The Courage to Teach: Going Beyond the Constraints of Contexts
Teacher: Rajendra Kumar Verma
School: Government Primary School, Chandanbahara, District Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh
By: Rajashree Srinivasan
Chandanbahara is a village located in the Nagri Tehsil of Dhamtari district in Chhattisgarh. It is situated 16km from the sub-district headquarter, Nagri and 90km from district headquarter, Dhamtari. The total geographical area of Chandanbahara is 116.77 hectares and the total population is 234 people. There are about 59 houses (Census, 2011) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) constitute the majority of the village population. Farsiyan, which is about eight kilometres away is the Gram Panchayat of Chandanbahara. Water and electricity are available, but the village has long-duration power cuts. There are hand-pumps, open wells and tube wells in the village but no network coverage for mobile phones for 5-10 kilometres around the village. The village does not have a clinic. The community health worker is contacted for minor ailments and medical emergencies. The Sondur river, a tributary of the famous Mahanadi, flows through the village. People in the village are extremely poor. Their main occupation is agriculture and only one person in the village has a government job. Parents value education for boys and girls equally.
The Government Primary School (GPS) in the forest of Chandanbahara is accessible only on a two-wheeler. It was a long ride through a dense forest on a fairly gloomy day. Tall green trees adorned both sides of the forest road. The serenity gave rise to a whole range of questions about the life of children, teachers and people of the village whom I was going to meet. Do teachers travel every day to school on this rugged road? How is the safety of the children ensured when they are inside the forest? How do the schemes and provisions of the government reach these poor people of this area? Are teachers regular to school? What could be the efforts made by teachers to ensure that these children of tribal families complete their schooling? What is the life, culture and socio-economic reality of the tribes in this geographical belt? With many questions, the scooter I was riding pillion with a colleague from the District Institute (Dhamtari) made its way to the school. The overwhelming silence of the forest suddenly snapped with the voices of children.
The government primary and middle schools of Chandanbahara are located on the same campus surrounded by a fence as its boundary. It has three classrooms and a head teacher’s room. The school has a toilet and drinking water facilities. When we, my colleagues and I, greet Rajendra, the primary school teacher, he remarks, ‘Chandanbahara me koi nahi aata hai. Aaj tak ek MDM afsar ke alaava aur koi nahi aaye hai. Hamein bahut khushi hai ki aap itni dur se hamare saath baatein karne aayein habin.’ (Nobody visits Chandanbahara. Until today, except for an MDM ((mid-day-meal)) official, nobody has visited us. We are happy that you have come from a faraway place to talk to us). For a first-time visitor, this exchange only leads to more questions. I waited for interaction with the teacher to understand his life in this school located in a dense interior forest area in a tribal belt.
The journey of a soft-spoken, enthusiastic, committed and reflective teacher working with children from disadvantaged sections is outlined below. An analysis of the conversations led me to identify four significant strands of the practice of the teacher that exude a narrative of courage, conviction and commitment, despite various constraints. A common notion of teaching is – instruction within the classrooms. However, it is well-recognised that what teachers in government schools in India do in their everyday life goes beyond the classroom door. It is this connectedness to the roles outside – school, community, nation and humanity at large – that offer us a complete picture of what teaching is. In the article, Teaching on both sides of the classroom door, Fenstermacher (1999) identifies four aspects of a teacher’s responsibilities that conceptually connect to the work of teaching in the classroom: A steward of the school, an informant to the society, a transformational learner and an informed citizen. As a steward, teachers serve the schools as constructive and helpful colleagues in the joint aspiration of making the school a good place for children to learn and teachers to work; as an informant to society, their work ranges from communication with parents to participation in local professional associations, and building relationships with school officials; as citizens, they cultivate and practice the qualities such as openness, tolerance, mutual respect and reflective thought; and, as transformational learners, teachers are engaged in ‘world-changing work’ and ‘self-changing’ work. Rajendra Verma’s work offers us an opportunity to examine the above dimensions of teachers’ work on both sides of the classroom door.
Personal sketch
Rajendra Kumar Verma hails from Chhattisgarh. He completed his schooling in the Durg district. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Computer Management. Following a year of teaching in a college, Rajendra was convinced that the education of primary school children is more important and effective in bringing about an overall change in education. So, he completed his B Ed program at Dhamtari and was posted at the Sarangapuri Government School, Sankra village. In December 2013, he was selected as a Senior Lecturer. His friends and relatives questioned his choice of teaching primary classes, but Rajendra took a firm stand to continue as a primary school teacher. In 2014, for his next posting, he decided to choose a place where teachers usually do not go. He had not seen a forest school nor worked in interior areas. So, he chose to join the Chandanbahara Government Primary School, which then had 28 students and one teacher.
