Valuing diverse community-rooted understandings and practices of education in the face of globalizing trends

• In Event: Roundtable Session 5

Group Submission Type: Refereed Roundtable Session

Proposal

While much of the discussion around digital divide focuses on the lack of access to technology and connectivity for rural, poor, and minority language learners, communities around the world approach conversations on the globalization of education from a diversity of perspectives that often do not prioritize access to education technology, and may even reject it, as the dominant digital pedagogies and content frequently do not align with their context, goals and worldview. Deeper listening to communities, including community-based education organizations, local civil society, and indigenous and identity-group leaders of all ages is critical to understanding the limitations and risks of digital education. Across the world there are powerful stories of local civil society and communities (often in collaboration with government and public education systems) enriching education for all children in a way that both draws from and feeds the energies and assets of each community. These experiences frequently demonstrate a prioritization by communities of cultural relevance, holistic well-being, critical thinking, inclusion, and collective empowerment, among other themes that standardized approaches often struggle to address.

This roundtable discussion will open a space for sharing experiences with community-based and indigenous perspectives on learning and education and discussing how these can support stronger public policies and education development strategies. It will open with brief presentations on qualitative research that has emerged from cohorts of community-based organizations and research by local organizations spanning 12 countries, before engaging all participants in an open forum.

Opening presentations will include:
*How play-based learning is understood by over 60 community-based organizations across 10 countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and the diversity of outcomes it generates for children and their communities.
*The complexity and impact of 7 local civil society organizations’ programming in Guatemala in responding to the education crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
*How diverse social and emotional learning initiatives across 6 states in India is shifting conventional educational paradigms towards more holistic, inclusive and equitable frameworks.
*How leaders of 10 community-based organizations, primarily youth and indigenous-led, in Yucatán, México, perceive educational opportunities for adolescent Mayan girls and critique the role that state-administered education has played in marginalizing indigenous children and communities.

Presentations will be in English, while each piece of research may be available in English, Spanish, and/or Portuguese.

Sub Unit

• Cultural Contexts of Education and Human Potential SIG

Chairs

• Kim McClain, Global Fund for Children

• Laura Hinson, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund

Individual Presentations

• A community-based understanding of the power of learning through play from the Partnership to Educate All Kids (PEAK) initiative - Mariam Smith, Learning Loop; Philip Sawyer Smith, Learning Loop; Kim McClain, Global Fund for Children

• Seven case studies on local civil society’s contributions to educational recovery in Guatemala from the RECARGA initiative - Angel del Valle, Population Council; Aiken Chew, Population Council

• Transforming Indian Education through Systemic Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Lessons and Insights from Dream a Dream - Sreehari Ravindranath, Dream a Dream; Apoorva Bhatnagar, Dream a Dream; Amit Kumar Vishwanath, Dream a Dream; Joseph Thomas Rijo, DREAM A DREAM

• Towards an education that nourishes the strength of Mayan girls: A baseline study from the U Muu´kil Xch´úupalo´ob initiative - Eugenia Vigil, Global Fund For Children