'I am a Parrot': Ideologies of Rote Learning in a Village School in Suburban New Delhi

• Wednesday, Nov. 30

  • Noon-1 p.m.
  • Aderhold Hall Room G23

  Join us for the next speaker in the COE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Speaker Series for a dynamic presentation from Usree Bhattacharya as she discusses her investigation of boys’ literacy ideologies about rote learning practices in a suburban Indian village school. This research draws on ethnographic data spanning nine years at an anathashram (orphanage) where the boys resided as well as at their school. The analysis highlights the children’s sophisticated understanding and critique of rote learning practices there, as well as their forceful reframing of pedagogical practices not as “teaching,” but merely “doing.” These literacy ideologies, Bhattacharya ultimately argues, offer powerful insights into long-term problems for socioeconomically disadvantaged children within the Indian K-12 system.

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  About the presenter

  Usree Bhattacharya is an assistant professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. She has a master’s degree in teaching international languages from California State University-Chico (2006); an M.A. in English literature from Lakehead University (2001); and she received a B.A. in English from LSR College, Delhi University (1998). Her research is inspired by questions of diversity, equity, and access in multilingual educational contexts, especially as they pertain to the circulation of English as a “global” language. A primary aim of her work is to illuminate the role of discourses, ideologies, and everyday practices in the production and reproduction of hierarchical relations within educational systems.

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