Skill, Its Agencies and Institutions: The Formation of Human Capital in Nineteenth-Century Western India
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| Title: | Skill, Its Agencies and Institutions: The Formation of Human Capital in Nineteenth-Century Western India |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Dhiraj Kumar Nite (ORCID |
| Source: | Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education. 2024 60(5):845-866. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 22 |
| Publication Date: | 2024 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Foreign Countries, Human Capital, Skilled Workers, Skill Development, Educational History, Agencies, Institutions, Apprenticeships, Trade and Industrial Education, Vocational Education, Handicrafts, Illiteracy, Educationally Disadvantaged, Literacy, Colonialism |
| Geographic Terms: | India |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00309230.2023.2213184 |
| ISSN: | 0030-9230 1477-674X |
| Abstract: | This article advances an explanation for the dynamics of agencies and institutions responsible for the formation of skills in nineteenth-century western India. It shows that multiple agencies - artisanal apprenticeship, indigenous schools, new "bazar" schools, modern vernacular and English schools, and institutes for technical, industrial and practical instructions - played a limited but responsive role in skill-and-knowledge development. These establishments sought to attend to the conundrum of shortage and obsolescence of and access to industrial and commercial skills in the context of modernisation and incipient industrialisation. Indeed, inherited crafts apprenticeship remained the vital agency of skill formation, despite some of the institutional experiments in and discourses of promotion and modernisation of skills. New agencies together, however, generated less than one-tenth literates in the total population, less than one-third (elementary) enrolment ratio, and less than one year of average schooling. They churned out a small but increasing number of skilled working-persons, thereby contributing over time to a slow spread of skills amongst non-artisanal communities and a small fall in skill premiums. This article modifies the narrative that has posited static, dichotomous images of indigenous and modern agencies of skill-and-knowledge development, and reframes the narrative of emergence and development of vocational/practical education. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2024 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1444669 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| Abstract: | This article advances an explanation for the dynamics of agencies and institutions responsible for the formation of skills in nineteenth-century western India. It shows that multiple agencies - artisanal apprenticeship, indigenous schools, new "bazar" schools, modern vernacular and English schools, and institutes for technical, industrial and practical instructions - played a limited but responsive role in skill-and-knowledge development. These establishments sought to attend to the conundrum of shortage and obsolescence of and access to industrial and commercial skills in the context of modernisation and incipient industrialisation. Indeed, inherited crafts apprenticeship remained the vital agency of skill formation, despite some of the institutional experiments in and discourses of promotion and modernisation of skills. New agencies together, however, generated less than one-tenth literates in the total population, less than one-third (elementary) enrolment ratio, and less than one year of average schooling. They churned out a small but increasing number of skilled working-persons, thereby contributing over time to a slow spread of skills amongst non-artisanal communities and a small fall in skill premiums. This article modifies the narrative that has posited static, dichotomous images of indigenous and modern agencies of skill-and-knowledge development, and reframes the narrative of emergence and development of vocational/practical education. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0030-9230 1477-674X |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00309230.2023.2213184 |
