Ingredients for the Recipe Called ‘KathaVana’ – Facilitating a Children’s Literature Festival

When we think of spaces in schools, we generally tend to think of physical spaces. For the purpose of learning, specific knowledge events can also become important ‘spaces’ for students, teachers and school staff to learn and to celebrate learning. Children’s literature festivals are one such space that we can create in our annual school calendars. These festivals can help us deepen the ways in which our learners interface with books and other reading material, and develop the toolkit to engage with literature as a site of education par excellence. – Editorial Note

Very recently we concluded the 11th edition of our annual bilingual children’s literature festival KathaVana 2022-23. If someone asks how it went, our immediate response is a big smile, a sense of satisfaction, and the words, “It was a huge success!” The present article will focus on the journey that has led to this response. In reflecting on this process, we will attempt to throw light on the ingredients that we feel have contributed to our ‘perfect’ recipe of a children’s literature festival.

What is KathaVana?

Ideated by Dr Shailaja Menon, faculty at Azim Premji University from 2011-2022, KathaVana was launched in 2012. It was supported over the years by Azim Premji Foundation Karnataka’s field institutes. Recognition of the importance of children’s literature – oral, written and performative – in the lives of young children is at the core of KathaVana. The initiative attempts to introduce young children and teachers, especially in the context of government schools, to the power of children’s literature and produce useful materials such as children’s books and teachers’ resources to support teachers’ use of literature in schools.

For the last eleven years, KathaVana has slowly and steadily grown in terms of the audience it engages with, and the kind of literary activities it has planned and executed. Yet, the focus has always been on making children’s literature accessible for young children and teachers. This is exemplified through the themes taken up in different years, such as ‘Neem-Jaggery: Stories from the Time of COVID-19’ (2021), ‘Rejuvenating Children’s Literature in Kannada’ (2019), ‘Understanding Writing for Children’ (2017), ‘Teachers as Readers’ (2015), ‘Children’s Voices in Literature’ (2014), etc.

What happened in KathaVana 2022-23?

The theme taken up for KathaVana 2022-23 was ‘Nurturing Children’s Response to Literature.’ The initiative was able to work with around 3,000 children and 260 teachers through four events planned for its 11th edition. The first event, launched on Children’s Day, was a weeklong online children’s literature festival. This was organized during November 14-18, 2022 over YouTube Live. The second event was a residential two-

day teachers’ workshop that took place on December 12 and 13, 2022. The third was a mega in-person children’s literature festival organized for the first time in Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, on December 14, 2022. And the fourth event was a panel discussion organized on February 3, 2023. More details about these events can be found at https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/kathavana-2022

