While I have previously invited higher education professionals active in a number of different fields on to this blog and will do so again, I thought this time around readers might be interested in a firsthand account of English language teaching in India.

Over the last four weeks, I have had the great pleasure of being invited to conduct English language and theatre workshops at Union Chapel School in Calcutta. I was and am truly delighted to be able to do this, as it enables me to draw on not only my language teaching experience but also my background in theatre.

I teach two groups of students in the fifteen to sixteen year age group, all of whom have a first language background in either Hindi or Bengali (Hindi is the national language of India, and Bengali is the language of the state of West Bengal). When I asked my students how they related to English – and if they felt that they were dealing with a foreign language, I got some interesting answers. Most felt that in fact they were simply dealing with another “Indian” language, in the same way that they might try and deal with one of the many languages of the country, except that in the case of English they could see an immediate “use” for their knowledge.

As a teacher, I think getting this kind of reaction from a student is pure gold. Affinity is half the battle. The idea that when one starts thinking in another language one has come close to native-speaker/first language speaker status is compelling. But what about when one starts feeling in another language? It’s for this reason that using theatre exercises and the support of a Shakespearean play (“As You Like It”) in these workshops, I think is particularly useful. Functional English can never be discounted, but enabling students to tap into their imagination through the medium of a new language allows them to develop a full or active presence in it. Active language, I think, has to go beyond the somewhat limited idea we have of what constitutes a language “skill,” and become a language capacity. By capacity I mean the nuanced ability to maintain your speaking position in the face of changing circumstances (or, as some would call it outside the world of the assessment rubric – life).

The logistical pressures of moving countries and cities – from London to Calcutta – and a nasty bout of flu meant that it was sensible to stay offline for a while.

Over the next few blogs I will seek to provide an overview of the educational climate in India, and the extent to which international alliances are changing or are likely to change the university experience .

Why are British universities seeking to find a presence in India?

The Indian government has plans to increase the number of university goers from a current 12 per cent of the population to 30 per cent. In plain terms this works out to a present university student population of 12 million, and a projected increase to 30 million. This is clearly a very ambitious plan and opinions are mixed as to whether it can or should be achieved.

In this first piece though I want to present a side to the global impact of the ongoing changes in the Indian university system that is seldom seen in the media.

That is, what is the university experience in India from the point of view of the student and the lecturer?

I went to school in Calcutta and also did my first undergraduate degree in the city. When I went to the UK to do my second undergraduate degree it wasn’t the differences in the educational culture that I noticed but rather the continuities. This was probably because both the school and university I attended were established in the nineteenth century when Calcutta was the capital of British India, and at the heart of a close engagement between the cultures of India and of Britain.

What I experienced in India was a meticulousness of detail and depth of approach which I am truly grateful for. Somewhere along the way I also became firmly imbued with the idea that the big picture matters. So valuing the humanities was important because it helped one to link the puzzle pieces of the world together.

A common expectation and hope amongst the educational community in India is, I think, that alliances with British or other overseas universities will mean more flexibility for students and teaching staff. By which I mean exposure to the arts, sciences and perhaps even technical knowledges together. It seems rather harsh to expect an eighteen year old to choose a “stream” and stand by it life-long.

A simple scan-through of the weekly educational supplement to the Kolkata edition of The Times of India gives a thumbnail picture of the kinds of degrees and career pathways being offered to current undergraduates. Management and science degrees predominate but there’s a wide range of IT -related and engineering courses, along with intriguingly specialist courses in things like wine-making, chocolate making and magicianship (though not at Hogwarts).

What I wonder as a global citizen and a teacher is this – how are we going to help students join the dots? Will the view that learning has value in and of itself because it nurtures creative and critical thinking hold in the new university environment being fashioned?

This wider view of the meaning and value of education already has a space both in India and in the UK. But I have also experienced the piece meal view – in both countries – that being educated in order to find and keep a job is all that’s needed.

It’s an interesting time to be in education – and I hope in succeeding pieces to chronicle more of the changes taking place. The future – not just for the UK and India but for the world – looks an utterly different place than most would have imagined it a mere ten years ago.

Also – a very happy women’s day to everybody from both Ritu and I.

Priyali: I know you’ve been travelling internationally to complete work contracts. How do you go about finding openings? Do you use an agency or is it down to your own research, and how do you decide who is a good employer?

