INTODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

The Book Review from a Sociological Perspective

The book "Constructing school knowledge: an ethnography of learning in an Indian

village " by Padma M. Sarangapani is an ethnography of learning which grew into
ethnography of schooling which makes us familiar with schooling and school done in
Government Primary School, Kasimpur where she did her actual field work. The book
attempt here, is to use the tool of anthropology to reframe our common knowledge
about the school and process of schooling.
The book begins with an introduction describing why it is important to study children's
experience in a village government primary school in India, a reader might think that
there is not so much to understand about a government primary school as state of
such schools is known by all but the reasons behind such condition of schools is not
known which obstacles the betterment of such government schools. Than a brief
introduction about the village Kasimpur and its ethos is given. The geographically and
historical emergence is explained with the distribution of different caste groups as the
village is accommodated with different castes in different areas, the upper caste lives
in the main village and outer area is occupied by dalits, the village has always been a
multicast village with agriculture subsistence economy. People here prefer to send
their boys to school but at the age of 16 they are expected to help in ploughing the
field, sending boys to school is still seen as an investment and number of girls in
schools has improved but slightest indication of failure, threatened children with
withdrawal from school, only boy child is granted of continuing education regardless of
his performance. Next the book brings out the children and teachers introduction
along with the question of why schooling is important to them. The children here have
a very limited approach to life as getting a job according to them is the ultimate reason
of schooling or as a way for opening employment opportunities. The way exams school
conducts are explained and how the students responded to it. For students here also,
good marks indicate a bright future and failure indicates ending up with no good job
and aim less life. The fear of joining the same occupation as of their father is seen as
the last and worst option as this new generation wants to be part of formal sector and
students aim for government jobs. Than she focuses on the school as an institution
where the construction of pupil, teachers’ identities and teacher’s authority are
primary themes. Than regulation of knowledge in the classroom is described, where
the children in the school seemed to be socialised into the norms of adult society
primarily by teachers. Author tries to engage with the psychological space of the mind,
the purpose is to understand the most important activity of learning in classroom that
is 'memorising' where she makes attempt to relate memorisation in traditional Indian
education in order to place the present day phenomenon in its larger cultural context.
Next, she begins with the investigation into memorisation and actual knowledge and
studies the received knowledge by children and how it is constructed. The author
concludes by suggesting they’re is the need for reconsideration of how current
education presents children as knowers as both teachers and curriculum planners
must recognise the importance of character of children, she also presents several ways
for betterment in education system. This book forces on the urgency to act for change
in the education system from our primary level by pointing out that our commonness
of the experience and especially the obviousness of all that is wrong makes it seems
unnecessary to engage in any deeper way with the situation of schools.

The book ' Constructing school knowledge: an ethnography of learning in an Indian

village " is a good ethnographic study of the village school as she can make the reader
to think again about the common perspective formed for these schools. Being a part of
education system as a
student, I always come across the statement that no serious studies take place in
government schools especially those in village area. A preconceived notion is made
about the bad infrastructure, less concerned teacher and faculty, but I have never
been able to find the basic reason which lead to such worse conditions. This book
offers the opportunity to find all the reasons which are supported with real interviews
and quantitative data. The book helped me to get answers to several questions such
as, ‘why children at primary age are not engaged in school and in case they are than,
why not they complete their higher education and what are the major resones behind
such bad conditions of government schools in village’. The loopholes in our education
system and social issues because of which education is not provided are also explained
in depth which clears all the plausible reasons for such low literacy rate. The field data
and extensive direct observations are recorded chronologically, as they occurred which
makes understanding and relating data easy. The observation includes events
happened in school and village area. The author has provided several conversations
with the children, parents and teachers which makes events relatable. She has
presented data in tabular form with detailed analysis and interpretation. Different
things are explained with several episodes all around the village area with summaries
at the end. The interview done with parents, children and teachers makes the text
interesting and understandable.
The author mentions the problems with the government primary school, she also
provides several ways and methods through which we can make children and parents
more concerned about education and she also mentions ways to motivate teachers to
be serious about children's education.
This book can help in managing and setting things right as well. The book seems
appropriate and can be recommend for students of sociology, anthropology or for the
people interest in child development or NGOs or for those involved with primary
education policies.

Overall the book is a good read but the book lacks behind in few areas, as the author
provides information about the exams conducted in detail but no information is given
about what were the results, what was the scoring of the children and what was the
pattern formed in marks of the students. The reasons behind certain children getting
low marks and some getting higher marks should be interpreted. The way teachers
correct answer sheets should also be considered. The impact of exams and how
students deal with it can be used to know what the weak points in examination system
are there, but this is not explained by the author in detail.
Several ways in which quality of education can be improved and ways by which
students and teachers can be motivated to work harder are mentioned but the author
does not experiment her ways on students and teachers in the village. If she would
have introduced her methods of improving education in the village school than she
would have come across the negative and positive outcomes of her ways and further
by improving these methods, they could be used on a large scale. For instance, she
emphasises on making students aware of importance of education more than a way of
getting a job, for making students understand this she would have organise a small
discussion and would have seen the results. Her interaction with parents of the
students is less as she does not write much about parent child relation in the village.
To conclude the book is a challenging and thought provoking read with an in-depth
analysis of children's experience and perception of their own learning at a government
primary school in India. She can force readers to rethink on the common perspective
about the government schools and argues that it is important to move beyond old
image of such institutions for better development.
This book helped me to understand uniqueness of sociology in several ways. As the
difference between common sensical perspective and sociologist perspective is
defined in the reading
"Sociology and Common Sense by Andre Beteille. "
This can be related to the way in which the author tries to reframe the common
perspective of government schools. According to a common person schooling in a
government primary school is not something worth noting as we consider it natural,
we believe that state in the institution is well known and we are familiar with teaching
learning problem such a uninterested teachers, absenteeism of students, filthy class
rooms where rote memorizing substitutes learning, takes place. This book helps in
finding the reasons behind such conditions of government schools in a village area as
such reasons are unseen or left by common perspective. The author studies school as a
social institution as it exists and function through which each day life in school is
recreated, relationships are re-established, and learning takes place.

The reading "Sociology and Psychology by T. B. Bottomore " which tells that
sociological and psychological explanations may complement each other where social
psychology is the part of general psychology which has a particular relevance to social
phenomena or psychological aspects of social life this can also be related to the book
as the author tries to engage with the psychological space of mind, where purpose is
to understand the most important activity of learning in class room that is
'memorising' she also makes a attempt to relate the memorisation happened in
traditional India in order to place the present day phenomenon in its larger cultural
context. Sociology and Psychology share an interdependent relationship as Sociology
studies social relationship, groups and institutions but in psychology we study mind
and analysis attitude, emotions, process of learning and values of individual as each
social phenomenon must have psychological bases. As the author use psychology to
understand children’s thinking about education the way they think, why students
submit meekly to the discipline of the school and than she uses sociology to
understand their behaviour in social groups.
The book also deals with branch of philosophy that is epistemology that is concerned
with questions regarding origin of knowledge where she mainly focuses on study of
actual knowledge formed by children in Kasimpur village.

REFRECES
1. Sarangapani, M. Padama, “Constructing school knowledge: An ethnography of
learning in an Indian village”, Sage Publication, 2003.
2. Beteille, Andre. “Sociology and Common sense”. Economic and Political
Weekly, vol.31. 1996
3. T.B. Bottomore.” Sociology and Psychology”.1962