Over the last decade, public universities in India have witnessed a significantly higher proportion of marginalized students, specifically, Dalit (stigmatized caste identity) students to access public higher education. The presence of a significant and growing number of Dalit students on college campuses has changed the student demographic, and also shaken the historical hegemony of the higher castes. This phenomenon creates new tensions and conflicts with higher castes who have been a dominant force among faculty, staff and students in universities. Some studies have reported that caste-based discrimination in higher education is evident across the institutions (Neelakandan & Patil, 2012). In brief, widespread experiences of hostility have …show more content…
Caste and race identities show that Dalit students in India and underrepresented minority students in the U.S. have similarities in terms of their historical oppression, institutionalized racism and marginalization in higher education. However, public and private higher educational institutions in the U.S. have made far better progress than their counterparts in India in terms of research, policy framework, and institutional interventions to support the students of color.
The proposed research will examine two aspects of Dalit students' experiences in Indian higher education: First, it will study the lived experiences of Dalit students in their higher education journey, and secondly, it will inquire into the existence of institutional interventions to support Dalit students and the recommendations of Dalit students about such
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Therefore, the research will use narrative research method to comprehend and encompasses various aspects of Dalit students. The core aspect of narrative research is analyzing experiences and stories of participants that complement the crucial features of the critical race theory framework of the research. Narrative research proposes that challenging the dominant culture and structures should be the imperatives of narrative research process (Lieblich et al., 1998). To collect stories of the participants, this research will explore a case study