Learning and empowerment: Designing a financial literacy tool to teach long-term investing to illiterate women in rural India

Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 3 (2014) 21–33

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Learning, Culture and Social Interaction journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lcsi

Learning and empowerment: Designing a financial literacy tool to teach long-term investing to illiterate women in rural India Akshay Sharma a,1, Aditya Johri b,⁎ a b

Department of Industrial Design, 210 Burchard Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA Department of Engineering Education, 616 McBryde Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 26 March 2013 Received in revised form 14 October 2013 Accepted 16 October 2013 Available online 5 November 2013 Keywords: Guided participation Design-based research Financial literacy Empowerment Development

a b s t r a c t The objectives of this paper are two-fold. First, it aims to bring attention to the learning and educational needs of the almost one billion illiterate adults in the world who have little or no means for furthering their education in traditional settings. More than two-thirds of illiterate adults in the world are women and their education can have an immense impact on societal development. When we think of learning in its cultural context through social interaction, this population presents a unique vantage point to test and extend our theoretical ideas. Second, the paper presents an exploratory case study that demonstrates how research on learning can guide human empowerment by addressing everyday problems and how addressing these problems, in turn, can contribute to our understanding of how people learn. Specifically, we present a design-based research and implementation case of a financial literacy tool constructed to assist learners in understanding the advantages of long-term investment. Our findings demonstrate the advantages of leveraging the local context to construct teaching aids and supports viewing learning as the creation and enactment of situated practices. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Over the past couple of decades most research on learning and education has concentrated primarily on educational and learning issues of importance to advanced industrialized societies (for exception see Kral and Heath (2013)). Salient issues addressed by researchers have focused on improvement of conceptual understanding or higher level thinking skills in science and mathematics and the use of advanced information technology. Furthermore, with the exception of some recent research, the community's attention has been on formal learning environments, particularly K-12 settings. This overall research agenda has been determined by institutional constraints, funding imperatives, and areas of national needs within the context of ‘developed’ countries. In order to increase the impact of research as well as improve the theoretical and empirical preciseness of our research we need to address issues that have been sidelined and we need to reach constituents other than those traditionally targeted by the research community. Of the many potential avenues available to researchers, one target area is the almost one billion illiterate adults in the world, most of which reside in South Asia with India having the largest number (UNESCO, 2008).2 Many of them, especially women, have lost the opportunity for formal education but are dependent on informal or non-formal learning for their empowerment and advancement. The education of this population is critical if they are to break the cycle of poverty that engulfs them and subsequently their children.3 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 540 231 0653. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Sharma), [email protected] (A. Johri). 1 Tel.: +1 540 231 4545. 2 http://www-01.sil.org/literacy/wom_lit.htm, http://www-01.sil.org/sil/annualreport/2003Report.pdf, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India 3 http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/fast-facts/english/FF-Poverty-Reduction.pdf, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/directory/women_and_poverty_3001.htm, http://www.euractiv.com/ specialreport-un-development-goa/un-failing-women-poverty-eradica-news-530504 2210-6561/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2013.10.003

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While seemingly novel within the context of current research efforts, analysis of non-industrialized settings has a significant lineage within the research on learning. Starting with studies by Cole and Scribner (1981), Lave (1987), Saxe (1990), and indirectly, even scholars such as Luria (1976), empirical findings from non-industrialized settings have significantly shaped research on learning. As a quick review of the field shows, ideas such as situated learning, legitimate peripheral participation, cognitive apprenticeship, and the integration of learning and everyday practices, as discussed for instance by Lave and Wenger (1991), have emerged primarily from ethnographic studies of non-industrialized communities (Lave, 1987). Their findings from settings as diverse as Papa New Guinea (Saxe, 1990) and Liberia (Lave & Wenger, 1991) have played a critical role in giving an understanding for the role of culture and social interaction in learning. Yet, if we examine the impact of learning research or even attempts to design learning in non-industrialized settings, the outcome has been minimum (for exceptions see Evans et al., 2008; Kral & Heath, 2013; Moed et al., 2009). There seems to be either the implicit assumption that what is good for most advanced societies is transferable and applicable to other settings or that learning is so contextually-bounded that it is not productive to even try and transfer lessons to settings different than those commonly found in industrialized societies. Consequently, educational institutions have started to look the same across middle higher-income level populations across the world, propagated in no small part by funding agencies, and what Rogoff (2003) describes as the Westernization of schooling,4 further increasing the disparity between the haves and have-nots as the opportunities are not equally available to everyone in the society. Although formal educational institutions are essential for imparting consistent education at a large scale, as argued by many learning scholars, informal or non-formal settings not only form a legitimate mechanism for learning applicable skills but in many contexts they are often a more potent mechanism, as illustrated by recent findings from the family math project (Martin, Goldman, & Jimenez, 2009). In this paper we present an exploratory empirical case study that demonstrates the critical role of informal learning in financial empowerment of women in rural India. The goal of our project was to improve participants understanding of financial matters to allow them to better manage their finances, including borrowing and lending, and consequently escape the trap of high interest rate applicable on loans available from the local moneylender. The institutional mechanism we leveraged for our project was microfinance linked self-help groups (SHGs) of women (described in-depth later). The women we worked with are illiterate, in some cases semi-literate, and are aware of the advantages of financial independence and willing to work towards their financial goals. What they lack is an understanding of how finances work, including concepts of simple and compound interest. Furthermore, given their lack of formal literacy skills they find abstract concepts hard to understand. In undertaking this work, we were motivated by two broad questions: how can theories of learning be applied to empower illiterate women and what role do we as researchers and designers play in this theory-practice transition? From inception, we believed strongly that research in uncommon contexts such as these, with non-traditional populations and non-traditional issues, can contribute significantly to broaden our understanding of how people learn. In the next section we discuss the theoretical framework for our work, followed by a description of our design-based research and implementation in detail. We end with a discussion of our findings. 2. Theoretical framework The social aspects of learning now form a core aspect around which learning environments are designed, with active, collaborative learning emerging as a legitimate model for learning (Greeno, 2006). Our theoretical underpinnings come from the same tradition but are specifically embedded in the embodied sociocultural tradition of teaching and learning. Our approach is best reflected in Rogoff's (1991, 1993) concept of guided participation (GP), a powerful metaphor that can be applied across settings, whether it is designing for formal education or for establishing and sustaining connections among communities, neighborhoods, schools or youth organizations (Kirshner, 2008). 2.1. Guided participation (GP) Rogoff proposes a sociocultural approach to understand development. Her approach, involves observation of development in three planes of analysis corresponding to personal, interpersonal, and community levels. Developmental processes corresponding with these three planes of analysis are termed, by her, as apprenticeship, guided participation, and participatory appropriation. She notes that the three planes are inseparable and mutually constituting and at different periods of analysis, the focus can shift from one to the other. Furthermore, empirically, understanding each of them requires the involvement of the others and the analytical distinction between them allows clarification and salience to different processes. In Table 1 we describe each plane in detail and how it relates to our project. Although all three planes are applicable in this work, we use guided participation as the primary foundation for our research and design, given our role as the designers and our focus on the SHG meetings as the primary setting for our work. Guided participation refers to means of access to specific, community-valued practice that is organized by shared goals. Guided participation describes the explicit and implicit rules, recipes, spontaneous feedback, and workarounds appropriated by new members desiring to participate more fully. Most importantly, guided participation highlights the need to connect more knowledgeable members with novices and encourages members to adopt diverse roles, referents, and devises 4 “Interventions such as introduction of Western schooling and other change efforts may not actually replace the more traditional ways of a community. But interventions do contribute to subtle and not so subtle changes (Rogoff, 2003, p. 352).”

