As part of the NmInTheSouthPacific, a look at Pedagogy, Usability and New Media as it relates to Hindu Culture in the South Pacific.

Bisun Deo: Hindu is Difft

from Bisun Deo and Rama Devchand. Traditional education, knowledge and values of hindus, Chapter 9 of Educational ideas from Oceania : selected readings / edited by Konai Helu Thaman. (Suva, Fiji) : Institute of Education in association with the UNESCO Chair of Teacher Education and Culture, The University of the South Pacific , (2003)

Closed and Open Knowledge

• four classes with specific divisions of knowledge
• although this selective imparting of knowledge is shared with many South Pacific Cultures, rather than being class divisions, the pacific approach to division (NmKiribati, NmSolomons) is different
  • "insiders" and "outsiders"
  • gender-based
  • role-based
• In fact, Pacific approach helps to make the community more cohesive

Interpretive Knowledge (p. 99)

Many Hindu types of knowledge are interpretive, abstract, as opposed to the Pacific contextual, active knowledge

• Khyati: through awareness of the general relations of objects presented to the senses
• Anumaana: through inference, logic and reasoning
• Upamaana: through analogy

Active Learning

• knowledge transmission is integrated into many ceremonies, songs, stories, survival ability, farming etc.
• so, this aspect of learning seems to be shared with Pacific learning methods

Communal Knowledge

• Izzat "a concept embracing self-respect, self-pride, honour, dignity and status" (p. 100) would seem to accent individual acheivement

Aversion to questioning Authority

• respect/defference to elders is important, but "Questions that indicate a desire to know or to understand the principle(s) behind a particular act are seen as a sign of intelligence, and are welcome." (p. 102)

Time

• "People are considered important but, according to Hindu culture, time-keeping is equally important....The priests prescribe the ceremony dates and time of weddings and they are followed strictly."
• ''Anushasan"": "One must keep the time limits of everything: study, play, work, rest, eating and worship." (p. 101)
• this in sharp contrast to Fijian notions of time and the importance of relationships (NmFiji)

Summary

While I am finding many parallels between different South Pacific Countries

• Aversion to Questioning Authority
• Communal Knowledge
• Open/ Closed knowledge
• Active Learning/ learn by do
• Context vs. Abstract

Hindu culture stands separate on many aspects

• less aversion to Questioning Authority
• more individualism
• open/closed knowledge is caste-based rather than community-based (a divider rather than a unifier?)
• in addition to active learning, there are many more abstract knowledge-types
• it seems that while the motives are different, the end result is that Hindu learners would share more traits with Western cultures

Bisun Deo: followup

notes from an interview July 29, 2003, with Bisun Deo concerning learning styles for Indians in Fiji

Bisun's Background

• grew up in Labasa, in a village next to airport, mostly Indian
• parents never went to school: "didn't know how to write 1,2,3, or a,b,c but very intersted in seeing us go to school"
• "what drives them is working to get out of misery"
• learned in both traditional as well as formal settings
• his children are attending a Christian school not because of religion but because they don't know Hindi

Religion and Learning Styles

"The reason Indians do well in Education is because they have a God for education!" (Saraswati) Indians in Fiji are not all Hindu:

• Moslems
• Gujurat
• Punjabi
• Sikhs
• South Indians

Common Traits

• respect for authority is a shared trait amongst all the religions and regions represented in Fiji
• fear of shame: "If you fail, you bring shame not only on you but also on your family. Shame is a driving force"
• "Christianity often deconsturcts too ('there are five reasons this person behaved this way...'"

