ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards Adivasi students in primary school and their effect on children’s classroom engagement. Based on more than 25 years of observations of classroom processes and discussions with teachers, I look at what a standard language learning classroom looks like to the Adivasi child, what she brings to it, and what she gets from it. In the context of the fact that Adivasi children routinely perform poorly on achievement tests, it is seen that the dynamics at play here have serious consequences. After analysing these dynamics, I draw some conclusions with implications for policy and practice.
