Eastern Theological College

Rajabari, Jorhat – 785014

M.Th. I. Christian Ministry (Education) 14th August 2023

Course Title : Education for Social Transformation

Course Code : MME011
Topic : Contributions towards Transformative Education: Insigths from
Educators
1) Serampore Trio 2) Pandita Ramabai 3) Paulo Freire
Presenter : Bachem Buchem
Respondent : Kuvelu Chuzho
Course Guide : Dr. Shyam K. Basumatary

CONTENTS

Introduction
1. Definition of Transformative Education
2. Contributions Towards Transformative Education
2.1. The Serampore Trio (1794 – 1824)
2.2. Criticisms on the works of The Serampore Trio
2.3. Pandita Ramabai (1858 – 1922)
2.4. Criticisms on the works of Pandita Ramabai
2.5. Paulo Freire (1921-1997)
2.6. Criticisms on the works of Paulo Freire
3. Evaluation
4. Implication
Conclusion
Bibliography
 Introduction

Transformative Education is important in bringing change and transformation in the

life of an individual as well as the society. In this paper we will look at how
Serampore Trio, Pandita Ramabai and Paulo Freire made a lasting contribution
towards Transformative Education.

1. Definition of Transformative Education

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO)

defined,
Transformative education involves teaching and learning geared to motivate and
empower happy and healthy learners to take informed decisions and actions at
the individual, community and global levels.1
Samson Prabhakar believes that the means for bringing about contextual, theological,
methodological, and pedagogical transformations lies in Transformative Education.
This powerful approach has the potential to revolutionize educational systems and
empower individuals.2

2. Contributions Towards Transformative Education

2.1. The Serampore Trio (1794 – 1824)
In 1793 William Carey arrived and worked mainly in the North Bengal for six
years. In 1800 moved to the Danish settlement of Serampore to join Joshua
Marshman and William Ward. They were all concern with the education system
there so they started their work in their immediate vicinity, and eventually
throughout Bengal. Their educational effort came to a climax in the years 1816
– 1818 when over 100 elementary schools were established and also
establishment of The Serampore college for higher education. 3 Some of their
contributions are:

1
“Five Questions on Transformative Education,” UNESCO, https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/five-
questions-transformative-education#, (access 3 August 2023).
2
Samson Prabhakar, Essays on Christian Education and Liturgy (Bangalore: SATHRI, 2003), 87.
3
A. Christopher Smith, "A Tale of Many Models: The Missiological Significance of the Serampore
Trio," Missiology: An International Review, 20/4 (October 1992): 479-500.
1
 2.1.1. Emancipation of minds
The Serampore Trio’s revolutionary plan for the elementary educational
program was the emancipation of the minds of the locals from the oppressive
and superstitious clutches of Brahminical learning in order to improve the
material condition by teaching them to think and decide on their own.4
2.1.2. Introduction of Modern Subjects
In contrast to the older system they introduced modern subjects into the
curriculum, including history, geography and science, and used vernacular as
the medium of teaching.5
2.1.3. Establishment of Serampore College
Serampore College established in 1818 became the vertex point of 'eastern
literature and western science.' It drastically brought transformation in the
education system as well as to the people and society.6
2.1.4. Promotion of Vernacular Education
Promotion of Vernacular Education alongside English education was one of
the major contributions towards transformative education. They translated the
Bible and other books on various topics in vernacular language which gave
the native people more power over how they learn.7
2.1.5. Girl's Education
The Serampore Trio also focused on educating girls along with the boys. And
so, they established schools that offered school education and provided
opportunities for skill developments to both boys and girls. 8
2.2. Criticism on Serampore Trio’s Work
G. E. Smith argued that their work was inappropriate in a plan to provide mass
education to a predominantly non-Christian population. He argued that their methods

4
Jayakumar, History of Christianity in India, 59-60.
5
M. A. Laird, “The Contribution of the Serampore Missionaries to Education in Bengal, 1793-1837,”
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 31/1 (1968): 92-112.
6
Laird, “The Contribution of the Serampore Missionaries,” 92-112.
7
Laird, “The Contribution of the Serampore Missionaries,” 92-112.
8
Laird, “The Contribution of the Serampore Missionaries,” 92-112.

