“You Have Come Here for Our Guidance…”: Women and Capabilities of the Poor in an International Education Program for Sustainable Development

• In Event: Inclusion and diversity in global and local educational contexts

Proposal

Introduction
This paper examines an international education for sustainable development (ESD) program initiated at a Midwestern US land-grant university from the perspectives of the poor, mostly women, who engaged in the program in rural and urban low-income low-literacy communities in India. Drawing upon the capabilities approach and an ethnographic case study on the multiyear international ESD program, this paper focuses on the capabilities of the poor, in particular, women living in extreme forms of poverty, who reflected on their experiences engaging in the program.

Context and Purpose
Every Monday 5-8pm throughout the entire academic year, graduate and advanced undergraduate students from multiple disciplines including business, engineering, design, agriculture, social sciences and liberal arts at the U Land were busy working together in their interdisciplinary teams in a yearlong product and business design class. In fall semester, they learned about the life circumstances of the poor around the world, using poverty simulations, videos, and qualitative interviews about the lives of the poor, most of whom were women. Then they took a field trip to India during the winter break to conduct research and interact with people living in low-income and low-literacy communities. Lastly, in the spring semester, the students learned to design sustainable solutions and prototypes for poverty contexts, such as products, services, and business plans. This course offers an example of the growing international education programs in the U.S seeking to address global challenges, such as poverty alleviation, women’s empowerment, and sustainable development.
Responding to CIES annual conference theme on “Education for Sustainability,” in this paper, I specifically focus the experiences of the women who engaged in this international education program. The central research question addressed in this paper is: How did the women living in poverty make meaning of their experience interacting with the university students in this international program?

Theoretical Framework
In this paper, I draw upon the capabilities approach, as articulated by Amartya Sen (1999, 2009). The capabilities approach looks at the actual, concrete, life circumstances of each person and asks if each person has the genuine opportunities to be, to do, or to become what he or she has reason to value. Specifically, freedom and agency are two important elements of the capabilities approach, in particular, freedom in the positive sense conceptualized as “freedom to” (choose to do or achieve what one values), which is a “principal determinant of individual initiative and social effectiveness” and is related to the “agency aspect” of the individual (Sen, 1999, p. 18). That is, it sees individuals as agents who can “effectively shape their own destiny and help each other” (p. 11).
The capabilities approach conceptualizes poverty as capabilities deprivation, which is beyond the lowness in income, lack of resources, or primary goods (Sen, 1999). Education, according to the capabilities approach, is not only one of the central capabilities but also significant in promoting other capabilities and human flourishing.

Data Collection and Analysis
As part of a larger ethnographic case study in the yearlong course, I engaged in three phases of data collection as the yearlong course unfolded throughout Academic Year 2015-2016: 1) Fall 2015 at the university, 2) Winter Break 2015 in India, and 3) Spring 2016 back at the university. I utilized a variety of data collection methods, including (a) participant observation throughout the course both at the university and in impoverished communities in India to illuminate how the experiences of teaching and learning were constructed and negotiated; (b) textual analysis of curricular documents, student writings, and existing literature to examine how the pedagogical practices facilitated the understanding of global poverty; and (c) ongoing in-depth individual and focus group interviews to understand how different constituents in the course made meanings of this experience as it was enacted. In total, I conducted 35 interviews with 22 students as well as NGO and community members.
Throughout the data collection process, I conducted iterative and ongoing data analysis, identifying codes, categorizing codes according to different dimensions of pedagogical processes and different constituents. Drawing on my field notes, codes, and reflective memos, I developed themes from the data, which were further developed into new questions and eventually my assertions.

Findings
For the limited space of the proposal, I can only share some of the key findings in the following three themes as illustrated in brief quotes from my interviews with some of the women from low-income communities, which showed different layers of capabilities of the women living in poverty:
1) The Valuing of the Poor to Encounter, and Share Their Experiences, with the University Students from Different Backgrounds:
Celebrities are not interested in learning about our problems and needs. You guys are interested in learning our problems, perspectives, needs. You have come here for our guidance and getting to learn about our lives and all. That's what makes it special.
For someone to want to learn another person's difficulty itself is something commendable. You want to learn all our problems and how we live life, that's a big thing.
2) Their Agency to Learn from the Students and Help Educate Their Children by Engaging in the Program:
She said when I was young, I didn’t have the opportunity to go to different countries, now I have opportunity to meet people from different countries, understand them. …I did not get opportunity to get educated like you, so I learn from all of you who have all these experience.
She really “like talking with the students,” because she has a son and so “what I learn from you, will also help him.”
3) Their Positive Freedom to Contribute to the Education of the Students and Making Their Community and the Society Better
She said she is very happy that you are doing the study to contribute to the society and she is happy that she can be useful for this. She said you should publish this.
The students don’t think I am poor. But I want everybody to do well in my group (self-help group). …she said, what do I want in my life, I want my son to study well and have a good life. …So if I were to go to the bank to get some help, it’s not just about me, but I think about all the ten people in the (self-help) group and what our needs are.

Significance
With the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by its member states and the UNESCO Global Action Program on ESD, it is crucial to examine international higher education programs such as the yearlong course seeking to promote sustainable development. In this paper, I focus on the perspectives from the women on their experiences engaging in the program. I conclude that the capabilities of the poor need to put at the core of any educational program as educators explore innovative pedagogical strategies in higher education to address global poverty and sustainable development, especially for women living in extreme forms of poverty.

Author

• Xiuying Cai, Xiamen University, China