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8/10/2019 Negotiating Academic Landscapes_Experiences of Students from Diverse Backgrounds at an Indian University

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Reports from the Lab

Negotiating Academic Landscapes:Experiences of Students from DiverseBackgrounds at an Indian University

Avinash KumarWipro Applying Thought in Schools, Bangalore,Karnataka, India

and

Shailaja MenonAzim Premji University, Bangalore, Karnataka, IndiaE-mail: [email protected]

The University Grants Commission of India, a statutory

body of the Indian government established to coordinate,determine and maintain standards of university educationin India, has identified access and expansion, equity andinclusion, and quality and excellence (UGC, 2011; p. 2)as the triple objectives for Indian higher education in thecoming years. Thus, while Indian institutes of higher edu-cation are expected to focus on issues such as high-quality research and internationalization of knowledge(UGC, 2011; p. 88-89), they are also expected to lay specialemphasis on equity, plurality and demographic diversityof students, and on reducing existing disparities by attract-ing and facilitating the retention of students from rural anddeveloping areas as well as differently-abled and margina-

lized social groups (UGC, 2011; p. 82).A number of studies have documented the unique aca-demic, social, cultural, linguistic and other types of chal-lenges faced by first-generation university students (see,for instance, Canagarajah, 2002a; Fox, Cheng, Berman,Song, & Myles, 2006; Reay, Crozier, & Clayton, 2009). Otherstudies have focused on the daunting task faced by instruc-tors of ensuring that the quality of research and pedagogy ishigh, while the academic discourses remain accessible to adiverse set of students (see, for example, Northedge, 2003).As Jonasson (2009) notes, though the needs and advantagesof multicultural diversity within higher-studies institutionsare well recognized, seeking to accommodate the needs ofa diverse body of students presents formidable challenges,

not only for the institution, but also for the individual teach-ers and students inhabiting the institution. Teachers debatehow to provide culturally appropriate pedagogies, whileensuring rigorous, yet equitable and meaningful, assessmentmethods for an increasingly diverse student body (p. 7).

Issues of culture in multilingual contexts like those ofIndia are often interwoven with issues of language. Lessthan 10%of Indian students are taught in English at the pri-mary level of education (DISE data, 2008); yet English istoday arguably the single most used language in highereducation in Indiamost of the high-ranked universitiesuse English as thesolemedium of instruction and examina-tion; technical courses, similarly, are taught almost exclu-

sively in English; and even at the graduate level, courses

in local languages or Hindi are out-numbered by those inEnglish (Graddol, 2010; Jayaram, 1993). The relationshipsamong language, knowledge and culture are complex.Since knowledge is transacted through language, it is notpossible to separate out language from knowledge con-struction and acquisition, especially in academic settings.Further, a language is not simply a medium of instruction,

but encodes the history, goals, sensibilities and expectationsof particular cultures and groups (Bordieu, 1999). Groupsthat have historically participated in higher education usea variety of academic discourses to achieve their ends, eachof which has its own set of rules and expectations. Theseusages of language may not be accessible or transparentto new entrants into the higher educational space. Lan-

guages can thus serve to include, marginalize or excludemembers of a given community, and can lead to the acqui-sition or the assignment of particular identities, roles andtrajectories within the higher educational space (Lave &Wenger, 1991, Wenger, 1998).

If the objectives of access and expansion, equity andinclusion, and quality and excellence are to be met, it is cru-cial that Indian institutions of higher learning develop anuanced understanding of the experiences of their studentswho come from remarkably diverse backgrounds, in nego-tiating academic discourses that they encounter at the uni-versity. However, most existing research in this areafocuses on the experiences of students from non-English

backgrounds in English-speaking countries such as the

UK, Australia and the US (e.g., Fox et al., 2006); while thereis a dearth of such studies in Indian academic settings.

