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.

An ever-growing demand for coal and non-coal minerals has necessitated the adoption of mega-blast in conjunction with high capacity excavating equipment. Therefore blast design and its optimization have attracted special attention in the mining industry under the current scenario of tight fiscal constraints. Various researchers suggested unequivocally that the overall mining cost is largely influenced by blasting performance and the entire mining cycle may be jeopardised due to improper blast design. Blasting performance of an explosive is dependent on its detonic properties, the rock mass response to dynamic explosive loading and the confinement provided by the blast design. A new blast design approach has been developed in this book to design the blast using high speed video camera. This new design approach will be helpful in designing the complex blasts in mines.