DASTAAN Studies Students’ World
Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx) anchored the DASTAAN fellowship. DASTAAN stands for ‘Develop bonds with locals, Ask questions, Study local societies, Trace relations between socioeconomic strata and cultural practices and beliefs, Analyse, Archive, Note and present.’ The purpose of anchoring this initiative was to contextualise the CLIx English curriculum.
DASTAAN was started with the aim of understanding the world of adolescents, their societies and culture by collecting data on their backgrounds, local realities, interests, likes and dislikes, daily lives, ambition and dreams, festivals and occasions, linguistic backgrounds, home environments, and other such aspects. Data has been collected from three states—Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana.
DASTAAN fellowship began with a 3-day orientation workshop at Mumbai . The objective of the workshop was to acquaint the fellows with the engagement required to tap community data and resources for the purpose of contextualising the CLIx English curriculum. There were detailed discussions on methodology and tools. There were sessions on media documentation and activities that could be used in the field.
After the orientation, the fellows worked at their respective sites and began data collection. Various tools were used for collecting data from the field, from students and teachers. Qualitative data was gathered using tools such as focus group discussions (FGD), participant and non-participant observations, visual ethnography, case study and semi-structured interviews. The findings and insights generated from this project have been documented in the form of a fellowship report (one for each state).
The findings have been in the form of folktales and folklore, festivals, habitats of the regions, trends and ambitions among adolescents, use of and exposure to technology, likes and dislikes of teenagers, pictures from the community, exposure to English and level of English language proficiency. The findings are being used in creating relevant, contextual and authentic modules for students.
The fellows were constantly documenting and sharing their experiences through Instagram updates and blog posts. You can read the blog posts here. Pictures from the field have been shared on Instagram and tagged with the hashtag #clixdastaan2015.
Click here to read an article about the fellowship that was recently published in Teacher Plus magazine.
(Surbhi Nagpal, Research Assistant, English Team, Clix)
