In this presentation I hope to share my story of researching ICT integration in education with rural female teachers from an island in Bangladesh. I will particularly focus on how I attempted to tap into teachers’ own ways of seeing, feeling and expressing life. Firstly, I will talk about how I used multimodal artefact production- a method through which teachers have shared significant day to day experiences with me,- through a mode and genre of their choice-sometimes they chose images, sometimes video clips, audio clips while sometimes poems and journal entries. Then I will talk about the distinct Bengali genre of ‘golpo/ adda’ (informal chatting) which I used in my research as an attempt to enable my participants’ experiences to emerge through their own discursive style. You can listen to the podcast here: https://www.raggeduniversity.co.uk/2018/10/02/multimedia-teachers-in-bangladesh-ways-of-seeing-and-expressing-reality-by-taslima-ivy/

1. Teachers in Bangladesh:
Ways of Seeing
TASLIMA IVY
3RD YEAR PHD CANDIDATE 14TH NOVEMBER,2018
MANCHESTER INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

2.  Teachers’ own ways of seeing
 Multimodal artefact production
 Bengali genre of ‘golpo/ adda’ (informal chatting)
 How these two processes made me aware of my own ‘gaze’

3. My research
Teachers’ meanings of ICT, digital practice and identities situated within the context
of ‘Digital Bangladesh’
 Digital Bangladesh
 Multimedia classrooms and e-portal

4. Best national teacher: Hatia

5. My research: Context

7. Multimodal artefacts
 My story

8. Multimodal artefact production
 This is an approach where participants generate data based on prompts or themes agreed
on by the researcher or participants, leading to an inclusive and interactive environment,
enabling researchers to study human experiences from multiple dimensions (Mannay,
2015; Pfister et.al., 2015, p.33)

9. A reversed gaze
 “Counter-stories” that talk back to “monovocals, master narratives” (Solozano &
Yosso, 2002 , p. 25) produced by privilege (Sunderland et. al., 2016, p.214)
 My participants were invited to produce artefacts to capture significant experiences related
to multimedia teaching-learning and significant experiences as a multimedia teacher

10. Ways of communicating
 My experience

11. Golpo
 A form of Bengali social practice - Telling, retelling, reinterpretation, debating of
lived experiences/opinions with emotional significance in a narrativized format-
mostly personal in nature
(Chakrabarti, 2000, p.180)

12.  This format is distinctively different from the coffee or dinner conversations in
other cultures
Sen (2011)

13. Golpo: stylistic features
 Lots of overlapping- floor is taken at the point where the listener feels he/she has
an important point/experience/evaluation to add
 Spiralling out and back in
 Storied knowledge
 A mode which is controlled and led passionately by all participants-Spirit of
equality and friendship
 Personal and emotional
(Sen, 2011)

14.  Build relationships/communal bonding as opposed to conveying facts
(Chakrabarti, 2000, p.204)
 Building up scenes and backdrops (imagery, poetic descriptions, literary devices,
exaggeration, repetition for emphasis)

16. Example:
 H: The school I joined after training had a very beautiful environment. I mean the natural
setting was really beautiful. The family who set up the school, because of their interest, they
had a very artistic mindset and because of their support the natural setting of the school was
extraordinary. A ‘madhobilota’ vine spiralled from the bottom right to the top like this, on the
right side of the stair there was a began bilash (Bougainvillea ), towards the other side in front
there is a …a …what was the name..oh my, I forgot the name of that tree.....roktokanchon...yes
a roktokanchon on that side. On the east side there was a bokul flower tree, the front lined
with Palm trees, a pond was there towards the North shadowed by a shonalu and a jarul tree on
both sides. The school had a natural setting like this…amazing…and when the flowers
bloomed….amazing….across such a big area. The building itself was beautiful and so were the
surroundings…. (overlap)
 I: Oh wow! You know when I joined first it was a completely different experience, I still
remember… (overlap)
 H: So, when I joined this school, my head teacher, he was my teacher, I had him as my teacher
in primary, he called me and said, “I am going to give you a responsibility……”

17. A Colonial gaze on golpo
 Idleness and lethargy of spirit
 Lack of individuality and presence of herd instinct-compared to the oxen of
Damaraland Africa- individually are not conscious of one another but when
detached show extreme sign of distress
 Because there is very little social life- no parties, no dinners and no dances to
enliven their existences
Choudhary (1951)

18. My gaze
 Me- Researcher, researching the digital, nothing common, no real empathy
 Practice- Fixed textbook based lessons
Teacher centred pedagogy, no interaction, worst possible teaching learning,
 Meaning of technology and multimedia- PowerPoint, recognition
 MM teachers-No/little training
Performance under govt. pressure/ pressure from the headteacher
No passion
No creativity

19.  What happened to my gaze and my positioning during data collection?

20. A reversed gaze

22.  Multimedia means the unrestrained laughter of creativity
The excitement of young lives in the classroom
The happiness of being recognised
A fresh breeze in a constrained life
Multimedia is an Artistic portrait
Like wearing gold wedding bangles on your hand
It means the best expression of my feelings
A bud wanted to bloom but never could-suddenly became a flower
Multimedia is a golpo where I can mix the colours of my mind
Don’t think of this as slight for it is magnificent

23. Co-creation of meaning
 Me: What about the challenges you face, power cuts, internet speed and
connectivity-your constant struggles?
 Priya: You know, I never see these as ‘challenges.’ This is how life is, this is how I
am used to having everything, normal-maybe these are blessings in a fast paced
world.

24. ‘Traditional’ multimedia

25. Passion
 I started working from 2017. I woke up at 6 am and finished cooking for my family. I
finished the chores and went to school at 9 am. We take four classes and get a lunch
break at 1:15 pm- that is when I sit with my laptop and create my content. I had a gap
period until 2:30 pm so I try to make the most of this time. I close my laptop at 2:20 and
eat whatever I can before starting classes at 2:30 pm. I come home at 4:30 pm and start
doing the household work- cooking, cleaning, the usual. I try to sit at least an hour before
sleeping at 10 pm. But, sometimes I wake up at 3 pm to work again on my laptop. I made
a target to develop at least one content per week. Sometimes the headteacher wanted
me to do administrative work so I couldn’t work at school. In-laws would want me to do
more work at home-they would say why waste time on a laptop? So I couldn’t work at
home…the only time I could work was when everyone fell asleep…I very quietly woke up
at night and sometimes worked till dawn.

26. What I learned
 Awareness of multiple realities
 Empathy and respect

27. References
Ahsan, S. (2015). An inquiry into the identity constructions of the
Bangladeshi diaspora in Greater Toronto Area through their social
networks [PhD Thesis]. McGill University, Montreal. Retrieved from:
http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs
=1529605131746~701
Chattarjee, A. (2014). Gender and Contestation in Bengali Adda [MA
Thesis]. The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from:
https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/28101/CHAT
TERJEE-MASTERSREPORT-2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

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31. References
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