Frictions that activate change: dynamics of global to local non-governmental organizations for female education and empowerment in China,India, and Pakistan*

This article examines how non-governmental organizations create resources and spaces for girls and women’s education and empowerment in China, India and Pakistan – in the context of global expectations and local state relations as well as cultural norms. We examine the dynamics that foster female empowerment associated with educational attainment. Analysis showed that the five NGO’s responses to enabling and constraining local needs and demands gave rise to productive friction that activated positive development. We conclude that engaging local individuals as managers, teachers or facilitators who can negotiate with international actors and with the state is an effective foundation for maintaining a balance between being accountable to local contingencies and norms and to global social justice principles of the projects. These models indicated that “effective scale” might better be defined as a collaboration between the local and global, rather than “scaling up” in size.

International NGO partnerships with several of state organizations and local leadership can be a catalyst for fundamental change, subject to dynamic engagement with productive friction that activates educational empowerment and social change.     

Educational neoliberalization: the mediatization of ethical assertions in the voucher debate

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the evolving ethical claims and empirical evidence being advanced within U.S. media relating to voucher-style programs. As such, the research seeks to better understand how and why these policies proliferate, despite scant evidence recommending them. Our specific media focus reflects the recognition that issues, problems, and solutions are defined and set within ‘ethical’ frameworks through the media, often in efforts to influence the polity. Framed by the concept of ‘neoliberalization’, the analysis notes dominant discourses and activities by both advocates and opponents around the issue. Specifically, the research reveals shifting ethical assertions. Media-based ‘choice for all’ advocacy, and support of generalized parent choice/empowerment via voucher reforms, have become more prominent, while advocacy related to expanding choice for the disadvantaged has receded (though with certain high-profile exceptions). Meanwhile, opponents engage in what sometimes appears as more reactionary, though still active, media participation in seeking to challenge such reforms.     

Interrogating an omission: the absence of a rights-based approach to education in World Bank policy discourse

This study provides a discursive analysis of World Bank policy documents in order to reveal the stark omission of a rights-based approach to education, while highlighting instead the support of an economic-instrumentalist approach. Plausible explanations are provided to shed light on this exclusion, including the feasibility critique of education as a right, and the Bank's limited institutional mandate. However, the rationales are presented as unsound and unacceptable justifications for the omission. By drawing on Amartya Sen's theoretical work on human rights and development policy frameworks, this study concludes by arguing for the Bank to integrate into their mandate a conception of education as a human right.     

Importing mosque pedagogy from Turkey: an analysis of contextual factors shaping re-contextualisation processes in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

This article explores how mosque pedagogy was imported from Turkey through imams who were appointed to the Netherlands, and textbooks developed and printed in Turkey. Furthermore, this article examines how a range of contextual factors have reshaped the imported pedagogy in mosque classes. The factors identified in the analysis include language policies, the influence of pedagogical practices in mainstream Dutch schools, concerns about student motivation, and in the backdrop of fears of cultural alienation and assimilation in a Western context, the imperative of nurturing an Islamic and Turkish identity among ethnic minority children. This paper is based on a case study in a Turkish mosque in the Netherlands. The findings demonstrate how a myriad of individual, societal, cultural and institutional factors reshaped imported pedagogy. At the same time, this paper highlights how mosque pedagogy is not only an educational matter but increasingly immersed within competing societal and political agendas of two states.     

The Buddhist approach to education: an alternative approach for sustainable education

This article is based on research undertaken as part of a study of sustainable school design in Thailand. Since school design solutions are inevitably affected by educational theory and practice, in the search for appropriate building solutions, it has been necessary to review Thai educational theories and practices that relate to the sustainability approach. Recently, there have been several attempts at the international level to respond to sustainability concepts and practices in both educational and architectural fields. These have included changes to the physical building through the introduction of techniques like passive solar cooling, and curriculum changes such as the use of native plants in the school grounds for science teaching. In Thailand, sustainable practices in both fields appear to be in their infancy. This article aims to explore one current Thai educational practice that presents the possibility of responding to sustainability concepts via culturally sensitive education. The practice is based on the three Buddhist principles of learning: sila sikkha (moral conduct); samadhi sikka (mind training); and panna sikkha (wisdom development). In this holistic approach, the principles are practised simultaneously and can be applied to many dimensions, including personal, family, school and communal levels, to cultivate responsive sustainable living practices for the learners. Because the majority of Thai people are Buddhists, this approach may be an alternative way of developing sustainable education in Thailand. It also presents a way to apply local knowledge to promote sustainable ways of living in particular contexts. This may be the first step in the development of sustainable school design in Thailand and could become an integrated part of the country's sustainable systems.     