Ritu: I maintain an extensive professional network through writing, reading and research. I make prospective employers aware of my work and establish a continuing dialogue to contribute significantly towards health, social research and policy. This also helps me to find and select the kinds of projects I am keen to work on.

Priyali: You are someone who grew up in India but now lives in the UK, and has spent some of her most formative years within it. Do you feel you have access to more than one culture, and does this make you attractive to prospective employers?

Ritu: When people ask I often say I was brought up in England. I have certainly established “belongingness” here in Britain. I feel very much part of its society and environment. I think the experience of working in two different nations and understanding how things get done, certainly benefits in maintaining contacts and sustaining networks. I have access to wide networks here and in India. We live in a globalized world and also an extremely competitive one. With people now having access to specific geographical locations they didn’t have before, they are presented with new challenges and dynamics. These present difficulties but can be dealt with successfully.

Priyali: This is your free space – go ahead and send a message out to other researchers, practitioners and readers of this blog as to what most engages you at this point in your life and career.

Ritu: I feel that universities should prepare PhD students, who often live an isolated life, for the outside world. They should encourage them to publish and provide continued support even after they graduate. Most PhD students feel misplaced and choose different career paths, due to little or no guidance or support from their universities. It’s even more difficult for migrants who would like to establish their careers outside their home country.

Also, I would like to add that Britain needs to rethink its position on international development. I feel that Britain’s capacity to make a difference in the developing world is huge. This needs to be planned carefully by considering intersections of race, gender and social inclusion.

People belonging to diverse backgrounds should be given opportunities to contribute to the international development sector through an equitable manner and process. This will help deal with issues of social exclusion within the UK that give rise to inequalities in the work environment.

So I was pleased to find Creative Writing in the Academy, a blog about creative writing research from Deanna Carlyle and Remittance Girl, who are both starting on the PhD journey.

There are two resources on here which are invaluable — the Creative Writing Conferences for Postgrad Writers list and the Resources for the Creative Writing Postgraduate Applicant page — where was this when I was agonising over my application!

It’s written in an easy-going accessible style and is specifically related to my discipline, which is rare, so I have no hesitation in recommending them to creative writers in academia. It’s also inspiring me to blog more about my personal journey through the PhD in the hope that my experiences with resonate with other students and help those who are puzzling over the mysteries of what exactly a practice-based PhD entails. More on that one soon!

Advice to writers always stresses that you will receive many, many rejections  and that you must learn to deal with them. Rejection is never nice, and it has knocked me about a bit, but I want to have a look at the positives, and how I’m going to deal with the negatives.

My letter was positive in many ways; the editor had taken the time to read and consider my initial chapters carefully and offer some suggestions. She made some lovely comments which in the main mirror what my supervisor has been saying, that my descriptive writing is good and language is evocative. Landscape, seascape and the natural world are all really important to the novel so I am cheered no end by this!

However, I need to look again at the plot and really decide what the central themes are. I am trying to fit a lot in and it’s not quite working. I think that, once I’ve finished my initial draft, I will go back and cut out one aspect of the novel which is detracting from the main coming-of-age and finding-her-place themes. This will resolve the feeling that the editor (and my supervisor) have that the reader is not sure what’s going to be important, what the tensions are and the direction of development.

She also said that the language could be a little more adventurous — with all the work I’ve done recently on trying to nail the voice, I hope this is now better.

What I sent in really, really wasn’t ready, but I was flattered to be given the chance to send something in, so I did. However, I won’t send any other work out until I’m happy with it. (Not to say it needs to be perfect, as editors are ace at spotting unpolished gems.) I’ve lost my chance with a publisher I really admire and who are perfect for my kind of lit fic, which is a shame.

I’ve always kept my writing close to my chest, to avoid being downcast when people don’t like or understand it, and so that I can just write without thinking about the audience reaction, the “What would your mother say?” issue. I find having a mentor amazing for my motivation, but I don’t want more than one right now.

So, onwards and upwards. I’m super keen to keep my momentum going; I’ve upped my work-rate dramatically in the last month so despite the problems with plot I want to keep going and complete a first draft without endlessly circling back on the start. I am not sure I can fix the problems with the beginning when I’m not even sure how the ending is going to play out! (I have a chapter plan but I don’t know what’ll change and where emphasis is going to fall as I write; things always develop as my character develops.)

