Education Policy in Pakistan: National Challenges, Global Commitments

This article explores the main issues facing education policy in Pakistan, a relatively new country, still seeking to find its feet in terms of educating its future generations. The article highlights Pakistan’s intentions reflected in the commitments it makes on the world stage and the challenges of implementation at nation state level. A disparity between these two levels highlights why education in Pakistan remains sporadic and poor quality, against a backdrop of international interest in terms of the ‘war on terror’ and the perceived rising of madrassas and extremism. The article concludes with some practical recommendations of how global commitments could be used to address national challenges by shaping policy and importantly its implementation at ground level. One of these is to focus on educational research, within and by Pakistanis themselves, to understand their own educational needs more fully and consequently be able to construct policy more reflective of national challenges and feed into global commitments

Restrictions into opportunities: how boundaries in the life course can shape educational pathways

This study explores relationships between experiences in initial education, subsequent life experiences/opportunities and the decision to return to education later in life. Semi-structured interviews with seven female returners to education, focused initially upon the women’s perceptions of their aspirations and motivations at various ages, how these related to the choices they felt they had available to them at different points in time, and their sense of agency. Subsequently, the interviewees considered the relationship between early educational experiences, post-school experiences, and their current choices. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts led to the identification of four main themes: restrictions, opportunities, personal development, and an underlying theme of planning. Consideration of the relationships between these themes led to the conclusion that it was life experiences rather than initial education that both motivated and empowered the interviewees to take advantage of opportunities for higher education

The complexity of disengagement with education and learning: A case study of young offenders in a secure custodial setting in England

This study explored the nature of disengagement in young people serving custodial sentences. This was in order to gain new theoretical insights into strategies for their re-engagement with education. This is because 90% of young offenders who drop out of school prior to incarceration are reportedly disengaged (dropout being an indicator of disengagement). This paper reports on a qualitative ethnographic case study in one secure children’s home in England. Semi-structured interviews with 16 incarcerated young people were conducted from which five participated in in-depth case studies along with teachers and care staff. Data were collected as participants engaged with a learning opportunity over a period of time. Extending emerging theory of disengagement, findings showed that disengagement oscillated between both active and passive forms within the same individual and pointed to the need for a range of strategies needed for re-engagement. This paper suggests that disengagement is complex where the physical and social context shapes how disengagement manifests. This has pedagogical implications for education in custodial settings and other at-risk children in alternative or mainstream education provision

Researching Young Offenders: Navigating Methodological Challenges and Reframing Ethical Responsibilities

Young offenders’ perceptions of their educational experiences are little researched not least because of methodological and ethical challenges. These include being difficult to access, questions on their reliability as interviewees and their ‘doubly vulnerable’ position, due to the secure locked context and their age. This article draws on doctoral research, which sought to re-engage young offenders with education and learning whilst in a custodial setting, to discuss navigating such methodological challenges and managing emergent ethical responsibilities. It is argued that interview methods which are based on the principles of connectivity, humanness and empathy (CHE) are crucial methodological tools when interviewing ‘doubly vulnerable’ participants. Using the principles of CHE contributed to rebalancing the power dynamics between researcher and participant making it possible to elicit rich and credible data. This was especially relevant in a custodial setting where the autonomy of participants is deliberately restricted. These shifting power imbalances gave way to a range of additional ethical responsibilities of research with participants who have already experienced challenging social, economic and educational circumstances leading up to their incarceration. This article contributes to a reframing of the notion of being ethical and suggests ways of reconciling the dilemmas of research with participants in challenging contexts. These include extending a researcher’s ethical responsibilities to beyond the research and the use of the researcher’s greater power to advocate for less powerful participants. The use of CHE and other rapport building techniques to improve data elicitation gave way to further ethical responsibilities. Guidance on how to reconcile these is little explored. As we move further into sophisticated methods of qualitative data collection, the more likely we are to face additional ethical responsibilities which go beyond the research itself. Some would argue that this is not the job of researchers, however researchers are not neutral, value-free objects but carry with them power to give voice to the vulnerable. Greater awareness of these issues may stimulate further research further, thereby increasing methodological and ethical knowledge on under-researched groups

The relevance of Western Models of Innovation for the Rwanda Context

The introductory paper will present an overview of the activities undertaken by the Innovation for Education Fund and critically reflect on the relevance of the underlying Western view of innovation in education for the African context. The paper will first present the model of innovation underlying the Fund. It will locate the model within the broader literature largely derived from Western industrialized contexts and a more limited literature relating to Africa. The model involved assumptions concerning how leadership for innovation is conceptualized; the nature of organizational support and culture; the human and physical resources available to support innovation; the degree of existing networking and collaboration around innovation; and the ability of the Ministry of Education to generate evidence of ‘what works’ in innovation to plan for scale-up. The paper will draw on quantitative and qualitative evidence gathered as part of the diagnostic assessment of the existing environment for innovation in Rwanda undertaken by the team as well as from evaluation of the innovation training, fairs and award scheme. This data will be used to analyse the appropriateness of the assumptions underlying the model for the Rwandan context through a presentation of some of the ways that the model did not adequately take account of the harsh realities of working in resource starved and top-down education systems