Conflict,education and the global south: New critical directions

This paper seeks to provide a starting point for a broader discussion on the development of a critical research agenda in the field of ‘Education and Conflict Studies’. We begin the paper with a brief overview of the field of Education and Conflict drawing on a series of recent ‘overviews’ of the field and locate this within the context of the changing geo-political situation that emerged in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. This is followed by explaining what we understand by a critical research agenda and why we think it necessary. Thirdly, we explore a series of potentially interesting areas of inquiry that are currently absent or undeveloped within the field and which relate particularly to its ‘global’ dimension. Finally, we conclude by making some more reflective comments on our approach, its potential for making a positive contribution to both theory and practice within the field of Education and Conflict, and the need for more critically informed, but policy relevant research in this emerging area of inquiry.     

Taming cosmopolitanism: the limits of national and neoliberal civic education in two global cities

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes global education policy and curricular documents in Singapore and Hong Kong. Using a discursive approach, we characterize curricular aims through various cosmopolitan perspectives. We posit that although touted as Asian global cities, Singapore and Hong Kong are cases where neoliberal and nation-centric educational agendas have effectively rebranded cosmopolitanism and tamed its transformative potential. To develop this argument, we review theories and critiques of cosmopolitan forms of global citizenship education deemed necessary to prepare young people for complex global social conditions. We discuss cosmopolitan principles on identity, values, and deliberation and draw on critical cosmopolitanism and Asian forms of cosmopolitanism to provide a discursive framework for analyzing curricular intentions in the two cases.     

Refusing to settle for pigeons and parks: urban environmental education in the age of neoliberalism

The institutionalization of neoliberal reforms that began to take hold in the 1970s were by and large ‘common-sense governance’ by the 1990s. While the growing predominance of neoliberal discourse and marginalization of alternatives in environmental education is disconcerting on the level of policy, this paper explores an equally troubling phenomenon: the deepening of a neoliberal logic, such that it pervades the way we understand and relate with the world. Specifically, this paper draws upon an experience at a recent environmental education conference whereby participants were invited to explore three place-based inquiries inspired by Aldo Leopold in an urban environment: what is happening here? what has happened here? and what should happen here? Although the intention of the workshop was to explore some of the challenges involved in implementing a critical pedagogy of place, many of the participants seemed unwilling to criticize the way in which an urban downtown core suppresses the more-than-human aspects of place. We contend that environmental education is a key arena for debating the limits of neoliberalism and explore how these well-intentioned, but ultimately uncritical responses, run the risk of being appropriated by the ecologically destructive logic-informing neoliberal natures.     

The appropriation of the global discourse in the formulation of national education policies: a case of continuing education of teachers in Greece

Educational research over the last decades has been preoccupied with the way the global discourse has been employed in national educational policy making. Examining a case of teachers’ continuing education in Greece, the paper focuses on the way this global discourse has been selectively appropriated by national agents.

Using data of focused interviews with key agents and the content analysis of policy documents, the paper examines the institutionalisation process arguing that (Greek) education policy is not always subject to rational planning, or global imperatives, but involves informal networks which interact parasitically inside formal policy networks to further sectoral interests.     

Negotiating gender norms in the context of equal access to education in north-western Tigray,Ethiopia

Girls in Tigray region in North Ethiopia have over the past decade started to outnumber boys up through primary and secondary education in terms of enrolment rates. But underage marriage still hampers rural girls’ pursuit of education. Left unchallenged by governmental efforts to address marriage of underage girls is the female virginity ideal and the burden of sexual morality which girls continue to shoulder, and that sustains the practice. It is also a fact that despite positive enrolment rates, girls score on average lower than boys on the national exams. This article explores whether the modesty that girls are socialised into through the virginity ideal in order to acquire respect in the community impinges on the assertive drive and energy necessary for educational success. This ethnographic study, which focused on gendered processes of social reproduction and change by utilising education as the site for investigation, is based on long-term involvement in the administrative district Asgede Tsimbla Wereda in north-western Tigray from 1993 to the present. What will be addressed here are gender norms that continue to be reproduced in spite of the significant changes in Ethiopia’s laws and policies to amend former gender injustice, and which have brought unprecedented numbers of Ethiopian girls into school.     