One of the foremost challenges faced by Rajendra was his lack of fluency in the Chhattisgarhi language. Although he was familiar with it, he faced difficulties while speaking with the parents because the village community in this particular region speaks Chhattisgarhi with a mix of the Gondi language. Gradually, with the support of the Head Teacher of the primary school, Pawan Kumar Dewangan, he learnt to make formal conversations in Chhattisgarhi. The second challenge was the acceptance by the community of a teacher from another district. The teachers had to work hard to gain the trust of the parents and community members. The school had poor infrastructural facilities. While going about dealing with these challenges, teachers were troubled by the absence of any positive reference to their school at the cluster-level meetings. Several schools were acknowledged for their academic performance, extra-curricular activities etc., and these teachers constantly wondered why their school never received mention. They began to think about ways of improving the school. Despite the poor infrastructure, they decided not to focus on it but on children’s learning and development. It is this choice that has made all the difference!
‘On the classroom side of the door’
Expanding thinking, widening choices
Rajendra and his colleague set out with two aims. First, working towards ‘expanding’ children’s thinking and choices and, second, strengthening foundational understanding of concepts of class I and II children. Rajendra believed firmly that central to children’s learning is the acquisition of clarity in concepts, which cannot be achieved through the rote method. He believed that teachers have the freedom to select content and pedagogy according to children’s needs, context and age. He found it problematic when teachers construct the norm of the ‘hoshiyar’ (intelligent) child in a classroom and work with the ‘weak’ child based on the assumption that they have ‘no’ capabilities. He believed that some children take more time to learn and teachers have to find ways to help them.
Rajendra used discussions as a mode of teaching, drawing upon children’s prior knowledge and examples from the immediate environment. While doing group work with children, he encouraged students to ask questions to each other. He spoke Chhattisgarhi to make children understand the concepts clearly. Children spoke freely with him without any fear or hesitation. When they asked questions, he saw it as evidence of (the beginning of) their understanding. For example, when children in tribal areas are usually asked about what they would do if a snake bit them, children would mention local medicines, herbs etc. To his surprise, one day, when he posed the question, children responded that they would need to be rushed to the hospital. This was good evidence for him that children were thinking and making connections with what was being taught in class. He used several contextually relevant examples to help children make meaning about their immediate world.
One day, when he asked the children about their ambitions, there was a long silence. Then, the children responded that they would continue to be in agriculture as it was their parents’ occupation. This response made Rajendra uncomfortable. He said, ‘I wanted to develop in them the thinking that they can become whatever they wish to be and not what is ascribed to their parents. Children should be able to envision their own future.’ Developing independent thinking to make choices, he thought, would also help them move from primary schooling to higher education.
The possibility of sending children to a Navodaya Vidyalaya was presented to the parents in 2015. Any new initiative by the school in a small village always necessitates a conversation with parents and community members. The majority of the people in this village were illiterate and Rajendra had to convince them about the merits of this scheme. The teachers began preparation in 2015 and six children from the school took the exam in 2016. There were almost 23 schools that participated and Chandanbahara school emerged as the only school from the Farsiyan cluster, where one child passed the exam. Rajendra remarked, ‘It was an important achievement for us. People began to recognise Chandanbahara on the map. They realised that there were teachers in the school who were genuinely interested in their children’s education.’ Since then, more number of children have continued to join the Navodaya Vidyalayas. Families saw it as a big achievement that their child was going beyond the boundaries of Chandanbahara. The community now trusts Rajendra and the school immensely and this has led to the parents taking a greater interest in their children’s education.
In some communities, especially among first-generation school-goers, where academic achievement has been elusive, children need a caring and supportive adult in school who can help them complete their schooling. Opportunities provided to children to experiment, innovate and question things around them and generate their own understanding within their milieu is central to the development of their critical thinking abilities. Opening up choices for children and helping them make decisions is an important function that schools, along with parents, can perform. Such cooperative actions help to acknowledge the teachers’ efforts and influence children’s lives positively.