In this larger context, this research seeks to investigatethe subjective experiences of students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, as they negotiate academic dis-courses in an Indian university that provides solely Englishlanguage instruction. We use a hermeneutic phenomenolo-gical framework that permits a study of the subjectiveexperiences and meaning-making of the students. Husserl(1952/1980) criticized psychology for treating living sub-

jects as though they were responding to external stimuli,rather than to their own perceptions of what these stimulimeant, thus giving prominence and legitimacy to the lived

experiences of individuals (Laverty, 2003). Since then, thislatter approach has been applied extensively and success-fully to understanding subjective meaning making in edu-cational contexts (e.g., Grumet, 1992; Sharma-Brymer &Fox, 2008). Hermeneutic phenomenology can be appliedidiographically (i.e., to understand the experiences of a sin-gle person), ormore normativelyto understand theessence of the phenomenon under study (Finlay, 2012);we have the latter objective for our study.

Method

The study was conducted at an Indian university in a

large metropolitan city in Southern India. The university

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is English-medium with progressive and liberal learningobjectives and pedagogical and assessment methods. It

has a stated commitment to equity, diversity and socialjustice, and consciously recruits students from diversebackgrounds. However, given that it is in its initial yearsof functioning, the experiences of students from diverse

backgrounds attending it are not well understood.The study itself was conducted in two phases. Only a

portion of the first phase is reported in this paper. In thisphase, 21 first-semester participants from the 2012-14

batch of students pursuing a Masters degree in Educationand Development at the University were interviewed. Theparticipants were selected using a mix of non-randomsampling methods including purposive and snowballsampling. Additionally, an email invitation was sent out

to all students from the 2012-14 group explaining the studyand its purpose, and asking for volunteers to participate.The final group of participants represented different (self-reported) levels of proficiency in academic English.

The participants were interviewed using a semi-structured format that attempted to capture the experi-ences, challenges and stories related to their first semesterat the university. Interviews were conducted during the lasttwo weeks of the first semester, meaning that students hadto go back approximately four months in their recollectionsto get to the start of the semester. All interviews were con-ducted in English due to limitations in the language profi-ciencies of the researchers. In addition, the first authorspent approximately 15 hours observing participants in

classes and tutorials, and while completing assignments,followed by informal conversations about these experi-ences. The data from the observations and informal conver-sations were not formally analyzed, but were used fortriangulating important themes that emerged from theinterviews.

The interviews were transcribed during the first stage ofanalysis and keywords were assigned to the transcripts(Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007); these were furthercoded into categories (Saldana, 2012). At this stage, somethemes began to emerge from the data, based on which setof hypotheses was used. After a number of reiterations, anover-arching, second-order narrative seemed to emerge

from the dataa series of seven stages that appeared to

characterize the essence of the experiences of these studentsduring their first semester at the university. To illustrate the

seven stages, a set of quotes was selected from the inter-views that were poignant and/or most representative of theresearch findings (Anderson, 2010). The quotes are pre-sented verbatim, without any corrections made to the Eng-lish used by the respondents. However, clarifications areinserted in parentheses where necessary to make the mean-ing clear.

Given the phenomenological framework used in thisstudy, we permitted the students to self-identify as moreor less proficient in academic English. The students whoself-identified as less proficient were predominantly fromsmaller towns and institutions where the medium ofinstruction was the local language. We report only the

experiences of this group of students in this paper(N 12), though we have also analyzed the experiencesof the group that identified as more proficient in academicEnglish. Table 1 provides a summary description of thesample of students who self-identified as less proficient.

The Seven Stages

Although we present results in terms of seven stages ofexperience, we do so cautiously. Often, these stages over-lap, and in certain cases, one stage is indistinguishable fromthe other. Our analyses also revealed subtle variations inthe subjective experiences, coping strategies, and trajec-

tories of students across time. It is beyond the scope of thispaper to present these variations. We use the stages as acommunicative device to represent the essence of theexperiences of the respondents in a clear and comprehensi-

ble manner; and to affirm that there were certain broad, dis-cernible shifts in the self-reported experiences and feelingsof students as the semester progressed. Given the retrospec-tive nature of the data collection method, it is difficult for usto ascertain whether the shifts from one stage to the nextwere associated with certain points of the semester, orwhether they varied from individual to individual. How-ever, it appears that Stages 3-6 form the bulk of these stu-dents subjective experiences of their first semester at this

university.

