Social Science Learning in Schools

Poonam Batra is one of India's leading elementary and teacher education academics with over a 25 years of experience in teaching, research, training, management and consultancy. She is Professor of Education at University of Delhi where she co-created the framework for the Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El.Ed.), India's much celebrated four-year professional elementary teacher education programme in the 1990s. Professor Batra was awarded the prestigious national Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 2007 for research on Teacher Education and Social Change. She has published internationally and domestically in areas of public policy in education, elementary education curriculum and pedagogy, developmental and educational psychology and gender studies. Professor Batra has co-authored a number of key educational policy documents including the Draft National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCERT/NCTE, 2006; 2009); XI Plan Working Group Report on Teacher Education (Planning Commission, 2007); and the section on Education and Women's Equality in review of the New Policy on Education (NPE, 1986). She has had a long association with the Eklavya elementary and social science programmes in Madhya Pradesh.