Dr. P. K. Rajan Memorial Lecture
Topic: Images of India

Dr. Stephen Scoffham

Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK

Biographical Note

Dr. Stephen Scoffham is a Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. His professional interests focus on different aspects of learning including creativity, intercultural understanding and environmental issues. He first visited India over forty years ago and has been bringing groups of students on study visits to Kerala and Tamil Nadu since 1999. An established author of educational texts, his latest book, Teaching Geography Creatively, was published in December 2012.

Abstract:

The images that we have of places are often complex and contradictory. They are derived from multiple sources or texts – literature, films, art, music, personal experience. Each text provides a different perspective and mediates our ideas about the world around us. This lecture gives a personal account of how different texts weave together to create an individual narrative. It draws on post-colonial and other contemporary perspectives to dig deeper into underlying perceptions and attitudes. On-going research into aspects of inter-cultural understanding takes the story a stage further and leads to questions about self-identity and reality. The dynamic and unfolding nature of meaning and understanding is illuminated by this quest.