About
Development practitioners, both in government and non-governmental organisations, through their interactions and observations, gain insights and knowledge that can be of immense value to others. However, practitioners themselves are largely constrained by the nature and demands of their work and the scarcity of time and resources to document these learnings. In cases where they do, this documentation is not easily accessible to others. On the other end of the spectrum are the academics and researchers of development who focus on understanding social problems and documenting their assessment of development interventions but may often miss the real challenges encountered in the field.
University Practice Connect, then, is a mutual learning space on development issues that presents learnings and first-hand experiences that provide academic insights. The focus is to reduce the gap between the evolving theory of practice and the work that organisations are relentlessly involved in to make a difference on the ground.
All articles are organised under the following categories:
- Lessons from Practice
- Insights from Social Contexts
- Notes on Strategy
- Personal Reflections on Practice
- Teachers and Schools for Inclusive Society
Team
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Ankur Madan
Ankur Madan is the Director of the School of Education Ankur joined the Azim Premji University in 2013. Prior to that she has worked in the University of Delhi, The American University of Kuwait, and Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. Her Masters and doctoral degrees are from the University of Delhi in the areas…
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Mujahidul Islam
Mujahid is a part of the Information Communication & Technology team. He is an Edtech Specialist and works on the crossroad of technology, media and education with a special emphasis on the digital ways of learning. His expertise lies in ideating, developing and implementing appropriate, simple and cost effective digital solutions (platform, tools and content)…
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Santhakumar V
While working as a civil engineer on a non-governmental initiative to plan watershed management in a village in Kerala in the late eighties, Santhakumar felt the need for a social science education. That led him to pursue Masters and Doctoral degrees in social science (IIT Chennai) followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the Wageningen Agricultural University…
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Shefali Tripathi Mehta
Shefali is a part of the Communications Team associated with the University Operations. Shefali Tripathi Mehta is an in-house English language editor at the University — Associate Editor of the Learning Curve magazine and Editor of University Practice Connect. Shefali is a postgraduate in English literature with a PG diploma in Advertising and Public Relations. She has…
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Subrat Kumar Mishra
Subrat Kumar Mishra leads the Placement Cell for the Post Graduate and Under Graduate Programmes at the University. He has more than 20 years of engagement in development sector with focus on mental health, disability and public health. Worked extensively with the most underprivileged sections of community such as people with disability and mental illness…
Connect with us
Browsing through these pages, you will notice that all engagements documented here are participatory. We are all participants and equal stakeholders here whether we are engaged in the development practice at the grassroots, or facilitators in supporting the work or the documentation of it.
There are experiences, insights and learnings that have been presented here, which our partners –individuals and organisations – have shared with us and helped us document. If you are an individual or an organisation that would like to document your work, experiences and insights, we would be very happy to collaborate with you. Apart from this, knowledge-sharing and support are the prime objectives of this initiative. We would also be happy to collaborate in other areas, such as planning a new project, impact assessment and capacity-building of individuals.
We invite non-governmental organisations and researchers/academics from other institutes to collaborate by contributing to this website. We are also happy to partner with organisations interested in using these documents as learning materials.
If you would like to partner with us, please write to subrat.mishra@apu.edu.in
For general enquiries, please write to practice-connect@apu.edu.in