FIELD PRACTICEM.A. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Website:www.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in

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Azim Premji UniversityPES Campus, Pixel Park, B-Block, Electronics City, Hosur Road, Bengaluru - 560100 India

I did my Winter Field Project at Kolkata Sanved, an NGO that uses Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) for the

healing and empowerment of vulnerable groups, mostly survivors of sex trafficking. My project objective

was to understand the role played by gender norms in the design and implementation of the DMT

intervention for women and young girls who have gone through sexual violence. Some of the questions I

tried to answer were: Does the aim of the DMT process comply with stereotypical ideas of women or it tries

to break the stereotypes? How does the social position of the DMT practitioner correlate to the way she

views the survivor? I used the 8 weeks in field by meeting and interviewing my participants, observing and

reflecting and taking notes. This was a great opportunity to go out into the field with a research design,

interact and understand the challenges and complexities of working in the fields of gender and mental

health. This will help me to continue my work in these domains in the future.

- Divyanshu Chaturvedi (M.A. Development 2017 – 19)

on his Summer Internship experience

- Rhea Kaikobad (M.A. Development 2017 – 19)

on her Winter Field Project

Unfortunately, we hardly get a chance to experience the everyday lives of people in difficult geographies of

India where survival problems are an invariability and so is their resilience. I was fortunate to get exposed

to these realities when we went for our Field Immersion to rural Odisha with a diverse team of 8 of my fellow

batch mates. It was an overwhelming experience for all of us as we got to learn from the community and

from each other in the group; we observed and debated, listened, asked questions and reflected throughout.

Apart from getting immersed in the realities of rural India, as a group we also had lots of fun and some

memorable moments together. We danced, trekked, played and ate together not just among ourselves but

with the community members. I also did one live illustration of a temple their and captured the beauty of

rural India in photographs. Thanks to the university to have this field immersion component in the

curriculum. We can’t really experience this through just textbooks or lectures in classrooms.

- Ruchi Anand (M.A. Development 2018 – 20)

reflecting on her Field Immersion

My Summer internship was with the program team of Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI) in

collaboration with Rythu Sadhikara Sanstha, a non-profit organization owned by the Government of

Andhra Pradesh. I was a part of their Climate Resilient Zero Budget Natural Farming (CRZBNF) project. My

responsibility was to assist the team with the Joint Reflection Learning and Change (JRLC) processes where

we were required to put ourselves in each stakeholder’s shoes and understand the Strength, Weakness,

Opportunities and Challenges of implementing the programme. I also had an opportunity to design the

template for the JRLC report and collate all the findings that we got from 6 districts of Andhra Pradesh.

During my internship, I had the honour to meet T. Vijay Kumar who is the Architect of CRZBNF and National

Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). After one year of full time and three years of part-time grassroots

volunteering experience, this was an informed choice to work with a Grant Making organisation

to understand their dynamics. It was indeed a fruitful experience to work closely in an interesting

development intervention during the internship.

The UniversityAzim Premji University was established in Karnataka by the Azim Premji University Act 2010 as a not-for-profit University and is recognized under Section 22F of the University Grants Commission Act 1956. The beginnings of the University are in the learning and experience of a decade of work in school education by the Azim Premji Foundation. The University offers Undergraduate, Postgraduate (Masters Programmes in Development, Education and Public Policy & Governance) and Continuing Education programmes. Our programmes aim to prepare students with great competence, integrity and social commitment.

VisionEducation for Social Change

To contribute to the realization of a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society

Mission

Ÿ Prepare graduates with great competence, integrity and social commitment

Ÿ Expand the frontiers of knowledge in education, development and allied fields through research

Ÿ Support and enhance the work of the education and development sectors in the country through continuing education

Ÿ Contribute to change in policy and practice in the Indian education and development sectors through advocacy and public communication

The M.A. Development programme aims to prepare individuals capable of informed and thoughtful development action. It enables students to become aware of the complexity, depth and scope of the discourse of development, its ethical imperatives and its

Master of Arts in Development (M.A. Development)

implications for policy and action with special reference to the Indian context. The M.A. Development is designed as a 72-credit, postgraduate degree programme, requiring full-time engagement for four semesters in two academic years.

