Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T03:16:41.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - The Morning Assembly

Constructing Subjecthood, Authority, and Knowledge through Classroom Discourse in an Indian School

from Part III - Language Socialization and Ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2020

By
Usree Bhattacharya  and
Laura Sterponi
Edited by
Matthew J. Burdelski  and
Kathryn M. Howard
Matthew J. Burdelski
Affiliation:
Osaka University
Kathryn M. Howard
Affiliation:
California State University, Channel Islands
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines the ritual of Morning Assembly, the typical start to an Indian school day, which has long been ingrained within the Indian educational system, and, importantly, is considered to be “quite central in the approach to ethics education” (Duesund, 2013, p. 146). Constructed as a space for the inculcation of moral values regarding, among other aspects, citizenship and personal growth, this ritual typically entails dissemination of news, singing of patriotic and devotional songs in multiple languages, and edifying lectures. As part of a broader investigation of young boys at an orphanage in suburban New Delhi that entailed participant observation, audiovisual recordings, and interviews, the chapter focuses on two teachers’ lectures during the Morning Assembly to demonstrate how through the content, participation frameworks, and spatial and intercorporeal organization, the Morning Assembly is both a crucial institutional ritual and a dynamic site for socializing Indian children into specific dispositions and stances towards authority and knowledge. It argues that socialization into expected epistemic and moral stances is simultaneous and deeply entangled.

Keywords

Indiainterpellationcritical discourse analysisauthorityroutinesembodimentknowledgepledge
Type
Chapter
Information
Language Socialization in Classrooms
Culture, Interaction, and Language Development
 , pp. 181 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Althusser, L. (1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation). In Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (translated by B. Brewster) (pp. 127–186). New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Baquedano-López, P. (2008). The pragmatics of reading prayers: learning the Act of Contrition in Spanish-based religious education classes (doctrina). Text & Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse Communication Studies, 28(5), 581–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benei, V. (2008). Schooling Passions: Nation, History, and Language in Contemporary Western India. Stanford, CA: Stanford University PressGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Burdelski, M. and Cook, H. M. (2012). Formulaic language in language socialization. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 32, 173–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreze, J. and Sen, A. (2002). India: Development and Participation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duesund, K. (2013). Is there a potential for Norway to learn from the ethics education in the educational system of India? Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education, 2, 142–164.Google Scholar
Gokhale, S. D. (2003). Towards a policy for aging in India. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 15(2–3), 213–234.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Power: The Birth of the Prison. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. New York, NY: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1987). The ethic of care for the self as a practice of freedom. In Bernhauer, J. and Rasmussen, D. (eds.), The Final Foucault (pp. 112–131). Boston, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the self. In Martin, L. H., Gutman, H., and Hutton, P. (eds.), Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault (pp. 16–49). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. B. and Baquedano-López, P. (2002). Language socialization: reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31(1), 339–361.Google Scholar
Hall, S. (2001). Foucault: power, knowledge and discourse. In Wetherell, M., Taylor, S., and Yates, S. J. (eds.), Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader (pp. 72–81). London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Kumar, K. (1990). Hindu revivalism and education in north-central India. Social Scientist, 10(10), 4–26.Google Scholar
Kumar, K. (1991). Political Agenda of Education: A Study of Colonialist and Nationalist Ideas. New Delhi: SAGE.Google Scholar
Luke, A. (1995). Text and discourse in education: an introduction to critical discourse analysis. Review of Research in Education, 21(1), 3–49.Google Scholar
Mauss, M. (1973 [1935]). Techniques of the body. Economy and Society, 2, 70–88.Google Scholar
Mohanty, A. K. (2008). Perpetuating inequality: language disadvantage and capability deprivation of tribal mother tongue speakers in India. In Harbert, W., McConnell-Ginet, S., Miller, A., and Whitman, J. (eds.), Language and Poverty (pp. 102–124). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Moore, L. C. (2006). Learning by heart in Qur’anic and public schools in northern Cameroon. Social Analysis, 50(3), 109–126.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B., Moore, L., Najafi, B., Dexter, A., Correa-Chavez, M., and Solis, J. (2007). Children’s development of cultural repertoires through participation in everyday routines and practices. In Grusec, J. E. and Hastings, P. D. (eds.), Handbook of Socialization (pp. 490–515). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Sarangapani, P. (2003). Childhood and schooling in an Indian village. Childhood, 10(4), 403–418.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, B. B. and Ochs, E. (1986). Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology, 15(1), 163–191.Google Scholar
Sheshagiri, K. M. (2010). A cultural overview of education in Hindu civilization. In Zhao, Y., Lei, J., Li, G., He, M. F., Okano, K., Megahed, N., Gamage, D., and Ramanathan, H. (eds.), Handbook of Asian Education: A Cultural Perspective (pp. 463–480). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Srinivasan, B. and Karlan, G. R. (1997). Culturally responsive early intervention programs: issues in India. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 44(4), 367–385.Google Scholar
Subramaniam, B. (2000). Archaic modernities: science, secularism, and religion in modern India. Social Text, 18(3), 67–86.Google Scholar
Thapan, M. (ed.). (2014). Ethnographies of Schooling in Contemporary India. New Delhi: SAGE.Google Scholar
Watson-Gegeo, K. A. and Bronson, M. C. (2013). The intersection of language socialization and sociolinguistics. In Bayley, R., Cameron, R., and Lucas, C. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, (pp. 111–131). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×