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Manoj Kumar

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • The Interface between School Education and Political-Economic orders
  • Critical Theory and Pedagogy
  • Sociology of Education
  • Children’s Literature
  • Teaching Literature in School

Biography

I joined the University from Room to Read, India where I was working as a Programme Manager responsible for publishing children’s books in Indian Languages. As a manager of the Local Language Publishing team, I was assigned to organize and oversee the complete process of publishing children’s books for school libraries. These job responsibilities provided me with an opportunity to get firsthand experience of issues pertaining to reading and writing pedagogy and to understand the literariness of children literature. 

Before taking up a job in Room to Read I worked with a Jaipur-based NGO Digantar for approximately four years as an Associate Fellow where my primary responsibility was to coordinate a Certificate Programme in Foundations of Education. The programme was primarily designed to introduce the education functionaries to the foundational areas of education. While organizing this programme I facilitated sessions on Sociology of Education, Pedagogy of Language, and Curriculum Theories, etc. As an Associate Fellow of the academic unit of Digantar I also designed and conducted several in-service teacher training programmes.

During my tenure in Digantar I enrolled myself for a second master’s degree in elementary education in a dual-mode programme offered by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. I was awarded MA (Elementary Education) degree in 2011. 

Before moving to the development sector, I did MA in Hindi Literature in 1994 and M Phil in 1995 from the University of Delhi. Soon after submitting my MPhil dissertation on New Perspectives on Nationalist Discourse in 19th Century Hindi Literature, I got a job as a lecturer of Hindi in Bihar. I taught there in degree colleges and during that tenure also availed two deputations as visiting faculty. The first deputation was in Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi University, Wardha for three consecutive semesters where I designed and taught a course on Peace Studies (Ahimsa Adhyayan). The second deputation was with Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The ICCR deputed me in the Indology Department of Ghent University, Belgium for two consecutive academic years.

After working in university setup for almost a decade I decided to change the course and work for school education. With that intent, I joined Digantar, Jaipur in 2007 and working in the area of school education since then. 

Courses

Publications

Journal Articles, Edited Books and Reviews:

Conference Papers and Book Chapters: 

  • Ansari, H. & Kumar, M (2011). Preparing Teachers for Reflective Pedagogic Practices: Digantar’s Intervention in Teacher Professional Development. A Compilation of papers presented at National Seminar on Teacher Education. Published by Department of Elementary Education, Lady Shri Ram College of Women, Delhi. 

  • Kumar, M (2016). Postcolonial State, Agrarian Economy and Education in Bihar: Structure of Educational Aspiration and Reordering of a Stratified Society. A paper presented in Comparative Education Society of India annual conference at Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati from 19th to 21st November 2016.

  • Kumar, M (2017). Language of Textbook in Post NCF 2005 Educational Scenario: Comparative Analysis of Linguistic Registers of Two Chapters Containing Similar Content Taken from Two Textbooks. Comparative Education Society of India annual conference at Jammu University, Jammu from 16th ‑18th November 2017.

  • Kumar, M & Upadhyay, H. (2017). मानक भाषा का मुहाफ़िज़: नई भाषिक सत्ता-संरचना और स्कूली शिक्षा में भाषा शिक्षक की सत्ता. A paper presented in the seminar organised by School of Education, Azim Premji University in collaboration with Ambedkar University, Delhi in 2017 on the Idea of being a teacher. This is an annual seminar series organized by Translation Initiative Team in Hindi and Kannada 

Popular Press:

Writings for Children: