Respect for all: A village in India

This activity was used with children in key stage 2, year 6.

Context

Does this material give a balanced view of modern India?

Aims

• To promote understanding of the concept that there are differences within countries as well as between countries.
• To encourage challenging stereotypes and to develop respect for different cultures.

Activity objectives

• To develop geographical enquiry skills, for example questioning why places are like they are, rather than accepting them as they are presented.
• To learn about the diversity of India, including the great differences in wealth and poverty within the country, and to understand some of the reasons for these differences.
• To use resources critically.

This activity uses a locality study (6b and 3a-g of the programme of study) as the starting point for a more critical look at ways in which images of places are formed, giving particular attention to:

• sources of information (2d);
• different views and opinions (1d);
• audience (1e).

This activity was adapted from the key stage 2 scheme of work unit 10 'A village in India'.

Activity description

The teacher described the objectives of the work and introduced the question that the children would be expected to answer at the end of the activity: 'Does the DfES/QCA unit on India present a balanced image of India today?'

The children brainstormed what they already knew about India and wrote their ideas on large pieces of paper using marker pen. After the brainstorm session, the written results were displayed on a classroom wall and remained there throughout the project.

The class worked through the unit on the village of Chembakolli (as outlined in the DfES/QCA materials). At the end of each lesson they referred back to their brainstorm findings to see whether the information in the unit confirmed, challenged or extended their preconceptions.

The children were then presented with materials about the diversity of India, showing the wealth of 'Bollywood', the multimillionaires of the Indian film industry, the town of Bangalore and high-tech factories.

The teacher asked the children to decide how accurate their brainstorm had been and how accurate a picture of India the unit of work presented.

Commentary

The children responded well to the challenge of critically appraising a published unit of work. They marked their ideas from the brainstorm in different colours to highlight items that the unit content confirmed or challenged. Then they used this list of ideas to consider how and where they had gained their images of India and whether they should question the accuracy of their own preconceptions.

Exposure to the images of high-tech and wealthy India caused many pupils to reflect more deeply. They commented, for example, that the unit 'only showed one village' and that 'it would be like saying the whole of England was all like this area' (dense urban housing). In discussion, the class agreed that much depended on how the teacher used the village case study, whether as an isolated example or by placing it in the wider context of Indian life.

Resources

The geography schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net