Education and Sustainable Development

The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs Commitment to change lives: teachers' experiences of living in Dhaka City and working with disadvantaged children Conference or Workshop Item How to cite: Shohel, M. Mahruf C. and Hedges, Claire (2010). Commitment to change lives: teachers' experiences of living in Dhaka City and working with disadvantaged children.

The rational for this paper is contextualized within a broader national and international agenda of reaching Education for All (EFA), knowledge transformation and production with an overall focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Whose education and whose development is at issue? The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize EFA in a broader developmental context. Definitions of formal-, nonformal and informal education are applied in order to analyze the epistemological perspectives underlying the educational achievements more than two decades after Jomtien in 1990. Concepts of contextualized expansive education and object-oriented learning will be used to reveal the systemic causes of the challenges the individual actors experience in their daily learning activities. Two case studies further illustrate how a broad stakeholder involvement through collective design and implementation created innovation and educational transformation that contributed to relevant and sustained learning/knowledge and development at an individual and community level. The paper argues that in the current sociocultural context, responses to EFA need to be based on a comprehensive national education strategy, situated in the local context. By creating space for educational innovation, through interaction and negotiation, the confluence of the epistemological lenses characterizing formal, non-formal, and informal learning could ultimately be a strategy to adequately respond to the diversified learning needs of the population and sustainable developmental of the country. One expected outcome of the paper is a contribution to the future strategies of EFA beyond 2015, built on the urgent requirements for inter-professional partnership and collaboration through a multidimensional approach to education and learning.

This think piece focuses on relevance in secondary science education to propose a research agenda for contexts in sub-Saharan Africa where enrolments are expanding from a low base. The notion of sustainable work is used to consider what kind of science education is relevant for students, who will continue to become science specialists and those, who will apply their science knowledge in non-specialist paid and unpaid roles. Drawing on insights from the literature on science and indigenous knowledge, on education for sustainable development and sociolinguistic analysis of science classrooms, it is argued that making connections between informal and formal knowledge is essentially the work of secondary education. Understanding secondary education in these terms does highlight its vital contribution to addressing sustainable development, which at its heart recognises the interconnectedness of human and natural systems.

The NORHED project, “Enhancing access, quality and sustainability of teacher training, professional development of teachers using ICTs and distance delivery mode” (QUANTICT), aims at developing teacher training programs so as to reach out to a broader range of students, including vulnerable groups related to gender, cast, ethnicity, language and physical disabilities. The paper gives a brief overview of different approaches to e-learning, advantages and disadvantages, and highlights the pedagogical characteristics of constructivist and collaborative learning as the core foundations of the e-learning approach. The paper concludes with a proposed theoretical concept merging the The new possibilities of emerging technologies in ICT-based distance education Research on emerging technologies for distance education (e-learning, open and flexible distance education etc), has revealed a range of new possibilities, such as increased flexibility, access to a wider range of programmes, saving ...

Purpose: This article reports part of a study focusing on young people's transition from the nonformal to the formal education sector, and explores how the experiences of children and young people in remote formal and nonformal schools affect their awareness of issues of health, well-being and the environment. One of the main objectives of Bangladeshi extensive nonformal primary education, run by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in parallel with the formal system, is to prepare children outside schools to enter or re-enter the formal education sector. The study addresses the issue of educational relevance from pupils' perspectives and looking at the implications for pupil transition between these two sectors. Method: Interviews and observations of students and their classes were conducted in two contrasting rural high schools in different areas of Bangladesh, and their feeder primary schools. Results: Where formal primary graduates focus more in high school on learning from their textbooks, nonformal primary graduates aim to put their knowledge into practice in their day-today life on a range of critical issues. Conclusion: The results suggest an important contrast between nonformal and formal education sectors regarding students' agency and knowledge of health and well-being, hygiene and environmental awareness in rural Bangladesh.

UNESCO (2005) launched the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014, and as we now proceed into the final year of that decade there is a time for asking whose development?  That question heavily relies upon what type of education, which again leads to aspects concerning epistemological lenses. I am using my experiences and research from two totally different assignments; an evaluation of a post-literacy and skills program in rural Laos, and the other aimed at developing and implementing a localized approach to HIV/AIDS education in Zambia. The outcomes from the two interventions revealed that in order to initiate and sustain change and development, it was crucial to ensure the inclusion and merger of multiple knowledge systems, science and traditional knowledge. That requires a focus on how. In other words, the processes we put in place to ensure the recognition and merger of different epistemologies are crucial to ensure sustained local development.The paper brief...