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Table 1 Rogoff's three planes of development their linkages with our field site. Concept

Definition

Implication for this study

Apprenticeship

The metaphor of apprenticeship provides a model in the plane of community activity, involving active individuals participating with others in culturally organized activity that has as part of its purpose the development of mature participation in the activity by the less experienced people. The idea of apprenticeship necessarily focuses attention on the specific nature of the activity involved, as well as on its relation to practices and institutions of the community in which it occurs — economic, political, spiritual, and material. The concept of guided participation refers to the processes and systems of involvement between people as they communicate and coordinate efforts while participating in culturally valued activity. The “guidance” referred to in guided participation involves the direction offered by cultural and social values, as well as social partners; the “participation” in guided participation refers to observation, as well as hands-on involvement in an activity. The concept of participatory appropriation refers to how individuals change through their involvement in one or another activity, in the process becoming prepared for subsequent involvement in related activities. With guided participation as the interpersonal process through which people are involved in sociocultural activity, participatory appropriation is the (intra)personal process by which, through engagement in an activity, individuals change and handle a later situation in ways prepared by their own participation in the previous situation. This is a process of becoming, rather than acquisition.

SHGs are essentially based on the idea of apprenticeship. Through their participation over a long period of time newcomers are apprenticed into the practice. SHGs are also related to the community through their economic, material, and often, political aspects.

Guided participation

Participatory appropriation

SHG meetings are an instance of guided participation. In these meetings people communicate and coordinate efforts and participate in an activity that is valued within their context. The value of investing is highlighted in the activity and the other participants are social and economic equivalent. Members observe and then participate in hands-on activity. This is where our design was meant to “intervene” and increase their understanding of the process. Through participation in SHGs individual members develop a rudimentary understanding of financial matters, and more importantly, develop a habit of saving and investing. Over time, they understand the value of taking out loans and using that to make more money and investing it back. They become more financially independent.

while developing an understanding for future contribution. Specific instructional strategies include team-based learning, mentorship roles, informal interactions, and access to local and field expertise. “The concept of guided participation revises the idea of the zone of proximal development to include the development goals and means of communication of cultures other than those stressing literacy and academic analytical forms of discourse. The concept is also intended to address the everyday routine involvement of young middle-class children in the activities of their communities — involvement that is not captured in models of interaction based on didactic school lessons (1993, p. 233).” Furthermore, GP is especially relevant to our work given the informal, although structured, nature of the activities we examined and the stress on “tacit forms of communication in the verbal and nonverbal exchanges of daily life (Rogoff, 1993, p. 233).” Rogoff's focus with GP was primarily on examining how children learn as they “participate in and are guided by the values and practices of their cultural communities (2003; pg. 283–284)” and she stresses that GP “is not a particular method of support for learning (2003; pg. 283–284).” The idea of “guiding” or “guided”, as Rogoff argues, is intended to go beyond interactions that are intended as instruction in the typical sense, in contrast, they are focus on, “side-by-side or distal arrangements in which children participation in the values, skills and practices of their communities without intentional… It includes varying forms of participation in culturally guided activities through the use of particular tools and involvement with cultural institutions (2003; pg. 284).” From the perspective of our project, the central idea of GP, that “learning is a process of changing participation in community activities (2003; p. 284)” and of taking on new roles and responsibilities is the most applicable. Rogoff's assertion that, “Whether or not what is learned and the means used are desirable, I argue that such learning and interaction involve similar basic processes as well as distinct forms of guided participation around the world (2003; p. 284),” is something else that motivated the application of her thinking to our work and in essence also a test of it. 3. Microfinance and financial literacy Our initial research and design of the project was triggered by a challenge outlined at a major conference where people from all over the world gathered to discuss and illustrate how to design a better world by 2050. The majority of projects presented at the conference focused on state-of-the-art technologies and systems, such as electronic gadgets or automobiles, designed and developed specifically for consumption in advanced industrialized or emerging economies. In contrast, as one of the speakers in