Table 1. Summary of Sample Characteristics.

Participant # Gender Age First Language Medium of Instruction Prior to Joining University Home-Town*

1 F 30 Hindi Hindi/English Tier 3

2 M 26 Regional language Hindi Tier 2

3 F 28 Hindi English Tier 2

4 F 26 Hindi Hindi Tier 2

5 F 39 Regional language Regional language NA


7 M 32 Hindi Hindi Tier 2


9 M 23 Regional language Regional language Tier 3

10 M 36 Regional language Regional language Tier 3


12 M 24 Hindi Hindi / English Tier 2

Note:* Tier 1 cities in India are the largest metropolitan cities with a population of more than 5 million people. Tier 2cities have a population of 1-5 million; and Tier 3 cities have a population of less than 1 million.

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Stage One: Excitement Mixed With

Apprehension

The first stage begins when the respondent is offeredadmission and decides to join the university, but beforeshe arrives on campus. It can be broadly characterized asexcitement mixed with apprehension. The apprehensionappears to be rooted in the high investmentfinancial,

social and emotionalthat these students make when decid-ing to join the university, and often, the impenetrability ofthis decision to their family members. For example, one ofthe students stated:

[A]s far as I am concerned, my family does not knowthat I am studying in a University where we have to

pay 2 lakh rupees . . . If I inform them, they will not

allow me sometime. They are very traditional, poor

family. Till this age, before coming to [this univer-sity], every household expenditure is meeting

through agriculture. Father is doing something . . . .

if this . . . 1 lakh and 2 lakh loan . . . hesitating . . . get-

ting loan for education. They will . . . they cannot (?)understand . . . what is this or something . . . So I havenot shared this. [Male, 23 years]

Stage Two: Shock: Social/Cultural

and Academic

The second stage of the experience occurs shortly after therespondents arrive on campus, and is marked by a sense ofacute differences between the self and the new context. Wehave referred to this phase as shock, although that term,

by itself, does not point fully to the perceived inferioritiesexperienced related to the self during this stage. While acertain sense of shock seems to be experienced by almost allstudents, irrespective of the backgrounds they come from,what distinguishes the students from culturally/linguisti-cally diverse backgrounds is the intensity of the shock thatthey feel. We could identify both sociocultural and aca-demic shock in the narratives shared by the respondents,although these are not discrete categories and often over-lap. Language runs as a deep theme throughout this stage,in both its sociocultural and academic aspects.

Many respondents reported a sense of shock associatedwith not having experienced life in a big city and a univer-sity of this nature previously. Social issues, like the easymixing of males and females at the university, appearedto be barriers to the early integration of this group of stu-

dents. The sense of isolation experienced by respondentsis exemplified in this quote:

Initially I felt . . . very intensely . . . that I am in a

totally different culture. Because I am from a small

town . . . I mean even if I went to some big city . . . itwas just for a day or two. So, to live like this . . . and

to meet so many people . . . and to (attend) class with

them. I felt like . . . they cannot be my friends. Initially

I did feel very intensely . . . I felt separate . . . I felt very

lonely . . . . [Female, 30 years]

Differences in languages, or slang and usages even in

known languages amongst peers enhanced this sense of

difference and inferiority, making them hesitant to interactwith others.

So language was a great problem to interact with the

students especially students who come from North. . . Because there slangs are very different - entirelydifferent . . . That was the main problem . . . so I hesi-

tated to interact with people. [Male, 36 years]

In addition to feeling acutely socially isolated, respon-dents also tended to compare themselves academicallywith other people in their cohort and judge themselves to

be different/deficient. They invariably attribute these dif-ferences to their backgrounds. For example, one respondentsaid:

There are only few graduates (in own cohort) having

two years experience. And many are post graduates

and have HUGE experience. And many are from

Delhi University . . . . In order to compete with them

(i.e. be at par with them) . . . Because . . . . some-

thing . . . some negative sense (inferiority complex). . . . Because they are emm . . . (gestures, suggesting

they are something more advanced or different from

me) . . . or something else. [Male, 23 years]

They also commented at length on the alienating effectof academic language and terminology in their classes.

