ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is pleased to announce that the Student Prize for a paper presented at the 2014 ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Conference has been awarded to Yun You for her paper, “Imagining high-performing education systems: East Asia as a source of policy referencing in England” .

Yun You is a PhD student at the Institute of Education, University College of London, awarded with Centenary Scholarship. Her research focuses on education policy borrowing from East Asia in England;more specifically, whether the English representation of East Asian education systems accords with the policies and practices within East Asia, and how the UK Government have informed, legitimated and promoted its preferred policy agendas based on the selective evidence of ‘world-class’ education systems. She is also interested in understanding the policy ‘borrowing’ flow from East to West within postcolonial framework.

Paper Abstract

Education reform is increasingly based on emulating the features of those ‘world-class’ systems which top international surveys such as PISA and TIMSS. East Asian societies have been referenced as the ‘inspiration’ for education reforms in England. However, the extent to which the features identified by the UK Government accord with the situation within East Asia is problematic. This paper examines the relationship between the English representation and the ‘reality’ of East Asian education systems using school autonomy as an illustrative example. We focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai which are cited extensively to legitimate policies designed to provide greater autonomy for schools in England. We argue firstly that the English representation has been largely discursive and inaccurate;failed to recognise the variations across the region;and been selected to endorse the Government’s policy preferences. Secondly, we argue that the scope, form and nature of school autonomy vary markedly, and are operationalised in each society in ways which reflect the prevailing socio-political priorities.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is pleased to announce that the Student Prize for a paper presented at the 2013 UKFIET Conference has been awarded to Bronwen Magrath for her paper, ‘Information Politics and Transnational Activism in the Education for All Movement’.

Bronwen obtained her PhD from the University of Toronto in November 2013.  She completed a collaborative doctorate in Comparative, International and Development Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Dynamics of Global Change Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs.

Her broad research interests surround the role of non-state actors in global governance, the construction of transnational advocacy networks, and the emergence of the human-rights based approach as a global development norm. Her dissertation, entitled Advocacy as Political Strategy, examined the emergence of political advocacy as a preferred organizational strategy for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the development education field.

Paper Abstract

This paper explores transnational activism within the “Education for All” (EFA) movement, looking specifically at the strategic use of information and research by transnational advocacy organizations. Through a comparative case-study examination of two international NGOs within the EFA movement – the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) and ActionAid International – I discuss how information about education is gathered, generated and disseminated for advocacy purposes, and what this tells us about the internal dynamics and strategies of these organizations. In particular, I focus on the ways these organizations translate grassroots evidence into regional and global policy fora, and raise questions about how this translation process impacts the legitimacy of advocacy NGOs and the power structures between NGO headquarters and their grassroots membership.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is pleased to announce that the Student Prize for a paper presented at the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ conference  at Cambridge in 2012 has been awarded to Lizzi Milligan for her paper, ‘Using Participatory Insider Techniques in Cross-cultural Educational Research in Kenyan Secondary Schools‘.

Lizzi is a PhD student at the University of Bristol on ESRC scholarship. She is an active member of the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education Research Centre for International Comparative Studies and a Project Administrator of the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Thematic Forum on Revisiting Insider Outsider Perspectives.

Lizzi’s doctoral research focuses on the Free Secondary Education initiative in Kenya and the lack of local voice in conceptualisations of quality in education. This is within a postcolonial framework which critiques the role of international agendas and development theories in education policy planning in low income countries.

Paper Abstract

Using Participatory Insider Techniques in Cross-cultural Educational Research in Kenyan Secondary Schools

This article reflects on the use of participatory techniques with final year secondary school students in one rural community in Western Kenya as an enabling tool for an outsider to both gain insider perspectives and develop a more ‘insider’ role in that community by privileging and legitimating participant-driven data. The article first describes the research context and participatory methods used – diary and photo linked interviews. Discussion then turns to the rationale for using such methods to challenge the ‘image of Africa’ and explore students’ lived educational realities. Conclusions consider how using this nuanced participatory approach allowed the researcher to enter the ‘third space’ between insider and outsider, build meaningful relationships in the field and formulate authentic participative knowledge (co-)construction.

“Improving access and retention of vulnerable children in high HIV prevalence communities of Malawi: the potential of open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL)”

Catherine is currently a PhD candidate with the Institute of Education, having been awarded a Bloomsbury Scholarship for research into educational strategies to address barriers to schooling in high HIV prevalence communities in Malawi.  Born in Scotland, Catherine has been resident in Malawi since 1995. She has worked in environmental education, project monitoring and evaluation, and as teacher trainer. Since 2003 she has been employed as a Research Fellow with the University of Malawi, working with the Centre for Educational Research and Training (CERT). She has a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Biological Sciences from the University of Edinburgh and a M.Ed. in Education and Development from the University of Bristol.

Following is the abstract of the paper she submitted for the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student prize:

Faced with underlying poverty and an inefficient education system, many children in Malawi have poor access to learning and are at risk of early dropout from formal schooling. It has been argued that in the context of HIV/AIDS, there is a real and pressing need for formal schools to become more inclusive, flexible and responsive to the realities of children’s lives. Introducing a model of education that integrates open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) to support and enrich conventional schooling, this paper highlights the potential of such an approach to enhance learning experiences, bring psychosocial benefits and improve retention of vulnerable pupils in primary schools in high HIV prevalence communities in rural Malawi. This paper also argues that effective innovation requires strategies to create an enabling environment and promote an open and inclusive philosophy within schools.

28 April 2011

“Joyful learning in rural Indian Primary Schools: An analysis of social control in the context of child-centred discourses”

Arathi is a PhD student at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge who comes from Australia. She is conducting a sociological study of rural primary school teachers’ pedagogic discourse and practice in Karnataka, India. The paper she submitted for the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student prize draws on empirical data to explore what it means to introduce child-centred pedagogic principles in low-income, rural Indian contexts. Her analysis reveals how new modes of pedagogic control implied by a particular child-centred reform are understood and mediated by teachers.