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Gender sensitisation
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A male faculty member was given
the coordinating role in the women's studies course at one
of the CDI colleges. At an evaluation meeting he spoke of
how this had affected him. "When 1 married, my wife
wanted to continue studying and do a master's degree. 1
told her that it was not necessary as she had enough work
to do at home. She proposed the idea again two years later
and 1 dismissed it by saying,' Who will take care of the
baby?' This year she informed me with some hesitation that
she would like to apply for a job in the evenings at All
India Radio. I agreed immediately, yes, you should apply.
We will work it out somehow. I will take care of the child
when you are at work. 1 asked myself, why did I suppress
her and not allow her fulfillment of her wishes all these
years? 1 would not have been sensitive to her needs if 1
had not sat in and listened to the lectures and discussion
at the CDI course on women". |
Faculty orientation courses
 The faculty orientation courses first started in Farook College are an example that should be duplicated around the country. The college offered, on weekends, a course of lectures on aspects of Diversity for their faculty, who enrolled enthusiastically. Seeing the response, the course was offered to partner colleges who also volunteered and signed up for these courses. The classes were limited to thirty participants but there were many more applications. The course was conducted in their free time on weekends and there were no incentives offered. The success of the faculty development courses was recognized by Calicut University, to which these colleges are affiliated, and the Vice Chancellor endorsed this faculty program by giving it recognition through the Academic Staff College of the University. Over 140 college teachers have so far taken these courses in
Calicut.
Appreciating the CDI social outreach program of Farook College,
Calicut University now requires every undergraduate to take social work as part of their course work. Another spin-off is the commencement of an institute for graduating students to acquire skills and self-confidence to appear for the entrance
examinations to civil services.
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Faculty training has been an
integral part of ERC's role in providing support to CDI
colleges and we have had over 200 faculty participants in
10 workshops offered to date.
Going a step beyond Orientation
courses, our workshops have added a dimension of
self-development, enhancing teaching and communication
skills and motivated the teachers to reach out to their
students beyond their academic obligations. Role modeling,
leadership and personal effectiveness have been given
importance and faculty has given valuable feedback on the
benefits they have derived from the training. |
Faculty workshops are geared towards reaching the students with scientifically designed training instruments for analysing their strengths and weaknesses and subsequent capacity building. The evaluation of these workshops has been extremely gratifying, as indicated by the students themselves and as judged by their teachers in their follow-up and feedback. Under the guidance of one of the best-known experts in the field of behavioral science, Prof. Udai Pareek, we have had considerable success in working with students and faculty. A core group of faculty, selected from six different colleges around the country, has been trained and under Prof. Pareek's guidance has developed a set of instruments, training tools for student development. These have been tested and some of them translated into
Kannada and Hindi. The Tamil, Marathi and Bengali versions will be soon prepared. We expect to publish a book of HRD instruments for
faculty and student development in early 2001.
 As with the students, CDI provided an opportunity to address concerns of the faculty that have been on the back burner for far too long. For instance, the faculty often speaks of the difficulty in maintaining standards given the wide disparities in the academic standards of students from rural backgrounds and from those who have come from elite city schools. Faculty workshops helped them see their problems in a new perspective and work out solutions with sensitivity. Improved communication between faculty and students, through a system of mentoring, has been one of the outcomes of the faculty development programmes.
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