Early Childhood Education, Postcolonial Theory, and Teaching Practices in India Balancing Vygotsky and the Veda

Conceptualized within a socio-cultural constructivist and postcolonial paradigm, the book explores a definite tension between "Western" theories of child development and the "Indian" ways of being and thinking. This book also provides a richly descriptive and relatively unexamined account of the culturally complex and multi-dimensional relationship that exists in urban India between formal teacher education, early childhood classrooms, and the daily experiences of children and early childhood teachers. Rich examples and anecdotes from research data, concrete details, and several chapters devoted to the voices of teachers describing their classroom make this book one of the first of its kind.

Amita Gupta is Assistant Professor of Education, The City College of New York.

Preface * Conceptualizing and Setting the Stage * The Socio-cultural Context of Education in India: Core Concepts of Philosophy Underlying the Worldview of Indians * Educational Systems in India: Past and Present * Aims of Education Contextualized within Urban Indian Society * The Image, Roles and Responsibilities of the Early Childhood Teacher in India * The Image of the Child: What Is Developmentally and Socially Appropriate for Children Growing up in Indian Society? * Learning to Teach: A Socio-cultural-historical Constructivist Theory of Teaching * Contextualizing and Demystifying the Challenges of Large Class Size in India * A Socio-culturally Constructed Early Childhood Postcolonial Curriculum: The Interfacing of Three Culturally Different Educational Discourses * Aligning Teacher Education and Early Childhood Practice in India: Balancing Vygotsky and the Veda * Reflecting on the Process of Early Childhood Postcolonial Research Foreword * Preface * Conceptualizing and Setting the Stage * The Socio-cultural Context of Education in India: Core Concepts of Philosophy Underlying the Worldview of Indians * Educational Systems in India: Past and Present * Aims of Education Contextualized within Urban Indian Society * The Image, Roles and Responsibilities of the Early Childhood Teacher in India * The Image of the Child: What is Developmentally & Socially Appropriate for Children Growing up in Indian Society? * Learning to Teach: A Socio-cultural-historical Constructivist Theory of Teaching * Contextualizing and Demystifying the Challenges of Large Class Size in India * A  Socio-culturally Constructed Early Childhood Postcolonial Curriculum: The Interfacing of Three Culturally Different Educational Discourses * Aligning Teacher Education and Early Childhood Practice in India: Balancing Vygotsky and the Veda * Reflecting on the Process of Early Childhood Postcolonial Research