| |
|
|
Anthropologists and the Study of Formal Education: Nationalism, School Curriculum and Human Development |
|
Veronique Benei |
|
This article takes as its departing point the quantitative approach to knowledge and education
prevalent in current studies of human development. Articulating a concern for human development
together with explorations of formal schooling and nationalism, the article begins with an
overview of the place occupied in anthropology by the study of formal education, illuminating
why and how this domain of enquiry has become crucial for anthropologists interested in human
development broadly, and in the political precisely. The article then focuses on India and the
regional state of Maharashtra as a case study. The Maharashtrian material leads to a reflection
on the category of the ‘subject’ as it has developed in the social sciences, with bearing upon
the theoretical construction of human development. The article ends with a discussion of the
practical necessity for students and planners of human development to investigate categories
together with the modalities of classroom practice in the negotiation of curricula. This, it is
argued, is crucial to a fuller understanding and appraisal of the implications of imparting and
gaining knowledge and education. |
|