Motivating Students of Colleges and Universities for Research Oriented Social Work : Rakhi Roy Halder (Social)

Published in University News, Association of Indian Universities 

                                                                           Abstract

The paper presents a strategic action plan which aims at creating such student community, which is capable of planning effective projects based on the ideas/concepts/ knowledge gained from formal education and implementing it skillfully in the society. It talks about motivating students of colleges and universities to respond to the social and cultural needs of the society. The paper highlights the strategies of providing humanitarian values, a platform to advertise itself in the competitive world, where people mostly think of working for their own benefit. The key words depicting some special concepts related to higher education are presented herewith.

Key words: Community Service Research Cell, Golden Book, Votive Tablets, Action Research.

  

Introduction:

The advancement of knowledge through research is an essential function of higher education. The present era demands innovation and interdisciplinary approach in field of higher education in social science with long-term orientations on social and cultural aims and needs. Keeping pace with the demand of time the university education system must have the scope to create and disseminate knowledge through research and provide a service to the community in socio cultural field. In order to enable university education system to play such significant role in society ‘Community Service Research Cell’ can be established in university. The cell can provide the students an opportunity for individual development along with the scope for education for citizenship and for active participation in society, with a worldwide vision for the consolidation of human rights, sustainable development, democracy and peace, in a context of justice.

 Role of ‘Community Service Research Cell’:

The ‘Community Service Research Cell’ can provide platform to those students who are interested in planning effective projects based on the ideas/ concepts / knowledge gained from formal education and implementing it skillfully in society. In this way it can promote research oriented community service. This research will be definitely interdisciplinary in nature as any crisis related to human life usually needs to be seen in its historical context to understand the roots effectively. It is pertinent to understand the psychological impact of the crisis in the lives of the people. The economic and the financial perspectives are needed to be explored to plan an effective project to combat the crisis. Besides, literary/ artistic/ educational or other disciplinarian approaches can enable a project thereby creating a positive impact in the social condition of the locality.

The cell can provide platform to the students for two types of researches. Firstly, ‘Action Research’ and Secondly, ‘Theoretical Research’. The Action Research can deal with the direct implementation of a project in a locality in order to deal with specific crisis of the   locality. The Theoretical Research can deal with the planning of modules which could be implemented in a specific locality or society in general, in order to combat the crises of a locality or society.

The functioning of such cells like CSRC requires an Advisory Board comprised of honorary members and a Coordinator.

The CSRC could provide support and guidance to the team of students from same college or different colleges or from any university, who has conceived an idea for Action or Theoretical Research. Even the cell can be open to receive the ideas of the passed out students of college or university and voluntary organizations. The cell can play an important role by opening an avenue for the young generation to express their ideas to serve the society on the basis of their knowledge and experiences.

Role of Coordinator in CSRC:

In CSRC the role of coordinator is very vital. The coordinator will serve as bridge between the advisory board and the student team and shoulder the responsibilities of understanding the idea conceived by the student team, explaining the objectives of CSRC to the students, identifying the resource persons who could help the student team in better understanding of the idea conceived by them and support and guide the team to prepare the project proposal. Finally the coordinator   will inspire the team to work on the project. Apart from these responsibilities the coordinator can organize workshops for the student team with the resource persons. Equipped by such workshops the student team can prepare the project proposal and present it before the advisory board and the resource persons in the meeting organized by the coordinator. The effective proposals could be accepted by CSRC and forwarded to the Ministry of Higher Education for funding. The amount may be disbursed to the account of the university, if the Ministry of Higher Education sanctions grant for the project. The documentation of the accomplished project may be send to the Ministry of Higher Education via CSRC. In case of Action Research the special mention of the arrangements made for the sustainability of the effects created by the project must be emphasized.

As in case of Action Research the financial support for the project is a vital issue, so the Advisory Board and the Resource persons can motivate the team to approach companies and the local businessmen to provide financial support so as to make the project possible. Since the subjects like Economics and Business Management deal with financial issues, so the students of above said subjects can be motivated to enrich the project proposal by presenting innovative ways to avail the financial support of companies and the local businessmen for the project. In such case the students’ team should be suggested to include students having innovative ideas from above said subjects in their team.