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the conference pointed out, a key prediction is that 75% of the world would still be poor in 2050. Therefore, through our project team we decided to explore ways to reduce poverty in a meaningful and sustainable manner. A quick review of the existing literature and projects showed that any measurable positive impact came primarily from women-centered programs that targeted the empowerment of women.5 Of these, programs that supported entrepreneurial women by providing access to financial resources had a far-reaching multiplier effect on a range of development goals, including poverty reduction, child welfare and economic growth (UNESCO, 2008). Most significantly, female empowerment is reflected in increased spending by the family on children's education; a poor family with access to credit and opportunity is more likely to send their children, notably girls, to school (Holvoet, 2005). Further research showed that the strongest mechanism for imparting financial independence to rural women in developing economies is microfinancing.6 Microfinancing is a mechanism whereby small loans are given to poor people who are not eligible for bank loans by private non-bank financial organizations or more commonly by self-formed community of a member who pools together small sums of money and then lend it to community members. The most well-known example of a microfinance organization is Grameen Bank, a bank formed in Bangladesh by M. Yunus, which has assisted millions of people escape poverty (Yunus, Moingeon, & Lehmann-Ortega, 2010). Although seemingly easy to implement, one of the key problems identified in implementing microfinance initiatives is enrolling women in the program. This requires significant efforts as women have to be educated about the benefits of financial stability, loans, lending, credit, and other financial issues, which are often completely new concepts for them. This is further complicated by the negative connotation attached to borrowing as for most rural folks, particularly in the population which whom we worked, primary credit experiences are with a moneylender who charges exceedingly high interested rates (up to 50%) and leads to default where many borrowers lose their land leaving generations in poverty (Mallick, 2012).7 3.1. Microfinance in rural India — self help groups (SHGs) and challenges of financial literacy Organizationally, microfinancing in rural India for women works primarily through self-help groups (SHGs) (Kumaran, 1997). SHGs consist of women members who pool together a small sum of money to create a rotating funding mechanism that allows a member of the group to borrow a larger amount of money to be able to fund small business initiatives or emergency requirements. SHGs are an example of an “individual liability group lending” (Khavul, 2010) and consist of likeminded individuals who are below poverty line and in most cases are illiterate. The borrowing rate in an SHG is significantly lower than a moneylender in the village. Although their interest rate is higher than a bank, banks typically do not lend without significant collateral and are therefore unavailable to them as a resource. A SHG can consist of up to 20 members who meet every two weeks. SHGs are typically organized by NGOs who provide manpower as well as resources such as templates for managing accounts. The SHG members are encouraged to attend every meeting and required to contribute the essential savings (an amount they agree on) at each meeting. There is a fixed penalty assigned for missing a meeting/payment. Members can obtain a loan, with a fixed interest rate for a fixed duration, but they have to remember when the loan needs to be paid back, and at what rate. It is essential for the group to have a record of all transactions as this record forms the basis for their creditworthiness and allows them to become eligible to open a bank account and subsequently to borrow money for their group from a bank which allows them to borrow up to 20 times the savings as a loan. This overall complexity and lack of literacy among group members make it necessary for the group to hire an accountant who spends about 45 min per meeting recording the transactions. The payment for the accountant amounts close to 20% of their annual savings in the first year of the group's existence, about the same amount as the group is able to earn through interest on intra-group loans. Fig. 1 depicts the overall design, testing, and implementation of the product. We adopted a design-based research approach in the project. We describe our approach and process in the section that follows. 4. Design-based research approach We adopted a design-based approach in the project (Barab & Squire, 2004; DBRC, 2003; Hoadley, 2002; Kelly, 2004).8 Consistent with the design-based research approach, we mixed empirical research with theory-driven design of learning environments. Our innovation embodied a situated perspective of learning in which the overall immediate community – other SHG members – and the NGO facilitator played a critical supportive role in learning. Our approach resulted in the design of contextually relevant artifacts that leveraged local materials. Our approach to design was based on the years of product design experience held by the team and was projected in the goal to design usable and useful products. Through our design-based research approach we wanted to contribute directly to empowerment of women and overall human development. Our approach was supported by the interdisciplinarity of our team that consisted of learning scientists as well as industrial designers. To collect empirical data and to test the prototypes the team visited India several times. Initial data collection was consistent with an ethnographically-informed approach with an action-research orientation. Our design-based research did not follow pre-scripted 5

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/womenempowerment/overview.html http://www.ifad.org/media/news/2004/150204.htm http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126055117322287513.html 8 The idea of design – both design of an artifact-in-context as well as the design of the overall project and study – is a critical component of our work. Consequently, many different aspects of design thinking such as conviviality, capability, and design values, motivated our work and details of that aspect of our work are available in other publications (Johri & Nair, 2011; Johri & Pal, 2012; Johri & Sharma, 2012, 2013). 6 7

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steps and we recognized that the effectiveness of our product would have to constantly reflect the contexts, people, and values of the ultimate adopters (Kelly, 2004). There was a consistent interplay in our approach of design, research, theoretical considerations and the constraints of the real-world context in which our project was carried out (Joseph, 2004).

Phase 1: Identification of User Needs (Summer 2010) The failure rate of about 20% SHG is attributed to the high cost of book keeping in the initial years; their net profit after the first year is not significant enough for these 20% groups to continue with the operation.

Phase 2: Design of Bookkeeping Tool (Fall 2010) The development of a visual book keeping tool to allow the SHG members themselves to manage the book keeping process.

Phase 3: Testing of Bookkeeping Tool (Winter 2010) The first version of the product being tested with different SHGs in India with the help of our NGO partner. SHG members react positively to the tool but different SHGs have different feedback.

Phase 4: Design of Financial Literacy Game (Spring - Summer 2011) The second version of the tool, converted into a game, being designed. The basic idea and layout remains the same but more interaction is added to increase understanding of long-term investment as opposed to improvement of basic accountancy skills.

Phase 5: Testing of Financial Literacy Game (Summer 2011) The accountancy games being tested with SHGs. The users go through several iterations of the game to understand the benefits of engaging long term with microfinancing.

Phase 6: Digital Interface (Fall-Winter 2011) Current redesign to develop a digital component to be used by the facilitator for showing long term benefits beyond the first few years (as played in the game). The digital component will also allow calculations to respond quickly to member questions.

Fig. 1. Overall design-based research process.