I’m having my monthly meeting with my supervisor on Friday. When I said I wanted to discuss the points raised in the letter he laughed and said, we can moan about our letters together then (from the same editor)! So at least I am in good company!

Karen Kelsky runs an ‘academic-career consulting business’ to help students, basically, get jobs (writing grants, letters, CVs, publish etc.). She lambasts ‘absent’ professors for not providing this career advice. Maybe it’s different in the US, but I’ve never expected to get career advice from teachers at any level. It’s something I need, of course, but I don’t think of my supervisor as the perfect person to provide it. When I meet with him, we’re far too busy knocking my creative work and my thesis into shape — and that’s how I like it.

If and when I want more, like some help with getting the travel bursary I have my eye on, I will ask and I know I’ll get what I need. But the hour or so that we spend working on my project every month is precious, and I want to use it to focus on my writing, which is what he’s really good at.

Also, I want him to carry on being enthusiastic about my work, but also about his own. Not just so he publishes more and is therefore good to be associated with, but so that he is creatively fulfilled and satisfied, and therefore in a good place to be advising me, inspiring me, and making me feel that publication is possible. (As a creative writing student I’m talking about general publication as well as academic publishing.)

At my institution there is a Postgraduate Skills Training Programme as well as Continuing Professional Development courses, training and careers advisors. There’s a whole army of them. The system isn’t perfect, as there are so many students needing different things at different times, but it’s developing and has an essential role to play.

I feel that it’s up to me to look at my strengths and weaknesses and decide what to do about them and where to get advice. It’s also up to me to get off my backside and publish, network, write a great CV, blog, apply for grants and so on, all while I’m getting on with the main body of work. Postgrad skills training and my supervisor are both pretty clear that these are good things to do. Surely it’s obvious to any ambitious PhD student that you have to work hard and develop in all areas in order to succeed, whether you are aiming for an academic post or a corporate one.

The article is interesting, but I don’t like its hectoring tone, and it’s obviously an advert for her services. The comments section is even more telling; I am sad for the students who really do feel poorly advised. There are also quite a lot of profs pointing out just how much they have to do already without being academic career advisors as well (something which they aren’t trained for and may not know much about, not having been on the job market for a while)…and that the quality of their own research is very important to the success of the institution and their students.

Of course I want my PhD to result in a better job, I just don’t think the job-seeking part is up to my supervisors. In the main, it’s up to me.

It may seem strange to link the two things but I hope it will become clear why I am.

As reported in The Guardian last Saturday Mr. Schmidt said, “Over the past century the UK has stopped nurturing its polymaths. You need to bring art and science back together.”

My deepest sense of where we are – as a scholar and a human being – is that we need to renew our ability to make connections.

I write this blog to make connections with people I would never have the chance to communicate with otherwise.

Maybe the riots would not have happened if we had been better at talking to each other.

Maybe this is our chance to stop them from happening again.

Art and science. The working and the not working. The very educated and the less educated.

I don’t know when the idea that life and the world can best be described in binaries took such strong hold of us.

Can we soften and expand and shape our categories – instead of allowing them to control us?

How else can we make our work – and play – relevant and enduring?

What are the binary ideas you would like to change? Are you going to let your inner polymath out?

In my last post I looked at the issue of teaching modules which may seem to be at some distance from the discipline in which you did your research.

From amongst a wide circle of friends and colleagues who are both research active and teaching-active – to coin a new phrase – I’d say it’s extremely important to acknowledge that flexibility is both a personal and professional good. A friend who was awarded her doctorate in 2006 found a permanent teaching post within twelve months of completing. Her lectureship was not in History which was her “home” discipline if you like but in Criminology – she was able to develop a subsidiary interest into one which she could use as a foundation for her career.

In my present teaching post where the focus is on English for Academic Purposes, language and study skills  although I am not teaching literature, I find myself drawing upon my doctoral research constantly. Accuracy, structure and space for the imagination – are the three things I would name as the basis of every class I teach.

To put it another way – the proof of the research commitment is in the teaching practice.

Here’s to all researchers and teachers, as they seek to bring two worlds together : ).

