Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award

 Marina Basu (Doctoral Candidate, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University)

Marina Basu is a doctoral candidate at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University (ASU). She has a master’s degree in education and in philosophy from Louisiana State University. Basu’s research interests include Eastern philosophies, non-Western research and educational paradigms, arts-based research methods, and mathematics teacher education. Prior to joining ASU, she was a teacher at The Valley School-Krishnamurti Foundation India, Bangalore, for several years, and then a teacher educator at a private institution in Bangalore, India.

 

Abstract of “Krishnamurti’s Insights on Observation for Global Childhood Education and Research” (Basu, 2021)

Within the field of childhood research, there is a two-fold need to explore non-Western conceptualizations of childhood and to engage in inquiry through radically different philosophical paradigms. In this context, Basu aims to problematize “observation data” through the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, and through this, show a different conceptualization of childhood and a different possibility within childhood education and research. Observation is explained firstly, as it relates to practices of schooling and curriculum, secondly, as it orients to a certain quality of relationship between the teacher and the student, and thirdly, as it relates to understanding oneself. Pure observation from the Krishnamurti perspective nurtures relationships, and observation becomes not a means to gather data but an end in itself; observation that allows one to enter into an authentic relationship with the child, to be with the what is. In such a relationship, in pure observation, the self is absent, which holds enormous implications for subjecthood in research.

The paper is a chapter published in SAGE Handbook of Global Childhoods, which brings together contributions from leading and emerging scholars in the field. Basu’s paper contributes to the global conversation on research and conceptualization of childhoods by bringing in a non-Western perspective. Specifically, Basu integrates Jiddu Krishnamurti’s (1895-1986) philosophy with childhood studies to problematize Western conceptions of observation and to introduce the notion of pure observation. Pure observation from the Krishnamurtian perspective nurtures relationships, and observation becomes not a means to gather data but an end in itself; observation that allows one to enter into an authentic relationship with the child, to be with what is. In pure observation, the self is absent, which holds enormous implications for subjecthood in research. Overall, this paper includes an in-depth discussion of Krishnamurti’s philosophy that is strengthened through illustrative examples from practice, drawing from Basu’s experiences as a teacher in a Krishnamurti school in India.

 

Alankrita Chhikara (Purdue University)

Alankrita Chhikara is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum Studies at Purdue University. She earned her M.A. in Educational Leadership and Societal Change from Soka University of America (SUA), California, M.A. in English Literature from Amity University, India, and B.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences from SUA. Alankrita’s research is theoretically framed by the educational philosophies of Daisaku Ikeda (1928-) and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944). Ikeda’s core educational philosophy is ningen kyōiku, or “human education” (Goulah, 2021b; Ikeda, 2021). According to Goulah, this philosophy is a secular manifestation of Ikeda’s Buddhist worldview—for Ikeda, both Buddhism and human education seek to develop our humanity. Alankrita is a uniquely qualified and justice-minded scholar whose dissertation work weaves personal experience, narrative inquiry, and theoretical reasoning into an inquiry project around fostering global citizenship. Her work centers on understanding how international students from South-Asia develop identities to be advocates/activists for global change from a Buddhist-humanist lens. Past research focuses on global citizenship cultivation among Global North students, yet we are aware that South-Asian student activists are a population that hold promise for addressing issues related to Alankrita’s work around global citizenship for equitable education, dignity, and opportunities for minorities, and immigrants.

Abstract of “A Buddhist-humanist exploration of global citizenship within various spaces and places” published via the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 34(10), 965-973. http://doi.org.10.1080/09518398.2021.1956626.

“In this autoethnographic study, I negotiate my identity as a mixed-caste South Asian woman, drawing on a Buddhist-humanist spiritual approach to examine the development of global citizen identity. The non-Western perspective of global citizenship discussed in the paper, challenges the mono-epistemological version of research produced in the English-speaking world. I discuss three experiences in my life that correspond to the cultivation of the tenets of global citizenship namely wisdom, courage, compassion as articulated by Ikeda. This paper offers a practical and experiential example of applying a non-dominant global citizenship approach and seeks to institutionalize the field as a discourse in the pursuit of global peace, social justice, and universal human rights.”