How (German) foundations shape the concept of education: Towards an understanding of their use of discourses

In this article I examine how foundations use the concept of education and how they try to shape its definition and implementation. In accordance with Steven Lukes’ notion, I argue that changes in social fields are mainly triggered by normative and semantic shifts. By drawing on techniques of discourse analysis, I explore the use of discursive strategies and the discursive interpretations of education, as both its definition and its operationalization have consequences on the identification of educational needs and outcomes. It is shown that foundations regard the use of education as an opportunity to influence values, traditions, and future generations. Furthermore, foundations take part in debates on education in order to increase social influence, to be accepted as legitimate actors in education, and to be perceived as competent and indispensable players in defining educational goals.     

Students’ unions and consumerist policy discourses in English higher education

ABSTRACT

This article centres on the recent Higher Education and Research Act 2017 in England and the consultation documents leading to the legislation. I will start by arguing that the reform promotes consumerist understanding of students. Guided by Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, I will further explore the ways in which five students’ unions from England and their sabbatical officers understand and respond to the consumerist policy discourses. The unions’ official responses to the government’s consultation demonstrated a strong opposition to the reform, particularly against the tuition fee increase and metrics used to measure teaching quality. The follow-up interviews with sabbatical officers, however, highlighted that this opposition can often be fragmented by consumerist counterarguments. The interviewees emphasised consumer rights as benefiting students and the unions. The differences between the written and verbal discourses will be discussed, and the reasons for a lack of consistency in the participants’ discourses questioned in relation to their relationship with the university management and wider student population they represent.     

Mediatizing higher education policies: discourses about quality education in the media

This article presents a critical–political discourse analysis of the media debate over quality assurance in higher education, which occurred in Chile after the 2011 student movement. Students criticized the privatization of higher education and the multiple flaws of this sector, which included corruption scandals during the process of quality assurance certification. After the end of the movement, the government announced a new quality assurance system, triggering public discussion over this issue in the media. The most influential newspapers and educational authorities participated actively in this debate. Through editorials and columns, these education agents constructed quality assurance discursively as a domain for experts, who have to design and administer quality standards for all educational institutions and actions. These procedures regulate and discipline educational practices, but professors and students are excluded from this debate. Thus, this quality assurance discussion reproduces the traditional neoliberal power relations in education and does not problematize the role of education in society.     

Transdisciplinarity in STEM education: a critical review

ABSTRACT

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education garnered significant attention in recent years and has emerged as a key field of research globally. The goal of this article is to offer a critical review of how STEM education and its transdisciplinarity were defined and/or positioned in empirical studies published during the early formulation of the field. In particular, we sought to identify how these studies conceptualise learners and learning and portray the underlying assumptions in light of the macrosystemic discourses that often serve as ideological forces in shaping research and practice of STEM education. We examined 154 peer-reviewed articles published between January 2007 and March 2018 and analysed them along several emergent dimensions: their geospatial focus, focal disciplinary areas, methodological and theoretical assumptions, and major findings. Grounded in a critical transdisciplinary perspective, we used critical discourse analysis to identify how macrosystemic and institutionalised forces – overtly and implicitly – shape what counts as STEM education research, including its goals and conceptualisations of learners and learning. Our analysis highlights the need for aesthetic expansion and diversification of STEM education research by challenging the disciplinary hegemonies and calls for reorienting the focus away from human capital discourse.     