Caring for children’s social development
Children’s thought acquires sophistication through a variety of learning experiences. The project of ‘expanding’ children’s thinking extended into another initiative — introducing the habit of reading newspaper. The children of this village have very little contact with the world outside. The teachers introduced a Hindi newspaper and bought it every day on their way to the school. Initially, children looked at the pictures but moved slowly to reading the news and later began to ask questions about what they read. To encourage free communication, the teachers made it mandatory for students to engage in free talk for thirty minutes at the end of the day on two days of the week. Children could pick up topics of their choice and speak to the rest of the class. Rajendra finds that children are gradually opening up, speaking their minds and expressing themselves confidently.
Another challenge that he faced was to forbid the use of abusive language in school. Adults in the community use a lot of abusive words while conversing with each other. Children pick up these and use them in school. The teachers have been very stern with the students about the use of this slang. Rajendra further shared that adults in this tribal belt consume a lot of alcohol. People see it as a part of their cultural practice. Teachers fear that children would develop these habits. They engage in dialogues with children to make them think critically about the negative consequences of alcohol consumption on their physical and mental health. Besides this, they have also told the parents firmly that children should not be sent to buy cigarettes, alcohol or ghutka (chewing tobacco with betel nut).
Rajendra Verma has taken his role as a teacher-citizen and the school as a place to develop active citizenry, seriously. What can be a better pedagogical intent and tool than to make children critically analyse society through dialogue and reflection? By bringing in multiple texts and experiences close to the realities of the children’s lives, Rajendra Verma is also developing culturally-responsive, multiple perspectives on historical and social phenomena among children. Attending to the social and moral development of children seems to be central to his teaching.
‘On the other side of the door’
Building relationships with the community
Rajendra is of a strong view that the trust developed with parents and the community influences the education of children in multiple ways. Several instances confirmed his beliefs. For example, the school did not have a concrete boundary wall and there was always a threat from animals entering the school. Teachers also wanted to foster among the children, the value of growing trees, and a kitchen garden within the school. The school had been trying since 1981 to build a compound wall but in vain. Teachers finally requested parents and community members to help in building a temporary fence around the school and assured them that when the school received approval for the construction of a wall, the fence could be used by the village community elsewhere.
Over the years, Rajendra has gradually gained the confidence of the community. In 2014, teachers had to wait for several days for parents to buy notebooks or submit official documents for their children. Now parents take these responsibilities more seriously. In recent times, women have engaged in the activities of the school. For example, the women’s self-help group, which prepares the mid-day meal at the school, came together and financially supported a sports event. Rajendra observed, ‘The villagers have understood the importance of education. Over time, parents have understood that teachers truly care for their children and are working towards making them good human beings.’
Another instance of trust between children, teachers and their families was evident when a family with two school-going children, owing to personal reasons, had to move out of Chandanbahara to Farsiyan. Farsiyan had a school with all facilities and it was close to the children’s home. The two children, however, insisted on continuing in the Chandanbahara school. Every day, through sun and rain, teachers would pick up these two children on their bikes on their way to school. If the children were delayed, teachers would wait. Such thoughtful acts of the teachers prevented the children from dropping out of school. Rajendra remarked, ‘There is no greater happiness than in working towards children’s well-being and development.’
Rajendra’s engagement with the community as an active ‘informant’, thus, entailed convincing those outside school what education means and what schools are for. When parents and local members of a community learn about the purpose and practices of a school, it may lead to a greater acceptance of the importance of education and schooling and may have a salutary effect on children’s participation in learning and possibilities of continuing their higher education as well.
Perseverance against constraints
The geographical location of the school poses many obstacles. Driving every day through the dense forests of Chandanbahara is not easy for the teachers. They always ride in a group for safety. The forests experience heavy rainfall. There is not a single shelter to stop by throughout the entire stretch of the forest. In the absence of connectivity, there is hardly any way to reach for immediate help in case of a mishap. But these factors do not seem to deter the teachers from reaching their workplace on time. They help one another in reaching the school. Rajendra says, ‘We need to be role models to our children. The joy of working with these children outweighs our difficulties.’ He dreams of getting a laptop/desktop for the school in the next two years. He remarks, ‘My own children live in the town and have access to technology and learn a great deal. Where will these children learn from? Don’t children in my school have a right to access technology?’ He hopes to get some support and fulfil his dream for his school. He plans to set up a library as well.
