Uma Pradhan
Biographic Data
| ID | 211680 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Uma Pradhan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Uma |
| FAMILY NAME | Pradhan |
| SIGNATURE | PRADHAN U |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0540-4085 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Language, artificial education, and future-making in indigenous language education
This paper examines how language-based artificial intelligence is envisaged to imagine new futures for indigenous languages. It draws on the visions, programmes, and plans of six language initiatives that are developing language technology for often-marginalised indigenous, tribal, and minority (ITM) languages, such as Gondi, Maithili, Rajasthani and Mundari, in India. We note three distinct discourses: (1) technological optimism in utilising the…
Reimagining Development
Bureaucratising Social Justice
This article draws on ethnographic data on the distribution of scholarship programs at two Nepali state-run schools. Anchored in the cross-field of educational anthropology and the anthropology of bureaucracy, this article examines schools not just as sites of learning but as institutions that control and regulate access through bureaucratized mechanisms. We draw attention to scholarship processes as inherently selective and requiring social and …
In Search of Future
Andrea Kölbel’s book titled In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal is an excellent work on how young people shape their aspiration through formal education. It skilfully brings together the literature on youth studies, education studies and future studies to provide us with an insight into how young people in Nepal are engaging with education to pursue their visions for the future. In Search of Future revolves around the liv…
Disjunctured reciprocity
Community-based school governance has been promoted as a popular policy for decentralisation of education around the world. Within this policy, schools are expected to create institutional spaces such as School Management Committees with an assumption of reciprocal relation between school and community. This article questions the simplistic assumption through an ethnographic study of community-school relationship in Nepal. While these relationshi…
Interrogating quality
Quality education is increasingly considered essential for human development. However, the mainstream approach to quality as a neutral technology often ignores deeply embedded issues of power relations. This article interrogates the taken-for-granted idea of ‘quality education’ by exploring the ways in which students navigate the assumption of quality education in two mother-tongue schools in Nepal. Drawing on the concept of language ideology, th…
Towards a Relational Approach to the State
Introduction to special issue
Multi-Ethnic Citizens in a Multi-Ethnic State
In 1990, the Constitution of Nepal declared Nepal a multi-ethnic (bahujatiya) country. This newly transformed state promised better inclusion of marginalised groups through special provisions. How has this been operationalised, and what does this mean in practice for the members of the groups concerned? Drawing on fieldwork in the Nepal Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN), this paper argues that the Nepali state’s moral…
Simultaneous identities
The scholarly works on ethnicity and nationalism have been highly dominated by binary frameworks. In addition, the normative preference for civic consciousness and the concerns of national disintegration often separate the notions of ethnicity and nationalism. This article suggests that the notions of ethnicity and nationalism cannot be understood exclusively as a choice between maintaining the integrity of the nation and completely rejecting it.…
Contesting knowledge, constructing legitimacy
Scholars in education have drawn our attention to the ways in which social power and control manifests in the process of knowledge production in education institutions especially through school curriculum. In this paper, I analyse school textbooks along with classroom instruction events and everyday practices in a mother-tongue school in Nepal. Drawing on the concept of ‘legitimate knowledge’, this paper discusses mother-tongue education as a str…
Pluralism and civil society partnerships
Hitherto, South Asian governments have found it convenient to arbitrate between different sections and communities. Increasingly, however, as a multiplicity of demands surface articulating the democratic aspirations of marginalised castes, creeds, tribal peoples and other ethnic groups, governments must work in collaboration with actors in civil society. As monolithically constructed communities are splintered along ‘local’ constituents and devel…
Simultaneous identities
The scholarly works on ethnicity and nationalism have been highly dominated by binary frameworks. In addition, the normative preference for civic consciousness and the concerns of national disintegration often separate the notions of ethnicity and nationalism. This article suggests that the notions of ethnicity and nationalism cannot be understood exclusively as a choice between maintaining the integrity of the nation and completely rejecting it.…
Interrogating quality
