International Conference School Education, Pluralism and Marginality by Deshkal Society

Deshkal Society

Deshkal Society

Contributors

Angela W. Little

Professor of Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, University of London.

Before moving to the University of London in 1987, Professor Little was a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She has worked with members of the Sri Lankan academic and professional education community since 1975 and published her book Labouring to Learn: Towards a Political Economy of Plantations, People and Education in Sri Lanka in 1999 (in English, Sinhala and Tamil). Since 1998, she has directed the research programme Learning and Teaching in Multigrade Settings (http://www.ioe.ac.uk/multigrade). She has researched and written extensively on Education for All (EFA) and is a past President of the British Association of International and Comparative Education. She is currently a partner in the International Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity in Education (www.create-rpc.org).

Dhir Jhingran

Asia Regional Director, Room to Read, New Delhi, India.

He is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, with over twenty five years of varied experience at the district, state and national level. He has worked extensively in the area of elementary education in the past fourteen years in several capacities – as state level Project Director of Education for All programmes, National Programme Manager of a UN Project, in policy level positions in the state and national ministries of education, and as an independent researcher. His interests lie in education of the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, community involvement in school processes, educational reform including administrative reform in the education system, quality of education etc. Some of his publications include
“District Primary Education Programme: Organisation and Experience” in External Aid in Basic Education (NUFFIC, 2002), Universalisation of Primary Education: Current Policies and Perspectives (Sage), Language Disadvantage: The Learning Challenge in Primary Education/Dhir Jhingran (APH, 2005) and Elementary Education for the Poorest and Other Deprived Groups: The Real Challenge of Universalisation (co-authored) (Manohar,2005).

George J. Sefa Dei

Professor and immediate past Chair, Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT).

He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Centre for School and Community Science and Technology Studies, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of anti-racism education, development education, indigenous knowledge and anti-colonial thought. He has published a number of scholarly books on education, anti-racism, feminism, race and white privilege, and black education and minority youth disengagement from school. Some of his publications include Removing the Margins: The Challenges and Possibilities of Inclusive Schooling published in the Fall, 2000 by the Canadian Scholars Press (with M. James, S. James-Wilson, L. Karumanchery and J. Zine), Reconstructing 'Drop-out': A Critical Ethnography of the Dynamics of Black Students' Disengagement from School (University of Toronto Press, 1997) (co-authored with Josephine Mazzuca, Elizabeth McIsaac, and Jasmine Zine), Anti-Racism Education: Theory and Practice (Fernwood Publishing, Halifax, 1996), Hardships and Survival in Rural West Africa (published in both the English and French languages in 1992 by CODESRIA). His latest book, 'Racist Beware: Uncovering Racial Politics in a Contemporary Society" has just been released by Sense Publishers (November, 2007]. Besides Dr. Dei's professional work, he is deeply involved with civil society organisations and isa recipient of many awards including the Race, Gender and Class Project Academic Award (2003).

Christine E. Sleeter

Professor Emeritus in the College of Professional Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay.

She was recently Visiting Professor at Victoria University in New Zealand, and at the University of Washington Seattle. She was recently one of the Vice Presidents of AERA; she also co-founded AERA’s Special Interest Group on Critical Analysis of Theory with Emphasis on Race, Ethnicity, Social Class, and Gender. Her research focuses
on anti-racist multicultural education and teacher education. Prof. Sleeter has received several awards for her work including the California State University Monterey Bay President’s Medal, the National Association for Multicultural Education Research Award, and the AERA Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Education Distinguished Scholar Award. She is the author of about 100 articles and book chapters, and several books, including Un-Standardising Curriculum and Facing Accountability in Education: Equity and Democracy at Risk (both published by Teachers College Press).

Russell Bishop

Foundation Professor for Maori Education in the School of Education at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

His research area includes Maori education, indigenous pedagogy, critical multicultural education and collaborative storying as pedagogy. His widely published book Collaborative Research Stories: Whakawhanaungatanga captures the collaborative storying as Kaupapa Maori research. He is also the co-author of Culture Counts: Changing Power Relations in Education (with Ted Glynn) (Dunmore Press 1999), Pathologising Practices: The Impact of Deficit Thinking on Education, (with Carolyn Shields and Andre Mazawi) (New York: Peter Lang, 2005). His most recent book, with Mere Berryman, examines the experiences of Maori students, their families, their principals and their teachers with the schooling of Maori students. He is currently the project director for Te Kotahitanga, a New Zealand Ministry of Education funded research /professional development project that seeks to improve the educational achievement of Maori students in mainstream classrooms.