Rajendra states emphatically that the work at the school is not just his effort; all the teachers work together and try to overcome the constraints of the context. A continuous zeal to develop one’s knowledge about content, culture, children, contexts, its constraints and to imagine alternatives through conversations and cooperation with colleagues seems to be the crux of his efforts as a learner. For a teacher to learn transformationally is to learn twice – first, to gain a sense of how the teacher is transformed by the learning; and a second time, to gain a sense of how students may be transformed by learning this material (Fenstermacher, 1999). Rajendra values both these kinds of learning. Rajendra Verma is also a master trainer for EVS at the SCERT workshops. He attends the Teacher Learning Centre programmes of the Foundation regularly and has benefitted a great deal from conversations with its members. He reads books and uses apps for teachers to continually develop his knowledge.
What makes Rajendra and his colleagues hold on to hope for tomorrow despite the geographical, attitudinal and cultural constraints? The vision of a democratic society, valuable constructions of their own professional identities and specific pedagogical beliefs about children, their lives and their future seem to make them impervious to obstacles. While they go about creating classroom and school communities to develop children’s capabilities to become full participants of society, they seem to be continually cultivating their teacher–teacher relationships, and classroom-school and community relationships. Such efforts, indeed, may provide enabling conditions for sustaining their own learning and renewing themselves personally and professionally.
‘Teaching on both sides of the door’: Some key lessons
After the conversations, Rajendra Verma took us around the school. It was school-closing time and we could not have formal conversations with the children. The teachers took us to the Sondur river close to the school. Children accompanied us for a short distance. The village was absolutely clean. Some health campaign slogans were scribbled on the walls of a few houses. The children were curious to know the reasons for my visit to their school. One of the teachers laughed and said, ‘They have never seen a ‘female’ teacher in their school.’ I needed to come again to understand the life of children in a forest school from their perspective. After seeing the Sondur river, the teachers, my colleague and I drove back to the town on our respective bikes. For safety, they insisted that the scooter that my colleague and I were riding remain in front and they follow. It was only 4:30 pm. The forest was getting dark. Far away, the evening birds were chirping. The rain had just stopped, and the fresh smell of the trees and earth permeated the air.
As the bike made its way out of the forest, I began to think about the questions that had arisen in my mind at the beginning of my journey to the school. To look at constraints in the contexts as an ally and to neither despair nor accept them as status-quo was the first lesson that I learnt. What truly became clear was that many teachers in the public system thrive and enable children to thrive in schools, which are the bedrock of a democracy. It is the teachers’ moral commitment to children’s well-being that makes them take charge of the situation. Rajendra’s story reflects the expansive notion of teaching as outlined by Fenstermacher. While continuing to influence students within the boundaries of the classroom, his other roles as a ‘steward’, an ‘informant’, a ‘citizen’ and a ‘learner’ have also inspired his classroom practices and helped him grow as a teacher. Thus, conceptions about teaching may be enriched by breaking the boundaries set by the walls of a classroom; by thinking of teaching as extending to the school, the community, the nation, and to humanity at large (Fenstermacher, 1999).
What support could be offered to these teachers who constantly focus on securing children’s wellbeing while also seeking synergy between their classroom teaching and other connected responsibilities? Their commitment to teaching, despite these odds, deserves recognition, celebration and support. If children need empathic teachers who care for students’ academic, social and personal development, then it is critical to attend to how our institutions support and sustain these teachers. Along with self-renewal, teachers must be adequately supported in their developmental needs, suitably compensated and provided resources essential to their work of teaching. What commitment to such spaces may mean, especially for those teachers working towards an inclusive society, is that it allows teachers to make connections between themselves, their students, their colleagues, the community, the institutional vision and the subjects they teach. We need to listen to the teachers’ voices, respect them, learn from them and support them in their work of raising the young ones.
Acknowledgements
I thank Mayank Misra, Member, District Institute, Dhamtari for facilitating the visit to the school. I thank Shashikant Bairagi, government school teacher, for accompanying us on his bike from Nagri to Chandanbahara. I thank the head teacher, Pawan Kumar Dewangan, Government Primary School, and the teachers and head teacher of the Upper Primary School for sharing their time and thoughts with us. I am immensely grateful to the teachers and children of the school for allowing us to share their space. Our sincere gratitude to Rajendra Kumar Verma for sharing his professional journey with us.
AUTHOR
Rajashree Srinivasan, Faculty, Azim Premji University
REFERENCES
Census (2011).
https://www.census2011.co.in/data/village/447360-chandan-bahra-chhattisgarh.html.
Fenstermacher, Gary D (1999). Teaching on both sides of the classroom door. In Kenneth A. Sirotnik & Roger Soder (Eds.), The beat of a different drummer (pp. 185-196). New York: Peter Lang