The rational for this paper is contextualized within a broader national and international agenda of reaching Education for All (EFA), knowledge transformation and production with an overall focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Whose education and whose development is at issue? The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize EFA in a broader developmental context. Definitions of formal-, nonformal and informal education are applied in order to analyze the epistemological perspectives underlying the educational achievements more than two decades after Jomtien in 1990. Concepts of contextualized expansive education and object-oriented learning will be used to reveal the systemic causes of the challenges the individual actors experience in their daily learning activities. Two case studies further illustrate how a broad stakeholder involvement through collective design and implementation created innovation and educational transformation that contributed to relevant and sustained learning/knowledge and development at an individual and community level. The paper argues that in the current sociocultural context, responses to EFA need to be based on a comprehensive national education strategy, situated in the local context. By creating space for educational innovation, through interaction and negotiation, the confluence of the epistemological lenses characterizing formal, non-formal, and informal learning could ultimately be a strategy to adequately respond to the diversified learning needs of the population and sustainable developmental of the country. One expected outcome of the paper is a contribution to the future strategies of EFA beyond 2015, built on the urgent requirements for inter-professional partnership and collaboration through a multidimensional approach to education and learning.

Sustainable development means ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’ (WCED, 1987:43). Meanwhile, any education worth the name is a life-long process for the betterment of human well-being. The social purposes of education are located in the long term, and it is right therefore that education should be oriented towards the construction and maintenance of a sustainable future. However, many children in developing countries get very little education. They have little chance to attend even low-quality primary schools, and dropout and failure rates are alarming; many leave semi-literate, soon to relapse into illiteracy, with disastrous consequences for their participation as individuals in the creation of a sustainable world. Moreover, the majority of those who are at school experience a traditional, formal education paradigm, aimed primarily at selecting and building human capital for economic growth. ...

This paper is based on a recent study carried out as a part of the Visiting Research Fellowship at the UNICEF Office of Research. It offers a theoretical understanding of childhood poverty and educational exclusion, building on the empirical findings of the fieldwork carried out in Bangladesh to develop case studies addressing the questions, why do so many socio-economically disadvantaged children tend to drop out from formal secondary school, and why do some succeed? After exploring the challenges of childhood poverty and educational exclusion, it shows how the challenges could be mitigated through attention to the ecology of human development. This paper demonstrates a better understanding of childhood poverty and education in relation to the theoretical perspective through drawing together empirical evidence, summarising and interpreting it, in a more integrated manner and context. On the basis of this examination of the phenomenon, research findings have translated into recommen...

Educational field research in developing country contexts often exposes the fragility of mutual understanding and the tensions of diversity between researchers and those with whom they are researching. Postgraduate researchers face particular challenges arising from their lack of experience, and from the focused, individual nature of their enquiry. Logistical, emotional and ethical issues present themselves, even for researchers studying their cultures of origin. This paper seeks to learn some lessons from the experiences of a group of researchers doing fieldwork in developing countries for the first time, as part of their PhD. A review of the literature around fieldwork reveals substantially conflicting guidance for field researchers. Practical tips (Robson et al, 1991; Nash, 2000) contrast with the writings of anthropologists such as Geertz (1988), Rosaldo (1993) or Scheper-Hughes (1992), suggesting unavoidable complexities in terms of ethics, the building and maintenance of relat...

The social purposes of education are long term and oriented towards the construction and maintenance of a sustainable future. This article focuses on developing-country contexts with relatively low formal school enrolment rates, where dropout and failure rates are alarming, and where many children leave school semi-literate, soon to relapse into illiteracy. This has negative consequences for their participation as individuals in the creation of a sus-tainable world. Since the 1960s, nonformal basic education has offered alternative educational and training activities, with innovative learning methods aimed at the development of practical skills, including matters of health, sanitation, literacy, to be applied in real-life situations. Drawing on a five-year empirical study of young people at the point of transition be-tween the nonformal and formal sectors of schooling in Bangladesh, this article analyses the nonformal education paradigm against a framework of models linking educatio...

At 900 persons per square kilometre, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries of the world and is similar to many developing countries in that nearly half the population is under 19 years of age. On average 41% of the population do not complete Primary Education, completion rates being as low as 27.5% in some areas. The reasons for such high school drop-out rates are complex: family poverty, teaching quality and the quality of teacher/student interaction, the school environment and lack of resources all playing a part. A crucial factor, however, is the nature of the school curriculum and its perceived relevance by students and parents. This paper analyses the nature of the technology curriculum as part of the basic education offered to children in government and non-government schools. A framework of analysis using three interrelated strands is considered: the curriculum rationale (focusing on the specified curriculum); teacher knowledge (focusing on the enacted curriculum); and student learning (focusing on the experienced curriculum). A consideration of these strands in a developing world context, centred on the relevance of the school curriculum in relation to technological understanding as perceived by children and parents, may have wider implications for the assumptions about the curriculum for 'technological literacy' in other more developed countries as well as for politicians within Bangladesh itself.

