Vijitha Rajan
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Sociology of Childhood(s) and Education
- Childhood(s) in Global South
- Educational Inequalities
- Education and Social Justice
- Migration and Education
Biography
Prior to joining the university in 2020, Vijitha was a Senior Research Fellow at University of Delhi (2015−2020). In 2018 – 19, she was a Commonwealth scholar at School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, United Kingdom. Her doctoral research is on understanding educational exclusion of migrant children and foregrounds the discord between mobile childhoods and immobile schools in the Indian context.
Courses
Sociology of Education
How are the issues that surround education and its practices related to social processes?
Publications and Writings
Journal Articles
- Rajan, V. (forthcoming). ‘Muft ka chandan ghis mere Nandan’: migrant children and the narrative of ‘free’ and ‘open to all’ education in India. Economic and Political Weekly.
- Dyer, C., & Rajan, V. (2021). Left behind? Internally migrating children and the ontological crisis of formal education systems in South Asia. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 0(0), 1 – 18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2021.1907175
- Rajan, V. (2020). Issues and Policy Perspective: Educational Exclusion of Children of Distress Migrants in India. The Primary Teacher (NCERT), XLI (4), 5 – 13. https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/publication/journalsandperiodicals/theprimaryteacher/PT_Oct_2016.pdf
- Rajan, V. (2020). The Ontological Crisis of Schooling: Situating Migrant Childhoods and Educational Exclusion. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 0973184920948364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973184920948364
- Rajan, V. (2019). Gowramma’s Ghost and Bengaluru’s ‘Zero’ Out-of-school Children. Economic and Political Weekly, 54(40), 30 – 34. https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/40/insight/gowrammas-ghost-and-bengalurus-%E2%80%98zero%E2%80%99-out-school.html
- Rajan, V. (2018). Stolen Childhoods? : Observations on Education of Migrant Children. Economic and Political Weekly, 53(11), 24 – 27. https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/11/commentary/stolen-childhoods.html
- Rajan, V., Tiwari, A., Sharma, B & Kanwar, S. (2018). What does it Mean to Homeschool a Child? A narrative inquiry into the philosophies and experiences of two urban parents in the National Capital Region (NCR). MERI Journal of Education, 13 (2), 11 – 30. http://meri.edu.in/meri/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Other.pdf
- Rajan, V. (2015). Book Review: Inhabiting ‘childhood’: Children, labour and schooling in postcolonial India. Contemporary South Asia, 23(2), 223 – 224. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2015.1033955
Book Chapters
- Dyer, C., & Rajan, V. (2021). Educating South Asia’s internally migrating children. In R. Pappu & P. M. Sarangapani (Eds.), Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Springer. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811500312
Magazine Articles
- Rajan, V. (2020). Ethnography and Migrant Children: Perspectives and Challenges. NEOS: A Publication of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group, 12(1). http://acyig.americananthro.org/neos/neos-current-issue/
- Rajan, V. (2019). Educational Inequalities. Commonwealth Knowledge, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK, 8, 26 – 27. https://issuu.com/cscuk/docs/3566_common_knowledge_8_v13_low_for_website
Blog
- Rajan, V. (2017, April 8). What’s Wrong With Teachers’ Training & Classroom Education In India. Youth Ki Awaaz. https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/04/beyond-the-temporality-of-our-classrooms/