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Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies
Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies
Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies
Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies

ZHCES

ZHCES

 

List of Courses being offered in Winter Semester AY 2021-22

 

List of Courses being offered in Monsoon Semester AY 2021-22

 

List of courses being offered  in Winter Semester 2021

 

Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies in the School came into existence in 1972. It was visualized as an innovative experiment for advanced teaching and research in Educational Studies, by the Education Commission(1964-66) and the Working Group of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The Philosophy underlying the genesis of the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies may be traced to the two observations made in the Education Commission Report (1964-66) ..

The quality of educational research in the country must improve and it can improve if and only if placed outside the physical precincts of Teachers' Training Colleges. The working group on the Centre for Educational Studies (1970) marked a point of departure as it envisaged the Centre as a team of "persons who may preferably belong to different disciplines, have a high level of basic competence in their own fields and evince interest in educational problems". This made space for social sciences in particular, while not ruling out others to accept the challenge of improving the quality of educational research byformulating and participating in group interdisciplinary programmes of teaching and research in educational studies. The working group underscored the need for preparation by the core faculty before launching a doctoral programme.

The Centre's priority area was identified as the higher education sector as it interacted intensively with primary and secondary education sectors as well. It was expected that the centre will initiate and provide leadership for educational research within the social sciences without duplicating the work being undertaken in teachers' training departments. In view of the critical role of education in initiating social change in independent India, the social scientists could not remain marginal to it nor treat education as marginal. Therefore, the centre was located in the faculty of social sciences. The university also made an exception in having the Centre named after the noted educationist, freedom fighter and later the President of India, Dr.Zakir Husain.

The Centre initiated its research programme in 1972 and the M.Phil/Ph.D teaching programme in July 1974 with six faculty members i.e. two economists, one historian, one sociologist and two psychologists. In formulating the M.Phil programme in educational studies, several issues were involved. Firstly, it had to make a departure from the existing conceptualization of 'education' and provide a broad based definition within the social sciences. Secondly,the students had to be given an interdisciplinary training in educational research while still retaining their roots within the social sciences. Thus, the problem was to break fresh ground and yet not move too far away from the basic training.

The career prospects of the students were also an important consideration. Keeping these issues in view, the M.Phil programme offers four speciadistions, namely, sociology, history, psychology and economics, according to the expertise of the faculty. However. while admitting students with background in history,economics, sociology and psychology, those with training in education, other allied social sciences and natural sciences were also accepted.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.