teachers and their pedagogy of HRE, at this stage it would be relevant to ask the question whether there can be a general theory of pedagogy of HRE that can be applied to various settings first to understand the undercurrents and second to make its implications in a particular context more effective. This question has been dealt in chapter six.
3.9 A Note on Data Collection
The data for the present research were collected from two categories. The first category can be termed primary as the information is directly attained from the subjects and formed the backbone of the present research.28 The research involved six teachers of sixth grade or class from Taipei and ND.29 The names of teachers and schools have been changed to protect the anonymity of the subjects and institutions involved in this study.30 These teachers are of social sciences background, that is, they specialized in social sciences during the teacher’s training program.31 The reason for selecting teachers trained
28 The subjects of the present research are teachers. A teacher is the most important agency in the education system. The success of not only HRE but any other subject or the school for that matter largely rests on the shoulders of teachers. In addition, teachers exercise tremendous power over adolescents. They listen to their teachers and follow them rather blindly. This makes the teachers’ position far more crucial because ultimately it is the teacher who determines the direction and impetus of development of HR culture in her/his classroom and later even outside.
29 Grade (Taiwanese usage) and class (Indian usage) are used interchangeably in the present research. The students of sixth grade are aged between 10 and 13. These are the years of rapid socialization and development of various social concepts and notions. This is the ideal stage to introduce HRE. It will last longer if introduced at an early stage. A detailed discussion on adolescent and HRE can be found in the literature review.
30 An interesting observation worthy of mentioning here is that the Taipei teachers expressed least concern over anonymity while their Indian counterparts repeatedly requested that their names and opinions must not to be revealed to the administration.
31 In Taipei, elementary school teachers have to teach all subjects apart from their area of specialization in the teacher’s training program, i.e. social sciences. Thus, while selecting the subjects, I deliberately chose those teachers who had specialization in social sciences and also some degree of training in HRE. In the
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in social sciences was the basic nature of the discipline. The social sciences learning area deals directly with society, social groups, and individuals as social entities. It also addresses the issues, such as how societies work and how people can participate in it as an informed citizen or member of that society. The subjects covered in the social sciences discipline are history, political science, economics, sociology, anthropology and geography. The content of all these subjects have relations with HR and can be resulted in a better, sound, and strong understanding of HR. It is not the intention here to denigrate the HR understanding of teachers from other disciplines such as languages, sciences or mathematics. Rather the argument is that social sciences teachers have an extra edge over others because of the nature of their discipline that is more conducive for incorporation of HRE.
In addition to their social sciences background, it is ascertained that the teachers have got some training in or at least have a basic understanding of the concept of HR, and they are currently implementing HRE in their classrooms. All the six teachers are in the age group of thirty to fifty five. All of them have a bachelor’s degree and five of them have a Master’s degree. Five teachers continued their higher studies along with employment. Apart from teachers, the administrative staff, principals and other people who were involved in HRE program of both the schools were also interviewed to fill the
case of ND, sixth class/grade teachers are supposed to teach the subject of their specialization in the teacher’s training program.
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gaps arising out of lack of information on administrative aspects and measures pertaining to HRE implementation.32
The second category comprised interviews of scholars who have done pioneering work on HRE in Taipei and ND. Initially the sole purpose of interviewing Taiwanese scholars was to cover the available literature on HRE in Chinese.33 Later, while interviewing scholars in Taipei, it was realized that a whole range of information and facts (both official and unofficial) shared by the scholars were not necessarily present in their articles or works. Those scholars who are also activists had a lot of practical experiences, and their predicaments while raising the voice for HR protection and implementation of HRE in the schools added value to the responses. The scholars shared their experiences in a large measure during the interview. Sometimes, an impediment can prove to be a blessing. This is what happened in my case. The limited ability I had in reading Chinese led to the interview mode and it opened up new vistas in the understanding of HRE in Taipei. After realizing the importance of interviewing scholars and activists of HRE in Taipei, I decided to interview Indian scholars which also proved useful for the current research.
32 In the case of Taipei, various scholars who have done or are working on HRE were also interviewed.
These interviews will be discussed in the chapter four.
33 The reason behind this strategy was my limited ability in reading Chinese. I was able to manage in spoken Chinese, thus, interview of HRE scholars was a feasible and an efficient way to get the whole picture about HRE from the perspective of Taiwanese scholars.
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3.10 Procedure of Selection of Schools in Taipei and New Delhi and Some