Voices In Between

Dr. Sheetal Nagpal explains how this civil society organization, founded in 1969 and active across India, provides early childhood services for children from marginalized communities, from construction sites and urban slums to remote tribal villages. Her focus is the curriculum the organization develops itself: play-based for the youngest, theme-based for three- to six-year-olds, and a bridge course for older children. Its core idea is that a curriculum has to be contextualized, rooted in the culture, language, and daily life of the children it serves. In tribal communities, for example, traditional songs and games become storybooks and play materials in the children's own dialects, while familiar tales are revisited and developed in diversity-responsive ways. Tune in to hear how this works in a country as diverse as India.

https://www.mobilecreches.org/

Sumitra Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Creches, introduces one of India's pioneering early childhood organizations. Founded in 1969 at a Delhi construction site, Mobile Creches provides quality childcare for children under six from marginalized migrant families. Today it reaches around 100,000 children and their parents in 17 states. She explains why "mobile" refers to the families and not to the crèche, how care workers from the local community build trust, and why that trust, not a fee, is what parents hand over each morning. Tune in to hear how love, trust, and local roots shape quality care.

https://www.mobilecreches.org/

Dr. Gunjan Sharma, Dean of the International Affairs Division at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, looks at the internationalisation of higher education in India - and beyond - through the lens of equity. Instead of starting with rankings or student mobility, she starts with the structure of one of the world's largest higher education systems, a differentiated and unequal one shaped by rapid expansion and a strong private sector. As policy opens the door to foreign university campuses, she asks what problem internationalisation actually can solve and what it can mean for public higher education. Tune in to hear why equity has to be part of this conversation.

Dr. Rajshree Chanchal discusses how the concept of caste is transacted in higher education classrooms. Drawing on Ambedkar's analysis of caste, purity, and untouchability, she describes how students acknowledge caste in the curriculum yet hesitate to accept that discrimination persists, and how the topic of reservations quickly leads to blame. By inviting students to share their own experiences and to question familiar assumptions, she shows why speaking openly about caste can be liberating for students and teachers alike. Tune in to hear what this can mean for teacher education in India and beyond.

References

Ambedkar, B. R. (2014). Annihilation of caste: The annotated critical edition (S. Anand, Ed.). Navayana. (Original work published 1936)

Dr. Nivedita Sarkar examines shadow education: private, paid instruction outside school that mirrors the formal curriculum. Once a supplement at the margins of Indian education, tuition and, above all, commercial coaching have moved to the center, driven by distrust in schools and fierce competition for scarce university seats. Does this multi-billion-dollar industry level the playing field, or does it reproduce inequalities of caste, class, gender, and region? Dr. Sarkar's data show deep gaps in who can afford it. Tune in to hear what that means for the idea of merit and equity.

References

Bray, M. (1999). The shadow education system: Private tutoring and its implications for planners (Fundamentals of Educational Planning No. 61). UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning.

Dr. Neema Chaurasiya asks why gender, so central to who we are, is so often overlooked in everyday teacher education. Policies address it, but the classroom is shaped by teachers' daily choices, norms, and even silences. Using examples, she discusses how students reflect on their own stereotypes and on the family, peer, and societal contexts in which they developed their sense of gender. Knowing the theory, from Judith Butler's performativity to Simone de Beauvoir, is not enough, she argues: awareness has to show in practice.

References

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

de Beauvoir, S. (2010). The second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). Alfred A. Knopf. (Original work published 1949)

Does creativity need to be limited to the creation of a product, or can it also be a state of mind? Professor Rekha Sharma Sen from Indira Gandhi National Open University reflects on the concept and describes it as a process, a flow, rather than an outcome. Drawing on Csikszentmihalyi's idea of flow and on the person-centered approach of Carl Rogers, she builds a broader understanding of the term, moving beyong its Euro-centric understanding and asks what it means for education. Tune in to rethink what it means to be creative.

The conversation invites us to ask whose ideas of creativity shape our classrooms, and what we gain by widening them.

References:

Sharma S., R., & Sharma, N. (2008). Unravelling the mystery of creativity. Researching families and children—culturally appropriate methods, 165-191.

Rogers, C. R. (1970). Towards a theory of creativity. In P. E. Vernon (Ed.), Creativity (pp. 137–151). Penguin Books.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1994). The evolving self: A psychology for the third millennium. HarperPerennial.

Dr. Suhasini Kanwar from Healthy Planet Preschool, Wishtown, Noida, shares how an early years setting can become a genuine hub for families and the wider community. At the heart of Healthy Planet is a pedagogy of relationships, grounded in the belief that who we become is shaped through our relationships with others.

Tune in to discover how opening the doors of a preschool to families and generations can transform it from a place children attend into a shared community of learning, belonging and becoming.

https://www.hp.school/tga/

Dr. Manasi Thapliyal Navani from Ambedkar University Delhi explores how Rabindranath Tagore's satirical story "The Parrot's Training" can open up reflection for future teachers. In the tale, a bird is "educated" in a golden cage until it can no longer sing or fly. Read alongside Paulo Freire, the story raises the question of what education is for: serving the being of the learner or acting as an instrument. Her focus lies on early childhood and teacher education. Tune in to hear how a century-old parable invites us to question our own practice.

The parrot may be perfectly trained and yet no longer alive. What does that mean for how we prepare those who will teach?

Prof. Jyoti Raina from Gargi College, University of Delhi, discusses how research carried out by students can enrich their learning processes in teacher education. Project-based studies, she argues, do more than build knowledge: they prepare future teachers for the demands of their profession. Joining the conversation are co-guests Dr. Tiwari and Dr. Shailly, who add further perspectives. Tune in to hear why research is not an add-on to teacher education but part of its core.

Gargi College at the University of Delhi offers a lively setting for these ideas, where students step into the role of researchers long before they enter the classroom.