Paper short abstract:

Using qualitative data, we explore the development of self-regulated learning (SRL) as a ‘study skill’ among students from different socioeconomic strata at a high school in India. SRL is an agency freedom whereby students choose to use strategies that enable them to achieve their academic goals.

Paper long abstract:

The Right to Education (RTE) Act in India which reserves 25% seats for students of economically weaker sections (EWS) is an example of ‘equity from above’ approach to redressing educational inequalities (Unterhalter, 2009; Das, 2020). Crucially, schools shape development of educational capabilities and facilitate ‘equity from the middle’. In this paper, we explore the development of self-regulated learning (SRL) as an important ‘study skill’ that students can develop to be more agentic in seeking support for their own learning (Panadero, 2017). SRL can be understood as an agency freedom whereby individuals choose to use strategies that enable them to achieve their academic goals.

This paper draws from a qualitative case study of a private, English medium CBSE school in Bengaluru, India which admitted students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) as part of the RTE Act since 2010. The participants included thirty high school students of grades 8 and 9 with different academic achievement levels and SES. Classroom observation and interviews were used as tools for data collection. Analysis showed that despite having access to similar teaching and learning resources at school, high academic achievers tended to be from higher SES, and low academic achievers tended to be from low SES among the day scholars while hostellers from low SES included both high and low achievers. Across day scholars and hostellers, high achievers were seen as highly self-regulated, that is, taking charge of their own learning, and seeking support from teachers and parents, demonstrating high agency freedoms while students with low achievement were constructed as not being agentic in their own learning. Furthermore, students’ capabilities of regulating themselves were shaped by parents’ regulatory practices of their children’s time. The hostel educators showed mixed effects in their abilities to regulate students’ schedules. These findings suggest that while the RTE enabled ‘equity from above’ by enabling access to educational resources to students from EWS backgrounds, the school and the hostel differentially mediated ‘equity from the middle’ through their different regulatory strategies, suggesting the need for a more proactive role in achieving 'equity from below'.

References

Das, A. (2020). Understanding Equity Through Section 12 (1)(c) of the Right to Education Act in India.

Panadero, E. (2017). A review of self-regulated learning: Six models and four directions for research. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 422.

Unterhalter, E. (2009). What is equity in education? Reflections from the capability approach. Studies in philosophy and education, 28, 415-424.