CCYSC Awaaz

Seran Demiral interviews Spyros Spyrou one more time shifting the conversation this time from the politics of childhood to the challenges and opportunities of participation practices. While Demiral questions possibilities of researching with children and the potential of their becoming primary researchers, Spyrou brings in critical perspectives on methodology in childhood studies related to access to participation, the diverse capabilities of research subjects and the different ways through which to reveal their experiences. This conversation about the role of method in research with children explores the intricacies of listening to children’s voices and ways of addressing the limitations of verbal communication.

In this episode, Marina Cartier interviews Dr Clémentine Beauvais about translation and childhood studies. The discussion is about Dr Clémentine Beauvais' research on the educational use of translation in the classroom through literary translation workshops. Dr Clémentine Beauvais explains to us the principles and organisation of this workshop and her particular interest and focuses on literary and aesthetic skills that emerge during these literary translation exercises. She also shares what are the data and findings of her research. The conversation also addresses what is translation and the specificities of the translation for children and its theorization in the academic field.

Dr Clémentine Beauvais is a senior lecturer in education at the University of York. Her research interests are childhood studies, translation in education, creative writing, and particularly children’s literature. She is also a Children’s book author and translator from English to French

Marina Cartier is a PhD student at the University of York in the Department of Education. Her research subject is about the children’s responses to translated humorous picturebooks.

This episode was edited by Riya Kwattra

In India, as with many other nations, sexuality education is fairly limited. As a result, many individuals are left with a lot of unanswered questions which cause problems once they mature and become sexually active. So, in this episode of CCYSC Awaaz, Ayushi Misra, a masters student at Ambedkar University Delhi, and Ramya Anand, a senior  manager at TARSHI, discuss the importance of providing a comprehensive sexuality education to children and young adults.

TARSHI is a Delhi-based non-government organization that supports and enables people's control and agency over their sexual and reproductive health and well-being through information dissemination, knowledge and perspective building, within a human rights framework.

Ayushi is pursuing a Masters in Education from Ambedkar University Delhi. She is currently invested in understanding adolescent psychology with a special  focus on curriculum design, sexuality education, and inclusive education for the mentally disabled.

Edited by Veda Gopala (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

Yamila Rodríguez and Seran Demiral interview Basia Vucic on children's literature, democratic education and how the child impacts and changes the political circumstances around for the final episode of this series* through a frame of Janusz Korczak's famous novel for children: King Matt the First. On the one hand, the conversation investigates the functions of literature and Korczak's developing strategies as a fiction writer in addition to being an educator and child rights defender; on the other hand, Vucic, Rodríguez and Demiral try to understand children's positioning in society by playing games and "propagating" their stories to re-make the politics throughout history. 

According to an ancient pre-Socratic quote, "Time is a child playing, moving pessoi (pieces). The Kingdom belongs to the child." This episode, The Kingdom is a Game, is an initiative to give the child credit for reconstructing society.

This podcast features a conversation with Dr Peggy Froerer (Reader, Anthropology) and Dr Gunjan Wadhwa (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Education), Brunel University London. It discusses Dr Froerer's work with the historically marginalised Adivasi communities in rural parts of Central India (Chhattisgarh) with a particular focus on young people's engagements with education and its entanglements with work and livelihoods. Dr Froerer critically highlights the continuities and tensions between the global discourses of development and modernity and the local lived realities of the Adivasis, and the impacts of this on young people's aspirations. The conversation brings out the methodological and theoretical challenges of doing research in rural contexts, working with marginalised social groups and undoing the dominant frameworks. Dr Froerer emphasises paying attention to the context to understand intersections of religion, ethnicity and gender in relation to her work, along with the work of the state in the current socio-political conditions.​