* The courses in Semester I and II are core courses and have to be taken by all students. In Semester III & IV, students can choose from a bouquet of 55 - 60 electives, some of which are part of the following "concentrations":

Semester I (Core)

Ÿ Indian Economy and Development (04)ŸEcology and Development in India (04)ŸSociology of Modern India (04)ŸFoundation for Social Research and Reasoning (04)ŸField Immersion (02)ŸOpen Courses

ŸTheories and Histories of Development (04)ŸState, Democracy and Civil Society in India (04)ŸSocial Interventions (04)ŸMethods for Social Research and Action (04)ŸOpen courses

Semester II (Core)

Semester III

ŸElective (03)ŸElective (03)ŸElective (03)ŸElective (03)ŸOpen courses

Programme Structure of M.A. Development

Summer Field Internship- 6 weeks (04)

ŸElective (03)ŸElective (03)ŸElective (03)ŸElective (03) ŸOr Course of Independent Study (03)

Semester IV

Ÿ Labour and work Ÿ Food, agriculture and nutritionŸ Development organisationsŸ Sustainability for development practice

Winter Field Project8 weeks (06)

Field Practice forms an integral part of the M.A. Development programme. It seeks to complement the students’ learning in the class room and offers opportunities for engaging with diverse kinds of development action spaces as sites of knowledge, experience and imagination. Along with relating concepts, ideas and theories with practical realities, field engagements help students gain practical experience and develop confidence and abilities to imagine their own ideas and interventions.

Students are expected to engage in field practice in two distinct ways. The first is in the form of spending extended periods of time in the field; depending on the timing and learning objectives, these are called Field Immersion, Summer Field Internship and Winter Field Project. The second is the Practicum which runs in tandem with the courses, during the semester and, for all practical purposes, is limited to fields in Bangalore only. Practicums are parts of specific courses, where the course content and pedagogical requirements necessitate engagements outside the classroom. The field immersion, summer internship and winter field project are separately evaluated and graded, while the practicum is evaluated and internship graded within the scope of the specific courses.

Field Practice

The timing and duration of these components are given in the table below

Role of Host OrganizationsThe field practice offers an excellent opportunity for organizations to work with young students and inspire them to take on future roles in the social sector. Along with faculty, the host organizations too play an active role in each of the three field practice components, as partners of the University. Given that the objective, process and expected outcome of each component of field practice is different, the role played by the host organization also varies.

Field Practice Component Credits

4

6

2

TimingDuration

2 weeks

6 weeks

8 weeks

Semester I, Mid-September

End of semester II, May-July

End of Semester III, November-January

(embedded in courses)

Field Immersion

Summer Field Internship

Winter Field Project

Practicum

Field Immersion - Two Weeks Summer Field Internship - Six Weeks

The field immersion is the first component in the series of field engagements in the MA development programme. The focus is on immersing oneself, experiencing and connecting with the everyday lived realities of the groups and communities. Students are expected to interact with members of communities, local institutions of the state, market and civil society, observe social, economic and ecological processes at work, and reflect on their interactions and observations.The Field Immersion is designed to enable the students to relate and engage with to people in rural/urban/tribal communities, from an observer/student point of view rather than from that of an actual participant.

The objectives of the Field Immersion are

Outputs: Daily reflective journal and group presentation

Each student is required to maintain a daily journal during the Field Immersion. The daily journal is not a listing of daily activities for the record but rather to capture the new experience, new learning, emerging questions in mind, change in perception, new information obtained, etc. Students are oriented on how to write such reflective journals. In addition, each student group makes a presentation to a faculty panel on their overall learning and reflections.

Students are formed into groups of 10 each, keeping in view their heterogeneity in terms of age, experience, regions and gender. Over the last few years, more than 25 organizations have collaborated with the University to ensure that students have an enriching field immersion.

Role of Host OrganizationsField immersion is facilitated by a local organization, which is deeply embedded in the communities it works with. Hence, organizations play an important role in mediating students’ learning. The organizations are selected with due diligence by the University based on several criteria, which include organizations’ logistic capacity, willingness to host, mentor the students, their ethical values and practices, and nature of relationship with the community, and others. The host organization supports in facilitating logistics (food, accommodation), planning the daily activities for the duration of the stay and providing mentoring support (includes facilitation of debriefing among groups, discussion and reflections). All expenses related to the field immersion are borne by the University.

At the end of the second semester, students spend six weeks interning with an organization engaged in development action anywhere in India. This internship is designed in consultation with the host organization to help the students understand various development issues hands on. This practical experience of working with development organizations provides the students with an opportunity to be an active participant in a development intervention/ action and critically reflect on their experience. Examples of such interventions include state or non-state programme implementation, policy advocacy, mass activism/social movements, behaviour change campaigns, innovative solutions to current social development challenges, etc.

The learning objectives of the Summer Internship are

Over the last few years students have done their internship with more than 300 organizations across 20 states.

Role of Host Organizations

In Field Internship, the host organization designs appropriate studies / projects, assigns one of their staff as a field mentor, guides the student in undertaking the work, supervises performance, evaluates the reports submitted and provides feedback to the University in a pre-determined format. In a way, Field Internship is led by the host organization. Depending on the specific context, the host organization may provide boarding & lodging for the students, or assist them to find one.

Outputs: Interim report, Final Report and Presentation and viva. Students plan their work with the support of the host organization under the broad guidance of a faculty member. The internship is done individually by each student following the host organization’s work norms and programme strategy. Each student will write a daily journal of his/her work and submit an interim report from the field. The student has to submit a report (or any other output expected by the organization) to the host organization as well. After coming back to the campus, each student has to make a presentation of his/her work and go through a viva before a faculty panel.

his/her

To observe, experience and reflect on the lived realities of people and communities.

