Early childhood education, postcolonial theory, and teaching practices and policies in India : balancing Vygotsky and the Veda / Amita Gupta.

First edition published in 2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Conceptualizing and setting the stage -- 2. The sociocultural context of education : core concepts of the philosophy underlying the Indian worldview -- 3. Educational systems in India : past and present -- 4. Aims of education contextualized within the sociocultural context of urban India -- 5. Image of the teacher : roles and responsibilities of the early childhood teacher within an Indian context -- 6. Image of the child : what is developmentally and socially appropriate for children growing up in Indian society? -- 7. Learning to teach : a sociocultural-historical constructivist theory of teaching -- 8. Large class size in India : contextualizing and demystifying the challenges -- 9. The early childhood curriculum : socioculturally constructed and enacted in the postcolonial third space -- 10. A postcolonial model for aligning early childhood teacher education and classroom practice : balancing Vygotsky and the Veda -- 11. Postcolonial research in early childhood education : reflecting on the process -- 12. Epilogue : current trends in policy and practice.

"Conceptualized within a socio-cultural constructivist and postcolonial paradigm, this book explores a definite tension between 'Western' theories of child development and the 'Indian' ways of being and thinking. It also provides a richly descriptive and relatively unexamined account of the culturally complex relationship that exists in urban India between formal teacher education programs, national policies, early childhood classrooms, and the urban, middle-class experiences of children and early childhood teachers. The hallmark features of this book lie in the rich examples, research anecdotes, and postcolonial perspectives on the voices of teachers explicitly describing their classroom practice." Publisher's website.