Context
The Mindsets Action Research [MARch] project aims to define and convincingly measure what youth are able to “do” in the real-world – encompassing the dimensions of mindsets, knowledge and skills.
Udhyam Learning Foundation, an Indian Education NGO, developed the MARch Actions Tool (Version 1) - a 20-item, engaging, self reported, and learner-centric questionnaire that helps measure youth real world actions.
It uses Udhyam’s mindsets of grit, trying new things, self-awareness and independent decision-making as an underlying framework.
We gathered data on the tool from 70,000+ students across 5 states in India - Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. The tool has been available in 4 Indian languages - Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi and Punjabi.
The MARch Project is a work in Progress.
To learn more about MARch Project, access the Action Tools, share feedback or explore collaborations, click here - https://udhyam.gitbook.io/march/
MARch Project © 2023 by Udhyam Learning Foundation is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International
Methodology
The early MARch Project involved two key stages. In the first stage, we extensively researched real-world youth actions in urban and rural India by talking to people from different backgrounds. Our goal was to identify specific behaviors indicating an enterprising mindset and high agency in daily life. We translated our findings into local languages and also conducted secondary research on cognitive and behavioral traits.
In the second stage, we focused on testing and developing the Version 1 tool. The tool, designed for self-reporting, allows individuals to independently express their experiences and decisions. We shortlisted 20 actions aligning with Udhyam's mindsets and iteratively designed the tool, translating it into multiple Indian languages. Testing involved multiple focus group discussions across the 5 states with students before refining the tool and rolling it out for large scale data collection.
When was the data gathered? Data was gathered between between September 2022-August 2023
We gathered data as pre and post, with a 3-8 months gap to assess if there have been changes in the actions of students and if the tool is able to record them. During post, we also asked students to share examples of their actions. From the data gathered, the tool was tested for initial Reliability and Validity. The results were inconclusive
Variants of the Actions Tool, Participants and Location
- The school version of the Actions Tool is designed for students aged 14-18 attending school - Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh
- The ITI version of the Actions Tool is tailored for students aged 18 and above, enrolled in ITI or Industrial Training Institute (Vocational Studies) programmes - Kerala
Data Cleaning Steps
- We have ensured to follow all standard ethical data collection and storing guidelines
- Data was collected using an enterprise data collection application, Alchemer
- Data gathered was stored in google sheets and Udhyam’s internal database
- Data was cleaned to remove any identifiers such as name, school / ITI name, among others
- The open data also excludes qualitative gathered from some respondents asking them to share an example if they have taken a particular action. We have excluded this to ensure safety.
Nomenclature MARch_state_pre/post_date
Links
- MARch Project Details - https://udhyam.gitbook.io/march/
- MARch Actions Tool - https://udhyam.gitbook.io/march/tool-version-1/actions-tool/download-the-actions-tool
- Contributing Guidelines - https://app.gitbook.com/o/LLreaFrxCaBcouDbgDic/s/wTQFEGnXBGH6eqgDQu8A/actions-data/contributing-guidelines
- Contribution Code of Conduct - https://app.gitbook.com/o/LLreaFrxCaBcouDbgDic/s/wTQFEGnXBGH6eqgDQu8A/actions-data/contributing-guidelines/contributor-covenant-code-of-conduct
License Udhyam/MARch-Data is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/