Coping with the students’ mentality of studying to secure high marks to grab good jobs:

Motivating students to work for CSRC is really a challenging issue. Actually the main challenge is to cope up with the students’ mentality of studying to secure high marks to grab good jobs.  The students could be motivated to go for research under CSRC by introducing the concept of ‘Golden Book’ in the Ministry of Higher Education.

In case of Action Research, if the project is found to be successfully implemented in the locality and in case of ‘Theoretical Research’ if the module presented in the project is found effective by the team of experts appointed by the Ministry of Higher Education, the name of the university and the student team could be registered in the ‘Golden Book’.  In that case a separate ‘Golden Book Page’ can be created in the website of Ministry of Higher Education, which will contain the details of the projects performed by the student team under CSRC of a university. By the virtue of registration of name in ‘Golden Book’ the University and the members of student team can get a ‘Golden Book ID No.’ and the University can get the right of issuing Votive Tablets against its entry in Golden Book.

The ‘Votive Tablet’ is the tablet dedicated and given in fulfillment of a pledge or vow in ancient India. The use of these tablets for above said purpose can motivate the students to take the pledge or the vow with the vision to serve the society through their effective social work.

The practice of giving votive tablets originated in India and the practice was carried forward by the Buddhist monks to other countries of the world. The Buddhist sites from 2^nd to 1^st century BC are found decorated with such votive tablets. During ancient times the villagers of the Thai province when visited their relatives or friends of another provinces used to bring along votive tablets as a form of souvenir. The monks made these tablets not only for distribution among the faithful, but also as a meditative exercise.

Significance of Votive Tablets:

Votive Tablet can be a significant gift for the guests of the University. It can be presented as souvenir, memento which can reflect the special status of the University. ‘Votive’ word has a sense of pledge, this feature of the word ‘Votive’ can be highlighted to motivate students to take a pledge to uplift a locality. In the existing competitive world most people are motivated to work for their own benefit or profit. The works inspired by the humanitarian values are rarely encouraged. Under such circumstances, votive tablets will advertise the glamour of humanitarian values. If the right to distribute votive tablets is provided to a university by a remarkable event organized by the Ministry of Higher Education, then it will give rise to positive competition among the college and university students to facilitate society through CSRC and get their names registered in ‘Golden Book’. The provision of mentioning the names of companies, industries and the local businessmen in the ‘Golden Book’ and the provision of presenting a special Votive Tablet to them by the University in accomplishment of the project can motivate them to provide financial support for the project.

The use of  Votive Tablet can be made more meaningful, if it contains Golden Book Registration Number, Pledge statement, Website address, where the details of the project done could be seen and Star number. Each star will represent each project. Example: 7* (for seven successfully accomplished projects).

The Golden Book ID issued to the members of student team can be in the form of certificate. By the virtue of the certificate, there could be a provision to secure extra marks in any job interview for government posts. This provision can motivate students to work under CSRC.

Theoretical Research and Action Research under CSRC:

Theoretical Research and Action Research could be done under CSRC. These researches are needed to be interdisciplinary in nature and to be done in team. In case of Theoretical Research there should be special thrust to present a module to combat any prevalent crisis of an area. The team can plan the project for a locality or it can be presented as a module in general. The aims and objectives, vision, concept note, feature of the locality where it could be applied, the crises with which the project will deal, sustainability of the module and the criteria to measure the impact if the module is implemented in a locality is needed to be very specific in the research work. In case of Action Research the project is required to be initiated with the survey of the area, where it is to be implemented. It may be based on a module presented by any ‘Theoretical Research Team’ or it could be based on any famous module or combination of more than one module. But, the module should gear up to the needs and interests of the concerned locality. Sustainability as well as the period of the ‘Action Research’ along with the criteria to measure the impact of the project must be very specific in case of ‘Action Research’.

Role of CSRC apart from promoting research:

Apart from promoting research, CSRC can organize interactive sessions with students and eminent personalities as well as with the student team, whose names have been registered in the Golden Book. It can organize workshops or lectures for creating awareness among the students about the mission and vision of CSRC and the scope of working in the cell. It can also inspire the students to take a pledge to use their knowledge for upliftment of society. Through the cell, leadership training, time management training, training for attaining peace of mind could be given to enable students to develop philosophy of life in order to cope up with the changes in life and society. At least one such event of duration of 2 hours could be organized within 45 working days by keeping pace with the time table of regular post graduation courses.