This podcast features a conversation with Dr Peggy Froerer (Reader, Anthropology) and Dr Gunjan Wadhwa (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Education), Brunel University London. It discusses Dr Froerer's work with the historically marginalised Adivasi communities in rural parts of Central India (Chhattisgarh) with a particular focus on young people's engagements with education and its entanglements with work and livelihoods. Dr Froerer critically highlights the continuities and tensions between the global discourses of development and modernity and the local lived realities of the Adivasis, and the impacts of this on young people's aspirations. The conversation brings out the methodological and theoretical challenges of doing research in rural contexts, working with marginalised social groups and undoing the dominant frameworks. Dr Froerer emphasises paying attention to the context to understand intersections of religion, ethnicity and gender in relation to her work, along with the work of the state in the current socio-political conditions.​

Girls’ voices are often neglected or disregarded, but a girl child’s voice needs to be heard too and we need to give an ear to the messages that her chattering sound waves produce. Today we will be listening to the suffering of a girl child as double marginalised being a disable as well through the perspective of Alice Walker’s idea of womanism.

!Trigger Warning! This episode contains mentions of child sexual abuse between 25:18-25:39.

This 25th episode of CCYSC Awaaz is a tribute to the fearless activism and extraordinary life of Kamla Bhasin, poet, story teller, feminist, activist, and a pioneer in many endeavours. The interview follows Simran, a student pursuing her masters degree in education at Ambedkar University Delhi, in conversation with Kamla Bhasin as they discuss her journey towards writing, her books, what goes into the process of writing them, their significance and the impact of patriarchy on young children. 

Kamla Bhasin was an eminent South-Asian feminist activist, poet and author. She was the founder and advisor to Sangat - A Feminist Network and she was also the South Asia coordinator of the One Billion Rising movement. She has authored multiple books including the popular children's book Satrangi Ladke aur Ladkiya, that celebrates the diversity and individuality of boys and girls, Laughing Matters, Feminism & Its Relevance in South Asia, Borders & Boundaries: Women in India's Partition, Understanding Gender, What Is Patriarchy etc. Several books and booklets on understanding patriarchy and gender which she authored have been translated into nearly 30 languages and are read all across the world.

Simran Varma is a writer and editor, who specializes in the field of education and history. She recently finished editing her first book, Crowdfunding: The Story of People. Prior to this, she has worked as a Gandhi Fellow in Mumbai - providing support to municipal school stakeholders. In her free time, she writes about gender and politics.

Edited by Veda Gopala (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

Music:  Little Idea by Scott Holmes (scottholmesmusic.com) / CC BY-NC

In the second episode of the series with Basia Vucic about education and childhood, Yamila Rodríguez and Seran Demiral revisit child-centered approaches within a critical perspective by pointing out Janusz Korczak's experience with Polish children in between two wars through an experiment of building a democratic community. Basia both reveals the differences underlying between Korczak pedagogy and social psychologists, like Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, and explained a unique concept Praeternatural Pedagogy to underline children being as little scientists, thinkers, and human subjects as well. 

Basia Vucic is an expert on the philosophy of education -and especially on JK educational philosophy- from UCL, London (UK). Invited as a 2019 visiting fellow to the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair at the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw, the scope of her research at UCL includes the hidden history of the child rights movement, political theory, and democratic education

Yamila Rodríguez, Lawyer & Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Law, University of Buenos Aires, researches the extension of the international obligation of the state to ensure children's rights to participation and access to justice in the criminal justice system, focusing on children who are victims and witnesses of crimes with her academic training and career as a civil servant at a Criminal Court in Buenos Aires, where she worked for over ten years.

Seran Demiral, Ph.D. in Sociology at Mimar Sinan University, has studied the subjectivity of children through their interaction with digital technologies. She is interested in changing childhood experiences within online environments and teaches digital childhoods, children's literature, creative writing, and sociology at various universities as a part-time lecturer. 

Edited by Nipunika Sachdeva

In the first episode of this series, Yamila Rodríguez and Seran Demiral speak with Basia Vucic, who is an expert on the philosophy of education -and especially on JK educational philosophy- from UCL, London (UK) about the good or evil nature of the child in the history of childhood and its relation with criminological theories and educational approaches.