M . Murali Krishna

Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi.

Currently pursuing his PhD on “Dalit Autobiography as Historical Document and Sociological Analysis: A Study of Select Dalit autobiographies” in the University of Hyderabad. His areas of research interest include: Education in India, Dalit Literature and Culture, “Little Traditions”, Dalit and Feminist Politics. Some of his presented papers include: “Dalits and Higher Education in India” in a national conference on “Caste and Democracy” conducted by CIEFL and Dalit Intellectual Collective at CIEFL, Hyderabad in August 2006; “‘Disciplining’ Humanities:Situating Counter-hegemonic Literatures” in a national conference on “Humanities in the Present Context” held at the University of Hyderabad from October 29-31, 2007; “Dalit Autobiography as Historical Document and a Sociological Analysis” in the Young Researchers’ Workshop at CSCS, Bangalore in November 2005; “Dalit Literary Movement and Emergence of Dalit Autobiography” at CIEFL, in the Festival of Ideas Seminar in March 2005. His M. Phil dissertation titled “Autobiography as a Resource for Educational Theory: A Dalit Life Story” is being widely circulated. It is being taught the postgraduate level (M.A. in Elementary Education) at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai as well as used by various non-governmental organisations in the context of their various research projects.

Manabi Majumdar

Fellow in Political Science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.

Her prime research specialises in social exclusion, political economy of education, democratic decentralisation, child labour from human security perspective. Some of her recent publications include: ‘Debating Quality and Quantity in Primary Education’, Economic and Political Weekly, XLI, No.9, March 2006; ‘Schooling and Skilling of the Country’s Youth: Secondary Education in Four Indian States’, Economic and Political Weekly, XL, Nos. 22 & 23, June 2005; ‘Education and Politics: A Third World Retrospective’, in Political Sociology, edited by Satyabrata Chakraborty, Macmillan, Delhi, 2005; “Classes for the Masses? Social Capital, Social Distance and the Quality of the Government School System”, in Interrogating Social Capital: The Indian Experience, edited by Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Bishnu N. Mahapatra and Sudha Pai, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2004; “Decentralisation Reforms and Public Schools: A Human Development Perspective”, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, 17, No.4, 2003.

Kancha Ilaiah

Professor and former Head of the Department of Political Science at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.

He is the author of the recently published children’s book Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times (Navayana 2007) regarded as a pioneering attempt to integrate ‘dignity of labour’ in pedagogic discourses. He is also the author of the book Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Critique of Sudra Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, God As Political Philosopher: Buddha’s Challenge to Brahminism, Democracy in India:A Hollow Shell (co-authored), The State and Repressive Culture; Manatatwam (Our Philosophy); and Buffalo Nationalism:A Critique of Spiritual Fascism. An active participant in public space, for the last 25 years, Prof. Ilaiah has been deeply involved with civil society organisations in the campaign against untouchability, caste atrocities and state and civil societal repression of the Dalits and other lower caste people in India. He pioneered a major campaign on Caste and Untouchability in International forums. He worked for including Caste and Untouchability in the UN Conference at Durbanin 2001, for passing a resolution in American Congress, British Parliament and European Union. He toured Europe and America and lectured at many universities and civil societal forums. He was Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Teenmurthy New Delhi from 1994-97 and Fellow of Dalit Freedom Network USA in 2004. A recipient of Mahatma Jotirao Phule Award.

Mahendra K. Mishra

Educationalist and linguist based in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India.

He started his career as a village teacher in tribal areas of Orissa. For the last 25 years he has been deeply involved with innovative research and developing pedagogic practices for classroom teaching, especially in the context of the marginalised tribal children in Orissa using the local knowledge as cultural resources of the communities. The primers are in Santali, Saora, Bonda, Juang, Koya, Kui and Kuvi, Oram, Kishan and Munda languages in which the tribal teachers from the respective communities are being involved and supported by linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, folklorists. He has been instrumental in publishing eight books on Oriya folklore in regional languages (main focus on literature and folk literature, ethnic identity, oral epics, folk discourse, performing arts, folklore in context. He is the author of Visioning Folklore(2002)Saora Tales and Sonngs(Sahitya Academy,2005),and Oral Epics of Kalahandi. He has translated Kalevala , the Finnish National Epic in Oriya, also the work of Paulo Freire.He has also translated Folktales from India edited by AK Ramanujan..At present Dr Mishra is coordinating the Multilingual Education Project in Orissa adopting ten indigenous languages and engaged in preparation of cultural curriculum and material development activities.

