Conceptualizing Transformative Agency in Education for Peace, Human Rights, and Social Justice

The concept of “agency” lies at the core of many liberatory forms of education that draw from Paulo Freire’s theories of education raising learners’ critical consciousness and equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and networks to act for positive social change (Freire, 1970). The term agency is utilized widely across disciplines to refer to a variety of behaviors and actions. This article explores the concept of transformative agency, which lies at the center of educational projects, namely: peace education, human rights education, critical ethnic studies, and social justice education. These educational interventions have often been fought for and won through walkouts, massive student mobilizations (Solorzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001), and/or social movements exerting pressure on educational policymakers in distinct contexts (Bajaj, 2012). This article situates transformative agency within its larger theoretical and conceptual dimensions in order to offer scholars and practitioners important insights for their engaged work. The sections that follow offer an overview of discussions of agency in relevant scholarship and then posit a conceptual model for transformative agency in the fields of peace, human rights, and social justice education

Human Rights Education: Ideology, Location, and Approaches

As human rights education (HRE) becomes a more common feature of international policy discussions, national textbook reform, and post-conflict educational strategies, greater clarity about what HRE is, does, and means is needed. This article reviews existing definitions and models of HRE, and argues that ideology—as much as location or other variables—offers a means of schematizing varying approaches to HRE. This article reviews models organized around principles of global citizenship, coexistence, and transformative action in the context of one nation-state (India), and suggests that the mutability and adaptability of human rights education are its strength

Inter-Generational Perspectives on Education and Employment in the Zambian Copperbelt

This paper explores inter-generational perspectives on the education-employment link as reported by parents, teachers, administrators, and students in and around government secondary schools in Ndola, Zambia. The data presented are drawn from a larger research project conducted in 2003-2004 that included surveys, observations, student diaries, focus groups, and interviews with participants. Data are presented against the backdrop of Zambia\u27s implementation of neoliberal economic policies, beginning in the mid-1980s, which characterized a significant shift from previously subsidized social services to a more market oriented economy. A vertical case study approach (Bartlett & Vavrus 2009) is utilized to elucidate the missing link between educational and labor market opportunities for secondary school students and graduates. Declining educational quality, overcrowded facilities, and corruption in schools also offer implicit commentary on the shrinking budget for education and the higher opportunity costs for secondary school participation attendant to Zambia\u27s particular incorporation into the world market

Memories, Stories, and the Search for our Place

Through the themes of home, displacement, and exile, Monisha Bajaj reflects on her family history and also her role as a scholar of migration and education in the Bay Area

Towards a praxis of educational solidarity

In this article, the authors locate examples of solidarity in the structures and practices of two educational institutions in Northern California. Applying a taxonomy of solidarity drawn from Gaztambide-Fernández (2012) to two schools’ responses to Covid-19, the authors delineate serendipitous acts of solidarity from intentional and deliberate solidarity praxes that have been deepened during the pandemic. This article sheds light on possibilities to reimagine educational solidarity post-Covid in order to further the process of humanizing education and advancing greater equity and justice. (DIPF/Orig.