Arathi Sriprakash (1980 - )

Short Biography & Significant Contribution

Arathi Sriprakash is a University Lecturer, Sociology of Education, at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She is the Joint Editor of the journal International Studies in Sociology of Education. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in educational sociology and international development, and supervises PhD students undertaking research in the areas of globalisation, critical race studies, and development theory and practice.

Sriprakash was educated at the University of Melbourne, where she gained her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Teaching (Honours) degrees and at the University of Cambridge, where she received her Master of Philosophy degree in Politics, Democracy and Education and her Ph.D. in Sociology of Education.

Sriprakash has extensive experience working on projects relating to socio-cultural diversity and disadvantage in Australia, UK and India. Her research focuses on transnational politics and practice of education reform, particularly in how issues of inequality and difference are contested in relation to agendas of international development and national progress. Her significant contributions to international research include scholarly work on a wide range of sociology and education topics, including the relationship between families and the state, rural education and reform, the global politics of knowledge, religious diversity in higher education and issues of equality in education, to name a few.

Sriprakash’s work has been significant in re-examining educational policies relating to pedagogy and assessment in India, state reforms of childhood and the family and how ideas of equality are reworked through education policies, curriculums and practices in Australia and China. Currently, she is developing research that draws on postcolonial and historical perspectives to examine contemporary configurations of race injustice in education globally.

Educational Background

Bachelor of Arts, University of Melbourne (2000)

Bachelor of Teaching (Honours), University of Melbourne (2002)

MPhil Politics Democracy and Education, University of Cambridge (2004)

Ph.D. Sociology of Education, University of Cambridge (2009)

Professional Background

Lecturer, University of Cambridge (2015 - present)

Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney (2015 - present)

Lecturer, University of Sydney (2012 – 2014)

Lecturer, University of Western Sydney (2010 – 2012)

Affiliations (associations, organizations, institutions)

International Studies in Sociology of Education, Joint Editor (2015 – present)

Comparative Education, Member of Executive Board (2015– present)

Race, Ethnicity and Education, Member of the Board (2015 – present)

Selected Publications

Hopkins, L. and Sriprakash, A. eds. (2015). The ‘Poor Child’: the cultural politics of education, development and childhood.London, Routledge.

Sriprakash, A., Proctor, H., and Hu, B. (2015). Visible Pedagogic Work: parenting, private tutoring, and educational advantage in Australia. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education. OnlineFirst.

Sriprakash, A. and Mukhopadhyay, R. (2015) Reflexivity and the Politics of Knowledge: educational researchers as ‘brokers’ and ‘translators’ of international development. Comparative Education. vol 51, no 2, pp 231-246.

Sriprakash, A., Possamai, A., and Brackenreg, E. (2014). Cosmopolitan tensions: Religious diversity in an Australian university. A E R (Australian Educational Researcher), vol 41 no 3, pp 227-242.

Sriprakash, A. (2013). New learner subjects? Reforming the rural child for a modern India. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, vol 34, no 3, pp 325-337

Mukhopadyay, R. and Sriprakash, A. (2013). Target-driven reform: Education for All and the translations of equity in India. Journal of Education Policy, vol 28 no 3, pp 306-321

Sriprakash, A. (2012). Pedagogies for Development: the politics and practice of child-centred education in India. Dordrecht, Springer.

Sriprakash, A. (2012). Desirable schooling: Re-framing Chinese educational success. Australian Review of Public Affairs, April 2012

Contributed by: Jia Ying Neoh, University of Sydney

Date Contributed: August 16, 2016