The Science of Education
“I did my PhD from IIT Bombay in a relatively new department called “Educational Technology’’. It’s a new discipline that sits in the interface of science, engineering and humanities where it primarily focuses on technology development of/for education. We develop local learning theories because education is contextually rooted as opposed to “one size fits all”.
I initially started off as a software engineer after college and worked in the corporate sector for over a decade before making a transition. I worked on storage area networks which was still at its nascent stage at that time but over time I think I got disillusioned thinking what exactly I was doing in life. Since I was good in academics and had been a topper in college, I thought teaching would be a more meaningful job for me. So I started teaching in engineering colleges in and around the places where I stayed. It was quite a fulfilling experience. It was during teaching that I did my Master’s which was a prerequisite for the job. While I studied and taught, I realized there’s more to teaching and learning. It’s not just an art, there’s science behind it as well.
Luckily, I was in Mumbai during that period where this department at IIT Bombay had just come into being. I had the opportunity to talk to people from there at several conferences. It got me intrigued and I felt this was a place where I could deep dive into understanding what education was and the science of it.
I joined as a PhD student in 2015 at IIT Bombay after having had ~10 years of experience in software development followed by 3 years of teaching. It never crossed my mind that I was too old to pursue a PhD because during my interaction within the department prior to joining, I met research scholars who were elder to me as well as those of my age. So it didn’t feel odd. I personally believe there’s no age limit to learning something or diving into problem solving. As a society, we should break the stereotypes that one should do certain things at a certain age. But having said that, I would still like to highlight that pursuing a PhD in India is not glamorous. There are financial constraints. I was given a stipend but it was even lesser than what I received during my first job.
My PhD revolved around fostering conceptual change in software conceptual design for undergraduate computer engineering students. The idea was to understand the difficulties that undergraduates in this field face when they create software designs, how to characterize those difficulties, address them, and ways to create a technology based learning environment to solve such difficulties. Through my PhD, I identified that the difficulty was in design fixation- undergraduates tend to get fixated on a part of a problem or a solution. It took me 3 years to identify and characterize this problem which was the main crux of my thesis. Once I achieved that, I started gaining confidence in myself and it was one of my best professional experiences. When I submitted my thesis, my reviewer, who was one of the stalwarts in this area, said that this chapter of problem identification was an excellent one. It validated all my efforts and the time it took.
But I did have imposter syndrome and lacked confidence in myself until the third year. My batchmates were MTechs from IIT Bombay while I came from a small town and state university. So I kept comparing myself to them wondering if I was good enough. Over the years though, I learnt a lot from my peers, especially the skill to ask right questions and how to think critically rather than just scribbling notes on what the professor was teaching. I got pregnant during my first year as well which added to the pressure. I didn’t face any discrimination because of that but I did suffer from postnatal depression which took a mental toll. What got me through this phase was a very supportive supervisor, faculty members and my family. My supervisor made me in-charge of group meetings in my third year where I had to decide the papers to be discussed, which boosted my confidence. Additionally, one of my papers got selected for a very reputed international conference that helped me build my self-confidence.
Currently I work at a not-for-profit educational institute aiming to create a relevant K12 educational system in India. I am also a pro-bono executive member of the Educational Technology Society, a professional not-for-profit association started in India by individuals who are committed to improving instruction and learning through the use of educational technologies. As a part of my research endeavors, I am engaged with an international working group unpacking the future of educational learning environments. I also volunteer my time for international NGOs to create edTech tools. In my recent volunteering efforts, Readeezy, a digital library with an AI Reading companion to support autistic teen readers, emerged as a finalist at the international Tools Competition 2023–2024.
To conclude, for anyone willing to do a PhD, I feel internships are important because it helps you assess if you are a good fit in a particular environment. Laboratories also need to be accommodative to PhD interns. I have seen it being done for faculty positions. Additionally, prospective PhD students should also be given a chance to pursue internships. Indian academia does not have the concept of PhD internships where one can explore both academic and industry sectors. PhD students need to be aware of how work opportunities look like and test their fitment. There also needs to be an exit mechanism if things aren’t working out, be it for personal or professional reasons. IIT Bombay has such a system in place, but it is necessary to have this system everywhere considering how long it takes to complete a PhD. Finally, I would like to point out the archaic policy of the number of publications that a scholar must have in order to get the PhD degree. That policy needs a serious change, otherwise we are just feeding into a vicious cycle of sub-standard work that doesn’t have a meaning in the end.”
-Lakshmi Ganesh, PhD in Educational Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Interviewed by Aniruddha Mukherjee and written by Payel Das
