"SA VIDYA YA VIMUKTAYE": CHANGING PERCEPTIONS ON IN/FORMAL EDUCATION MY JOURNEY FROM A WAITER TO A RESEARCHER

Abstract

This dissertation portrays my heartful-lived-experiences on changing perceptions on in/formal education in ever-changing cultural contexts. I have reflected those cultural contexts as an activities rather than only a means of structural instruments (Holder, 2008, p.8). My changing perceptions have relatively contributed to improve my socio-economic conditions that encourage me to achieve higher educational status for establishing my identity and happiness. The main purpose of my dissertation is to explore the journey of changing perceptions on in/formal education during my working life in ever changing work place. In so doing I reflect the major turning points in my life by raising the question, how could I become a researcher who was a waiter at some point of my life? In this dissertation, I have recalled my thirty six years of lived experiences on inspiring and frustrating interactions with self and others (i.e. my parents, relatives, teachers, local intellectuals, national and international friends, guests and intellectuals) during my in/formal education and working life. In some point of my ii life, I understood them (Others) differently and by writing personal story and perhaps, apologizing to them (Engel, 2001, p. 28). Exploring my past, I was ambitious and reflective actor, and again it might be a reason that the existing social structure could not shape my feeling and beliefs. I might have rejected the reproduction of my occupational and educational status while at the same time planning to pledge against stratified socio-economic and cultural structures. To understand or for understanding of my changing perceptions towards self and Other, I have applied multi-paradigmatic research design (i.e. criticalism, postmodernism and interpretivism). I have applied critical paradigm for critical outlook that allowed me to understand socio-economic, cultural and educational hierarchical structures where I wanted to see the gap between theory and practices. Likewise, I have applied postmodernist paradigm to construct multiple genres from self-reflection for cultivating different aspects of my experiences to claim my experiential reality on changing perceptions as a quality of my study. Similarly, I have applied interpretivest paradigm to understand my changing perceptions within a cultural contexts and constructing new knowledge from interpretation. Within a multi-paradigmatic research design, for exploring my reactions of the interactions with self and others, I have used autoethnography as a methodology. I used narrative imagination as a method for recalling my past/present interactions to construct multiple form of genres and writing as inquiry as a method for making those genres more rigorous. I apply theoretical referents from socio-cultural, psychological and cognitive learning theories for best foot forwards. The meanings show that due to changing socio-economic status (moderate to poor) and changing parenting (quality to poor) and dis/empowering cultural structures, I missed some portions of my formal education. While at the same time, I applied vocational rehabilitation therapy and iii resiliency against my frustration and engaged in working life. It was due to transformation of my identity and empowered socio-cultural relationship with self and others; I again embarked on higher educational voyage. Finally, I have come to see myself as an agency and continuing my student life for educational benefits to self, society and nation as an outcome of my higher education life. Hence, during my MPhil study, possibly, I began to see myself as a new potential organic intellectual to play institutional agentic role for betterment of the society