RADHIK VIRURU and GAILE S. CANNELLA Department of Educational Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, Texas A&M Universit, College Station, TX 77843-4232 A Indian Voice in the Education of Young Children Currently the field of early childhood education places great emphasis on particular environmental conditions that are consistent with constructions of child development (Polakow, 1992; Bredekemp, 1987). However, child study conducted within an an thropological famework supports the notion that children not only survive but thrive in a variety of dif frent environments. This perspective gives frther credence to the idea that human learning is a cultur ally constructed process that is mu ltidirectiona l and multidimensional. To apply any "universal " princi ples of development and learning t o diverse cultural contexts is to disempower the children in those con texts (News and Mallory, 1994). Das (1995) makes the point that it is necessary fr people who really wish to represent diverse voices fith flly to create their own spaces within broad genres of research. Giving voice to groups that have traditionally been si lenced requires that their constructions of li f and education be examined in a variety of di ferent set tings and within a variety . of communities that have experienced difering survival histories. The purpose of this naturalistic study was therefre to provide an ethnographic description of a cultural setting in which young children are educated in India, to hear the voices of particular people in a particular context. Ogbu ( 1 98 1 ) introduced the notion that constructions of educational practice emerge fom the needs of a par ticular cultural group surviving and thriving in a particu lar situation. The children are then educated according to the needs of the community. What we hope to show in this paper is that the young children in an Indian pre school are fnctioning in an environment that is con structed out of the needs and values of their community. As a country, India is so large (with a population close to 900 million) and so culturally diverse (with f feen official languages and thousands of dialects) that education is by necessity diverse in nature. Most lower- and upper-middle class children, however, are introduced to reading and writing at an early age (generally starting at age three). There is widespread concern among educators, possibly reflecting chi ld development perspectives that dominate the field of early childhood education, that this may be putting too much pressure on children too early (Kumar, 1993). However, the curriculum continues to consist mostly of formal instructi on in reading, writing, arith metic, and direct instruction (Kaul, 1992). Historical and Cultural Contex Formal preschool education did not exist in India until the turn of the century when it was introduced by Wester missionaries. It was during the 1930s that Maria Montessori visited India several times which led to the setting up of Montessori training institutes in the south and west of India (Muralidharan, 1991 ). Since India gained independence in 194 7, education in the early years has received even more attention. The government of India currently runs a program known as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) which serves approximately 5 million chil dren, ofering health, nutrition, and education to chil dren under the age of six and their mothers. Oral Traditions In the Vedic period (5000 B.C . to 2000 B.C.), chil dren were placed under the care and direction of the 308 Interational Joural of Educational Reform, Volume 6, No. 3 I July1997 1 056-7879/97/03 0308-08 $10.00/0 © 1 997 Technomic Publishing Co., Inc.