Education and the Pandemic: Engaging in Epistemic Humility to Question Assumptions, Institutions, and Knowledges

Education systems are the formal institutionalisations of the knowledges and values our societies privilege, who they privilege, how, and on what terms. They are imbued with assumptions. These assumptions inform how systems are structured. The pandemic has exposed existing global and local inequalities, non-binary dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, and dysfunctions of education systems. This paper argues that the global scale and severity of the education disruption challenges taken-for-granted distinctions that privilege systems of the ‘West’ as referential for ‘the Rest’. It argues that the existing overarching technicist knowledge regime is inadequate for recovery, and proposes an alternative approach

Interrogating Discourses of Global Education: Reconceptualizing Education as a Common Good?

This contribution analyses UNESCO\u27s framework of education as a common good in the context of the Global South. It argues that dominant conceptions view education in a narrow, instrumentalist perspective. Despite its promise to reorient education as a broader social endeavour towards human wellbeing to lead meaningful lives (Sen, 1999), UNESCO\u27s framework has failed to gain significant traction. I argue this is linked to challenges associated with: education and unemployment; global mobility and learning assessment systems; citizenship education; and the global governance of education policymaking

Considerations for School Reopening in Ontario: Building a more resilient education system for recovery

School closures in Ontario affect over 2 million elementary and secondary school students. Ontario issued the first school closure announcement on 12 March 2020 to take effect for an initial period from 14 March to 4 April 2020, compelling all publicly funded elementary and secondary schools to close during this time.On 17 March 2020, the government declared an official state of emergency under s 7.0.1 (1) of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. This required the immediate closure of all private schools as defined in the Education Act and of all licensed child care centres, amongst other public places and institutions. Public school closures were extended another three times – first until 4 May, then 31 May, and finally until the end of June. Ontario’s Framework for Continued Learning was released on 19 May 2020 with a notice for public consultation until the end of June. These recommendations are a response to that call. The recommendations are to: Strengthen mechanisms for multistakeholder and cross-sectoral policy dialogue. Adopt a crisis-sensitive approach to immediate, medium-, and long-term education planning and recovery. Extend cross-sectoral approaches prioritizing the vulnerable and at-risk. Adopt a comprehensive remote and distance learning plan, ensuring continuity for the most vulnerable. Keep education staff, spaces, and services separate. Treat schools as closed systems. Address teacher and education worker supply, well-being, capacity, and conditions as education front-line workers to ensure quality education and learning. Institute strategic education data collection for continuous situation analysis. When appropriate, institute safe school operations, and open \u27better schools\u27

India\u27s Right to Education Act: Household Experiences and Private School Responses

This study aimed to shed light on the early phase of implementation of India’s landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), effective as of April 2010, with special attention on the role of the private sector (i.e. private unaided schools). This working paper reports on the household- and school-level results of a larger project conducted in a Delhi slum. Data in this working paper were collected between June 2011 and April 2012 by a survey of 290 households in the selected slum area, semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of 40 households, semi-structured interviews with principals from the seven most accessed schools in the survey sample, and documentary analysis of offi cial documents including draft versions of preceding RTE bills, the fi nal Act, Central Government model rules, Delhi rules, and associated government orders and notices. We report results on the implementation and mediation processes in schools; experiences of households accessing schooling under the RTE Act, with a focus on their ability to access free school places under the 25 percent free seats provision; and household and school understandings of the Act and its provisions. Results indicate a considerable gap between the offi cial articulation of the Act’s provisions and its implementation in practice by schools in the study. Data also expose that fee-free “freeship” private education for households in the study, was not a reality in the early phase of the RTE Act’s implementation. While the focus of our study was on the private sector and the 25 percent free seats provision, our investigation showed that this was just one facet, albeit important, of the Act. In fact, the Act necessitates fundamental changes, procedural and conceptual, to education as a whole

Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy and Private Sector Engagement in Education: Considering action for girls’ and women’s education in Asia

This brief aims to inform potential action in view of two significant developments in Canada’s international assistance strategy — the $400 million commitment to girls’ and women’s education in response to the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries and the strategy for engaging in private sector partnerships in the Feminist International Assistance Policy. The brief is based on original analysis of data on activity by private foundations and private sector impact investors in girls’ and women’s education in East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, drawing on a larger regional-level database of private sector investors. The analysis finds that girls’ and women’s education is an underserved priority area. It is an urgent area of unmet policy action in the regions, and in low-income countries and countries with gender disparities in education in Asia. Existing priorities by education sub-sector and regarding programming areas in education initiatives targeting girls and women in East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia supported by philanthropic and impact investors align with FIAP focus. Adult, basic, and continuing education and secondary education were the top two sectors addressed by the initiatives under analysis. Skills, workplace transition, and continuing education; advocacy; and access to education constituted the main programming areas. Tracking financial flows and specific actors in private sector partnerships is impeded by a lack of consistent and publicly accessible data. The opacity of partnerships has potentially critical implications for Canada’s engagement in girls’ and women’s education in view of broader concerns associated with partnering with private sector actors

