Affective experiences and expressions in institutional context: the case of a boarding school for Indigenous students in India

ABSTRACT

The 22,500 Indigenous students attending an Indian boarding school sacrifice living with family to essentially grow up in an institutional setting, in part to receive free education but also because they believe in the school’s promise of a bright future. In this context, students’ affective expressions and experiences are moulded by an all-enveloping institutional environment. The article relies on two concepts, ‘institutions of hope’ and ‘total institutions’ to examine the institutional context in which students shape their aspirations and weigh the balance of sacrifice and opportunity. Ethnographic data were collected through on campus observation, visits to students’ villages, and interviews with former and current students, parents, teachers, administrators, and visitors. Additionally, institutional messaging on social media and the school’s website was analysed. The data paint a picture of how, within this institutional context, sacrifice is justified in pursuit of aspirations, and hope for a better future through education is internalised.

KEYWORDS:

• Sacrifice
• affect
• boarding schools
• Indigenous students
• India
• total institutions

Acknowledgements

The author thank the entire KISS community for allowing me to conduct this research. I also thank Sujay Pati, Sugyan Mishra, Sasmita Mohanty, and Sasmita Sahoo for their assistance in data collection and formative analysis. Funding was provided through a Fulbright-Nehru award and a College of Charleston Faculty Research award. Special thanks is extended to Peggy Froerer, Nicola Ansell, and Roy Huijsmann who organised and edited this special section and to the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 22,500 students were enrolled when I conducted research in 2014–2015. By 2019, the population rose to 27,000. I use the term ‘Indigenous’ rather than tribal to avoid negative connotations the term ‘tribal’ with with ‘savage’ in the West (Lowe 2001). I use ‘tribal’ only when interviewees used it. I do not use ‘Adivasi,’ a term used in India for indigenous people, because Indigenous is more widely understood outside of India.

2 It was not until I had been at the school for months that I began to draw connections between behaviours across multiple sites within the school. I did ask about discipline policies and learned that KISS follows Indian regulations laid out in the 2009 Right to Education Act (Ministry of Education 2009) and does not use corporal punishment. Behavioural issues were typically addressed by teachers, mentors, or hostel wardens. According to administrators, serious offenses were rare and resulted in expulsion from the school.

3 KISS is located in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state. It is several hundred kilometres from most of the Indigenous communities. Families rarely visit the school because of the distance, cost of travel, and poor roads. Students return to their communities for two months every summer.

4 Indigenous groups are among the poorest segments of Indian society. Most rely on subsistence agriculture, sale of forest products, and daily wage labour. Illiteracy rates remain high despite fairly recent enactment of compulsory education (Census of India 2011).

5 Odisha is one of India’s poorest states in large part because its large Indigenous population (22.8% in the 2011 census) has historically lived without access to jobs, education, and infrastructure (e.g., roads, clean water, electricity) (Ministry of Tribal Affairs 2013).

6 In 2020 KISS’s student population reached 27,000 making it the largest boarding school for Indigenous students in the world (KISS 2020). KISS students were sent home in spring 2020 because of the COVID pandemic and began to return to campus in late 2021.

7 Five percent of KISS graduates are offered seats at KIIT university at no charge. Access to a KIIT education is a major incentive for parents because of its reputation for high quality education.

8 KISS employs district representatives who meet with families interested in KISS, and they provide the first review of family eligibility. Children are selected on the basis of need and girls are given priority. Despite favouring girls in admissions, girls remain a minority because many families are reluctant to send their daughters so far away for school. No reports are available on the status of students not selected to attend KISS.

9 The medical clinic is staffed by the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), one of several KIIT institutions. If students become seriously ill, they are taken to the KIMS hospital.

10 Students receive three meals a day. Lunch and dinner consist of rice and dahl (with protein several times a week). Older students work one day a month helping to prepare and serve meals. Students bring a plate to the dining hall and wash it after the meal. For more information on the logistics of feeding 27,000 students three times a day, see National Geographic Mega Kitchen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = wypm9BqRgy0&t = 28s.)

11 As is common throughout India, girls are expected to remain close to their classrooms and hostels. They are provided opportunities to participate on sports, yoga, and dance teams.

12 This research was funded by a Fulbright/Nehru research grant and a Faculty Research grant from my institution.

13 For IRB approval, I outlined the overarching research questions, developed more specific observation guides and possible interview questions, and detailed human subjects protections. I emphasized that, characteristic of ethnographic research, the data collection focus was likely to change while I was in the field. IRB approval was granted in 2014.

14 The 38 students interviewed represent 18 Indigenous groups; 64% were male, consistent with KISS’s student population. Of the 24 teachers interviewed, 58% taught in the primary grades, and 24% were Indigenous. Nearly all of the former students were enrolled at the Kalinga Institute for Industrial Technology (KIIT). The administrators were selected for their knowledge of various institutional functions (e.g., academics, athletics, hostels, medical care, food service, finance, community outreach); two of the administrators are Indigenous. The visitors quoted were Fulbright researchers who attended a conference at KISS.

15 All teachers are required to serve as mentors to a group of approximately 50 students; mentoring classes meet as a group every Saturday afternoon. Teachers are given considerable leeway on how to use the mentoring time.

16 To provide a clearer picture of KISS’s development, I draw some more recent data from the KISS webpage or from KISS representatives. Although I do not have in-depth data on how KISS’s promotion of a deficit narrative is changing, I believe including changes to the website paints a more accurate picture of an institution willing to change in the face of criticism.

17 For several decades, groups of Maoist rebels (also referred to as Naxilites) have recruited members among Indigenous groups, who, because of poverty and estrangement from the government, often find these groups attractive (Singh 2006).