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Prof. Amita Gupta v SAV.

Professor Gupta lectured at the Institute for Research in Social Communication of the SAS

11. 6. 2019 | 1048 visits
On June 10, 2019, Professor Amita Gupta from the City College of New York, USA, visited the Institute for Research in Social Communication of SAS. Professor Gupta collaborates with the Institute's Center for Research in Education and has led a seminar titled Pedagogical hybridity: Practicing within a postcolonial third space in early childhood classrooms as well as in teacher education classrooms.

Amita Gupta is Professor of Early Childhood and Chair of the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture at City College of New York. Dr. Gupta has been in the field of early education for thirty years and has extensive cross-cultural experience with school administration, teacher education, and classroom teaching in urban schools in both India and the U.S.

Dr. Gupta’s research interests are interdisciplinary and draw upon the fields of history, philosophy and sociology of education; postcolonial theory; urban education; international and comparative education; and early childhood teacher education. Her scholarship is focused on teacher preparation with an emphasis on the themes of cross-cultural perspectives on teaching, learning, and development; socio-cultural-historical constructivism in teaching and learning; and the impact of globalization on teacher preparation and practice.

During the lecture Dr. Gupta introduced the issues in early childhood education and teacher preparation in five Asian countries: India, Singapore, China, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Some observed classrooms in these countries reflect influences that are simultaneously indigenous and colonial, local and global. By highlighting the diverse and often hybrid classroom pedagogies at work in these 21st century Asian classrooms, the discussions took into consideration the influence of globalization on local policies and practices, and the challenge educators face when they are expected to reconcile different and sometimes conflicting cultural and pedagogical world views.

Ondrej Kaščák
Photo: Xenia Daniela Poslon