I have written in my diary . . . some of the words . . .

epistemology . . . I will come to you and share with

you . . . all those words . . . I am a reader of Frontline

(a news magazine) and all, but here, these ter-minologies . . . and ALL these classes are based on

these terminologies. If you dont know . . . epistemol-ogy . . . and some words may have different mean-

ings . . . in particular areas. The word we use inSociology . . . may not have the same meaning in you

know Philosophy . . . [Male, 36 years]

Problems with academic terminology go hand-in-handwith problems with the novelty and complexity of the con-tent encountered in the courses. The university recruits stu-dents from a variety of fields (not just from the socialsciences), rendering the content novel for many of the stu-dents. Again what distinguished students from the lesssocioculturally privileged backgrounds from others, was the

intensity of their experienced disconnect andthe linkbetweenthis disconnect and their academic language proficiency.

Readings . . . I could not understand anything. That is

one problem . . . a great problem. I cant learning. Youhave to understand the concept. All readings are

much tough. Its not simple readings. Only one or

two readings are simple readings, other are very

tough. So it will take a lot of time to understand the

concepts. Especially now . . . XXX . . . is MUCH com-plicated. You cannot understand what they are say-

ing. I am just attending class here, sometime I am

not understanding what they are saying (in the class).

[Male, 23 years]

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This experience of feeling unable to comprehend read-ings, to understand concepts in class, extended to a feelingof helplessness related to successfully completing assign-ments for courses. Plagiarism came up as a concept thathighlights the sense of sociocultural and academic alienationand shock experienced by the respondents, one that we takeup for further consideration in the discussion section.

Even in XX college . . . they would not give us so much(academic work) . . . They did not say things like . . .

You cannot copy from anyone . . . that you have to

quote . . . plagiarism is SUCH a crime here . . . I did not

know that earlier. So, these things I found difficulthere . . . [Female, 30 years]

Stage Three: Individual Attempts to Cope

The third stage is marked by attempts by the students tocope with the shock described in the earlier section. Thisis done to various degrees (some try much harder than oth-

ers) and takes various forms (such as attempts to find sim-ple books in the library or bookstores, translations in locallanguages, simplified versions of content from the internet;or attempts to seek help from faculty members).

What appears to be common at this stage is that almostall of the initial attempts to cope are individual. Althoughmany people are facing the same situation, there is very lit-tle sharing of common problems or solutions at this stage.This isolation seems to stem partly from the assumptionon the part of the students that the challenges they face aredue to personal shortcomings that others do not share; andpartly from the fear of appearing like a fool in front ofothers. This gets exacerbated due to the tendency to see

some of the more proficient students as representing mostothers.

But the thing is I was not able to say anything because

I thought that majority of the people are getting

everything that is being taught . . . . [Female, 28 years]

The experience of English-medium/urban backgroundstudents (not reported in this paper) becomes markedly dif-ferent at this stage as compared to that of the non-urban stu-dents. While the urban students are able to form peerrelationships and study groups more easilyas a result oftheir common academic and non-academic culture (and arethus able to cope more effectively), the non-urban studentsremain isolated for much longer and are more hesitant toseek help openly from others.

Stage Four: Failure in Penetrating the

Academic Discourse

This stage overlaps considerably with Stages three and five,and marks a sense of failure and frustration at not beingable to penetrate the academic discourse, despite individualattempts to cope. Our interviews revealed the effort put in

by these students behind the scenes (Stage Three) that golargely unnoticed and unacknowledged in the academic

context of their courses.

I cannot understand from the class. I am searching in

the internet - what is it. How to write it. Go throughthe internet, than onlywhat it is. Because it is all

very new to me . . . . [Male, 23 years]

You know how it feels (sitting in the class) . . . like afrog . . . you know . . . in a dark ditch (using imagery of a frogleaping up to catch a few known words here and there in a

class that was largely not understandable). [Female, 39years]

Stage Five: Self-Doubt

Failure to comprehend and participate in the discoursedespite putting in effort appears to lead to self-doubt anddepression in some of the students; while some othersappear to rationalize and scale down expectations ofthemselves and the program. This is also approximately thepoint of the first semester when grades and feedback on thefirst few assignments are given by the faculty members.These often increase the sense of failure that is being expe-

rienced. Our interviews indicate that even at this point ofthe semester, respondents tend to see their inability to copeas a personal shortcoming, not shared by others in theircohort. The constant underlying comparison with othersand a deep sense of inferiority and inadequacy comethrough clearly in many of their statements.