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4.1. Data collection We collected data through video recordings, photographs, and informal conversations with participants. As a first step we visited different SHG sessions and recorded the sessions and had informal conversations with participants to understand their approach. We visited multiple SHGs as part of this process. Furthermore, a key informant was the person who worked at the NGO and was responsible for overseeing the different SHGs in a specific area. This person was able to provide us with important background information as well as give us documents about the NGO and SHGs. We were also able to get copies of the account registers and other artifacts used in the process of accounting. Once we commenced user testing, we recorded the entire session. Data analysis was iterative and took place at each stage of the project, especially as we worked on revising the designs. The feedback obtained in the field informed the subsequent design greatly. In addition to the researchers several students worked on the project and discussions took place that involved everyone and helped with synthesizing and interpreting the findings. All our data collection was overt and the participants were aware at all times about our research and data collection. We insured that our recording devices – recorders – were visible to the participants (Fig. 2). 4.2. Entry into the field From the inception of this project, we worked to develop a close relationship with microfinancing organizations to understand how they worked and how, if, we could assist them in their goals. The first step was to get embedded in an organization engaged in the promotion of microfinancing SHGs. Through a search on local government portals and online directories of NGOs active in this sector quickly helped us narrow down a list of organizations working in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, India. One large non-governmental organization (NGO) was very receptive to work with us and commented that, “It is very nice that you are trying to understand microfinancing and it is helping a large population in villages”. They outlined a few issues and challenges that they thought we could help them with, “The main problem is illiteracy; they just do not understand the process.” They also alerted us that they were under a lot of pressure to increase the number of women participating in SHGs, “We have to interact with the ministry officials, and they want growth in numbers.” The NGO described their system thus: “We have developed a fool proof system, all members have to sign (thumb impression) the minutes of each meeting which lists attendance, starting balance, ending balance and interest earned and then there are three copies of each sheet, one stays with the group, one stays with the accountant and one comes to the head office where it is entered into the computer system.” The design challenge they put forward for us was to “develop a system that helps the data collection process rather than worrying about the SHG members, we have the NGOs doing a great job in recruiting members and keep the movement going.” Overall, it was clear that the main office in Jaipur had done a great job in managing the records and presenting the big picture through numbers but when asked about the 18–20% failure rate in the first year itself, they simply blamed it on lack of understanding about the rules and regulations. 4.3. Phase 1 — ascertaining user needs These initial conversations led to further connections with field offices and opportunities to not only participate in SHG meetings but also ask questions, present views and in general absorb peculiar qualities of the SHG meeting environment. Few salient points that came up during this three week long period of being embedded in SHG meetings. As previously mentioned, SHGs are strongly supported by NGOs working in the microfinance sector. The NGOs encourage the formation of SHGs and play an important role in educating the members about the functioning of SHGs and likely benefits. SHGs are run by the members

Fig. 2. The authors at a SHG meeting during the later stages of the study (first author on the left).

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themselves but at each meeting a facilitator from the NGO is present. These facilitators play a pivotal role in the success or failure of the group. The first week of the group formation is devoted to training conducted by the facilitator and the sessions are very democratic in nature. The aim is to encourage participation by the members, discuss the long term and short term goals of the group, educate them about the process of running a SHG and the costs associated it. The NGO we worked with identified an initial problem and requested our assistance in addressing the issue. The problem they identified was that 15% of SHGs failed after the initial couple of years as they lost their motivation to participate given the low return on investment. The cost of bookkeeping in the first year seems high because new SHGs rarely focus on income generation through loans, especially in the first year, as their primary driver is savings pooled by members. In the first year, the income generated by interest is about 13% but at the same time the expenditure is 21%. The second year returns are 23% and by the seventh year, the net income, after all the expenses is 65% of the total savings. This problem is compounded by their expenditure on a professional accountant to help them maintain their books. Therefore, based on our interaction with the NGO our primary goal for the first iteration of the project was to design a product that involved the SHG members directly in their training, allowed the semiliterate user group to enter the financial details in a format understandable to them, and would create a resulting document that would fit seamlessly into the existing microfinance accounting procedures required by banks. Through this, we argued, the SHG will be able to maintain its own accounts thereby saving the cost of an accountant. We realized that our solution needed to be sensitive to the end user's everyday practices and be localized — use local handicrafts, colors and patterns prevalent in the SHG members' daily lives. Our solution also needed to be scalable for SHGs of different size and capacity, different schedules, different amounts for essential savings and voluntary savings. Finally, the solution had to be language independent with visual recording of different aspects of financial transactions. Overall, as suggested by our NGO partner, our primary goal was to reduce dependence on the accountant. Initially, the SHG members were reticent in their interactions with the researchers and only participated on encouragement by the NGO representative. After their initial skepticism was overcome and they realized that the goal of the researchers was to make the process better for them, they participated enthusiastically. At one stage, they asked the researchers to read the entries on the accounting ledger and explain what they meant. When the researcher replied that he did not know, they responded that if a “smart guy” like you “with glasses” cold not understand it, how could they make sense of it. During one of the initial meetings, when we asked members why they were participating in a SHG, the common response was that, “I have heard that this will get us more income, will not have to go to the baniya [local moneylender] each time we need to borrow a little bit.” There were also some misconceptions prevalent such as the notion that participation in a SHG will lead to larger loans that would not have to be repaid. One participant commented as such, “I have heard that once we do this for some time, the bank will give us a large loan that we do not have to give back.” Of course, other participants understood that this was not realistic and commented in jest, that, “Yes, absolutely, the gormant [government] is mad that they will just give you money?” When asked to elaborate how a SHG can help them with that, the responses were not about the specifics of mechanisms as much as they were about how a relative or acquaintance was able to do well financially through participation in a SHG. When asked to explain issues related to interest and how income was generated, they were at a loss of words. Following the directions of the group leader and the accountant were the most important aspects of the group. The members basically did what the group accountant asked them to do. So it was not a surprise to hear about disagreements between the accountant and group members when they realized that almost all of the income of the first year will go to the accountant as fees. Even though it is supposed to be a professional relationship, and the nature of relationship is described as such, the interactions between accountant and the SHG members were anything but strictly official and turned into socially advice-based relationships. The accountant not only manages the financial transactions but also helps and advises with any and all aspects of the SHG operation and management. It was a very interesting observation about the role of an accountant. It became clear that the accounting aspect is one of the most complicated part of an equation as well as one of the most contentious issues as well. On one hand accurate accounting and an efficient, knowledgeable accountant is an essential part of the process, the lack of which can result in complications, member dissatisfaction as well as fights and arguments among members on the other hand the fee associated with accounting is a major reason for disillusionment with the program especially in the case of newly formed groups. When asked to elaborate on their procedure for training SHG members, the NGO members in the field responded that, “We have to work very hard and many times to make sure that the women understand the cost of organizing a group, but more often than not, at the end of one year, it all just does not work. They keep saying the same thing, if all that we earned has to be given to the accountant, then why do it.” We then asked them to explain their training procedures and they explained that they used traditional teaching mechanisms that are common in more formal settings, “We try to show them movies, charts, ask them questions during the training period but it is always best to bring another lady from a different group that can explain them in their language (the way they understand) that they have to pay the accountant.” Training SHG members was not a pleasant experience, in some ways, for the NGO facilitators, as one of them explained, “It is sometimes funny as I have to teach a person twice my age as if I am teaching a nursery kid.” Overall, four villages were visited with the NGO representative and in each village new challenges and opportunities were uncovered for design to create a better and more efficient process for participants. The NGO facilitators' remarks about how they trained using traditional schooling practices drew our attention and became a focal point for the redesign.