Have you got an artistic friend who can design you an eye catching flier? Think about unusual fliers – there are many online companies who will print 250 business cards very cheaply – could you use these as fliers? Do you know someone with access to b+w printing at work? Printing black on coloured paper can be eye-catching. You need to start thinking about your fliers and posters about 6 weeks before the day, so that you can get willing helpers to plant them about.

Use all your social networks – set up a Facebook page and invite people to your event, Tweet about the event, make a blog – but don’t send out too many invites from different addresses to the same event. It’s annoying. Make sure the venue has copies of your flier and lists the event on their website. If there are local writing and reading groups, let them know about it too. Libraries are a good place to put an A4 poster.

Find out the local papers contact info and get your event listed – this normally takes just an email, and a lot of listings websites have an online submission form. If your event is a bit wacky or topical you might even find yourself interviewed by the local paper, as I was for an ME4 Writers Alternative Royal Wedding Open Mic event!

Finally get your contributors to bring all their friends along! If you are charging entry maybe offer a pound off for contributors’ friends and family, using a guestlist. That way you can usually get a bit of an idea about numbers before the day – which can be quite reassuring.

Be early

On the day you have to get to the venue at least half an hour early (more really) – sometimes audience members will turn up early and you have to decide whether to let them sit there and watch you set up, or whether to ask them to go to the bar. If your venue has a bar or cafe, that’s great, but if not you have to decide if you want to risk sending that person away, as they might not come back. You might have to set up seats and move tables – so if you are concerned about spoiling your clothes – bring your best stuff to change into. Now is where it really helps if you’ve got some friends to share tasks with. Check audio is working if using a mic, (hopefully you will have a techy friend or group member who can sort the audio-visuals out for you.) Make sure you know where the toilets and the fire exit are and let people know in your introduction.

If there are a few of you – assign roles, one person to meet and greet, one person to collect entry fees, one person to look after the contributors and let them know where they are in the lineup and how long their set is. Let them know where and when they can sell their pamphlets/books if they’ve got some. If one of you is a good photographer, get them to take some photos of the event or video it, and post to Facebook and Youtube after. You should let people know that there may be photos/film taken of them and let them say no, if they don’t want to be on film.

In your intro make sure you let people know the format of the evening – eg, half an hour, followed by a break, followed by a quiz or raffle with some super second hand book prizes (it’s optional for your event, but a quiz goes down well), then another half hour of readings etc, and thank the audience and writers/readers for coming.

At the end thank everyone again and let them know they can join an email list to find out about upcoming events – have a book and pen ready at the back of the room!

So that’s the event done.

It doesn’t end there though! Now’s the time to collect some informal feedback and use it to make your next event even better. You can do this with a comment form, or just ask people what they thought and if there was anything they would like to see next time. If you enjoyed it and it went well – then do it again! Organising a literary event can be great fun and it gives you that important extra interest for your writing portfolio.

To do list

If the venue charges a fee for the space, then work out how much you will need to charge to cover your costs via an entry fee. Talk to the venue owner or manager, once they know what you’re doing isn’t going to make loads of money (sorry, but it isn’t), and will bring in new customers, they might give you a discount, or give you the venue for free in exchange for including their logo on your publicity. If it’s an unusual venue, check whether you might need permission from the owner, and ask about public liability insurance.

Readers and writers

Do you have any actor friends who might like to showcase their reading skills for the night? Sometimes writers are brilliant at reading their own work, but sometimes a reader can bring something extra to it. For the writer, particularly of drama, it’s often really helpful to hear someone else perform your work, so you can check out what works.

Contributors

Most likely you won’t be able to offer your contributors a fee, but you could offer 2 free tickets if you are charging, and reduced price tickets for friends. They could also bring copies of their pamphlets/books to sell. And of course they will be promoting their writing. If you have a friend who is well-known or already on the live literature circuit – invite them as a guest and let them do a 10-minute guest slot. Make sure you put their name on your fliers and other promotional materials.

Always have a Plan B in case somebody is ill on the day or can’t make it. Here’s your chance to showcase your work, bring some extra poems or a story, just in case. And don’t forget to schedule a slot for your reading! It’s really easy to miss yourslf out when you organise an event, but remember, you are building your profile here as well as organising a fun event and showcasing other writers.

Next read the final instalment, on how to promote your event once you’ve got all this essential planning done.

ME4 Writers' Open mic picnic