Yamila Rodríguez, Lawyer & PhD Scholar, Department of Law, University of Buenos Aires, researches the extension of the international obligation of the state to ensure children's rights to participation and access to justice in the criminal justice system, focusing on children who are victims and witnesses of crimes with her academic training and career as a civil servant at a Criminal Court in Buenos Aires, where she worked for over ten years. 

Seran Demiral, PhD in Sociology at Mimar Sinan University, has studied the subjectivity of children through their interaction with digital technologies. She is interested in changing childhood experiences within online environments and teaches digital childhoods, children's literature, creative writing and sociology at various universities as a part-time lecturer.

Edited by Nipunika Sachdeva

In this episode of CCYSC Awaaz, Pooja Agarwal discusses the experiences and work of Savitha Suresh Babu, Kirana Kumari, Pavitra and Nanjundaswamy at Baduku Centre for Livelihoods Learning, Samvada, Bengaluru. The college offers short term courses on socially critical domains such as education, journalism, sustainable development, and justice. 

Savitha Suresh Babu works as a faculty member at Baduku Centre for Livelihoods Learning; currently working with the centre for transformative education, co-convening a course called 'Learner Lecturer: an online course for the transformative educator' meant for college lecturers, to sharpen their understanding of higher education, as also sharpen their teaching skills. Previously she has co-convened a course called Hita (roughly translates from Kannada as comfort): a course in basic counselling, offered in the evenings for working professionals. 

Kirana Kumari is currently the Principal of Baduku Community College. For several years now, she worked as the convenor of the Center for Wellness and Justice. Before joining Samvada, she worked in Odanadi Seva Trust between 2000-2001. She worked with the MHRD Education Department Mahila Samakhya Karnataka between 1989 and 1999.  In Samvada, since November 2001, Kirana has played a range of roles including that of a Youth Work Resource Center Convenor, Convenor, Center for Wellness and Justice, Baduku Community College. Passionate about social justice and equity, she is part of several people’s movements that work with anti-caste and feminist ideologies, and for communal harmony. 

Pavitra and Nanjundswamy alumni are involved with a Counseling Course on Facilitating Women's Wellness and Justice, and sustainable organic farming respectively. 

Hosted and edited by Pooja Agarwal, MA Education, Ambedkar University Delhi. 

In this episode of CCYSC Awaaz, Dr Anandini Dar, Assistant Professor, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi and Dr Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan, senior lecturer at Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London talk about youth, cities and the global discussing Dr Gabriel's recently published book The Globally Familiar: Digital Hip Hop, Masculinity, and Urban Space in Delhi. 

Edited by Nipunika Sachdeva

In this episode of CCYSC Awaaz, Dr John Wall and Dr Tanu Biswas discuss the history of childism, and how insights from the global south enrich childist thinking. Dr Wall and Dr Biswas talk about their personal and scholarly journeys, research, how childism relates to other ‘isms’ such as feminism and post-colonialism, as well as its close affinity to decolonial sensibilities. 

In this tenth episode, Dr. Catriona Ellis and Dr. Akash Bhattacharya discuss the history of education in India. Dr. Ellis and Dr. Bhattacharya talk about their research, the challenges and sources that can be used in studying the history of education, and potential directions for future research.

Dr. Catriona Ellis teaches at the University of Strathclyde in the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare. Her recent publications include “Climbing the Coconut Tree: Three South Indians Use Their Personal Memories of Colonial Education to Influence the Decolonisation of Education after Independence” in Decolonization(s) and Education: New Polities and New Men, edited by Daniel Maul and Marcelo Caruso (New York: Peter Lang, 2020) and “History of Colonial Education: Key Reflections” in Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia, edited by Padma M. Sarangapani and Rekha Pappu (New York: Springer, 2020).