2
 were too westernized for the Indians.9

2.3. Pandita Ramabai (1858 – 1922)

Pandidta Ramabai was born on April 23, 1858 in a Marathi speaking Brahmin
family, Rama Dongre was the daughter of Anant Shastri Dongre. Ramabai saw
education as a means to empower individuals to improve their socio-economic
conditions. She believed that education could help marginalized and discriminated
women break free from traditional constraints. Her idea of education for girls in
India symbolically expressed training of hand with that of the head.10
Some contributions of Pandita Ramabai are:
2.3.1. Women Education
Ramabai recognized the importance of education for women in a society where
they were often denied access to learning. She established institutions that
provided education to women and girls, emphasizing the empowerment of
women through knowledge.11
2.3.2. Widow Education
Ramabai addressed the condition of Indian women, especially of child-widows.
She founded Arya Mahila Samaj on 1st June 1882 in Poona, Sharada Sadan on

11 March 1889 in Bombay (later shifted and known as Mukti Mission in

Poona), aiming to lead women’s emancipation, discussing and changing some

customs like child marriage, cruel treatment of widows, etc., by not only
offering regular school education but also vocational training like lessons on
teaching and nursing.12
2.3.3. Vernacular Education from early childhood

9
G. E. Smith, “Patterns of Missionary Education: the Baptist India Mission, 1794-1824,” Baptist
Quarterly (July 1964): 436.
10
“Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati: Pioneer of education and emancipation of women,” Hindustan
Times, (New Delhi), 16 February 2021.
11
Abha A. Tiwari, “Contribution of Pandita Ramabai in Women’s Education and Emancipation,"
Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science 10/9, (2022): 151-154.
12
Tiwari, “Contribution of Pandita Ramabai,” 151-154.
3
 She also believed that vernacular education can transform the way education is
imparted. She knew the importance of proper exposure in the form of good
vernacular education from the early stage of life for girls. This appears to be
the reason why she underwent training in basic education and Kindergarten
education in America. She translated a good number of Kindergarten school
books and the Bible to Marathi.13
2.3.4. Innovative Teaching Methods
Ramabai introduced innovative teaching methods, focusing on practical and
skill-based education. She emphasized learning by doing and provided
vocational training to empower women with practical skills that would enable
them to become self-reliant. 14

2.4. Criticisms on the works of Pandita Ramabai:

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was her harshest Critic and opponent throughtout her career. He
criticized Ramabai saying that it is the task of man to eradicate the women problem
and many other social problems prevalent in our society and women have no part in
this even if they are the Panditas (Scholar or Learned person). 15 She was also
frequently condemned by the press during her time, saying that she was caught
between Hinduism and Christianity. Because of the fact that even if she embraced
Christianity she still wore Indian dress and remained vegetarian which was the way of
life of most Hindus.16

2.5. Paulo Freire (1921-1997)

Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, has left a significant mark
on thinking about progressive practice. His book Pedagogy of the Oppressed
published in 1970, is one of the most quoted educational texts especially in

13
Tiwari, “Contribution of Pandita Ramabai,” 151-154.
14
Tiwari, “Contribution of Pandita Ramabai,” 151-154.
15
“Pandita Ramabai: Biography Series,” YouTube Post, 19 Dec 2021, https://youtu.be/8kK7_9AmPvE,
(accessed 9 August 2023).
16
Meera Kosambi, "Indian Response to Christianity, Church and Colonialism: Case of Pandita
Ramabai," Economic and Political Weekly 27/44 (Oct. 24-31, 1992): 61-71.
4
 Latin America, Africa and Asia.17 It mainly aims at transformative education to
empower marginalized communities and address social injustice. But in doing
so, in his book, he also opines that the oppressed, while seeking to regain their
humanity, should not become oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers
of the humanity of both.18
His contributions towards transformative education are:
2.5.1. Education for freedom
For Freire, the act of knowing and the realization of freedom is education. A
person should be taught to know the truth about reality, how to approach with
critical thinking in order to become free.19
2.5.2. Education as Process of Humanization
Paulo Freire sees humans as subjects and not objects. And so for him, the very
fact of people being struck by objective conditions such as hunger, poverty,
disease, ignorance etc., is dehumanization. And so he proposed an education
which directly addressed the existential problems of the learners or people,
encouraging men and women to humanize themselves and to transform the
world.20
2.5.3. Liberation Through Education
Paulo Freire argues that in education there is no neutral system, its either
domestication or liberation. So his approach to education was more of
liberation. He argues that education should promote constant social change
within the community and transform and liberate the oppressed.21
2.5.4. Conscientization
Freire introduced the concept of conscientization – developing consciousness

