Language, Culture and Accessibility in Higher Education: The Semiotic Pedagogy of Gandhian Education Against Disciplinary Dualism

Our academic space is marked by specialization, which segregates different components of knowledge due to the habitual dualism in educational philosophy. This duality often overlooks the relational structure and impedes the necessary mutual understanding within the components of education. The paper identifies this lack of relationality in terms of language and culture pedagogy and their presence determines the network aspect within the social capital framework. In academic space, accessibility is determined by these factors that shape pedagogy and form disciplinary opposition. The semiotic approach in study allows pedagogy of experiential learning through the signs, which not only defies narrow arguments of rationality, but also presents a defiance against the prerequisites of lingual and cultural networking. The semiotic turn in pedagogy makes education inclusive, enabling the knowledge sharing which ensures holistic development. The paper assesses Gandhian ideals on education and its semiotic perspectives in preparing values through mutual collaboration, where unlike the dyadic sophistication language and cultural pedagogy don’t impede the process of self-formation of individuals, but compliments it. Under these conditions, language and cultural education overcome the disciplinary dualism and education is not restricted to rigid frameworks or centralized spaces. The paper recognizes Gandhian educational tropes of practical and experiential learning as a semiotic transition and through it presents an alternative pedagogy and educational philosophy that envision universal accessibility of education, where the aspirations even from the periphery are addressed.