Highlighted Session: Exploring Knowledge Production, Ownership, and Exchange in International Development Education Practice and Research

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

This panel will explore the conference sub-theme, “Global Inequalities in Knowledge Production and Exchange” from the standpoint of the practitioner-researcher. Just as inequalities in education are complex – an interplay of human agency with technologies, geographies and historical patterns; socially determined and/or resting on individual experiences (Unterhalter, 2015, p. 147) – so are also the inequalities of knowledge exchange in international development education (IDE) practice. Reflection, dialogue, and action are necessary to challenge the inequalities related to knowledge exchange and knowledge flow, and to connect with outcomes, opportunities and capabilities related to equity and equality. Panelists will reflect on and stimulate dialogue related to problematizing dichotomies and to exploring multi-directionality and multi-dimensionality in the ways that policies, practices and research agendas can work together (Unterhalter, 2015; p. 148).

This panel draws on the work of practitioner-researchers who ground their work in a commitment to human rights and social justice, and in a learner-centered, systems approach to comparative and international educational development. In their daily practice, they regularly confront the challenges of working with International Development Organizations (e.g., not-for-profits, bilateral and multilateral donors, INGOs and NGOs), universities, state and national governments, and with competing organizational claims to knowledge ownership in 21st century development practice.

From the panelists’ shared and disparate experiences, they will examine knowledge production, exchange and ownership in the following contexts: a school in southern Africa that is achieving equity as well as excellence; US teacher education in global perspective as it struggles to survive the political vice grip and implementation of neo-liberal economic policies; the development of global policies of children’s rights in tension with educationalists in classrooms of southern Africa dealing with corporal punishment mandates; and an IDE consulting practice that daily negotiates the commodification of knowledge and the politics of knowledge exchange.

In the course of the discussion, the panelists will problematize various dichotomies in the field, such as, research or practice, researcher or practitioner, theoretical knowledge or practical knowledge. They will explore the tensions between global policies and local cultural norms, and challenge the emphasis on bi-directionality (e.g., South-North; West-East), proposing and illustrate the concept of multi-directionality in practice.

To ensure enhanced audience participation, the panel will introduce a different presentation-and-discussion format.

The session will be structured around the following three key questions:

1. In what ways and by whom is knowledge produced in IDE practice and research?
2. Who “owns” and “distributes” or markets this knowledge?
3. What constitutes knowledge exchange? What are the implications for directionality and for equality?

The panel chair will coordinate session interaction among and between the presenters. The four panelists will first address the questions by presenting illustrative examples from their work and the critical responses to their presentations elicited from international colleagues in advance of the conference. Audience engagement with the panelists and the content will follow each question, providing an opportunity for audience engagement at three specific points in the session.

References:
McCowan, T., & Unterhalter, E. (2015). Education and international development: An introduction. New York: Bloomsbury.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Teaching Comparative Education

Chair

• Shirley J Miske, Miske Witt & Associates Inc.

Individual Presentations

• Fueling multidirectional knowledge exchange: A young model from Africa - Margaret Meagher, African Leadership Academy

• Learning from others to inform a non-neoliberal narrative for US Schools - Jan Westrick, Valparaiso University / Miske Witt

• Problematizing universal elimination of corporal punishment: Exploring knowledge ownership of corporal punishment policy - Bethany Leech, Miske Witt & Associates, Inc.

• The consultant’s roles in knowledge production and knowledge exchange - Shirley J Miske, Miske Witt & Associates Inc.