17
Santhosh Vallikant, World’s Greatest Educational Thinkers, Philosophers and Educationists, (New
Delhi: Kanishka Publishers, Distributors, 2012), 313-317.
18
Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 44-46.
19
Limatula Longkumer, Christian Education for Transformation: Foundations, Approaches and
Effecting Teaching (Kolkata: ESPACE, 2017), 201.
20
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group
Inc., 1970), 44-46.
21
Shyam Kumar Basumatary, An Integrative Model of Christian Education in Postcolonial
Perspective: A Subaltern Approach (Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2023), 130-132.
5
 that is understood to have power to transform reality. He believed that
education should help individuals recognize and challenge the oppressive
structures and ideologies that perpetuate social inequalities. Conscientization
empowered individuals to operate and engage in transformative action. 22 He
emphasized on cultural action education – the need to acknowledge and respect
learners' cultural backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge systems. And the
praxis oriented education – dialectical relationship of action and reflection. It
called for denouncing dehumanization, oppression and alienation and
announcing alternative structures for humanization and liberation.23
2.5.5. Problem-posing Education
It is a method against the banking method of education where the educator
deposits in the educatee. This method is concerned in helping the leaner or the
pupil for creativity and critical thinking towards realities. Education is not just
about learning a set of instructions or theories, but education should be in the
light of learning in context. This method demands both the teacher and the
students to be actively involved in critically investigating the area of
education.24

2.6. Criticisms on Paulo Freire's Work

The most common criticism that is made of Freire is due to his style of writing.
Freire’s critics find his writing style to be very verbose and difficult to
understand. Freire also came under attack by feminists because in his earlier
books he consistently used male pronouns and male examples. This was mainly
because unlike English, Portuguese is a gendered language, and although Freire
was sympathetic to feminism, most of his writing at the time, was dominated by
male-centered examples and pronouns. Another criticism that has been made of

22
Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 44-46.
23
Longkumer, Christian Education for Transformation, 202.
24
Longkumer, Christian Education for Transformation, 210.
6
 Freire’s work is that his pedagogical model and many of his theories regarding
pedagogy are not transferable from the Brazilian third-world context where they
were formulated to other advanced context. 25
3. Evaluation
When we look at The Serampore Trio, Pandita Rambai and Paulo Freire, we can see
that they were all influential figures in the field of education and bringing
transformation in the lives of the people and the society. And they all had their own
share of strengths and limitations. Here I would like to compare and bring out some
common strengths and limitations that they shared in the process of their contribution
towards education and social upliftment.
Strengths:
a. They all focused on empowering and liberating the marginalized, disadvantaged and
oppressed people.
b. They all focused on the holistic development of a person.
c. They all advocated for critical thinking and active participation of the pupil in the
education process.
d. All these educators were driven by the belief in education as a means of empowering
individuals and social change.
e. They recognized the importance of shaping education to fit in local contexts by
emphasizing on vernacular languages, culture and societal norms.

Limitations:
a. Applicability can be seen as a major limitation that they shared. They all faced issues
related to inadequacy in their methods to penetrate within various cultural contexts and
traditional structures of education.
b. Another limitation was that of religious bias. The fact of them being Christian was a
big challenge especially when it came to students of other faith or religion, because of
the presence of Christian principles in the background of their work.

25
Kim Díaz, s.v. "Paulo Freire (1921—1997)," Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (ND),
https://iep.utm.edu/freire/#H11, (accessed 8 August 2023).
7
 4. Implication
bell hooks in her proposal for a transformative educational framework criticizes the
traditional education system for deviating from the concept of education as liberation or
freedom.26 For decades, India's education system has also been yearning for this type of
transformation – education as freedom. And in a daring move in 2020, the government
initiated the new National Education Policy (NEP), a step that has now revitalized the
entire educational landscape. This policy's reach is extensive, encompassing all levels
from primary to university education. Anticipated to wield a substantial influence on
both students' academic journeys and the educational domain as a whole, experts hold
an optimistic view that the NEP will instill greater adaptability, innovation, and
transformation into the educational framework. 27
The NEP 2020 has a holistic approach to education that certainly would cover every
aspect focused on improving the quality of education. Here we see a reflection and an
implication of transformative education initiatives made by the educators we have
discussed in the paper. Many private schools are now focusing on integrating formal and
informal method of education. We see flexible curriculums for students in some schools
too. These schools are now focusing on being proactive and giving special attention
towards each student. Another major factor in bringing transformation in pedagogy is
teachers. Teachers will be provided different training programs in order to help them
adapt to new methods of education. India is trying to incorporate the global structure
into its traditional educational system. 28
Nonetheless, it remains crucial to scrutinize whether the NEP aligns with the tenets and
ideals outlined in India's constitution. Prior to introducing a fresh policy, an evaluation
of the accomplishments and shortcomings of the initiatives that followed the earlier
policies of 1968, 1986, and 1992 becomes an unavoidable step.29