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4.4. Phase 2 & 3 — design and testing of bookkeeping tool The actual design of the product was undertaken over a five-week period in September–October of 2010. Due to limitations of time and resources, the project focused on the simplest possible alternative to a traditional ledger-based bookkeeping methodology. Traditional ledgers, as used by SHGs, are complicated for the novice user. Using the findings from the preliminary field study the design team simulated a microfinance meeting using an enlarged image of a page from the ledger of a group meeting. The daily routine of members from the SHG in question was examined in detail and various stakeholders were identified. During the simulated meetings the names of students were written in a foreign language, which none of the teammates could read, but after a few meetings, they could visually identify their names. Colored papers were cut into currency sizes represented the bills in a foreign currency. The scenarios gave designers a very good idea of the reality on the ground as they had to rely on visual identification of their names, identify the bills by their color, and conduct a complicated transaction of collecting essential savings as well as recording them in a way that would be transparent and provide a traceable method to check for mistakes. The SHG meetings were enacted a number of times, leading to better-resolved prototypes. The initial prototypes fell into two categories: one, the “box” model, and another, the fabric “book” model. The box model offered individual slots in which each member could insert her savings; the slots would be marked by a visual pattern created by the member herself. The second model actually came out of the box prototype and after testing proved to be the more flexible of the two alternatives. The team decided to proceed with the book model and developed it further. This idea deals with the two most important aspects of the process in a very simple and visual manner. One is to ensure payment of the essential savings from each member present by providing each member her own area with four pockets, one for each meeting, as well as a bigger pocket for loan repayment. A missed meeting is evident by an empty pocket; hence the prototype also provides evidence of attendance. The book idea seemed to work on many levels as it could be made by the group as a community activity. It could be created using local material and each member could craft a specific part of the system that denotes her area within the book. The idea of creating a set of guidelines and then letting the SHG actually make the product has the potential for better acceptance. The book prototype was used for keeping track of 20 meetings by the design team. The system was effective in enabling users to record their savings in a visual manner, and, as previously mentioned, it also successfully recorded absences so the group accountant could assess penalties. Over a course of 22 meetings, the group of students who could not understand the language and the currency bills were able to successfully record their financial transactions.

4.4.1. Testing During the field test of the system in India, the groups were given enough play money to simulate five meetings. The first meeting was supervised, and enough directions were given to the users to rectify any mistakes they might have made. Specific pointers were also provided to the whole group regarding the way the system works. The assisted first meeting also reflected the standard practice of the first week of training which is part of the standard operating procedure in SHGs. There were no mistakes made either by the SHG members or the group accountant as reflected in the entries made by the accountant. The time needed to transfer information from our solution to a standard ledger was about 5–7 min each meeting which amounts to less than 45 min for five meetings. This compared to the 45 minutes scheduled for each meeting at present is a very favorable result. The idea of saving more excited the users and they were very eager to try out the new system. Saving more money created the spark even if it meant more work for the users. The prototype worked at multiple levels and received positive feedback in the areas of ease of use, acceptance and effectiveness in visual documentation of the process. The participants were enthusiastic and responded that, “We will learn to use this if it means that it will help us save more money.” Another commented that, “The accountant will hate this,” which was followed by a collective laughter. The participants identified immediately with the form of the design and commented, “It is simple enough to use.” After seeing the use of local materials, they responded that “We can make it ourselves.” The idea was introduced to four groups of 15 members each and the response depended on the age of the group. Relatively new SHGs, three of the four in our sample, responded very positively to the product we designed. In all aspects – appearance, usability, and learning – the design was a success among these groups. Surprisingly, for us, an old SHG which had been in existence for 7 years rejected the system and argued that it had considerable income to easily support an accountant and was not interested in learning how to keep their books. This group provided positive feedback for all the usability related aspects of the book keeping system but when asked if they would be willing to use the system for keeping track of their transactions, their response was negative. The idea of using a system to keep financial records, even if it means more income for the group, was simply not acceptable. “You have no clue what you are doing.” “The accountant is most important part of the puzzle, he understands how the whole system works and can give us very good advice. If it was not for him, we would not be as successful as we are now.” They reiterated that “We do not want to learn accounting, if we could do that, we would not be part of this group.” This group has realized the potential of generating more income through loans and interest earned on the loans. “You do not understand the importance of keeping accurate records of all our transactions, if we make a mistake, will you pay the difference?” The bookkeeping expense, given the accuracy provided by the accountant, is actually generating more income in the form of better chances of getting a bank loan, less chances of making a mistake and focusing on the long and short term objectives of the group. They forcefully commented that, “The groups that think accountant is an expense is going to fail, you will see.”

