BAICE are delighted to announce that Jing Kun Bai, Sayaka Hashimoto and Nozomi Sakata, all from the Institute of Education, UCL, have each been awarded a £2500 contribution towards their doctoral fieldwork expenses in the inaugural round of the BAICE Student Travel Bursary Scheme. Their proposals described well-organised, realistically costed studies with clear objectives and research questions and a clear articulation of how their research aligned with the remit of BAICE.
Jing Kun Bai: Citizenship education in China: an analysis of the university textbooks of a compulsory ‘Politics’ course. What does this tell us about possible development towards democracy in China?
Jing Kun is using the bursary to supplement her textbook analysis and undertake classroom observations and interviews in Chinese higher education institutions. She is assessing whether democratic values of critical thinking, multi-culturalism, pluralism and tolerance are being encouraged. Her research is focusing on traces of democratisation which have emerged in the context of economic growth and the one-party political system in China’s reform era as well as the possibilities for democratisation which may emerge in the future.
Sayaka Hashimoto: Local government involvement in education for ethnic minority children in post World War II Japan
Sayaka’s fieldwork is based across four areas of Japan and is exploring how education reforms aim to cater for diversity, particularly in relation to migration and ethnic minorities. She is focusing on Japan’s distinctive bottom-up policy development process, the conditions under which these policies are initiated and the ways in which these locally-driven policies are taken up at the national level.
Nozomi Sakata: Learner-centred pedagogy (LCP) in Tanzanian primary schools: mixed methods vertical case study to investigate LCP implementation and its effects on pupils
Nozomi’s PhD is exploring how Tanzania is implementing LCP in primary schools through a lens focusing on national historical and ideological contexts. Her fieldwork took place in Tanzania at the end of 2015. She distributed questionnaires, and conducted lesson observations, interviews and focus groups with teachers and pupils in 13 public and private primary schools in two regions. She also visited the hometown of Tanzania’s first president Julius Nyerere to explore his influence on educational priorities.
Over the coming months, the award winners will submit a report to BAICE on their fieldwork, and highlights of these reports will be available on the BAICE website.
The deadline for the second round of funding for BAICE Student Travel Bursaries is May 1st 2016. More information is available on the BAICE website. Please share widely!
Alison Buckler, BAICE Executive Committee