Blog Post

Education and national identity in Uzbekistan: An analysis of ‘Tarbiya’ textbooks through a post-structuralist lens

Since 1991, Uzbekistan, a multi-ethnic Central Asian state where 60% of the population is under 30, has prioritized its youth as a “strategic resource of the state” in nation-building efforts. With the aim to fill the void left by the…

25/03/2024

Re-imagining and re-bordering conference spaces and edges: anticipatory reflections from the coordinators of BAICE 2024’s Borderless sub-theme

The theme for BAICE 2024 calls for a ‘radical re-imagining’ and ‘re-bordering’ of the work of education that goes beyond the rhetoric. Our starting point for the borderless sub-theme was a desire to reimagine (some of) the borders within the parallel-session convention of academic conferences.

08/03/2024

Looking at ‘Education for All: The Case of Tagore’s Alternative Education

The British colonial rule dramatically altered the curriculum and pedagogical policies by introducing examination-based, textbook-centred and teacher-directed educational systems in India. The limitation of this form of education is hyper-focus on employability and economic development as the only end goals of education.

22/02/2024

Launching the Syrian Academics and Researchers Network in the UK

Group photo of Syrian academics and researchers in the UK

The Higher Education (HE) sector can play an essential role in supporting Syria emerging from a conflict to recover. It has the potential to promote peacebuilding by sending messages of peacebuilding, addressing inequalities, teaching peace studies, promoting participatory learning, and…

16/02/2024

What does ethical solidarity look like for academic professional bodies in times of unfolding genocide?

We write this piece as a group of education researchers working in the fields of international education and development, including with respect to conflict studies, forced migration and comparative studies, witnessing the unfolding of genocide in Palestine.

17/12/2023

Accreditation outcomes and the voices of teaching staff

This blog entry highlights some key discussions from my research which examined the outcomes of the accreditation exercises conducted between 2005 and 2015 by the National Universities Commission (NUC) of Nigeria, the perspectives and lived experiences of professors in the Nigerian University System (NUS), the academic standard documents in use, the process of conducting accreditation, the scoring system as well as the importance of accreditation of undergraduate programmes to the NUS.

05/10/2023

‘Out-of-school girls’: do we need to re-think the terminology?

For the past decade we have been working on a range of research and practitioner initiatives with adolescent and young women in southern Africa. Their lives have been distinct and diverse, with periods of financial comfort and stability as well as poverty and uncertainty.

22/03/2023

Combatting a poverty of play: revisiting the global landscape of post-pandemic play and learning

Famed developmental psychologist and English paediatrician Donald Winnicott said, "there is, for many, a poverty of play” (Playing and Reality, 1971). Despite play’s status in developmental literature as being key to both learning and wellbeing, Winnicott’s observation has come to characterise the landscape of childhood in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

23/02/2023

Working at the confluence of research and implementation to support girls’ education: Reflections on the REAL Centre – CAMFED partnership

Aerial photo of the confluence of two rivers in the Italian Alps

The partnership between the Research of Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre and the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) is centred around our mutual commitment to gender equality in and through education. This blog highlights key lessons from our partnership working at the confluence of research and implementation with the aim of supporting girls’ education.

15/12/2022

BAICE OR REPLACE? My Experience of the 2022 BAICE Conference as a PhD Student

First, grab a cup of tea, coffee, water or whatever you enjoy drinking. This is going to be interesting… Attending academic conferences I believe is a tradition for researchers. So when the opportunity to participate in BAICE 2022 came up,…

30/11/2022

Sharing experiences of youth partnership in conflict contexts: Reflections from the BAICE conference

The British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE) 2022 Conference was held at the University of Edinburgh from September 13th to 15th. After two years of mostly virtual conferences, BAICE provided many scholars and practitioners the opportunity to meet and share their perspectives around the theme of ‘partnership.’

24/11/2022

A Theatre of the Privileged Decolonial Café

performance with audience sitting around the stage

In this interactive Café, we use theatre, stories, and games to examine the mechanisms of colonial reproduction in the international and comparative education sector and identify ways to collectively transform them.

12/09/2022

Learning through a UNESCO Chair partnership

UEA UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation

In the Open Theme strand at the BAICE 2022 conference, this multi-media creative session will offer a space to reflect on some of the below questions, to find out more about a UNESCO Chair and share your own experiences of…

06/09/2022

Ibali: co-creating learning spaces in and through storytelling research activities

Group of people painting and sketching on a collaborative artwork

In the ‘Experiencing Education Partnerships’ Sub-theme at the BAICE 2022 conference, we will do a creative session on storytelling as a research approach, drawing on our experiences of using the approach in international research.

18/08/2022

Sustainable development needs system thinking, but how to achieve it?

In this creative session in the Experiencing Educational Partnerships strand, participants will learn how to achieve systems thinking competence by following ten subsequent steps. The session will allow the group to identify suitable topics and gather different ideas to design…

05/08/2022