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“This is hard work, it is not a game, one has to be in it for a long time, or go out and get a loan and keep paying it back for the rest of your life.” This group really understood the connection between income and ensuring that they loaned out as much of their savings as possible. In the seventh year of their operation, the income was significantly more than 75% of their total turnover which included large loans from banks. Therefore, for the next stage our goal changed from teaching basic bookkeeping to educating about a long-term vision of finance. 4.5. Phase 4 & 5 — design and testing of game for financial literacy The feedback from the more experienced group provided insights and inspiration to take a fresh look at what the visual book keeping system could accomplish from the point of view of the end user. We undertook a careful analysis of the system we had designed and engaged in extensive discussions with experts in microfinancing sector to help refine the focus of the project. Consequently, it went from a short term stop gap solution to an overarching solution that connects with the larger goal of a SHG rather than dealing with the details at the process level. We decided to turn the accountancy system into a game based on a ‘floor’ game pattern inspired by a traditional floor game in India to enable the members to learn about the advantages of lending and savings over the long term. This solution not only provides a context relevant to the end user but also allows more space around it for the members to integrate with the system. The game consists of imitation currency notes in various denominations for savings and interest deposits. The money is used for the essential savings, payment of interest, purchasing the supplies needed for running the group and providing loans to the members. Further, flash cards are used for encouraging the members to discuss the objectives and share them with rest of the group. These are designed to be context sensitive at the same time provide a visual reference point for the objective. The visuals on the cards provide easy identification and also have a value written on the card. These are part of a system – an intervention – and play an important role in encouraging interaction with each other and provide a sense of ownership among the group members for the organization. A book keeping ledger for the facilitator is provided. It is the same ledger that is used once the group starts functioning. Using the ledger authenticates the training process and also familiarizes the members with the concept of accurate book keeping. During training, a discussion is initiated by the NGO facilitator to start a conversation regarding what is important, and what is less important. The discussion is contextually relevant and for a SHG in a weaver neighborhood the topics include purchase of raw materials for their looms, purchase of a new loom, better infrastructure, purchase of fuel, purchase of cattle, and loans for wedding ceremonies. The facilitator helps the members divide these cards into three different groups. The cards are arranged in a manner that the least expensive objectives are kept on the outside and the more expensive aims are towards the inside of the arrangement. Given the lack of formal literacy skills which makes it hard to understand abstract concepts, we used images and visuals to the extent possible. Each member, based on their needs, picks up these visual cards. The facilitator has enough of these cards so that each member can start with a set that represents her needs and wants. This is also the first lesson for the members on the importance of engaging in group discussions. The facilitator initiates a supplementary discussion at this time to encourage the members who did not participate the first time. It is important for the members to understand the importance of participation in discussions. The facilitator also creates cards that signify the long term objective of the group. This card will not only have the objective illustrated but also the time that the group thinks it is going to take them. The next part of the discussion will be about the group's perception about how much income will be generated, how much they think it is going to cast them to run the SHG and the facilitator writes those numbers down in the recording sheet. This addresses the popular perception that the cost of running a SHG is very minimal, or zero and the rate of return is not very clear as well. It also establishes a basis for comparison at a later stage in the process, where the numbers can provide a more accurate picture of the process. The next day facilitator comes back with the printed ID cards for the members and they are given a fixed amount of imitation money to start the SHG process simulation. This also establishes equality among the members. At this point, the members are aware of the short term and long term goals, the collective group objective and they feel ownership in the SHG. The facilitator initiates the meeting and a leader is assigned. The cards are then inserted into the slots, so each member has a place on the system. The assistant for that meeting helps collect the essential savings for the first meeting and the money is counted by the leader (all done using fake currency notes). The leader takes out a fee for the book keeper and other expenses like stationary items for the SHG. This amount is kept in expenses pocket of the system. The remaining amount is available for loans by the members. Members with cards of value less than or equal to the amount of available savings have the option of taking out the loan. The group, in consultation with the member, decides on the loan, the amount and how long the members think it would take them to repay the loan. A visual representation is created of who got the loan, for what duration, what was the purpose and how much interest was earned by the group. It does not require reading or writing as an essential skill, but creates an engaging, experiential model for the members to interact and extract the information. The same sequence is repeated till the last SHG meeting of the year. The completion of the first year is represented by the facilitator placing a card with number one in the central square of the visual system. At this point, a summary of the year is presented to the group, with the help of the group leader for that meeting. The facilitator talks about the total savings by the group, total amount in circulation as loans, income earned through interest, penalties etc. and the total expenditure of running the group for one year. By simulating these meetings, the members understand and experience the following aspects of the SHG operation. The process is repeated for another two years. We have described the design of the game in detail to show the complexity involved in designing and implementing the system and the stress placed by us in creating new practices of training that involved the members more fully in their learning. At

