Disciplines in higher educational institutions: a study of practices, rules and norms

Abstract

The project attempts to understand the disciplining systems in the educational institutions to understand the concept of an ideological discipline as it currently exists in the society, and its impact in shaping the personality and career of the individuals in the society. We have also tried to identify systems and norms existing in the current institutional framework that will help students give a more creative freedom and break free from the boundaries of rules and norms.In conquest of answering the above questions, personal interviews were carried with administrators and students of IIM Ahmedabad to understand their perspective of the educational system in India and the concept of ideological disciplining. The above study concluded that the underlying motive of all educational institutions is to create better individuals and effective leaders of tomorrow. In order to attain these, various institutions employ different set of rules and regulations to inculcate the habits of a good and effective leader among the students. These largely include discipline, strive for excellence, an attitude to succeed, and an aptitude to learn continuously. In the process of the above, we often lose out our creative minds and out-of-box thinkers. And thus, the diversity component that large corporations often seek out of the education institutes are largely missing.Another perspective that emerged as a result of this study was how to foster and protect the creativity among the students. As currently existing systems, the institutions largely work towards creating structured minds aimed at attaining certain goals. Thus creative freedom, it was concluded, can be attained only through self-motivation and an inner motivation in the students. Hence, there is a need for the educational institutes to alter the parameters of judging a students’ potential beyond the ideological discipline methods to fully capture the individual’s calibre.