Field of Study India: Educational Policy and Planning

Geetha Mariswamy

Geetha Mariswamy is a PhD Candidate at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. With more than a decade of experience spanning education, gender and labor in teaching, program implementation, research and grassroots education initiatives, her work focuses on equity, access and educational transformation in India.

Geetha began her journey in education as a Teaching Fellow with Teach for India, where she taught children from underserved communities and helped build community-led learning spaces. During her work at RV Educational Consortium, she led a four-year participatory action research project on whole-school improvement. She worked closely with schools, teachers, communities, and education departments to strengthen inclusive learning practices, teacher development, and school processes. Her previous publications and conference presentations engage with language teaching learning practices, teacher beliefs, and governance in education.

Geetha is also the co-founder of Haadibadi Community library in Bengaluru that creates access to reading and creative learning opportunities for children and youth from marginalized communities. She was recognized as an Emerging International Voice for the Library Movement by the Goethe-Institut and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

Geetha’s doctoral research lies at the intersection of policy, regulation, privatization and teacher workforce dynamics. It examines how regulatory frameworks attempt to balance the public-good nature of education with growing privatization and particularly in teacher education. During the fellowship, she is investigating the historical and political underpinnings of policy reforms, institutional responses and evolving governance landscape of teacher education in India.

Lalremruati

Ms. Lalremruati is a PhD candidate at the School of English Language Education at The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in linguistics, both from EFLU Hyderabad. Before her doctoral journey, she served as an assistant professor of English at the College of Horticulture, Central Agricultural University, Mizoram.

Her doctoral research is an ethnographic exploration of grassroots-level implementation of English language education policies in Mizoram. Her research focuses on the lived experiences of English teachers in government schools, examining how they navigate, negotiate, and recontextualize a technologically assisted program in their resource-challenged contexts.

As a Junior Research Fellow, Lalremruati has presented her work at several prestigious conferences in India and abroad on how teachers recontextualize policy measures. She is an active member of the History of English Language Education (HELE) Studies Society, India, where she disseminates the history of English language education in Mizoram through conferences and publications.

Through the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Fellowship, Lalremruati is acquiring a cross-cultural comparative perspective on how language education policies affect minority groups in low-resource contexts. Her goal is to contribute to equitable and inclusive education for marginalized communities. In her free time, she enjoys watching documentaries on pretty much anything. She also writes whimsical little poems on her Instagram account.

Pradeep Kumar Misra

Prof. Pradeep Kumar Misra is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE) at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi. His research specializations are higher education, teacher education, and educational technology.

He has received several prestigious international research scholarships like the Commonwealth Academic Fellowship of CSC, UK; Doctoral and Senior Researcher Scholarship of DAAD, Germany; Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar Scholarship of European Commission; National Scholarship of Slovak Republic; MASHAV Scholarship of Israel Government; and Research Exchange Scholarship of FMSH, France.

He widely published nationally and internationally, completed research and development projects, and developed educational media programs. His recent books, Teaching Competencies for 21st Century Teachers: Practical Approaches to Learning (Routledge, 2024) and Learning and Teaching for Teachers (Springer, 2021), impact teachers’ teaching practices globally.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, Prof. Misra is examining the policies and practices of different U.S. universities to gain insights into how they integrate technology to offer EQUAL educational opportunities to their students. Through his research, Prof. Misra aims to benefit Indian and U.S. universities to learn valuable lessons and take necessary cautions when incorporating technology into their academic programs.