is based on a detailed ethnographic study of a village school and draws upon philosophy, epistemology, cognitive psychology, popular folklorist texts and the sociology of education for its interpretive frameworks.