When Things Change, What Stays the Same? Tradition and Dialogue in Defining Equal Educational Opportunities

• In Event: 29.082 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.082-10 - Fostering Educational Equality Through Decolonizing Methods and Postcolonial Perspectives

Abstract

Contextualized in participant experiences in Kenya and China, this paper interrogates the role of tradition in fostering equal educational opportunities. In asking the question, ‘when everything changes, what stays the same?’ the paper troubles theoretical assumptions highlighting a binary between transmitted historical legacies and globalized modernity. Through interacting in dialogue and reflexive inquiry with participants, the researchers suggest the role of tradition to be both fluid and dynamic. The authors note that tradition, as educational pedagogy, plays a significant role in defining ongoing cultural identity. Thereby, tradition, situates participants in liminal spaces that can work to propel social justice action. This paper, therefore, recognizes the role of tradition as key in the dynamics of changing stable and unstable sociopolitical conditions.

Authors

• Charlotte Achieng-Evensen, Downey Unified School District

• Suzanne SooHoo, Chapman University