An Analytical Study of Teachers’ Insights on the Integration of Ethnocultural Perspectives in Indian Education

Abstract

The study was being undertaken among secondary school teachers regarding their perception of ethnocultural inclusion with special focus on inclusive pedagogy and cultural responsiveness. As India is a diverse socio-cultural country, the research focused on how teachers in an educational setting use cultural symbols and communal knowledge as part of their teaching in a homogeneous classroom environment. A descriptive survey design has been employed, and data collected on 168 teachers working in government and private schools of Patna district, Bihar. The cohort of participants was ethnically diverse and covered the fields of gender, school system, and subject area. The Perception Scale on Ethnocultural Practices (PSEP), a researcher-designed scale with 18 items that are structured into three dimensions – Understanding of Ethnocultural Perspective, Perception of Pedagogical Approaches, and Personal Engagement with Ethnocultural Perspectives – was utilized. An acceptable reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.755) was produced by estimates of internal consistency. The results of the analysis showed significant disparities in ethnocultural perception with gender, type of school, and stream of teaching. In such a way, the study focuses on the necessity of special programmes of professional development, curriculum reform, and culturally relevant teacher education in order to reduce perception deficits and foster fair educational settings. The potential of integrating the ethnocultural views is especially strong concerning inclusive schooling that is identity-affirming, especially among students who belong to historically marginalized populations. These results have policy, teacher-training, and teaching-curriculum implications in the pluralistic setting in education