Divergences Between Sri Sri Vidya Mandir School And Other Schools Concerning Holistic Education - A Critical Ethnographic Study

The ‘Critical Ethnography’ is a paradigm of ethnographic studies where the nearby places, dwellings, family situations, formal and informal establishments are studied. The Chicago school of sociologists introduced this in the 1930’s. In this study, a divergence was presented between Sri Sri Vidya Mandir School, Jharkhand and some other schools of West Bengal, keeping in view the Holistic Education pattern like its facets, facts, educational patterns, co-curricular activities, relationships among all stakeholders and values, enshrined in those institutions. The objective of the study was to compare some selected schools of West Bengal including of RKM background schools with Sri Sri Vidya Mandir School. ‘Critical Ethnographic Research’ under Qualitative Research was adopted in which the interview and participant’s observation techniques were used to study the Holistic Education. Sri Sri Vidya Mandir School from Jharkhand and 8 Bengali medium secondary schools from West Bengal were purposefully selected from eight different randomly selected districts. A total of 24 teachers & 20 students from both ends were interviewed for this study apart from the observation techniques in those schools. The study revealed that Sri Sri Vidya Mandir School is very much unique in its nature compared with the other schools concerning Holistic Education. The study also revealed that except the RKM contextual schools, all other schools are lacking in most of the bases or characteristics of Holistic Education.