Page 52 - Education World September 2021

Teacher-2-Teacher

Historical thinking the

PRAJNATA way

GITANJALI SURENDRAN

ESPITE POLITICIANS ENDLESSLY DEBATING History teaching and thinking with
the rights and wrongs of history and the country’s
towns and cities hosting large numbers of monu- history is profoundly connected to our
Dments of historical importance, India’s education sense of identity, practices of citizenship
institutions don’t encourage historical thinking.
Historical thinking or thinking with history mandates and social harmony. It will help students
a sense of time and change over time. Second, it requires make sense of these difficult times
careful understanding of context and putting ourselves in
the shoes of historical actors. Third, it requires teachers
to present evidence for our propositions or arguments and will give them a taste of material historians use to construct
to carefully examine it. Conversely, thinking with history their stories. Ask them to think about presence and absence
prompts — or should prompt — scholars to ask for evidence in archives to promote critical thinking.
in support of a proposition, argument or theory. Fourth, The therapeutic effects of journaling (‘J’ in PRAJNATA)
historical thinking requires teachers and students to be are well-documented. Asking students to maintain journals,
open to counter arguments and weigh different perspectives written or recorded, helps develop archival thinking. To get
on a given issue. Therefore, historical thinking necessitates them started, you could read excerpts from journals of Win-
critical thinking. ston Churchill, Bhagat Singh or Zahiruddin Babur.
The Internet is flooded with interesting advice and guid- ‘N’ denotes native languages and local resources. Our
ance on online class planning. The Union government’s ad- largely north India-centric teaching of history has resulted
vice to teachers is to follow the PRAGYATA scheme (see in students often querying why the north-east or peninsular
www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/pr- India don’t figure in prescribed history texts. Languages
agyata-guidelines_0.pdf), i.e, plan, review, arrange, guide, are also important subjects of history and resource for un-
yak/talk, assign, track, appreciate. Based on my experi- derstanding it. Why not ask students to present a history
ence of online history teaching this past year and earlier, I of their region or work on the history of their languages?
recommend PRAJNATA — an acronym for play, repartee, he second ‘A’, in the PRAJNATA pedagogy is for access.
archive, journal, native, access, teamwork and aesthetics. TThough access to diverse technologies is very uneven,
One of the most underrated aspects of learning in class- experts recommend WhatsApp and messaging apps to serve
rooms is play. The rewards for students of all ages flow- as discussion forums to supplement synchronous or asyn-
ing from playful tones, playful activities and story-telling chronous learning activities surrounding the curriculum.
in classrooms are bountiful. The study of history is a seri- Students above 12 years can be asked to do Instagram, Face-
ous matter, but the material lends itself well to storytelling book and Twitter projects with clear guidelines and close
possibilities and play. For example, why not use the short teacher-led supervision. We have to use whatever technol-
stories of Saadat Hasan Manto to teach about the parti- ogy is available to keep learning going in these hard times.
tion of India? Or taking a leaf out of Turkish writer Orhan ‘T’ is for teamwork. Class sizes tend to be large. There-
Pamuk’s celebrated novel My Name is Red, ask students fore, I recommend breaking up the class into smaller groups
to write their own fictional pieces from the perspective of for project work. This will help them academically and so-
different elements in a Mughal painting like the emperor, cially, and allay the fear of isolation.
throne, war elephant, a tree, courtier etc. Finally, we tend to overlook the importance of aesthetic
‘R’ in PRAJNATA stands for repartee which translates education whose traditional media like song, dance and
to comfortable and inclusive dialogue with our students. theatre have taken a big hit this past year. Education of the
Classrooms should be safe spaces for children to air diver- senses, history, and nature can converge in classrooms as
gent opinions including ones we don’t agree with, subject practiced by Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan several
to their being expressed without rude or foul language. We decades ago. History as a discipline can provide students
could call on them to read a passage aloud, prepare a state- tools for aesthetic and environmental exploration. Ask them
ment on a subject or issue or enact a historical figure. In to pen the history of an indigenous art form or collect lo-
synchronous or asynchronous teaching-learning, getting cal folklore about particular trees and plants, for example.
students to speak up potentially sets the stage for greater As I have written before on the pages of this publication,
participation in the future. history teaching and thinking with history is profoundly
Archives are central to the study of history. To nurture connected to our sense of identity, practices of citizenship
archival minds students should collect newspaper clip- and social harmony. Historical thinking will help our stu-
pings, images and artifacts that represent their particular dents make sense of these difficult times.
moment in history. Discussing primary sources like a media (JNU, Oxford and Harvard alumna Dr. Gitanjali Surendran is associ-
clipping from August 15, 1947 or Gandhi’s letter to Hitler, ate professor of history at the Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat)

52 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021