Maintaining of an open register by CSRC could give a scope to a single student to write about an idea conceived by him/her and this practice could help a single student to find other students having similar thoughts.

Conclusion:

CSRC can mitigate the gap between knowledge and action. It can motivate the students for social work. The locality based action research under CSRC can lead to the betterment of living standard of the people of that locality. It can create skilled human resources ready to work in self help groups. Such efforts could bring in positive changes in the health, education and various other dimensions of lives of youth, children and women in a specific locality. The diversified plans can lead to multi faceted development of an area. The critical thinking ability of the students could also be enhanced by such research. Apart from that, the students will learn that securing good marks and grabbing good job is not the sole aim of education. Enhancing social work through gained knowledge can bring pride and honour for them.  This understanding can lead to the socialization of students’ personality. Moreover, the humanitarian values will also get a platform for its advertisement in this competitive world by these efforts. Along with that the students will get good exposure through social work and the psychological needs of the students like, the quest for their own identity and formation of their philosophy of life could also be catered through it

Applying The ‘Entitlement Approach’ of Amartya Sen to Education: Rakhi Roy Halder (Social)

Published in MS Academic, International Journal, August 2012, ISSN : 2229-6484

                     (A plan for effective education for the millennium)

Abstract

The various crises of 20^th century are still alarming the present era. Developing working models or action plans to combat these crises is the need of the time. In this context the existing philosophies, theories and the approaches can be referred to innovate new ways to combat these crises.

This paper focuses on the point that the ‘Entitlement Approach’ of Prof. Amartya Sen, which analyzes poverty and famine, can be applied in the field of education to involve the students of colleges and universities to combat present crises through valuable social work.

The application of the ‘Entitlement Approach’ in the field of education demands interdisciplinary approach in teaching and framing of the curriculum. The paper presents that how the interdisciplinary approach in teaching, leads to the development of effective understanding among students.

The paper finally presents that how the ‘entitlement approach’ to education can contribute to the development of a healthy atmosphere in colleges and universities.

Key words: Interdisciplinary approach, Transformed entitlement, Transformed entitlement mapping.

                     India is standing at a juncture where there are remarkable achievements as well as many severe crises like poverty, illiteracy, women problems, unemployment, health related problems and so on. The present era demands an effective approach to combat the existing crises. To combat these crises it is essential to develop working models or action plans.

There is the existence of several philosophies, theories and approaches, which have the seeds of creating better world. The ‘Entitlement Approach’ presented by Amartya Sen to analyze poverty and famine has immense possibilities to involve the students of colleges and universities in useful social work, if it is applied to the field of education.

Presently as an effect of exam-centric college and university education students are more concerned about securing high marks in examinations. Excellent result is considered by the students as a ladder to acquire good jobs. Securing high salaried job has become the aim of education for most of the students. This attitude is encouraging exam based studies among students. It is also developing self centered attitude in students. Application of ‘Entitlement Approach’ to the field of higher education can not only involve the students of the humanities group in the nation’s work, but also it can enhance the quality of higher education to a great extent. Let us focus on the important terms of ‘Entitlement Approach’ from the educational point of view.

The ‘Exchange Entitlement’ term of ‘Entitlement Approach’ has been defined by Amartya Sen as “The set of all the alternative bundles of the commodities that he (a person) can acquire in exchange for what he owns may be called the ‘exchange entitlement’ of what he owns.”

Another important term of ‘Entitlement Approach’ is ‘ownership bundles’. Alternative bundles are acquired in exchange of ownership bundles. In the educational context ownership bundles could be the knowledge and understanding which is acquired by the students from their observation, self study, school education, family, society and other possible sources. This acquired knowledge and understanding is needed to be transformed into effective understanding to make it useful as well as practicable for life and society. The colleges and universities, on one hand, can work as a centre for providing new knowledge and on the other, play a vital role in the transformation of the students’ ownership bundles into effective understanding. This understanding includes understanding of the present dynamics of the society, understanding the roots of the crises of the present, selection of the weapons to combat those crises and identification of the factors capable of contributing to the development of the society.