Purpose: This article reports part of a study focusing on young people’s transition from the nonformal to the formal education sector, and explores how the experiences of children and young people in remote formal and nonformal schools affect their awareness of issues of health, well-being and the environment. One of the main objectives of Bangladeshi extensive nonformal primary education, run by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in parallel with the formal system, is to prepare children outside schools to enter or re-enter the formal education sector. The study addresses the issue of educational relevance from pupils’ perspectives and looking at the implications for pupil transition between these two sectors. Method: Interviews and observations of students and their classes were conducted in two
contrasting rural high schools in different areas of Bangladesh, and their feeder primary schools. Results: Where formal primary graduates focus more in high school on learning from their textbooks, nonformal primary graduates aim to put their knowledge into practice in their day-to-day life on a range of critical issues. Conclusion: The results suggest an important contrast between nonformal and formal education sectors regarding students’ agency and knowledge of health and well-being,
hygiene and environmental awareness in rural Bangladesh.

The Education for Sustainable Development Programme at UNU-IAS has worked with Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) worldwide to develop a new publication titled ‘Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Well-being For All: Experiences of community health, hygiene, sanitation and nutrition within Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD’.

The publication contains a series of case studies to showcase RCE-led sustainability initiatives in the areas of health, including determinants and drivers of health such as hygiene, sanitation and nutrition. The study draws attention to several dimensions of intersectoral engagement for advancing the SDG implementation agenda of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. The case studies highlight how collective health promotion action at a local level is critical for addressing the health challenges the world faces at present – from gaps in health literacy to inadequate health systems – through a participatory approach and multi-stakeholder networking.

Little attempt has been made to empirically investigate the effects of childhood poverty on children’s educational attainments and their everyday life in Bangladesh. Quality education is a prominent aspiration in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but there are few studies of school improvement in relation to the educational achievement of disadvantaged children living in rural Bangladesh. This article offers a theoretical understanding of childhood poverty and educational exclusion, building on the empirical research carried out in two rural areas to explore the following questions: Why do so many socio-economically disadvantaged children tend to dropout from formal secondary school? and Why do some succeed? After exploring the challenges of childhood poverty and educational exclusion, it shows how the challenges could be mitigated through attention to the ecology of human development in the contexts of individual children. Complex ways in which efforts can be made to tackle the challenges of childhood poverty are influenced by ecological factors within the context of the study. Recommendations for policy and practice are offered based on the findings to improve formal secondary schooling for socio-economically disadvantaged children in Bangladesh.

Educational field research in developing country contexts often exposes the fragility of mutual understanding and the tensions of diversity between researchers and those with whom they are researching. Postgraduate researchers face particular challenges arising from their lack of experience, and from the focused, individual nature of their enquiry. Logistical, emotional and ethical issues present themselves, even for researchers studying their cultures of origin. This paper seeks to learn some lessons from the experiences of a group of researchers doing fieldwork in developing countries for the first time, as part of their PhD.

Educational field research in developing country contexts often exposes the fragility of mutual understanding and the tensions of diversity between researchers and those with whom they are researching. Postgraduate researchers face particular challenges arising from their lack of experience, and from the focused, individual nature of their enquiry. Logistical, emotional and ethical issues present themselves, even for researchers studying their cultures of origin. This paper seeks to learn some lessons from the experiences of a group of researchers doing fieldwork in developing countries for the first time, as part of their PhD.

Educational field research in developing country contexts often exposes the fragility of mutual understanding and the tensions of diversity between researchers and those with whom they are researching. Postgraduate researchers face particular challenges arising from their lack of experience, and from the focused, individual nature of their enquiry. Logistical, emotional and ethical issues present themselves, even for researchers studying their cultures of origin. This paper seeks to learn some lessons from the experiences of a group of researchers doing fieldwork in developing countries for the first time, as part of their PhD.

A review of the literature around fieldwork reveals substantially conflicting guidance for field researchers. Practical tips (Robson et al, 1991; Nash, 2000) contrast with the writings of anthropologists such as Geertz (1988), Rosaldo (1993) or Scheper-Hughes (1992), suggesting unavoidable complexities in terms of ethics, the building and maintenance of relationships, and the perceptions of both the researcher and those with
whom he or she is researching.

The experiences of a group of individual PhD field researchers form the central section of the paper, making use of a framework in which each sets out to explore examples of the relationships between the person of the researcher; the activities of the research, and a central but easily-overlooked feature of the field: the issue of time. These relationships are seen to impact on the nature of the main and often contentious object of academic research, data: its nature, its validity and reliability; or more broadly, on the development of a deeper understanding of individuals and institutions. Part of the power of these examples lies in the range of contexts and individuals represented. Activity theory is used as a basic framework through which to
interrogate these experiences.

Finally, the arguments of literature are challenged and developed in relation to these experiences, leading to some propositions but also exploring some critical questions, to form a useful basis for further discussion. The experiences of the authors might be of interest to other researchers doing fieldwork in the developing
world.