Quality education is increasingly considered essential for human development. However, the mainstream approach to quality as a neutral technology often ignores deeply embedded issues of power relations. This article interrogates the taken-for-granted idea of ‘quality education’ by exploring the ways in which students navigate the assumption of quality education in two mother-tongue schools in Nepal. Drawing on the concept of language ideology, th…
Disjunctured reciprocity
Community-based school governance has been promoted as a popular policy for decentralisation of education around the world. Within this policy, schools are expected to create institutional spaces such as School Management Committees with an assumption of reciprocal relation between school and community. This article questions the simplistic assumption through an ethnographic study of community-school relationship in Nepal. While these relationshi…
Pluralism and civil society partnerships
Hitherto, South Asian governments have found it convenient to arbitrate between different sections and communities. Increasingly, however, as a multiplicity of demands surface articulating the democratic aspirations of marginalised castes, creeds, tribal peoples and other ethnic groups, governments must work in collaboration with actors in civil society. As monolithically constructed communities are splintered along ‘local’ constituents and devel…
Contesting knowledge, constructing legitimacy
Scholars in education have drawn our attention to the ways in which social power and control manifests in the process of knowledge production in education institutions especially through school curriculum. In this paper, I analyse school textbooks along with classroom instruction events and everyday practices in a mother-tongue school in Nepal. Drawing on the concept of ‘legitimate knowledge’, this paper discusses mother-tongue education as a str…
Disjunctured reciprocity
Community-based school governance has been promoted as a popular policy for decentralisation of education around the world. Within this policy, schools are expected to create institutional spaces such as School Management Committees with an assumption of reciprocal relation between school and community. This article questions the simplistic assumption through an ethnographic study of community-school relationship in Nepal. While these relationshi…
Interrogating quality
Quality education is increasingly considered essential for human development. However, the mainstream approach to quality as a neutral technology often ignores deeply embedded issues of power relations. This article interrogates the taken-for-granted idea of ‘quality education’ by exploring the ways in which students navigate the assumption of quality education in two mother-tongue schools in Nepal. Drawing on the concept of language ideology, th…
Towards a Relational Approach to the State
Introduction to special issue
Multi-Ethnic Citizens in a Multi-Ethnic State
In 1990, the Constitution of Nepal declared Nepal a multi-ethnic (bahujatiya) country. This newly transformed state promised better inclusion of marginalised groups through special provisions. How has this been operationalised, and what does this mean in practice for the members of the groups concerned? Drawing on fieldwork in the Nepal Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN), this paper argues that the Nepali state’s moral…
Simultaneous identities
The scholarly works on ethnicity and nationalism have been highly dominated by binary frameworks. In addition, the normative preference for civic consciousness and the concerns of national disintegration often separate the notions of ethnicity and nationalism. This article suggests that the notions of ethnicity and nationalism cannot be understood exclusively as a choice between maintaining the integrity of the nation and completely rejecting it.…
In Search of Future
Andrea Kölbel’s book titled In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal is an excellent work on how young people shape their aspiration through formal education. It skilfully brings together the literature on youth studies, education studies and future studies to provide us with an insight into how young people in Nepal are engaging with education to pursue their visions for the future. In Search of Future revolves around the liv…
Bureaucratising Social Justice
This article draws on ethnographic data on the distribution of scholarship programs at two Nepali state-run schools. Anchored in the cross-field of educational anthropology and the anthropology of bureaucracy, this article examines schools not just as sites of learning but as institutions that control and regulate access through bureaucratized mechanisms. We draw attention to scholarship processes as inherently selective and requiring social and …
Language, artificial education, and future-making in indigenous language education
This paper examines how language-based artificial intelligence is envisaged to imagine new futures for indigenous languages. It draws on the visions, programmes, and plans of six language initiatives that are developing language technology for often-marginalised indigenous, tribal, and minority (ITM) languages, such as Gondi, Maithili, Rajasthani and Mundari, in India. We note three distinct discourses: (1) technological optimism in utilising the…
Reimagining Development
Political science (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (4 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (4 works)