26
Moalila Jamir, Educational Philosophy for Transformative Christian Education, (Mokokchung:
TDCC Publications, 2022), 128.
27
“NEP: A Transformative Approach to Education,” Deccan Herald, https://www.deccanherald.com
/opinion/nep-a-transformative-approach-to-education-1023232.html., (accessed 8 August 2023).
28
“NEP: A Transformative Approach to Education,” (accessed 8 August 2023).
29
Kharingsho Ahum, National Education Policy 2020: Minorities Perspective, (Chennai: One Tribe
Publications, 2022), 46.
8
 The contributions of Serampore Trio, Pandita Ramabai and Paulo Freire and their
dedication and vision to transform the traditional education system has been great, but
we also see drawbacks as we have discussed in the paper. And so, only when the NEP
2020, a transformative approach of education system, is implemented in almost all the
schools and institutions around the country we will see its strengths and limitations, and
reckon for the future improvements that will be needed.

Conclusion
The legacies of the Serampore Trio, Pandita Ramabai, and Paulo Freire in
transformative education are profound. Their work shattered linguistic barriers,
empowered women, and promoted critical consciousness. These visionaries remind us
that education has the power to break chains, amplify marginalized voices, and catalyze
societal change. As we move forward, let us also hope that the new NEP 2020 reshape
Indian education system into a tool for empowerment, impartiality, and meaningful
transformation.

Bibliography

Books
Ahum, Kharingsho. National Education Policy 2020: Minorities Perspective.
Chennai: One Tribe Publications, 2022.
Basumatary, Shyam Kumar. An Integrative Model of Christian Education in
Postcolonial Perspective: A Subaltern Approach. Delhi: Christian
World Imprints, 2023.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum International
Publishing Group Inc., 1970.

9
 Jamir, Moalila. Educational Philosophy for Transformative Christian Education.
Mokokchung: TDCC Publications, 2022.
Jayakumar, A. History of Christianity in India. Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2013.
Longkumer, Limatula. Christian Education for Transformation:
Foundations, Approaches and Effecting Teaching. Kolkata: ESPACE,
2017.
Prabhakar, Samson. Essays on Christian Education and Liturgy. Bangalore:
SATHRI, 2003.
Vallikant, Santhosh. World’s Greatest Educational Thinkers,Philosophers and
Educationists. New Delhi: Kanishka Publishers Distributors, 2012.
Journals
Bidwaikar, S. “Evaluating the Idea of Education in Colonial India: British and
Indian Perspective.” New Race 12/4, 19 September 2017: 35-40.
Tiwari, Abha A. “Contribution of Pandita Ramabai in Women’s
Education and Emancipation." Journal of Research in Humanities and
Social Science 10/9, 2022: 151-154.
Kosambi, Meera. "Indian Response to Christianity, Church and Colonialism: Case of
Pandita Ramabai." Economic and Political Weekly 27/44 (Oct. 24-31,
1992): 61 - 71.

Smith, G. E. “Patterns of Missionary Education: the Baptist India Mission, 1794-

1824.” Baptist Quarterly (July 1964): 433-441.
Smith, A. Christopher. "A Tale of Many Models: The Missiological Significance of
the Serampore Trio." Missiology: An International Review, 20/4
(October 1992): 479-500.

Internet Source
“Definition of Education by different authors.” Eduhutch,
https://eduhutch.blogspot.com/2021/07/definition-of-education.html#.
Access 3 August 2023.

10
 Díaz, Kim s.v. "Paulo Freire (1921—1997)." Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, ND. https://iep.utm.edu/freire/#H11. Accessed 8 August
2023.
“Five Questions on Transformative Education.” UNESCO,
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/five-questions-transformative-
education#. Access 3 August 2023.
“NEP: A Transformative Approach to Education.” Deccan Herald.
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/nep-a-transformative-approach-
to-education-1023232.html. Accessed 8 August 2023.
“Pandita Ramabai: Biography Series.” YouTube 19 Dec 2021.
https://youtu.be/8kK7_9AmPvE. Accessed 9 August 2023.
Richardson, K. L. “The Missions Of The Serampore Trio: An Ecumenical
Perspective.” http://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ijt/35-1_029.Pdf. Accessed
3 August 2023.

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