Why are children from disadvantaged and minority communities overrepresented among academic underachievers, poor learners and school dropouts? This volume engages with this question and examines classroom learning as a process that involves a multitude of actors situated in specific social, cultural, and historical contexts.

The volume covers an interdisciplinary spectrum of educational processes, contexts, educational ambitions, and limitations of low caste, working class and middle-class students from different Indian communities and regions. The volume delves into the problem of academic underperformance from a social identity perspective and probes into social context-based variability in classroom learning, systemic disadvantages in the form of negative stereotypes and the family as an under-studied social group in all discussions of schooling. It also examines the teacher perceptions and attitudes toward Adivasi students and other minority groups in primary schools, and their effect on children's classroom engagement.

The essays in this volume provide insights into unresolved and critical research questions that require attention of teachers, school management, educators, and policy makers alike. This book will also be useful for academicians, policymakers, teacher educators, pedagogic practitioners in India and abroad, and state and central government institutions working on school education, educational psychology, policymaking in education, learning methods and research on educational enhancement.