Current Issues in Comparative Education

Telling the Story of Gender Inequality During the Early Stages of Covid-19 Crisis in Education and Introducing Feminist Alternatives to Change the Reality

Patricia Grillet — 2023-09-12

Research from different fields demonstrates that the disruption caused by Covid-19 exacerbated social problems. In education, literature reviews focus on issues related to technology, evaluations, or racial discrimination that were worsened as a consequence of remote teaching and learning. Few scholarly works of this kind analyze the problematics in the education system in emergencies from a gendered perspective. This literature review brings to the discussion the transnational burdens, risks, and divides that increasingly affect women during crises in education. Findings revealed that female actors—teachers, students, mothers—have received fewer opportunities and have been assigned more responsibilities in comparison to their male counterparts since the beginning of the pandemic. Through a framework of feminist theories, this review analyzes studies that illustrate the disparities affecting women’s opportunities in education, as well as some of their responses. It makes the case to look for solutions that create better conditions for all and strengthen the educational structure itself. Finally, this article brings forth feminist alternatives to equip the education system when facing disruptions, based on ideas from practitioners and scholars that intend to decolonize teaching and learning through survival actions that support situated knowledge, collaboration, and mind freedom.

“It is as if They are Taking Advantage of a Bad Situation”

Ruchi Saini — 2023-09-12

This article analyzes six female school teachers’ narratives of navigating increased care work at home with online teaching during COVID-19 in India. A theoretical framework of decolonizing feminist research, with an emphasis on moving beyond Anglo/Eurocentric forms of feminist knowledge-making, frames the study. Based on the interviews, the research reveals that the home emerged as a site for resistance to the gendered division of care work in marriages via the use of the tactical strategy of relying on family members other than the husband. Within the limited scope of the study, the schools emerged as sites of institutional betrayal manifested in administrative actions and inactions such as removing contractual teachers, scheduling meetings outside work hours, increasing surveillance, and not providing digital support. These administrative decisions were perceived by the participants as motivated by profit-making; displaying complete disregard for the teachers’ well-being. The findings advance our understanding of how emergencies such as COVID-19 exacerbate the exploitation of those female members in the labor force who are already marginalized through contractual undervalued work or the inordinate burden of caregiving. It also offers important suggestions for policy makers concerned with creating safe and inclusive working spaces for female teachers in the global south.

Coloniality, Resistance, and Reimagining the Future: Exploring the Influence of Language Policies on Learner Identities in Pakistani Schools

Shizza Fatima — 2023-09-12

This paper explores student experiences of language-in-education policies through the lens of colonial processes and traces such logic as they operate through educational institutions. Drawing on semi-structured interviews of high school seniors and recent graduates, I investigate how students in Pakistani secondary schools interact with intersecting modern/colonial structures that rationalize existing hierarchies of power along colonial, racial/ethnic, and gendered lines. The findings suggest that students have internalized dominant colonial ideologies and they also constitute key sites for decolonial resistance at the same time. Student experiences of colonial hierarchies in the school were mediated by their socioeconomic class, gender, ethnic and linguistic background. However, despite internalizing dominant hierarchies, many students understood their experiences through the framing of colonial power structures, which simultaneously positioned them as potential actors for decolonial resistance. In this paper, I analyze their experiences in detail, and in doing so, this study adds to the growing voices in the field of international and comparative education that critically examine the role of modern/colonial formations in the structuring of education globally.

Social Emotional Learning with Refugees in East Africa

Kelsey Dalrymple — 2023-09-12

Social emotional learning (SEL) has become a popular trend in the field of Education in Emergencies (EiE). Many SEL programs targeting refugee learners aim to help individuals develop skills that are necessary for learning and development, as well as mitigate the adverse impacts of crisis and displacement. While nearly half a billion USD has been invested in SEL initiatives for refugee and crisis contexts world-wide, little evidence exists about the impacts of SEL interventions with refugee communities. As 20% of all refugees globally reside in East Africa, and it is estimated that over 152 million African children live in active conflict zones, this study set out to qualitatively examine understandings, implementation, and implications of SEL interventions across actors engaging refugee communities in the region. The results expose tensions, challenges, and complex dynamics related to culture, power, and the complicated reality of implementing refugee education initiatives in East Africa. While further research into this area of inquiry is needed and proposed, these study findings provide a stronger understanding of the refugee education landscape in East Africa and its current insufficiencies through the example of SEL, and serve to inform other topical EiE interventions and the broader uptake of SEL by education systems globally.

Book Review School Leadership for Refugees’ Education: Social Justice Leadership for Immigrant, Migrants and Refugees by Khalid Arar

Whitney Hough — 2023-09-12

Book Review

Title: School Leadership for Refugees’ Education: Social Justice Leadership for Immigrant, Migrants and Refugees

Author: Khalid Arar

Year: 2020

Publisher:

Pages: 202

ISBN: 9780429021770

Price: $52.95 (paper)

Racializing the Climate Justice movement in education

Alexandra Schindel — 2023-09-12

In this essay, we argue for racializing approaches to teaching climate change to better understand and address climate injustices. We draw upon the example of the Buffalo Blizzard of 2022 which caused a disproportionate number of deaths in the Black community. Extreme weather events such as the blizzard highlight the ways in which climate catastrophes and racial injustices are inextricably linked. We urge educators across all content areas to incorporate a climate justice education approach and outline an approach to transformative climate justice learning.

Creating Third Spaces of Learning for Post-Capitalism: Lessons from Educators, Artists andActivists

Carol Anne Spreen — 2023-09-12

Editorial introduction

Tomas Esper — 2023-09-12