Digital Opportunities And Disparities

Abstract

This thesis examines the dynamics of access and inequality in children s Internet use, in both private and public school spaces and interrogates the role of socioeconomic and demographic factors as well as the schooling system in shaping Internet habits. More specifically, it explores the nature of Internet use by primary school c hildren in the age group of 8 - 11 years, mainly for education and information and attempts to understand the differences across and within various types of schools in both rural and urban settings in Coimbatore and the Nilgiris. The research contextualizes the Internet experiences of children through a social inequality lens and critically examines the complexity of the social hierarchy within the institutional framework of the school and the strong role of class, caste and gender dynamics in accentuating this stratification. Scholarly perspectives on digital divide and inequality are presented to strengthen the discourse on digital inequality among children, as these discussions are pertinent to the understanding that schooling systems are in fact embedded within the sociological dimensions. The research setting for this thesis is the school environment in Coimbatore and the Nilgiris districts and the selection o f schools ensured that they come under the various categories of the school system in Tamil Nadu in both urban and rural areas. The recruitment tried to include some form of representation in terms of gender, socioeconomic class and age group and hence mixed schools were shortlisted. In this thesis, I have used the pseudonyms to denote the different schools to maintain confidentiality and anonymity. The fieldwork involved of interviews with children in Coimbatore and the Nilgiris between the age of 8 and 11 years studying in the 3 rd, 4 th, 5 th and 6 th grades. In addition, I conducted group sessions in an elite private school in Coimbatore with children studying in the 3 rd, 4 th and 5 th grades with an average of 30 children per class...