I did not understand a single thing!Then . . . I startedthinking . . . why did they take me!? (i.e. why did they

offer me admission here) . . . [Female, 30 years]

Seriously . . . I was not understanding ANY-

THING . . . I was under so much depression . . . that Iwill not be able to handle this. I WILL fail! . . . .

That . . . its there no? . . . At least some expectation

from yourself? But when you are unable to do it . . .

"Man . . . WHY am I unable to do it? Even this muchI am incapable of doing? And then you see that

others . . . . even others are in the same situation,right? And if THEY are able to do it . . . if they can

score well . . . then why dont you? [Female, 28 years]

I did not speak with anyone for six weeks. Even

my close friends . . . I went into a depression . . . .I cannot do even this much . . . people younger . . . .

whatever . . . are doing it. [Female, 28 years]

Stage Six: Disenchantment / AlienationThe self-doubt, stress and/or depression, in turn, often leadto feelings of disenchantment or alienation with the aca-demic program, with students questioning the purpose ofpursuing the program at this university. It is at this stagethat some students seriously start reconsidering their futurecourse of action, including the possibility of their droppingout of the program.

Right now it is appearing as if. . . you know distance

education, right? . . . you have to do this assignment

by this time . . . write. So, you read only for those

assignments. (X) was joking . . . you tell me what all

you want from me . . . and I am going home . . . and

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will send it to you. There is no sense in the classes !

[Male, 33 years]

Stage Seven: Realization of Shared Nature

of Problems

The final stage captured in the interviews (conducted a few

weeks before the end of the first semester) was the realiza-tion among the students that many of the problems thatthey had faced throughout the semester, were, in fact, prob-lems common to others. This should be seen in context ofStage Three (Individual attempt to cope), where problemsand failures were seen as ones own. This realization is cap-tured in this quote:

[We] think that this is my problem . . . I will try to

solve it in some other way. Everyone else is getting

it right? So . . . let it be. I am not getting some-thing . . . I will look up the word . . . or okay, I will ask

people outside the class . . . I should not disturb the

class. So, many important things get left behindbecause of that. [Female, 28 years]

Discussion

The cause of improving access, equity and quality in highereducation would be helped if larger number of institutionswere to take proactive measures to assist students from dif-ferent social groups to effectively negotiate academic dis-courses. Doing so, however, would necessarily involve a

better understanding of the experiences and challenges ofstudents from diverse sociocultural and academic back-grounds as they negotiate the academic landscape of Indian

higher education.In this study we used a phenomenological approach to

capture the lived experiences of students from diversebackgrounds attending an English-language medium-sized university in a large metropolitan Indian city. Weadopted a theoretical frame located in sociocultural andcritical theories that view language, knowledge and cultureas intertwined and as privileging those with access to dis-courses of power and privilege (Bordieu, 1999; Heath,1996/1983; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Purcell-Gates, 1997;Willis, 1981). Students who come from smaller cities andhave previously studied in vernacular-medium institutionsseem to go through a seven-stage experience during theirfirst semester. In brief, they seem to initially experiencea shock due to sociocultural as well as academic factors;may find it relatively difficult to penetrate the academicdiscourse; and thus feel disenchanted or disengaged tovarying degrees. Significantly, we found that most res-pondents see their challenges as personal failings that arenot shared by others, for a significant part of the firstsemester.

