Whilst the current COVID19 pandemic has brought home to many citizens in the Global North the fragility of their existence, including a lack of resilience in education systems and exacerbation of widespread learning inequalities, in the Global South this is but one more crisis in a long list that has punctuated daily lives and educational journeys. This seminar seeks to go beyond narrow understandings of education and its relationship to economy and society by critically exploring the complex ways that education systems and state education policies and practices, are linked to war, peace and crises, not merely as victims but also as drivers and catalysts. In doing so I will seek to highlight that education systems and actors have agency – they are capable of producing conflict ridden and crises prone systems as well as radically transforming them – and that policy and practice matters in the pursuit of more socially just and equitable educational systems and a fairer and better world. Drawing on evidence from a series of research projects, the session will critically reflect on the ways in which the relationship between education, conflict and crisis has been constructed, nationally and transnationally, as a field of research and practice. It will also highlight the ongoing need for critically informed research on the education/conflict /crisis relationship that can decouple itself from the hegemony of Global North funders, agencies and actors and the inherent biases and injustices within dominant lenses, priorities and perspectives.
Mario Novelli is Professor in the Political Economy of Education at the Centre for International Education (CIE), University of Sussex and Dean’s Distinguished Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne. He is Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal Globalisation, Societies & Education and was the Director of the Centre for International Education (CIE) at the University of Sussex between 2016-2021. His work explores i) the relationship between education systems and armed conflict; ii) the relationship between education and globalization; iii) learning and knowledge production in trade union, social movements and civil society organizations. He is currently PI on two major research projects: the first is the Political Economy of Education Network which aims to build capacity and enhance knowledge exchange in Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa on the political economy analysis of education systems in conflict affected contexts peernetworkgcrf.org/.The second is an ESRC funded project on Social Movement Learning and Knowledge Production in the Struggle for Peace with Social Justice. A multi-country study on Learning and Knowledge Production in Social Movements in Conflict Affected Contexts https://knowledge4struggle.org/.
Register in advance at https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIkceCprjIrHNwcG6QTIfhtqhJd-ijkKPvQ After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about joining the meeting.Attachments area
Mark Carrigan 