Reconsidering Development

Schools, Land, and Power

2022-06-10T00:19:45-05:00

This essay reviews two recent books on the role of education in Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST), a far-reaching social movement that advocates for agrarian reform and social welfare of the rural poor. The first book, Occupying Schools, Occupying Land: How the Landless Workers Movement Transformed Brazilian Education by Rebecca Tarlau offers an insightful examination of how the MST worked to reclaim formal education from their oppressors, establishing schools within their settlements, and developing tertiary education opportunities for members to train as both leaders and teachers. The Political Ecology of Education by David Meek explores the educational forces shaping the movement’s land ethic, with a focus on adult education, agroecology and foodways. Both Tarleau and Meek highlight the ways in which the MST promoted action learning and self-knowledge in creating meaningful and lasting education in Brazil’s countryside.

A ‘Gift’ of Neoliberalism

2020-12-09T10:44:02-06:00

Barnawi’s Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the Arabian Gulf (2018) addresses language of instruction policies in the six Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, U.A.E., Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Barnawi takes the reader through a comparison of national language policies throughout the Gulf. He presents the neoliberal Western ideological roots of these policies and the resulting clash with traditional Islamic worldviews. Further pointing out that Gulf countries seek to transform their economies from oil-based to knowledge-based economies and in doing so, English language skills have become commodified and serve as a means to guaranteed economic prosperity. However, Barnawi does not offer an alternative vision to English medium instruction (EMI) for the reader to consider. Moreover, Barnawi has not successfully argued that the adoption of English language will by default lead to the adoption of Western cultural norms. Missing from the analysis is an alternative framework that advocates for a culturally relevant education policy which addresses the needs of a citizenry who must be both globally competent and culturally grounded.

Language of Instruction and Education Policies in Kenya

2022-06-15T17:36:42-05:00

This policy synthesis addresses issues regarding the language of instruction (LOI) through distinct Kenyan educational policy documents. This work points out the ramifications of the lack of clear policies addressing language in the Kenyan education system and the implications, both context-specific and globally on individual identities in such contexts. The conceptual framework used in this policy synthesis follows de Galbert’s (2021) idea that emphasizes the impacts caused by lingering linguistic imperialism to highly influence the Global South in educational policies and how the language used in the classrooms might exacerbate inequalities instead of eradicating them. The methodology used analyzes three distinct documents, the Kenyan Constitution of 2010 (Kenya, L. O., 2013), the Republic of Kenya’s National Curriculum Policy (2018), and the Basic Education Curriculum Framework (2019) in an attempt to present a clear picture of Kenya’s LOI policy. This policy brief highlights the implications of positioning English as the LOI, especially regarding the equitable erasure of all the linguistic and cultural identities of the Indigenous languages.

Stitching Memories

2022-06-29T17:23:08-05:00

This contribution describes the collaborative autoethnography that emerged between Aicha, a Syrian refugee living in Croatia, and myself, a researcher and a former refugee from Croatia. Aicha was one of seven refugees who took part in my narrative research on refugee youth’s schooling experiences as the novel COVID-19 virus shut the schools and established online schooling. In this manuscript, I write about two experiences while using metaphors of weaving and embroidery: one regards the journey of collaborative autoethnography that emerged between Aicha and myself accounting for building our relationship in reciprocity and vulnerability; the other looks into our shared stories and their resemblance cutting across different temporal contexts, while discussing long histories of social distancing against Muslims, migrants, and refugees as the racial and cultural Other. Aicha has become a sister, friend, co-writer and coagitator of solidarity and justice in times when her voice, hijab and language represent an ongoing war.