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each step we also had to ensure that rather than relying on abstract symbols and representations we actually leveraged the material aspects of the game to ensure that lack of literacy does not become a barrier for the member. The system encourages engagement through a simple interface that presents the complex financial transactions in a user friendly manner for the members of the group. It provides them visual clues for important points in the system like the due date for a loan or a cluster meeting that needs to be attended by representatives of the group. The system helps members keep track of all the financial transactions and provides a platform where they do not have to depend on a book keeper to inform them of the details. The testing of this game resulted in further opportunities for refinement. We noticed that as the facilitator engaged in the training, members, who had become greatly involved in the game, asked the facilitator questions about their personal loans and interests and what they would owe in the future — questions that were not easy to answer immediately. When we discussed this with the facilitator he remarked that although there is an electronic system at the NGO office (and a calculator), he did not have any easy way to answer these questions quickly in the context of the SHG meeting. We decided to target this need in our next design iteration. 4.6. Phase 6 & 7: digitizing the game to address complex questions (and plans for testing) To provide the facilitator the ability to answer questions about future finances of the SHG and individual members, we are designing a system implemented on a Tablet (it can also be used on a Smartphone). We decided to use this platform, as opposed to a mobile phone for instance, since the form factor makes it easy to share the information at a SHG meetings. Information sharing is important for reasons of transparency and as a way to leverage the information as a ‘teaching moment.’ The system will not only show future finances for the SHG at SHG rates but also comparative figures for what it would cost to take a loan from the moneylender and from a bank. The figures for a bank are lower and are used as a motivator to ensure that SHG stays on track and can qualify for a bank loan in the future. We also envision that the system will reduce the burden on the facilitator of entering the data as the facilitator has to maintain duplicate records, electronically and on paper, for each meeting in case something happens to the physical ledger (and/or the copy of the ledger). 5. Discussion Through this design-based research case study, we demonstrate the importance of contextual design and implementation of artifacts designed to educate non-traditional learners. Our research and design effort show the changing goals of educational implementations and the need to incorporate those changes in later designs. Although our approach did not follow a design-based research methodology strictly, as we did not control the implementation environment completely, it still aligned with its basic principles. Consistent with the experience of Bannan-Ritland and Baek (2008), our design steps were a result of direct experience and not of a preconceived theory. Direct experience with participants within their context was central to our study and design. Furthermore, we emphasized interaction between, us, the researchers, and the participants, as well as among the participants. In our efforts to improve financial independence, we realized that we had to start with improving the financial literacy of SHG members. At first, we targeted the initial stage of the SHG meetings in order to make members take control of their accountancy but quickly realized that the real need was for an understanding of how finances worked over the long term. We learned through our testing, from the SHG with over 7 years of experience, the cost of an accountant became insignificant if the SHG ensured that it lent out all its money and earned interest continuously. Furthermore, having money with you is seen as positive and it is hard to imagine that giving it away is the way to grow it. The change from loaner to lender is a change in conception as well as identity. They have to take on another identity in their role as part of the group (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This shift is not easy and empowerment is inherently about guiding them towards this change. Research on learning has time and again emphasized that learning and education are deeply intertwined with everyday practices and this case study revisits and supports that claim. In addition, the findings from this work reemphasize the importance of understanding and implementing educational interventions as a mechanism to create new practices. Financial literacy entails not just a novel way of thinking about money, but a new way of ‘doing’ money — of lending and borrowing. Furthermore, an intervention such as the one designed and implemented by us works not as a short term or small change but as long term shift in practices. In our case, this change was hard to design and implement as meta-cognitively and we had to understand the barriers faced by the women even though we were living in a different context than they were. We were able to finally understand how to approach our design when we reflected on how our intervention itself was about changing practices over time but implemented in a manner where working on the game for a short while leads to learning gains. In the same vein, we had to teach the women long-term thinking about finance in a context, rural India, that values the short-term. The everyday living practices in the rural settings are enacted in the short term. Their earnings are limited and are spent quickly — usually daily wages spent on objects for daily use. The longest time period the participants can imagine is a crop season. Money made from crops is used for seeds and fertilizers and the cycle begins again. In this context thinking long-term is hard and the emphasis on the short term is emphasized by people around you as they are focused on the short term as well. We realized that the problem in teaching was not really about the inability to use abstract symbols, although that was part of the problem, but it was in understanding the true cognitive gap and then designing an intervention to overcome that gap. As scholars have previously argued, introduction of new material artifacts into any situated practice, particularly with the aim of learning and teaching, have to be not only designed contextually but also take into account the social and physical infrastructure around the devise (Bielaczyc, 2006; Star & Ruhleder, 1994).

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At the actual level of the design of the artifact and the game played by the SHG members we have made use of other frameworks from the situative learning perspective, in addition to Rogoff's concept of guided participation. For instance, the idea of ‘distributed cognition’ (Hutchins, 1995; Pea, 1993) was an important framework that influenced the use of an artifact as a way to engage participants in their learning process. Furthermore, and a related idea, was that of an ‘activity system’ (Engeström, 1993) which emphasizes tool use within a community with specific division of labor an intended outcome that moves the community towards some larger goals. In this scenario, the larger goals were financial security and independence through accomplishing the objective of making the meetings efficient. Other notions, such as ‘transactive memory’ (Hollingshead, 1998) are also at play here. Over time the SHG develops an understanding of who knows what, who is good at what, and how people are at repaying their loans. This knowledge is critical for productive long term functioning as non-payment of borrowed amount is taken extremely seriously and is one of the few issues that can lead to eviction from the group. Issues of diversity and power, discussed thoroughly in the literature, are evident in this context as well. For instance, one of the key barriers to borrowing money for many of the SHGs is that they are from a lower caste and money lenders are traditionally from higher caste. This implicit barrier also works against them as they are unable to communally learn about financial literacy and form and maintain groups that can lead directly to loans from banks. Knowledge is restricted to communities. The issue of power was also evident in the interactions between the SHG members, the accountant and the NGO representative. The accountant, because of his/her knowledge about matters of finance, and the NGO representative through external power vested in him as the facilitator of the process, were both seen as power holders and had to work hard to make the NGO members see them as just another part of the process. For instance, in one of our observations we saw a significant conflict around the issue of how much money can and should be loaned out. One SHG created a rule that the maximum amount that can be loaned out to a member is Rs. 5000 (~$100). But one of the members was loaned out Rs. 6500 (~$130) at one stage. In the subsequent meeting a controversy arose around why that member received more than the minimum loan amount. Another member that tried to explain that after loaning the maximum amount of Rs. 5000 the SHG still had Rs. 1500 remaining which, if not loaned out, will not return any interest and thus will be a loss. Therefore, the group decided that if someone wanted it, they should be able to loan that amount. Therefore, the person who was taking out the Rs. 5000 loan decided that she would take the whole amount and was thus given the complete amount. Finally, we observed that many NGOs trained SHG by traditional formal schooling methods. This involved standing in front of a blackboard and writing symbols to represent the issues at hand — an approach that failed in imparting a deep understanding of issues at hand. Therefore, in the game we designed we introduced many interventions that resulted in dialogue among the members thereby increasing their understanding of the issues at hand. Furthermore, as this discussion was among peers, rather than directed from the facilitator, it was received without implicit power differentials. As we discussed earlier, our work was motivated primarily by Rogoff's concept of “guided participation.” Our participation in this project raised some interesting questions for us about the concept. For instance, we were not part of the community of SHG members but were still guiding their participation in their practices. This forced us to reflect on the idea of expertise and how does one get expertise if it is not found within the community. Any given community is part of a larger environment and operates within that context. In the long term, changes in how humans live their lives undergoes significant changes and often some communities are isolated enough that they do not feel the pressure of these changes and are inert to ‘development’ that occurs around them. Yet, this ‘advantage’ can also become a hindrance to the skills required to function appropriately and productively in the changed environment. In developing countries, particularly India, this contrast is stark as urban areas are changing rapidly even though the rural areas are still insulated from these changes. There is downside here as economic progress gets centralized in urban areas leading to mass migration of youth from rural to urban areas (e.g. China). Therefore, economic progress is essential to a certain extent in rural areas if they are to participate in the nation. Our research highlights the difficulty of doing this as rural areas are dependent, at least for ideas, on outsiders and external knowledge even though they might be able to generate capital internally. This problem is not new and one long term example of this are agriculture extension programs that were created specifically to overcome this issue of lack of knowledge within a rapidly changing society and the integration of new knowledge about farming and crops into the villages. In this specific case the NGO members and to some extent we researchers were playing the role of knowledge brokers and trying to introduce new ways of doing things. We do not argue that the idea of compound interest was new to all SHGs but the fact that it was a critical breaking point and how to overcome it in SHG with less capital was something that we – as outsiders – became cognizant of and tried to address. Through her examination of informal learning across communities, Lave (1991) (p. 71), argues that it is “rarely the case that individual apprentices must take the initiative in getting someone to teach them in order to learn in circumstances where ongoing everyday activity provides structuring resources for learning.” Furthermore, she argues, gradually increasing participation and relations and activities with more and less adept peers also structure learning. Our case demonstrates that although this is true of existing practices, this does not account for how practices change over time — sometimes internally but quite often externally. Newcomers in tightly knit communities are often not accorded the agency to make changes to existing practices. Our design of activities directly targeted changing existing practices in order to improve financial stability of the population and increase financial inclusion. This required a mix of leveraging existing practices but also introduce new elements that strengthened existing practices and overcame some of the ‘deficiencies’ of existing practices. Rogoff (2003) does discuss cultural change at a large scale that shapes communities and she argues that, “historical cultural changes contribute to the ways of thinking and living in which current generations live (p. 327).” Furthermore, she comments, “Whether or not the pace of change is faster than before, recent changes have certainly stepped up the pace at which different parts of the world are in contact with each other (2003, p. 328).” This observation is well supported by our work. Our design-based research approach also finds concurrence with her proposal that rather than “trying to substitute one cultural approach for another, communities can build on idea across different

