Conflict between covers: Confronting official curriculum in Indian textbooks

Exploring modes of engagement within reform-oriented primary mathematics textbooks in India

“…As Syeed (2018) found, civil society activists were seemingly aware of the rare position of power that they had been afforded and used this opportunity to make the textbook, such that "it [was] embarrassing for anyone to go back to old styles of textbooks" (p. 555). The textbooks were, thus, not only created as a means of curriculum enactment, but also as an attempt to showcase how seemingly radical ideas can be included in the form of textbooks.…”

“…Moreover, while there is an effort to include diverse contexts from a social justice perspective, these are not always explicitly explained. Some of these tensions could also be a result of the textbook development process itself, which included the participation of both academic activists as well as bureaucrats, who had different opinions on the approaches (see Syeed (2018)). Thus, while the textbook was attempting to be radically different, its authors had to navigate concerns raised by bureaucrats, who opposed an explicit focus on social justice issues.…”

“…NCERT came out with a series of primary school textbooks (Book 1 to Book 5) based on the principles espoused in NCF-2005, named Math-Magic (NCERT, 2006a, 2006b, 2007a, 2007b, 2008. The Math-Magic textbooks were developed in a unique political context, as an attempt to rethink mathematics teaching (Rampal, 2015;Rampal & Makar, 2012;Rampal & Subramanian, 2012;Syeed, 2018). Indeed, these textbooks were commended by several newspaper articles and reviewers (see Mukherji & Mukul, 2009;Sengupta, 2007;Subrahmaniam, 2005;Tripathi, 2006) for having attempted a unique approach.…”

Knowledge and Curriculum Landscapes in South Asia

“…Curriculum reforms and their translation into textbooks, though led by the state, entail compromises and conflicts in the SA context (Durrani et al 2017;Syeed 2018). Furthermore, states which are largely reliant on external funding, such as Afghanistan (Shirazi 2008) and Nepal (Caddell 2007), have to negotiate national elite interests with those of donors in matters of curriculum and other educational arenas.…”

“…Furthermore, states which are largely reliant on external funding, such as Afghanistan (Shirazi 2008) and Nepal (Caddell 2007), have to negotiate national elite interests with those of donors in matters of curriculum and other educational arenas. In general, the literature indicates the examination of textbook contents has received greater attention, with only a handful of studies devoted to explorations of the context of textbook production and distribution (cf Durrani et al 2017;Durrani and Halai 2020;Syeed 2018). Since textbooks constitute the central and often the only curricular resource, they are often subjected to analysis (Nawani 2010).…”