Abstract: This paper is part of Tirthankar’s doctoral research project “The ‘Self’ in Classrooms: Exploring Identities through Narratives from Teaching of Social Sciences”, which analyses narratives and discourse from unconstrained socio-political discussions. For fieldwork, the researcher conducted a 15-month autoethnography in an underprivileged community of southwest Delhi, where one taught social science to a group of secondary grade students in a government school and an after-school learning centre. This paper enquires into the role of internal migration in challenging the aims of citizenship and identity formation in the context of school education, particularly for adolescents in rapidly urbanising settings like metro cities of India. Using a framework inclusive of ethnography, reflexive social science pedagogy and “insider research”, the study utilised data from observations, teaching and other interactions, as well as focus group discussions as part of the cornerstone reflection and data collection framework. Findings reveal that for students navigating the lived experiences of internal migration to metro cities like Delhi in the Indian context, the disparity in students' lifeworlds – manifesting in choices of food and apparel, access to public spaces, among others – critically shapes their self-perceptions of their social identity.
About the speaker: Tirthankar is a Doctoral scholar in the education programme at the School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. Before joining the PhD program at NIAS, Tirthankar had gained valuable experience for more than six years in the education sector as a teacher, researcher, curriculum developer, and program design leader in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and for nationwide education technology platforms. He has worked with government functionaries and early-stage social entrepreneurs as well, contributing to developing innovative educational initiatives.