Conference Sub-theme – Values & Conceptualizations in Education and Development Research

This sub-theme seeks to identify the research paradigms – and the values underlying them – that have prevailed in the field of education and development research over the last 15 years, and to consider which research paradigms, conceptualizations of the field, values and ethical approaches might best serve the field beyond 2015.

UKFIET Conference Preview

This is part of a series of previews introducing Symposia, Round Tables and Sub-Themes at the forthcoming 12th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development to be held 10-12 September in Oxford, UK. Please leave your comments and questions about the Sub-theme below.

Fifteen papers divided into five sessions make up this section of the conference.  The five sessions cover themes such as teaching, learning and educational quality; skills development and sustainable livelihoods; controversial and new concepts in educational development; the consequences for policy of new research; and the consequences of policy for children in need of education.  Individual presenters will be discussing topics that include the financial self-sustainability of development initiatives, the privatisation of education, the myth of ‘best practice’ in local development contexts, and an Islamic methodological perspective on research.  Northern researchers in the field of international education development will be familiar with the response frequently articulated in the South, “Nothing about us without us”: Jana Zehle asks, in the fourth session of this thematic sub-section of the conference, whether we’re being inclusive in our research practice, or whether many of us are involved in “academic grabbing”.