Literacy: A lever for citizenship?

Within citizenship education, literacy is often promoted in a narrow functional sense of skills for civic engagement or is used synonymously with “knowledge” to refer to an awareness-raising process around rights. Through an analysis of evolving models of citizenship, this article moves beyond literacy for citizenship to consider the ways in which literacy learning can emerge through active citizenship. Drawing on published ethnographic studies of literacy in everyday life to analyse both the symbolic and instrumental meanings of literacy in specific contexts, the author introduces a social practice lens on literacy and citizenship. She explores the pedagogical implications for literacy within citizenship education, particularly in relation to informal learning of “real literacies”, critical digital literacy to distinguish “fake news” and literature as a way of entering someone else’s experiences. UNESCO’s current vision for global citizenship education as nurturing empathy and understanding between peoples implies that literacy providers need to recognise participants as not only consumers, but as co-constructors of texts

Inclusive education: thinking beyond systems

Systems thinking has dominated debates and policy discourses on inclusive education, resulting in an almost exclusive focus on children and formal schooling. Based on the BAICE Presidential Lecture 2019, this paper considers the limitations of systems theory in framing discussion and research on inclusive education, introducing instead alternative theoretical starting points to analyse vignettes of from Ethiopia, Nepal, the UK and the Philippines. In place of systems theory, the paper takes the lenses of culture as performed, literacy as a social practice and informal learning, to explore inclusive education and analyse intercultural and literacy learning in everyday life. It argues the need to move beyond systems thinking – particularly closed systems – with its default position of school as providing the solutions. Whilst cultural stereotypes can be challenged in school curricula, inclusive education cannot rely on formal institutions alone to initiate changes in attitudes held by teachers, students and the wider community

Beyond the Classroom: From Education for Rural Transformation to Learning Within Rural Transformation?

Much research and policy has focused on improving the performance and reach of formal educational institutions in rural areas. Debates within education and development have been largely concerned with analysing the relationship between different levels of schooling and various indicators of well-being. Such research has usually been framed within an economistic discourse: associating education and learning primarily with schools and formal providers, and assuming that only formally educated people can facilitate development and rural transformation. This limited starting point has led to privileging investigation into formal learning and to a neglect of alternative lenses for researching people’s everyday learning in rural areas. Drawing on the methodology and findings of an IFAD-UNESCO project, this article proposes an alternative approach to researching and theorising learning in rural areas. In place of focusing on formal education and an entry point through educational providers, centre stage – the study team conducted ethnographic-style research on how young people learned skills and knowledge informally and exploring the relationship between informal, non-formal and formal learning. The findings challenged many assumptions around a linear ‘literacy first’ and teacher-centred model of development, revealing that so-called ‘illiterate’ people had often developed their own innovative strategies for learning new skills, such as mobile phones. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of this research study for educational researchers, policy makers and practitioners seeking to develop greater understanding of the complex relationship between education and rural livelihoods

Education for rural development: forty years on

Education has long been considered a force for social transformation, influencing teaching-learning approaches and policy, including the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. This article sets out to problematise the relationship between education and social change, proposing a theoretical framework around social transformation as an alternative to the usual development lens. A historical analysis of an education for rural development project implemented in Nepal in the 1980s reveals that curriculum and training approaches were strongly influenced by the assumption that education could initiate economic and cultural change. The paper argues that this focus on educational interventions as facilitating planned development outcomes limited analysis not only of the project’s impact, but also of the broader changes that have taken place in these communities over the past four decades. By contrast, a social transformation lens can help shift attention from formal educational providers to investigate political and commercial actors, amongst others. Such an approach can offer rich insights into informal learning spaces and new communicative practices which have transformed people’s lives

BAICE Thematic Forum:Challenging deficit discourses in international education and development

Research and policy in international education has o en been framed in terms of a deficit discourse. For instance, policy debates on women’s literacy and education have begun by positioning women as a group who need to ‘catch up’ on certain skills in order to become more active in development. Rather than recognising the skills and knowledge that participants already have and prac se in their everyday lives, researchers who adopt this deficit perspective on learning and education may find that the research agenda and questions will already be shaped to a large extent by the providers’/ policy makers’ standpoint. This BAICE Thematic Forum aimed to deepen understanding around how deficit discourses have shaped the questions and objectives of international educational research. As well as deconstructing and gaining greater knowledge into why and how these dominant deficit discourses have influenced the research agenda, we also set out to investigate and propose alternative conceptual models through two linked seminars. The seminars were intended to explore and challenge dominant deficit discourses that have shaped the way researchers/policy makers look at specific groups in development and thematic policy areas

Re-defining Post-Literacy in a Changing World

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Cooperation, collaboration and compromise: Learning through difference and diversity

Multi-institutional and multi-professional research projects are valued for the impact and learning they generate, but their successful completion is crucially dependent on the various actors recognising their differences and working through/with them as a team. This paper is a critical reflection on one such participatory action research project, which involved new migrants and asylum seekers, an NGO, university researchers, and independent trainers in offering intercultural sexual health and gender relations workshops. It charts the course of this project by introducing the key players and focusing on significant differences and opportunities, and the critical learnings that this generated. The paper uses the concept of the ‘paradox lens’ as a way of understanding emerging dilemmas and tensions, and the subsequent compromises, co-operations and collaborations that ensued. In closing, it offers a set of principles generated from reflections on learning that occurred during the project, and which may be amended and adapted for other contexts and action research encounters that hope to engender collaborative learning

Adult literacy and learning for social change: innovation, influence and the role of non-state actors; case studies from Afghanistan, China, the Philippines and Senegal

The four case studies offer insights into how non-state actors in these contrasting country contexts have influenced adult literacy and learning, not only within education but across sectors. Whilst several key non-state actors reviewed here were initially invited by governments to fill the gaps in adult literacy or learning provision through contributing technical expertise or finance, they began to play a strong role in expanding the curriculum, working with different community-level organisations and/or new approaches to learning (including online). Their impact ranged from introducing innovative learning spaces and adult literacy approaches, to developing systems for quality assurance and accreditation and finding new ways to engage with previously marginalised groups. Exploring the complexity of relationships between state and nonstate actors, this overview argues that changing social values that lie beyond formal development and educational institutions are influencing the kind of adult education provided by the state. There is an urgent need for strong state leadership and dedicated funding to ensure that high quality and inclusive adult literacy and learning programmes can operate successfully on a national scale and non-state actors could play a greater role in advocating for such changes