120 – Pedagogy from the Margins: Critical Perspectives from South Asia

October 2, 2025
8:30 am
H01
Critical pedagogy framework (Freire 1970, 1998, 2007, 2014) exposes and critiques the power structures, inequalities, and injustices embedded in educational systems and practices and provides a lens to understand the efforts of marginalised groups to challenge dominant educational regimes. This panel aims to explore how the ideas of critical pedagogy resonate within the South Asian context, which is still marked by the postcolonial condition where uneven intellectual influence and division of labour: West as 'theories' source, Rest as ‘data mine,’ has shaped pedagogical tradition (Takayama et al., 2016) and as well as various forms of social inequalities, both traditional and contemporary. We will examine the complex issues of discrimination, exclusion, and humiliation based on educational structures and practices in such settings as schools, colleges, universities and associated institutions. Our endeavour is not only limited to critical aspects but also highlights positive alternative pedagogical practices and policy frameworks. South Asia has a rich tradition of intellectual movements that have been challenging oppressive educational regimes and proposing alternative societal visions. We seek proposals that address caste, gender, ethno-religious, and other relevant social inequalities observed in South Asian educational contexts, as well as historical and contemporary practices of alternative critical pedagogies. This panel will propose novel ideas on how cases from the South Asian educational-intellectual landscape can enrich global debates. This framework will also be applied to analyse pedagogical practices within the field of South Asian studies in Western academia.

Convenors

Vidyasagar Sharma
Kristina Garalytė
N. Sukumar

Presentations

Hagiographic Practices and Place-Making by Subaltern Guru-cults amongst displaced Sylhetis in post-Partition Shillong
Bhattacharjee Tannishtha - Department History, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States
Decoding Pedagogy: Marginalities and Challenges in Higher Educational Institutions in India.
Yadav Apeksha - Department of Social Work, Delhi University, Delhi, India
Dr. Sudhir Keshav Maske - Department of Social Work, Delhi University, Delhi, India
Reading as Resistance: Study Circles and Changing Contours of Student Movements in Indian Universities
Sharma Vidyasagar - Bielefeld University, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld, Germany
Navigating Exclusion and Resistance: Everyday Experiences of Dalit Women Students in Higher Education Institutions in Delhi
Ravivanshi Meenakshi - Ravivanshi Meenakshi
Exploring Indigenous Pedagogies: Case Studies of Culturally Responsive Schools in Jharkhand
MURMU JAIWANT - JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI, India
Reimagining Pedagogy: Inclusion of Dalit Literature and the Future of Marginalized Narratives in India
Dash Shibangi - Department of English, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
Pedagogical Innovations with Infusion Dose of Cultural Humility
Dr. Tanvi Adarsh - School of Liberal Education Galgotias University, Uttar Pradesh, India