Differences

• "Hinduism is more complex than Islam, etc. Punjab, Islam is more direct. Hinduism is more like a government system. God is the prime minister, and there are different ministries"

Importance of Education

• "Fijians have land to go back to if they fail, but for Indians education is the only "way out." People think that if you invest in education, no-one can take it away from you"
• "history of indentured servants push education as well, as people don't want their children to have to do that"

Relationships

• relationships very important across both cultures

Interpretive Knowledge

• see note in previous Bisun Deo section
• although there may not be terms for such abstract forms of learning in Fijian that exist in Hindi, the same processes are evident across both cultures
• • Khyati: through awareness of the general relations of objects presented to the senses
  • Anumaana: through inference, logic and reasoning
  • Upamaana: through analogy
• "there is very little difference between the cultures" (in this regard)
• "Indians don't take things at face value" "Hindu belief is you don't make decisions based on flimsy information; you must interpret, deconstruct..." but lecturers are sometimes "frustrated with some Indians who are not able to put things in fresh contexts."
• "we can look at things in a component and then look at it holistically as well. In the Hindu scheme, everything has meaning, and nothing remains unexplained"

Aversion to Questioning Authority

|--west-------Indians----------Fijians--|

|--many questions------fewer questions--|

• Indians more likely to ask questions, but only after listening
  • "in Hinduism we expect people to be good listeners. And only if you are a good listener can you ask relevant questions, questions that are important"
  • "lots of times, people are afraid of asking questions because it exposes their ignorance"
• Fijians usually refrain from questioning authority figures regardless. However, this is cultural rather than biological
  • "There are Fijians who have grown up in Indian communities, so they act like Indians" (in this respect)

Peer Learning/ Group Learning

Indians

• "Indians don't take things at face value" and it is OK to find this out from peers
• history of Indian Challenge Songs shows that even competitive questioning is OK between peers
• "Indians are very individualistic. At home we will do things individually. Many times students study alone"
• able to adjust to group learning: "when people go harvesting sugar cane they do it in a group"

Cross-culture Frustration with Group learning

• "in group learning there can be a lot of frustration"
  • picking up the slack for others
  • being held back by others in the group
  • feeling "used" by others who don't work as hard
  • "I'd rather hand this in myself"

Authorities within peer groups

• older students, in-service students can often intimidate other students because they are seen as being more experienced, and serve as a proxy authority figure in front of which they do not want to be shamed

Effect of living setting on group learning

• in the village, Indians are often isolated. Have no-one to ask, so must ask the next mornign at school.
• "Students who stay in school hostels are more likely to study in groups than students who study from home, because in the evening they must do things alone."
• many more Fijians in school Hostels because there are fewer secondary schools in the interior, which is mostly populated by Fijians. As Indian villages are generally closer to urban setting, they are more likely to have secondary schools, and so have less epxerience with group learning in a formal setting

Formal vs Informal

• "lots of ideas are the same (in formal and informal settings), just different terms"
• "if you have only academic knowledge, you are not considered educated, not refined, not a whole person"
• "people may be very critical of pure bookish knowledge"
• "too much academic credentials can make us misfits in our own societies"
• "growing up we don't involve ourselves in group learning in a formal learning situation"

Active Learning

• informal learning is active learning
• in a formal setting, "students are happier if they are doing something"
• "they are not students of our generation, where they sit down and listen. I think things have changed now; they want to explore, cut and paste"
• "no need for lecture; we can find out ourselves" but trust less what they find on their own than "from the horse's mouth"
• "it has to do with how comfortable students are with technology and libraries"

Active Learning on the computer

• must be interactive to be active "if the computer directs, this is active learning. Go here, answer this. If it is just filling in forms it is not active."
• Prodding: "give opportunities to think: after an answer 'have you thought about this? have you thought about this? now discuss with a friend'"

Closed/ Open Knowledge

• closed knowledge is supernatural: like Melanesian "dangerous black magic that can hurt people"
• different from Pacific in that division of knowledge is not based on clans, but on religion
• traditionally, there is no movement of knowledge between classes, no barter: "Not like Kiribati" (see NmKiribati)
• now brahmin can become priests, so class is less of an issue
• "some of this closed knowledge is very important, and if it is not passed on it could be lost forever"