Crain Soudien

Professor and currently the Director of the School of Education at the University of Cape Town and teaches in the fields of Sociology and History of Education.

He has written extensively in the areas of race, culture, educational policy, comparative education, educational change, public history and popular culture. He is also the co-editor of two books on District Six, Cape Town and another on comparative education and the author of Youth Identity in Contemporary South Africa: Race, Culture and Schooling and the co-author of Inclusion and Exclusion in South African and Indian Schools. He was educated at the Universities of Cape Town, South Africa and holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is involved in a number of local, national and international social and cultural organisations.

Dave Hill

Professor of Education Policy at the University of Northampton, England.

For twenty years he was a regional political and trade union leader. He recently completed an International Labour Organisation global report on the impacts of neoliberal education policy on equity, democracy and workers’ rights, and lectures worldwide on this, and on Marxism and Education, to Trade Unions and Academic and Activist conferences. He is Chief Editor of the international refereed academic journal, the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (www.jceps.com). He co-founded the Hillcole Group of Radical Left Educators in Britain and, among other books, co-edited a trilogy on schooling and inequality for Cassell
and Kogan Page publishers. His most recent edited book, with Peter McLaren, Glenn Rikowski and Mike Cole, is Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory (Lexington Books, 2002). He has a number of forthcoming books in 2008 for Routledge on Marxism and Education, and Globalisation/ Neoliberalism/ Education. He has published around a hundred journal articles and book chapters. He Chairs the Marxian Analysis of Schools, Society, and Education Special Interest Group (MASSES) of AERA and is Series Editor for Routledge Studies in Education and Neoliberalism, and also RoutledgeSeries Editor for Studies in Education and Marxism.

Jos Moji

Senior Lecturer and teaches mainly Public Policy and Management at the Institute of Social Studies, Hague, the Netherlands.

Before joining ISS (for the second time, in February 2004), she was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India. Besides teaching, she is also deeply involved in various projects and consultancy work. Some of her recent papers and invited papers include: “From a Better Past to a Better Future? The Role of Teachers in Educating the Nation. A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh; paper presented at BAICE Conference “Diversity and Inclusion:Issues in International Education”, Belfast (September 8-10, 2006) and at a Seminar ‘Education and Inequality in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal’, CESS, Hyderabad (September 21-22, 2006); “From Government to Governance. The Case of Primary Education in India” paper presented during the 19th EASAS Conference, Leiden, June 27-30, 2006. She has also been part of the project Palanquin Bearers. Education, Decentralisation and Social Inequalities: A Three Year Study (2004-2006) (undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Manabi Majumdar, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India) about the reproduction of social inequalities in primary education in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, funded by the Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development (IDPAD).

Lynn Davies

Professor of International Education in the Centre for International Education and Research (CIER) at the School of Education, University of Birmingham.

She taught in schools in Mauritius and Malaysia as well as in UK before moving into teacher education. Her major teaching, research and consultancy interests are in educational management internationally, particularly concerning democracy, citizenship, gender and human rights. She takes a specific focus on conflict and education, in terms of how education contributes to conflict and/or to peace or civil renewal. Recent work has been in Angola, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Bosnia, Palestine, Malawi and the Gambia, as well as with UNESCO on their Associated Schools. Current research projects are on school improvement in post-conflict Angola; education for peace and social cohesion in Sri Lanka; and the work of student councils in school improvement. Her book Education and Conflict: Complexity and Chaos (2004) was awarded the Society for Education Studies prize for the best book of 2004.

Peter Mc Laren

Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.