Teacher education in France under the Hollande government: reconstructing and reinforcing the republic

Successive republican governments in France have constructed a complex educational context, which is rhetorically committed to a myth of provision of educational equality of opportunity whilst in practical terms it is characterised by a system focused on the production and reproduction of elites. This article aims to consider the political drivers and levers that are transforming French teacher education during the current challenging economic, social and cultural context. It uses a relatively new methodological approach to the analysis of policy evolution and development by applying a critical analysis of discourse, which considers the ways in which teacher education policy is ‘reproduced and reworked’. This is achieved through the discourse analysis of a policy speech made in October 2013 by the then Minister of Education, Vincent Peillon, contextualised by comparisons with reforms enacted by the previous Sarkozy government (masterisation). The article, therefore, utilises a systematic framework that allows analysis at the levels of contextualisation and deconstruction of the text and so highlights developments to date in the arguably unique approach of the Hollande government, driven by the relationship between the republican state and the education system in France. The article also considers how reaction following the Charlie Hebdo attacks of January 2015 afforded opportunities to assert new validity for the teacher education policy espoused within Peillon’s speech.     

Stratification of environmental education and education for sustainable development in Australia: an analysis of positions vacant advertisements

Positions vacant advertisements discursively construct employment sectors, employers and employees. This paper uses content analysis, systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the discursive construction of environmental education and education for sustainable development through positions vacant advertisements placed with Australian online recruitment agencies. The results suggest a disturbing stratification between environmental education and education for sustainable development with respect to the terms and conditions, and the power dynamics operating in each sector.     

Physical education for health and wellbeing: a discourse analysis of Scottish physical education curricular documentation

This paper provides an analysis of the discourses associated with physical education in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. We implement a poststructural perspective in order to identify the discourses that underpin the physical education sections of the Curriculum for Excellence ‘health and well-being’ documentation. Discourses related to physical activity and health are particularly prominent, along with a related concern with motor skill development. Our focus lies with the ways in which these discourses are likely to be taken up and deployed within Scottish educational establishments. The paper thus explores the ways in which these discourses might ‘work’ to produce specific effects on practitioners and pupils. This involves speculating about how practitioners and students might engage in specific practices relative to these discourses. We conclude that the discourses identified lend themselves to interpretation and negotiation in multiple ways in the context of Scottish physical education, with specific consequences for the experiences and subjectivities of practitioners and children.     

Conceptualising education quality in Zambia: a comparative analysis across the local,national and global discourses

Building on the Education for All movement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development re-emphasises quality education as a discrete goal. Contextualising the discussion surrounding this goal in Zambia, this study examines how education quality is conceptualised by educational stakeholders at local, national, and global levels. Triangulating teacher survey and interview data with policy documents from the government of Zambia and UNESCO, we found simultaneous convergence and divergence regarding the concepts of education quality espoused at each level. Convergence was shown in the critical influence of the economic tradition within education and the perceived role of schools in fostering resilient individuals and communities. Divergence was observed through the varying meanings assigned to similar concepts and the dissimilar influences of the humanistic and organisational management traditions at different levels. We discuss the implications of our findings for fostering collective efforts among key partners toward the achievement of quality education in Zambia.     

Learning practices of femininity through gendered craft education in Finland

This paper discusses the processes and practices that link crafts and gender in the upbringing and education of girls. The paper is based on a study conducted among female primary school trainee teachers in Finland. The data are comprised of their experiences with crafts as schoolgirls. The methods of the study were memory work and writing of craft autobiographies. The processes that interlink gender and crafts are culturally established and maintained both through informal sociocultural learning and formal education at school. The impact of the gendered tradition of crafts is strong and affects the teaching of crafts at school in Finland. This became clear in the analysis of the processes of girls learning to become full members of a community of such femininity practices as textile crafts. The gender‐based teaching of crafts is an example of the unofficial gendered practices of the officially gender‐neutral school.     

The conservative response to the 2011 Chilean student movement: neoliberal education and media

This paper focuses on the relationship between the media and educational policies in the context of the ‘neoliberal newspeak’, which has characterized the current circulation of ideas in cultural production. Using framing theory, this article presents a critical discourse analysis on the editorials published about the 2011 student movement by El Mercurio, the most influential newspaper in Chile. El Mercurio is more than a newspaper. It is an institution; an institution that supports conservative ideas. El Mercurio framed the public discussion about educational policies and defended neoliberal education based on three discourses: the neoliberal system is absolute, public education is valued less than private and education is a technical issue, not political. By invoking this rhetoric strategy, these discourses attempted to maintain the neoliberal education system in Chile, which in turn rejected the social struggles of the student movement.