Ingredients

1. Ownership: For any initiative to be successful, it needs stakeholders who are interested and invested in the cause. Every year we have new members joining Azim Premji Foundation in the field and the University. KathaVana has a core team that believes in, and has been involved in, the work for a long time. However, each year we actively recognize people who may be interested in issues of education, language and literature and encourage them to join the initiative. As members voluntarily become part of the team, their intrinsic motivation and commitment play a huge role in taking the effort forward even when faced by challenges. Through dialogues and discussions, all the team members, irrespective of the roles they may be playing, take ownership of the initiative which is central to its success.
2. Theory and Practice Connect: The rationale for a children’s literature festival lies in sound theoretical ideas (LynchBrown, et al., 2014; Matulka, 2008; Putnam, 1964; among others). These show us that children’s literature nurtures imagination, creativity and language development. It builds an understanding of the self and empathy for others’ lives, along with giving exposure to different cultures and worlds.
   Meanwhile, the ground realities of education in India show us that teachers and children, especially in the context of government schools, hardly have access to children’s literature. They have only textbooks as learning material, which is not enough to develop foundational literacy and critical engagement with literature. Even when children’s books and rich literary traditions are available, teachers may not know how to make them a part of their classrooms. Theories that cannot benefit realities of the field are as unhelpful as practices that are not soundly and systematically based on theory and research.
   Thus, it is crucial for an initiative like KathaVana to have a theory and practice connect that recognizes the context within which it is working, identifies the needs of the field, and responds to the same with practices that are theoretically strong and have established research support.
3. Visualization and Planning: It is important to visualize the work-plan considering the possibilities and constraints that are bound to exist for any organization or an initiative. It may be useful to have a person anchor the initiative, who is effective at planning and holding it all together, while there is decentralization of responsibilities and planning at different levels of work. Different stakeholders may have other parallel responsibilities that may call upon their time and energy.
   The field sites and teachers may have their own academic curriculum, engagements and timelines to take care of, which may affect their participation. There may also be budgetary constraints, or the number of resource persons available may be limited.
   Taking on too much or too less does not do justice to any initiative. Therefore, a detailed realistic plan needs to be imagined. Additionally, having a theme can provide a framework within which one can plan the work. An example from KathaVana 2022-23 could be shared here for identifying resource persons for the festivals. A long list of resource persons was made, of which 23 were selected. Some of the factors for selection included the resource persons’ expertise around the theme, ability to facilitate critical engagement with literature through high quality literary activities based on their knowledge of the field, field members and children in these locations, and the possibility of adaptation of activities for 72 teaching-learning centres (TLCs) led by TLC coordinators and teachers.
4. Facilitation and Implementation: It is important to not only plan the logistics but also plan for roles and responsibilities. Identifying who can take certain leadership roles and who can take the plan through in action makes it possible for stakeholders to work in ways that call upon their potential. What we mean by leadership here is akin to the role a teacher plays in facilitating learning in classroom situations.
   Effective teachers know how to balance direct instruction along with self-directed learning by students. They scaffold the learners’ every step of the way in making meaning. Similarly, a good leader does not simply distribute responsibilities. They are there to help people succeed in the responsibilities that are given to them. They should not try to micromanage everything and allow people to take autonomous initiative at different levels. At the same time, they should also be in close touch with what is happening at all levels, such that they are able to respond quickly in case of need. For KathaVana, different members took on leadership roles in different capacities, such as coordinating with the state education department, field members, schools, teachers and children, working with student volunteers, coordinating with the resource persons, etc.
   A team that is diverse in terms of backgrounds, context, skillsets and work is most likely to succeed, as each person brings in a different perspective, along with diverse capabilities that are needed for a large initiative. For example, the KathaVana team is composed of university faculty members, field leaders, District Institute and TLC Coordinators, Block Coordinators, Community Engagement Cell, Translations team, Infrastructure and Management Functions team, Media and Communications team, and student volunteers. Different team members take different roles of facilitation and implementation, and at different times may be playing multiple roles.
5. Collaboration and Coordination: An initiative like KathaVana can be successful only when there is collaboration and coordination amongst its different stakeholders. There need to be a shared understanding and shared responsibility every step of the way. In our experience, this can be achieved meaningfully by working consistently with integrity, discipline, openness and flexibility with each other. Almost like the dominos effect, each person’s actions are interconnected to other’s actions making it imperative that deadlines are followed diligently, follow-ups are done on a timely basis, loopholes are immediately responded to, and most importantly dialogues and discussions are made an integral part to keep everyone on the same page. This kind of discipline, collaboration and coordination does not happen overnight. Instead, several of the things become smoother along the way, only when people work closely together, open to learning from each other, with a readiness to appreciate the other.
6. Communication: Effective collaboration and coordination is possible only with effective communication. Dialogue and discussion through regular meetings should become the norm. Right from thinking through a theme, discussing the ‘what,’ ‘whys’ and ‘hows,’ to sharing big and small successes, clear communication amongst the different stakeholders allows for shared understanding and responsibility. When everyone knows why they are doing what they are doing, and has a considerable participation in decision-making, they are more likely to take ownership and fill any communication gaps.
   Good communication can take place when only ‘what’ is not the focus, but ‘how’ is deliberated upon as well. Different stakeholders need to have the people skills and humility to include everyone by keeping everyone in loop, actively taking in their opinions and experiences and focusing on collaborating rather than directing.
   For instance, the KathaVana team began meeting in large groups from early September 2022 onward, to plan for events happening from November 2022 to February 2023. Immediately after the first meeting, several large and small group meetings of different nature such as brainstorming, planning, assigning responsibilities, problem-solving, sharing, reviewing, were held at regular intervals that made it possible to discuss and communicate the rationale, plans, logistics, challenges, resolutions and learnings.
7. Reflection and Review: At every stage, it is necessary to pause and take stock of things done so far. Regular reflection and review have made it possible for KathaVana to learn from the past, grow every year, and work in systematic ways that are directly connected to the needs of the field. Feedback is collected not only from team members in terms of what went well and what could be improved upon, but also from participants such as teachers and children. As much as possible, the feedback is incorporated in the next iteration, which has allowed for the initiative to grow manifold and formalize certain systems in place.

Method

Mix the above-mentioned ingredients slowly and steadily with lots of love and passion for children’s literature, children, teachers and education. While we believe in the abundance of it all, the measures can be varied based on the context in which you are cooking the recipe.

Recipe Review

Although in the beginning, we mentioned this to be a ‘perfect’ recipe, we acknowledge that it has taken us several iterations and deliberations to reach the result that we speak of today. At the same time, we believe there is a long way to go ahead, with our constant urge to do more and better. Some of the questions that we have begun thinking about are:

• Can we host the festival in not only Kannada and English, but in as many Indian languages as possible, starting from Hindi through Azim Premji Schools in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand?
• How can we closely track the impact children’s literature festivals and teachers’ workshops have on bringing literature and language to classrooms?
• Can we decentralize the in-person mela and organize it in at least 72 locations in Karnataka where we have a presence, to reach at least 36,000 children?
• Can we collaborate with other institutions and organize children’s literature festivals in different locations?

Based on our experience, we are convinced that initiatives such as KathaVana need to grow in numbers and size, as they are found to have a two-fold impact. The obvious outcome is for children and teachers who discover meaningful ways of engaging with literature and language.

Another benefit is for the organizers who build their skills and capacities in various academic, management and social domains. The key take-away for all, thus, is learning from each other through a constant engagement with children’s literature.