Reflection/Commentary on a Past Article: “A Practical Iterative Framework for Qualitative Data Analysis”

This submission is a reflection by Srivastava and Hopwood on their earlier article, A Practical Iterative Framework for Qualitative Data Analysis, originally published in International Journal of Qualitative Methods in 2009, and selected for the journal’s special anniversary issue, “Top 20 in 20.” They discuss how they have applied the framework in their various studies since then, Srivastava, primarily in field-based international research in education and global development, and Hopwood, in education and health. Based on a brief analysis of the paper’s citations, they identify its impact to have been: in a wide variety of fields crossing disciplinary boundaries, studies situated in a range of domestic and international contexts, studies analyzing data from intersectional perspectives and conducted with marginalized participant groups, referred to in methodological textbooks and publications, and used by researchers of all levels of experience, independently or in teams. They end by identifying what they consider to be key emerging topics associated with qualitative data analysis, Hopwood, on nonrepresentational and posthumanist perspectives and the implications of “postcoding,” and Srivastava on considering the agency of less privileged, marginalized, or vulnerable participants in data collection and analysis

Comparative study of laparoscopic ovarian drilling and medical treatment in polycystic ovarian disease

Background: To evaluate the result after medical treatment and laparoscopic ovarian drilling in PCOS patients and to compare the results of these two methods.Methods: In this prospective study 50 women with polycystic ovarian disease, were divided into two group,25 women received medical treatment and 25 women received surgical (laparoscopic ovarian drilling) treatment. Effect of treatment on ovulation, menstruation, fertility and androgen level was determined 3 month after therapy.Results: There was significant increase in ovulation and fertility, decrease in androgen levels and decrease in LH/FSH in individual groups when compared with pretreatment levels but difference between groups A and B was not statistically significant for these parameters.Conclusions: Medical treatment and laparoscopic ovarian drilling are equally effective in treating the women of polycystic ovarian disease. Result of both the treatment are similar in this study. However medical treatment should be the first line therapy, it has significant benefit for use in OPD, low cost, no hospital stays and convenience to the patient

A Practical Iterative Framework for Qualitative Data Analysis

The role of iteration in qualitative data analysis, not as a repetitive mechanical task but as a reflexive process, is key to sparking insight and developing meaning. In this paper the authors presents a simple framework for qualitative data analysis comprising three iterative questions. The authors developed it to analyze qualitative data and to engage with the process of continuous meaning-making and progressive focusing inherent to analysis processes. They briefly present the framework and locate it within a more general discussion on analytic reflexivity. They then highlight its usefulness, particularly for newer researchers, by showing practical applications of the framework in two very different studies

Study of pregnancy outcome in relation to first trimester body mass index

Background: Early pregnancy body mass index (BMI) plays an important role in pregnancy outcome. Women with either low or high BMI have an adverse pregnancy outcome. American college of obstetricians and gynecologists (ACOG) recommends calculation of BMI for all pregnant women at their first visit. This study was conducted to assess maternal and fetal outcome in women based on first trimester BMI.Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of T. S. Misra Medical college and hospital, Lucknow from January 2018 to January 2019. Patients with singleton pregnancy booked in first trimester were included while women with multiple pregnancy, pre-existing medical conditions were excluded from the study. Proper history taking and examination was done, and patients divided into five groups as per guidelines of WHO and National Institute of Health Guidelines. Patients were followed up during entire antenatal period. Any maternal and fetal complications were recorded.Results: Incidence of anemia and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) was seen more in underweight patients. Postpartum hemorrhage (PIH), gestational diabetes and macrosomia was associated more with patients who were overweight or obese. There was significantly more incidence of lower (uterine) segment caesarean section (LSCS), instrumental delivery, wound sepsis and PPH in patients with higher BMI. SGA babies were seen more in patients with low BMI while large for gestational age (LGA) babies were seen more in patients with high BMI. More neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions were seen in patients with low or high BMI.Conclusions: Complications during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy and neonatal complication was seen significantly more in patients on either side of BMI (underweight and obese). Hence it can be concluded that BMI of a patient directly affects pregnancy outcome