Based on our work, we make a few preliminary recom-mendations to educators and policymakers working at sim-ilar institutions. One key take-away from this study would

be to find ways to lessen the initial sense of shock and alie-nation, and to help students ease more gradually into aca-demic discourses. We found that there appears to be quite

a mismatch between the expectations that students have

of themselves and the reality that they face in the first fewmonths at university. As a result, many tend to go into ashelldoubting their capabilities or blaming self/others.Instead of leaving them to discover it by themselves, itwould be advisable to help students realize that many oth-ers go through an initial period of shock and adjustment ofexpectations. They should be alerted to the different typesof support available to them during this time period, and

should be exposed to narratives of the experiences of simi-lar others.

During the first few weeks of the semester, it may beadvisable to employ methods of teaching and assessmentsthat depend more on speaking and hearing, and studentsactive participation as opposed to relying solely on class-room lectures and reading and writing. It may also be use-ful to provide regular academic reading and writingsupport embedded in course content, as opposed to occa-sional, voluntary opportunities to seek assistance fromdecontextualized language support resources, for example,English language classes or writing centers. Academic dis-courses vary widely (e.g., philosophy versus psychology),making it unadvisable to teach language in a decontextua-lized manner in higher educational settings. Making com-monly used books and readings available in locallanguages may be beneficial to a number of students.

Sociocritical theory would also require that we askdeeper questions about the manner in which certain ideol-ogies and norms that characterize powerful groups are nor-malized within institutional contexts, while others aresilenced or marginalized. Our study reveals that quite a fewof the assumptions and values of progressive, liberal insti-tutions of higher education (e.g., related to pedagogy,assessments, conduct, etc.) are novel to students from cultu-rally different backgrounds. Concepts like academic plagi-arism, for example, assume moralistic, universalistic and

legalistic tones within the university setting that may runcounter to student cultural experiences that view certainpractices as legitimate, correct and proper. Critical theoristssuch as Canagarajah (2007b) and Bennett (2011) havepointed out that plagiarism is not a universal evil, but theinstantiation of a particular ethical system that can belocated historically and socially. Students can be mademore aware of and skilled with mainstream discourses andpractices, even as theyre sensitized to the social and histor-ical location of these practices. Raising the critical con-sciousness of students as they encounter and engage withnormalizing discourses at the university is imperative ifequity and diversity are to be seriously applied. Canagara-

jah (2002 a) provides descriptions of several ways in which

multilingual students in his classroom engaged in academicpractices that positioned them as critical participants in,rather than as passive consumers of, academic discourses.

From a normative, scientific viewpoint, our studyemployed relatively few participants, making the generaliz-ability of our findings tentative. However, from the view-point of hermeneutic phenomenology, even the narrativesof a single individual are worthy of understanding. Accord-ing to Giorgi (2008), including the experiences of a mini-mum of three respondents permits the researcher toclarify the nature of the phenomenon being studied by dis-cerning individual variations in experiences from the moregeneral nature (or the essence) of the phenomenon under

study. By those standards, our results are reliable and may

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offer useful insights to a wide array of stakeholdersinclud-ing the students, faculty and the university; as well asresearchers and scholars working in the areas of curricu-lum development, faculty professional development, lan-guage education, and inclusive practices. While thisstudy paints a broad picture of students subjective experi-ences at the university, further, more nuanced work isneeded to understand the specifics of their experiences

with different aspects of curriculum, pedagogy and assess-ment practices.

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In Search of Feminine Identity:Recollections from the ChildhoodExperiencesofHijrasinBangalore,India

Tissy Mariam Thomasand Shirley Ruth RobertDepartment of Psychology, Christ University,Bangalore, Karnataka, India.Email: [email protected]

I kept my feminine character in my heart without revealing it toanyone . . . that kind of self-fighting for my identity within, from8 to 16 years I have struggled a lot . . . no friends who supported,no family members who supported . . . so where do I go? So guilt

feelings started coming in my mind . . . I thought I was the onlyperson behaving like this . . . I thought I should not be alive . . .so once I tried to attempt suicide . . .

(Akshaya, 30 years, Transsexual woman, Personal communi-cation, October 24, 2012)

(The names ofhijrashave changed to maintain anony-mity)

Gender identity does not usually invite discussion untilthe topic of sexual minorities has been broached. A male

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negotiating academic landscapes_experiences of students from diverse backgrounds at an indian...

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