"Dhyaan": Caring Pedagogy and the Enactment of Inclusive Education in India

Overview & Synopsis

The lack of clarity within inclusive education is compounded by the ways in which inclusive education reforms circulated from Global North countries to the Global South. Scholars call for contextually and culturally relevant conceptualizations of inclusive education in the Global South. I present a pedagogical approach to inclusive education developed with 22 female teachers in India through 78 interviews and 75 classroom observations, developed through ethnographic case studies of two school-NGO partnerships in Muslim-majority schools. The Hindi term "dhyaan," which translates to care or attention, was identified through teacher interviews as a metaphor for teachers' inclusive practices. Conceptualizing "dhyaan" as a culturally sustaining concept, I demonstrate how teachers practice care and how they reckon with the normative tendencies of inclusive education. Drawing on disability studies and ethics of care, I offer grounded understandings of care and disability in the enactment of inclusive education in India.