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to observations. Teachers exercised refusal (Tuck & Yang, 2014). Two teachers requested observations were scrapped when they felt that a class period did not go according to plan – either due to internet and electricity issues or incorrect information conveyed in the classroom.
Further, participants in the study were offered the chance to select their pseudonyms for the project. This relationship dynamic was established to challenge the deficit and damage-centered perspectives that prevail towards teachers in India and to share power with teachers within the research process (Tuck & Yang, 2014).
One might suggest that allowing teachers to delete unfavorable observations skews the observations. However, teachers were willing to discuss why they wanted these observations removed, what went wrong, and what they did to correct it. Further, this strategy pushes back on the extractive nature of ethnographic research, allowing participants to refuse access and
embarrassment (Tuck & Yang, 2014). In addition, the teachers and I engaged in dialogue
through interviews, member checking sessions, and workshops towards critical reflectivity (Paris
& Alim, 2017), examining aspects of the school and classroom culture that are worth sustaining and aspects that require critique, care, and consideration.
51 School fee
~ 850 INR/month (10$) (most parents pay 450 INR (5$), many do not pay); within the average for low-fee private schools in India (Acholla, 2021)
No fee; school provides uniforms, books, and one meal
Student characteristics Muslim girls Neighborhood children (predominantly Muslim)
Teachers (in study) 13 9
Teachers (in school) ~25 ~15
Average age of teachers 23 23
Teacher wages 10,000 INR per month 10,000 to 12,000 INR
Years since established 10 3
NGO Inclusive Schools Hope Fellowship
NGO model
Teacher professional development, instructional leadership
similar to Teach for America;
2 fellows at 1 school, whole school reform
NGO years of operation 3+ years 0-1 years
Table 1: School characteristics across the two sites
3.4.1 Ahmedabad School
Established in 2012, the school is an unrecognized low-cost private school. Formerly a diverse neighborhood, the area is now a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. The school is run by a private trust instituted in 2002, after the Gujarat pogrom. The school aims to provide education to Muslim girls across class and caste backgrounds in ways that balance religious and secular knowledge. This is a matter of great pride and conviction across the school. Teachers proudly proclaim that they are a school run by Muslim women for Muslim women. The school runs pre- primary to grade 12, with an enrolment of approximately 900 students. As an unrecognized school, it is not affiliated with any state-recognized board of school certification. The school is outside the ambit of the state; it is missing from any publicly available school database such as the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE).
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A total of thirteen teachers volunteered to participate in the study. All teachers are Muslim women, between the ages of 20 and 32. Teachers have three to twelve years of teaching experience and have been at this school for three to ten years. None of the teachers have
professional teaching qualifications and six of them were pursuing their undergraduate degrees during the data-gathering process. They teach a range of subjects across pre-primary to grade 12.
Subjects include English, Mathematics, Urdu, Arabic, Quran, Islamic Studies, and
Environmental Studies. Class strength ranges from 27 (in higher grades) to 81 (in pre-primary grades). Teachers earn around 10,000 INR per month, which is close to the minimum wage in the state.
3.4.2 Mumbai School
The Mumbai school is located in a crowded neighborhood that became increasingly segregated in the last two decades and is now predominantly a Muslim neighborhood, described by a national daily as “one of Mumbai's largest Muslim ghettos.” The school building houses four public schools, of which the NGO site is the only school with English as the medium of instruction. The other schools in the compound have Urdu as their medium of instruction. The neighborhood contains more than 15 public and private schools, some governed by the state, some low-fee private schools, and some Christian elite private schools.
In 2019, the public school at the site was handed over to a private foundation in a public- private partnership model. The school was then renovated and converted into an English-medium school. In the public-private partnership model, the school has two school leaders – one
appointed by the state and another appointed by the foundation. The foundation runs the school in consultation with an established elite Christian private school in the neighborhood. As quoted
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in a national daily, this was done to have a “non-Muslim in-charge principal who speaks English fluently.” The state provides the land and the entitlements and benefits to students under the Right to Education Act, including free meals, books, and uniforms. The foundation hires the teachers and pays their salaries. The school caters to working-class Muslim parents in the area, many previously enrolled their children in fee-paying Christian schools in the area. The school aims to provide ‘free and quality education to the area children.’ The school enrolls
approximately 700 children, from pre-primary grades till grade 6.
Nine teachers volunteered to participate in the study. All participants were 20- to 30-year- old Muslim women. Out of the nine teachers, two teachers had four years of teaching experience, two had three years of experience, and one had two years of experience. Four teachers were in their first year of teaching. Most teachers were newly recruited to the school. All teachers had professional teaching qualifications. Most teachers taught English, Mathematics, and
Environmental Studies. One teacher taught Urdu to grade six. Class size ranged from 40 (grade 4) to 120 (pre-primary). Teachers earned between 10,000 to 12,000 INR in a month, which is less than the minimum wage for unskilled labor in the state. During fieldwork, teachers complained about delays in teachers receiving their monthly wages.