ABSTRACT
In India, teacher training tends to be implemented on a theory-based approach to pedagogy, therefore leading to poor outcomes in the classroom and student engagement. Teacher education programs exist in isolated form, and a major problem facing teacher education programs in India is the divorce between theoretical training and practical application in classrooms. Discourses around the “common good” are defined by systems of exclusion, and such oppression is realized when a large segment of the urban poor come to understand that they merely remain at the margins of these conversations. To become a player in the race, alternative avenues are sought out to acquire presumed forms of capital. With the vision to “take matters into their own hands,” the Aseem program in the urban poor slums of Mumbai, illustrates a counter-narrative to national teacher training policies in India. This program is a community-based model that elucidates the value of training local community members to become the educators in schools for destitute children.
