Understanding teachers and teaching in South Asia

This chapter reviews key themes regarding the work of teachers in South Asia to contextualize the section of the handbook with its focus on the state of teachers, teaching and teacher education in the region. In the first theme we discuss the challenges and complexities confronted by teachers in the region, the conditions under which they work, and the preparation and support received for teaching. The second theme is concerned with the precolonial and colonial legacy of teachers and the discursive construction of teachers and their work, drawing on Foucault’s idea of discursive knowledge-power formations that are embedded in practice. Particular attention is paid to how the colonial and post-/neo-colonial discourses frame the work of teacher in the region givens its diverse precolonial histories. Attention is paid to how such discourses reshape teacher professionalism, teacher identity, and teacher accountability. The third theme examines the discourses of professional development including initial and continuing professional development, situating these in a historical and contemporary context. The chapter concludes by outlining prospective research and policy agenda for teachers and teaching in the South Asia region contoured to the ideals of critical humanism and social justice.