ABSTRACT
This chapter examines variations in students’ responses and their views on the social problems they encounter. The patterns that is being set in the students’ responses are more varied across the educational institutions than disciplinary training or academic culture. Only 40% of the students explained the causes of social problems after contextualizing them in the larger social structure. The students from the social science background appeared to be more critical towards social issues, contextualizing social problems in the larger social context. The field study was conducted in higher educational institutions located in the two northern Indian states namely Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Knowledge for critical learning which is imaginative, sensitive, in-depth and, socially responsible but less popular, and is advocated by humanities and social science education. Practitioners of the scientific knowledge system lack humanitarian sympathies. Common sense knowledge is different from other forms of disciplinary knowledge.