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cultural approaches, encouraging people to become fluent in more than one way (2003, p. 329).” By working with more than one SHG we were able to leverage the lessons learned by groups across a range of diverse values and the advantage, as Rogoff argues, was that this provided “cognitive and social flexibility and the potential for new syntheses of cultural ways (2003, p. 331).” This work provides evidence for Rogoff's argument through a study of expatriate researchers going ‘back’ to intervene in existing and ongoing cultural practices with the intention to change things for the better. This study adds to our understanding of situated learning by elaborating on the idea of design-based research and design experiments. Most of that work has taken place in forma environments and design of curriculum and classroom activities have been its main focus. This work extends that informal environments and design with informants as participants. This we argue is critical for contextually relevant activities. In a formal classroom the subject or domain is usually dictated by experts and standards, in our case the concept of interest, which they knew, was leveraged. We also adopted culturally relevant materials — we show how learners can be a part of the design activity and in these contexts it is probably essential to involve them. This is in keeping with our goal of empowerment — they are partners in improving their financial situation. Finally, as Kirshner (2008) argues, “If this literature is to continue to develop in ways that are generative for theory and practice, it needs to acknowledge a greater degree of heterogeneity across nonschool contexts. Dichotomous contrasts between apprenticeship and classroom, informal and formal, or everyday versus academic overstate the consistency found in elective learning environments (p. 96).”

6. Conclusion In this paper we present a case study of a financial literacy project carried out in rural India. Through this study we show how research on situated learning can guide design and development of artifacts and practices that can serve the needs of low-resourced communities in developing economies and have an immense impact on societal development. We identify the challenges of learning faced by illiterate and semi-literate adult women and demonstrate how we used a design-based research approach in conjunction with learning science principles to design teaching aids and practices to improve their financial literacy. Finally, we show how research in this context can be tied to informal learning research within industrialized settings and benefit from leveraging a more communal approach. We raised some concerns with our understanding of situated learning and the lack therein of how external ideas can become part of the practices of a community. Our work suggests several possible directions for future research. It makes visible as yet unexplored context for learning sciences research. It calls for revisiting the role of materiality and informal learning practices for imparting adult education. It introduces within design-based research the centrality of design of material artifacts as a way to think about and create learning practices. Finally, it argues for a closer look at curriculum design and the design of learning practices where the content and how it is presented, or how learners engage with the content, are context dependent and therefore their implementation is what is important. Acknowledgments The primary conceptualization of the work and the field study reported here were done by the first author and manuscript preparation and partial field work were done by the second author. The study presented here is part of a larger collaborative research program of the two authors and portions of the study presented here build on work reported in other joint publications (Johri & Sharma, 2012, 2013). We thank our research participants and our students who worked on this project. This work was partly funded by NSF CAREER Award#EEC-0954034 to the second author. References Bannan-Ritland, B., & Baek, J. Y. (2008). Investigating the act of design in design research. In A. E. Kelly, R. Lesh, & J. Baek (Eds.), Handbook of design research methods in education: Innovations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning and teaching. New York: Routledge. Barab, S., & Squire, K. (2004). Design-based research: Putting a stake in the ground. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 1–14. Bielaczyc, K. (2006). Designing social infrastructure: Critical issues in creating learning environments with technology. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15(3), 301–329. Cole, M., & Scribner, S. (1981). The psychology of literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Design-Based Research Collective (DBRC) (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 5–8. Engeström, Y. (1993). Developmental studies on work as a testbench of activity theory. In S. Chaiklin, & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 64–103). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Evans, M., Johri, A., Gasson, G., Cagiltay, K., Pal, J., & Sarkar, P. (2008). ICT4D and the learning sciences. The Proceedings of International Conference of Learning Sciences 2008, Vol. 3. (pp. 229–236). Greeno, J. G. (2006). Learning in activity. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 79–96). New York: Cambridge University Press. Hoadley, C. P. (2002). Creating context: Design-based research in creating and understanding CSCL. In G. Stahl (Ed.), Computer support for collaborative learning 2002 (pp. 453–462). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hollingshead, A. B. (1998). Communication, learning, and retrieval in transactive memory systems. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34(5), 423–442. Holvoet, N. (2005). The impact of microfinance on decision-making agency: Evidence from south India. Development and Change, 36, 75–102. Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Johri, A., & Nair, S. (2011). The role of design values in information systems development for human benefit. Information Technology and People, 24(3), 281–302. Johri, A., & Pal, J. (2012). Capable and convivial design: A framework for designing information and communication technology for human development. Information Technology for Development, 18(1), 61–75.

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