To experience the strengths and challenges of working together as a group.

To reflect on their personal experiences, behaviour and attitudes while engaging with different social groups and communities.

To enhance experiential understanding of development action processes in a specific context

To engage in a project/ fieldwork to understand the nature of interventions, its objectives, strategy, outputs and possible outcomes

To critically reflect on the challenges of development action

Winter Field Project - Eight Weeks Nature of work done by the studentsEvery year 180-200 students of M.A. Development are engaged in the three components of field practice. We list below some of the work our students have done.

The third component of the field practice occurs over eight weeks following the 3rd semester. Having completed the three semesters of coursework as well as learning from the Immersion, Summer internship and Practicums in various courses, the students take up an independent field based work. The work may be a study of specific field level issues resulting in a report, or a pre-survey intended to inform the design of a future intervention or an advocacy brief on a particular issue. The field project is based on student’s interests and initiatives that are developed under the guidance of a faculty mentor. The final deliverable can leverage various means of expressions like a photo-essay, a video film, a training manual, a graphic novel, etc.

The learning objectives of the Winter Field Project are

Outputs: Proposal, Interims reports, Final Report and a Research Poster. Students can choose to work with an organization during the eight weeks to design and implement their project proposal. They could also design their own projects, and work independently with communities.

The Field Project is structured around the following four criteria -

Ÿ Each such project is designed and executed singlehandedly by one student onlyŸ The work is feasible to do in eight weeksŸ The effort leads to a concrete project Ÿ The project output clearly reflects adequate intellectual rigour and an imaginative ability

Each student is also required to fulfill the School of Development’s “Research involving Human Subjects – Ethics Review and Compliance guidelines”.

Field Project Process and OutcomesIrrespective of the nature of the output, the winter field project’s thrust is on two key elements: One, conceptualization and systematic exploration of a field level issue/problem with respect to the output planned, supported by adequate literature review, field research, data collection, interaction with stakeholders, draft outputs, trials when necessary, feedback from stakeholders. And two, learning the basics of the specific modes of dissemination and communication. The field work and findings are disseminated through a research poster displayed in a Winter Field Project Fair. The fair is attended by students, University members as well as external visitors. The Field Project is closely guided by the Faculty Mentor, from conceptualization proposal writing to implementation, writing the output, and display of the work at the fair.

To provide students an opportunity to gain confidence in devising, researching and writing up a project proposal on their own.

To enhance the professional preparedness of students as reflective development practitioners.

To support students to produce a concrete, coherent well-designed and well-argued output.

Some of the highlights of their work are:

a) O Aishwarya’s (2017 – 19) article in Manorama online on her field immersionhttps://english.manoramaonline.com/news/campus-reporter/2018/11/28/a-fortnight-village-that-changed-outlook.html

b) Divya Nazreth’s (2012 - 14) internship work on Exploring the 'field' and 'field work' in social science research is published as an occasional paper by Anveshi: Research Centre for Women's Studies for reference for future interns

http://www.anveshi.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Exploring-the-field-and fieldwork-in-social-science-research.pdf

c) Photo exhibition 'At the threshold of life and death' : Narratives on maternal health, done by students at Rangoli Art Centre, Bangalore in 2016

d) Video documentation on Territoriality of street vendors in Ahmedabad by Anjali Paul (2015-2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?

e) V.R. Vachana and Maya Roy published an article on the NOTA and the voter in the Hindu, February, 2017 https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/nota-and-the-indian-voter/article17378495.ece

f) V.R Ashwin (2013-2015) Practices in the Primary Education Bureaucracy Beech ka Raasta, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 51, Issue No. 42, 15 Oct, 2016

Baseline surveys

Feasibility studies

Social impact studies

Stakeholder analysis

Value chain analysis

Ethnographic studies of communities

Community mobilization

Organizational studies

Training manuals

Project documentation

Case studies

Photo essays and others

Student Profile 2018- 2020 Batch

Gender Zonal Distribution

Work Experience

Household Income

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

1

Andhra Pradesh

Arunachal

24

Pradesh3

Assam24

Bihar19

Chandigarh1

Chattisgarh19

Delhi133

Goa4

Gujrat44

Haryana10

Himachal Pradesh10

Jammu and Kashmir7

Jharkhand22

Karnataka196

Kerala37

Madhya Pradesh41

Maharashtra165

ManipurMeghalaya

242

Nagaland3

Odisha35

Puducherry

Punjab

3

1

Rajasthan 51

Tamil Nadu48

Telangana44

Uttar Pradesh42

Uttarakhand27

West Bengal40

1-7 8-11 12-24 25-35 36-49 50+

No. of organisations per state

Our Students Work WithOrganizations in 1000+Locations Across India