Dr. Akash Bhattacharya teaches at the School of Education at Azim Premji University. He works on a range of topics, including the history of education and pedagogy in colonial India and colonial vernacular literature and the politics of modern history writing.

Edited by Sanjana Chopra (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

In this episode, Dr. Sylvia Nissen and Dr. Ritodhi Chakraborty discuss youth politics and activism and labor as well as rural transformation and cultural anxiety in India and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sylvia Nissen is an assistant professor of environmental policy at Lincoln University (New Zealand). Her research explores the politics of young people’s participation in social and environmental issues. She is the author of Student Debt and Political Participation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Student Political Action in New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2019).

Ritodhi Chakraborty is a postdoctoral fellow at Lincoln University (New Zealand). His research interests include working with grassroots climate change adaptation initiatives, ecosystem services, social-ecological systems research and masculinity/gender subjectivities, especially in the Himalayan region (India, Bhutan, China).

Edited by Pooja Agarwal (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi).

Tune into the seventh episode of the CCYSC AWAAZ with Sushri Sangita Puhan and Dr. Elizabeth Dillenburg as they discuss Sushri's ground-breaking work on adoptive family practice and display in India.  In this episode, Sushri shares stories from working in the field and reflects on the challenges of working on adoption in India.

Sushri Sangita Puhan is a child rights practitioner and a Chevening & Chancellor's scholar and doctoral researcher in social work at the University of Sussex.

Dr. Elizabeth Dillenburg is assistant professor of history at the Ohio State University at Newark. Her research focuses on histories of childhood, gender, and colonialism.

Edited by Sanjana Chopra (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

Tune into the 6th episode of the CCYSC AWAAZ with Dr. Heidi Morrison and Dr. Divya Kannan as they discuss Dr. Morrison's research on the history of childhood in the Middle East and the evolution of the field of the history of childhood and future directions of research.

Dr. Heidi Morrison is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and is founding president of the Association for Middle East Children and Youth Studies (AMECYS). She is visiting senior Research Fellow at Tampere University's Center for Excellence in the History of Experience. She is author of Childhood and Colonial Modernity in Egypt and the editor of The Global History of Childhood Reader. She is working on a book, Surviving Memory in Palestine: Narration, Trauma, and Children of the Second Intifada.

Dr. Divya Kannan is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Shiv Nadar University. Her areas of interest include histories of childhood and education, colonialism and empire, oral histories, curriculum and feminist studies.

Edited by Sanjana Chopra (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

Tune into the 5th episode of the CCYSC AWAAZ with Dr. Maithreyi R in conversation with Dr. Vidya Subramanian as they discuss the former’s research on low-cost schooling in Bihar, her experience of observing life skills education programs, and disciplinary frameworks.

Dr. Maithreyi R is a Senior Adolescent research Consultant at Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bangalore.

Dr. Vidya Subramanian is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Education, Innovation and Action Research, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Edited by Pooja Agarwal (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

In the third episode of CCYSC Awaaz, Annie McCarthy and Vijitha Rajan discuss their research revolving around marginalised children in the urban spaces of Delhi and Bangalore respectively.

Vijitha Rajan is senior research fellow at the University of Delhi. Her current doctoral research attempts to understand migrant children's experiences of childhood and education in urban spaces. Her interests include sociology of education, educational exclusion, education and social justice, teacher identities, and alternative schooling. 

Dr. Annie McCarthy is Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of Canberra. Her research interests include childhood, development, narrative, temporality, and India.

Edited by Sanjana Chopra (student, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi)

The conveners of the CCYSC - Dr Anandini Dar and Dr Divya Kannan - talk about their research interests, the formation of the collective, the vision behind it, and the way forward.

Anandini Dar is Assistant Professor at the School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. Her areas of interest include childhood and youth, geographies, migration and diasporas, feminist pedagogy, ethnography and research methods for young subjects.
Divya Kannan is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Shiv Nadar University. Her areas of interest include histories of childhood and education, colonialism and empire, oral histories, curriculum and feminist studies.