Creating effective knowledge demands interdisciplinary approach in teaching as well as framing the curriculum. The interdisciplinary approach again demands the understanding of the basic powers of different disciplines. The discipline like history has a power to create an effective understanding of the roots of a problem. Literature can create an effective understanding of the aspects of the crises as well as their deep rooted effects on culture. Economics can prove to be useful to find out ways on financial level to deal with any socio-economic crisis. Psychology can help the students to understand the mental condition of the victims of the crises and can also guide the students to provide mental support to the victims in order to create new hope in them. Actually, series of discussions on the basic powers of different disciplines are very much required to frame an effective curriculum for graduation and post graduation courses. This approach to curriculum can lead to frame the syllabus of the above said courses in more scientific and logical pattern.

Instead of flat topics the syllabus of graduation and post graduation courses could have clusters. Each cluster could specify topics of same, as well as different disciplines, which are needed to be seen in correlation with the main topic to create effective understanding.

The ‘exchange entitlement’ of ‘Entitlement Approach’ therefore becomes ‘transformed entitlement’ in the field of education. ‘Exchange Entitlement Mapping’ is another important term of ‘Entitlement Approach’. Amartya Sen defined it as “The ‘exchange entitlement mapping’ is the relation that specifies the set of exchange entitlements for each ownership bundles.”

In case of education the ‘exchange entitlement mapping’ could be ‘transformed entitlement mapping’. The utility of the transformed entitlement could be measured through research work. The curriculum of graduation and post graduation level can include minor research work. This should be team research. The team research work could be of two types:

1. Theoretical research work
2. Practical research work

In theoretical research work the team of students will work under the guidance of a subject professor and the required experts from other disciplines. The research team could develop a working model to combat any present crises. The team can also make logical predictions of effects of any existing socio- cultural trend in future. It can also identify any socio-cultural or socio-economic demand of the society and focus on the ways to fulfil the demand. These research works should prove to be valuable for social service.

In case of practical research work the student research team will work under the guidance of subject professors, sociologists and the required experts from other disciplines. The practical research work should be in the form of direct social work. The student team for practical research work can select any backward area of that district in which the college or the university is located. The research team will work according to the established model of social work suitable for the selected area. This approach can introduce ‘practical work’ in the curriculum of arts discipline.

The research work could be part of the curriculum of the final year of the graduation and the post graduation course. The evaluation system is also needed to be modified accordingly.

Some ways in which students can contribute to the society

1. The student research team can select a locality having majority of people below the poverty line. They can conduct socio-economic surveys and capability identifying surveys of the residents of the locality.

2. The student research team having the students of political science, education, geography, nutrition can create awareness about health, food, cleanliness and children’s education among the people of the locality. They can also coordinate with the different departments of the government as well as the business associations of that district to gain financial or material support to improve the living condition of the people of that locality.

3. The residents of the above said locality could be divided into different categories on the basis of their capabilities identified by the capability identifying surveys. Students can arrange for vocational training for each category to sharpen their capabilities or hone their inherent skills. This approach will transform the unskilled workers to human resource. The students of MBA and Human Resource Management course can guide them to form self help group and start a business on a small scale based on their vocational skills. The student research team should also provide them knowledge about entrepreneurship and the ways of marketing of their prepared goods. The students of economics and MBA can put their learning into practice in order to arrange for the financial support for the residents at the initial stage.

4. The students of literature, history, visual arts, dance and music can organize exhibitions, prepare and present street plays, folk songs, and dance dramas to make the people of the above said locality aware of their strengths. These activities can inspire the people of that locality to enrich themselves through various opportunities and move ahead for a better future.
5. The students of journalism can bring out yearly journals focusing on the works done by student research team. The film studies students can prepare documentary films on the locality where the practical research work has been done.

       The youth have an urge to gain popularity. They want to be in lime light. Involvement in politics provides them a scope to gain popularity and importance under the party banner. The entitlement approach to education can contribute to the development of a healthy atmosphere in colleges and universities. Instead of having students’ union based on political parties, students can have different councils for social work. Their urge of gaining popularity can be satisfied by enhancing social work through students’ council. Their quality of working with team spirit can be exploited for valuable social work. 

                                                                                            

Works Cited

Sen, Amartya. Essays on Poverty and Famines An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford University Press. Delhi. 1981

    

       Sen, Amartya. ‘Human Rights and Capabilities’. Journal of Human Development. Routledge, 

      Vol.6. No.2, July 2005

Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press. Newyork.2000

Dongerkery, S.R. University Education in India. Manaktalas. Bombay. 1967