He is internationally recognised as one of the leading architects of critical pedagogy worldwide. He has developed a reputation for his uncompromising political analysis influenced by a Marxist humanist philosophy and a unique literary style of expression. He is the author, co-author, editor, and co-editor of approximately forty booksand monographs. Several hundred of his articles, chapters, interviews, reviews, commentaries, and columns have appeared in dozens of scholarly journals and professional magazines worldwide. His widely acclaimed work Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education (Allyn & Bacon) is named one of the 12 most significant writings worldwide in the field of educational theory, policy and practice by an international panel of experts assembled by the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Professor McLaren is the inaugural recipient of the Paulo Freire Social Justice Award presented by Chapman University, California, April 2002. In 2005, a group of Mexican scholars and activists estabished La Fundacion McLaren to promote the development of critical pedagogy in Latin America. A special Peter McLaren Chair (Catedra Peter McLaren) was established at La Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela in Caracas on September 15, 2006.

R. Govinda

Head of the Department of School and Non-formal Education in the National University of Educational Planning, New Delhi.

Concurrently, teaches at the Institute of Education, University of London as visiting Professor. Taught at the M.S. University of Baroda and at the International Institute of Educational Planning, UNESCO, Paris. Member of several national and international bodies – Member, Consultant Fellow of International Institute of
Educational Planning; Member of the Editorial Board of the Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO; Advisor, Aga Khan Foundation Education Programmes; Member, Task Force on Education for All, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India; Member, Steering Group on School Education in the 11th Five Year Plan; Managing Trustee, Foundation for Education and Development. Current areas of interest include primary education and literacy, decentralised management, programme evaluation, and role of NGOs and international organisations. Recent publications include: India Education Report – Profile of Basic Education, Oxford University Press and Community Participation and Empowerment in Primary Education in India, Sage Publishers, New Delhi.

Raymond Nichol

Head of Social Science Education and Course Coordinator of the Bachelor of Educational Studies at La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.

At present (till December, 2007), he is serving as Sydney Holgate Research Fellow, Grey College, University of Durham, UK, researching comparativeindigenous education, mostly in the Department of Anthropology. An anthropologist and teacher educator, his research interest focuses on indigenous pedagogy and education, especially in the Australian context. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Anthropological Society. He is the author of Socialsation, Land and Citizenship Among Aboriginal Australians: Reconciling Indigenous and Western Forms of Education (The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, New York, 2005), two social studies textbooks, and many presentations and papers concerning his research in indigenous studies, social studies and citizenship education, in Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, the USA and UK.

Sarada Balagopalan

Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.

Her research specialises in diverse issues of history of childhood in India, governance and politics of childhood, working children and formal schooling in India. She was part of the IDS team that conducted comparative research on the issues of exclusion in South Africa and India. Her writings are spread across various reports, journals and books. Some of her publications include “Ideal School and the Schooled Ideal: Education at the Margins” in Educational Regimes in Contemporary India (eds) Radhika Chopra and Pattricia Jeffery (Sage, 2005); “Understanding 'inclusion' in Indian schools” in Reflections on School Integration: Colloquium Proceedings (Paul & Co Pub Consortium, 2005),“Neither Suited For Home Nor Suited For Fields” “Dalit and Adivasi Children in Schools: Some Preliminary Research Themes and Findings” (co-authored) both in the IDS Bulletin (34,no.1,2003), “Constructing Indigenous Childhoods: Colonialism, Vocational Education and the Working Children” (in Childhood, 2002).

Sonali Chitalkar

Lecturer in Political Science at the Trinity Institute of Professional Studies, Indraprastha University, New Delhi.

A young researcher and a former school teacher, her research specialises on marginalisation of deprived groups, especially religious minorities in school education.

Subhash Sharma

Indian Administrative Services, Joint Secretary in Government of India.

As a practitioner he has been deeply involved in various educational programme and projects in the field of education. He is a prolific writer and his writings are spread across various popular books, journals and magazines which includes- Child Labour in India (in Hindi), Education System in India (in Hindi), Education and Society (in Hindi) etc.

Vedrana Spajic - Vrkas

Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.

She is also the founder and presently the director of the Research and Training Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship of the same faculty. An avid speaker and expert in human rights, peace and democratic citizenship education, she is the co-author of the Croatian National Human Rights Education Programme for Primary Schoosl and the reference materials for teachers (Manual and Interdisciplinary Dictionary), the European Peace Education Programme (EURED), the Council of Europe’s publications in Education for Democratic Citizenship (including the Strategies for Learning EDC and the Tool on Teacher Training in EDC), the UNESCO and the Council of Europe’s joint Tool on Quality Assurance in Education for Democratic Citizenship as well as author of some hundred academic papers and books.

Minati Panda

Affiliate Professor, Zakir Hussain Education Centre, JNU.

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