Learning, context and social responsibility: Constraints and opportunities for the most marginalized

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have placed a high priority on the on learning equity. However, the SDGs are mainly normative: that is, they tend to emphasize averages across nations, with relatively limited attention to variations within countries and contexts. Children who are most marginalized at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) often receive the least resources. The papers in this symposium explore both our social responsitibilty for improved learning, and explore constraints and opportunities for the most marginalized populations.

During recent years, experts from around the world have sought to explore the scientific tensions related to understanding learning among poor and marginalized populations in low-income countries—those at the “bottom of the pyramid” (Wagner et al., 2017). International organizations, donor agencies, and many national governments often invoke BoP populations as the target of their investments—trying to help the poorest of the poor, but our understanding of learning¬ remains inadequate to the challenge ensuring learning for all.

The growth in interest and support of children’s learning at the BoP have raised major challenges. Research on learning gaps among the poor in high-income countries has been a longstanding area of interest (e.g., OECD 2020, and others), along with substantial effort to create measurement tools for diverse populations. Still, the scientific community has, to date, invested only modest effort in understanding and narrowing learning differences in the BoP in LMICs. In the present panel we consider the latest research in four papers that address the topic of improving learning in local and global contexts.

The present papers are provided by senior scholars in the field. The first paper - entitled “Learning and social responsibility” - considers learning equity issues within marginalized populations in global and local contexts. Building on recent research, the paper concludes with recommendations for reducing learning inequities that have only become more prominent in the current pandemic, and the potential for improvement of other SDGs. The second paper - entitled “Learning and marginalization in Mexico: A case example” analyzes two approaches are taken: a demographic approach that identifies and gives dimensions to different groups that may be considered to be in a vulnerable position, and a standardized-testing approach. The third paper - entitled “Inequalities in learning and income: Cross-national perspectives” takes a closer empirical look at PISA/OECD data how learning equity will impact GNP per capita in the coming years. The fourth paper - entitled “Financing Education at the Bottom of the Pyramid” analyzes World Bank data from LMICs to consider how many countries need to spend significantly more public funds on education if they are to extend good quality education opportunities to all children. Following these four papers and there will be two discussants.

The overall focus of this panel is to expand the conversation about learning for all in low-income countries by bringing greater attention to reducing learning inequalities within countries in an increasingly globalized world. To improve learning as part of our social responsibility exposed both constraints and opportunities in the road to meeting the SDGs.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Dan Wagner, University of Pennsylvania

Individual Presentations

• Learning equity: Constraints and opportunities among the most marginalized - Dan Wagner, University of Pennsylvania

• Learning among the most marginalized in Mexico: Research and policy perspectives - Sylvia Irene Schmelkes, Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación

• Financing education at the bottom of the pyramid - Luis Benvenides, World Bank

• Measuring relative learning exclusion in historical perspective - Dirk VanDamme, OECD

Discussants

• Suzanne Grant Lewis, International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) UNESCO

• Nathan M. Castillo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• John Kabutha Mugo, ZiziAfrique Foundation