Education.SouthAsia

We invite you to join us for the upcoming research symposium “Education and Inequity: Perspectives from South Asia” organised by Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development and Education South Asia. The day-long symposium will be held on Friday 24th May at the Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville College, University of Oxford.

The symposium will feature a welcome note, keynote speech and stimulating discussions on the various aspects of education and inequity across South Asia. Register here - attendance in person: https://forms.office.com/e/PKj8BgiMK5

Hope to see you there!

*Conference 2023*

Education South Asia is hosting its second conference in partnership with University of Oxford, UCL Institute of Education, IndOx and the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development. The conference is titled 'Language Futures in South Asia: Sustainability, Inclusivity and Technology in Education'.

Join us for this hybrid conference, scheduled for 20th June at the Oxford Martin School. You can sign up to attend online or in-person here: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/5/d/e/1FAIpQLScKfyq-ioGux-Izn03hFG8MeRauCiXPTf09uSdmUCGcji95tQ/viewform

For more details, please email [email protected]

*ThinkPiece*

A compelling new ThinkPiece by PhD Student Rhea Kuthoore titled ‘Overcoming the Ordinary through Disability Studies’ articulates how a particular understanding of disability can allow educators to transgress frameworks of accommodations to reinvent aspects of schooling and education beyond able-bodiedness and able-mindedness.

Read the piece here: https://educationsouthasia.web.ox.ac.uk/article/thinkpiece33

*Reading Group*

Please join us for our first mixer to welcome you to the Language and Education Reading group! This event is at 6-7pm on Friday, 12th May. The meeting will be held in-person at Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building.

This meeting is an introductory social event, with the aim of getting to know everyone’s research interests. We would therefore like to ask you all to think about potential themes/areas of interest that you feel are relevant for the group so that we discuss these in our first meeting and, based on the group’s overall interests, narrow down to three themes and divide ourselves into three corresponding sub-groups.

To get us started, the three moderators will briefly talk about topics/areas that interest us and we hope that everyone else then joins in to share their interests/thoughts. See you on Friday!

*Language and Education Reading Group*

The Language and Education Reading Group, in collaboration with TORCH - The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities aims to bring together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to foster dialogue between the different ways in which language and education are studied and understood, with perspectives from sociology, anthropology, education research and policy, and linguistic and sociolinguistic studies, among others. The Group encourages participation from diverse regions.

The Group will meet every alternate week in Oxford and map out key literature on language and education through collaborative work. Currently, the meetings are scheduled for Week 3, 4, 6 and 8 of Trinity Term 2023. This reading group aims to produce three distinct outputs 1) produce an annotated and thematically organised Reading List, which can serve as a research and teaching resource; 2) initiate a network of scholars from different regions of the Global South working in the fields of language and education, and form a long-term and meaningful collaboration; and 3) work towards future academic and non-academic publications (e.g. ThinkPieces for the Education South Asia Initiative).

Join the Mailing List: https://forms.gle/ftvCkrJHNacjAmwh8

Join us for an in-person conversation on "Lessons in Leadership for Education from the Defence Forces" with Dr Cdr Kartikay Saini at Keble College, 4.30-5.30pm UK time on Thursday 9th March.

An ex-commander of the Indian Navy Dr Cdr Kartikay Saini has spent more than three decades of his distinguished career serving the Country in the Defence and civil world. He is the Founder Chairman of Scottish High International School, Gurgaon. Former Chairman of Special Olympics India, he is also the former Chairman of Unified Sports Advisory Board of Asia Pacific and Board member of Special Olympics International, Washington, mentoring 177 countries of the world including continents of America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

*Education South Asia Seminar Series*

Please join us for our next session on 'Gatecrashing into Gurukuls: Caste in Indian Academia' by Prof N Sukumar. Prof Sukumar is a professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.

The discussion will centre around his book, "Caste Discrimination and Exclusion in Indian Universities: A Critical Reflection", which studies the exclusion and discrimination that is meted out to Scheduled Caste (SC) students in the Indian Higher Education system, and the psychosocial consequences of such practices. It foregrounds the conceptual debates around caste, exclusion, and reservations in Indian academia, discussing the social dominance and the roots of prejudices in the university spaces.

Join us for this discussion by clicking on the link here: https://forms.gle/sxZQukNfTg9agJeE9

*Call for papers*

We are inviting researchers, academics and practitioners to submit papers for our upcoming conference "Language Futures in South Asia: Sustainability, Inclusivity, and Technology in Education"hosted by Education South Asia and supported by University of Oxford, UCL Institute of Education, IndOx and Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development. This one-day conference will be held on 20th June 2023, in person at Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford. The deadline for abstract submission is 28th February and the word limit is 250 words. Decisions will be communicated by 28th March 2023.

Abstract Submission Link: https://forms.gle/k9mPXievRGZumL4t8

About the conference:

In the postcolonial and multilingual context of South Asia, language remains a matter of social, political and economic concern. Be it the question of appointing a ‘national language’; drafting language policy; the status of dialects and unrecognised ‘mother tongues’; or the marginalisation of indigenous, tribal and minority (ITM) languages — the issue of language continues to pose a challenge to policymakers, academics, educators, and civil society alike.

Linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir called language a “great force of socialisation, probably the greatest that exists” (1933). Given how closely linked language is to societal and individual identity, it will undoubtedly play an important role in the future of these regions. Language education, therefore, becomes a compelling site of study as it not only reinforces but constructs a social reality for students (Rahman 2002). As we move forward in a world gripped by urgent issues of climate change, collapsing social fabrics of South Asian nations along the fault-lines of inequality, and an increased role of technology and artificial intelligence in society, this conference will bring the future of language education into focus.

How does language education feature within the UN Sustainable Development Goals aimed at 2030? What is the language of sustainability in South Asia and does it determine which issues are covered in education? How will language learning and teaching develop in an era of AI, DuoLingo and ChatGPT? Does language-in-education policy play an important role in determining classroom dynamics and feelings of inclusion and exclusion in education spaces? This conference hopes to answer some of these questions during the course of one day, filled with expert keynotes and paper presentations.

Sub-themes:

- The language(s) of sustainability education

- Language education and sustainable development goals

- Language pedagogy and inclusivity in the classroom

- Social hierarchies and classroom dynamics in language education

- Language learning in the age of AI

- Technology and language teaching strategies

- Language policy, curriculum and teaching practices

- The future of language education in South Asia

For any questions, reach out to [email protected]

Starting soon! Register if you haven't already :)

https://forms.gle/mWVMyPCn6VdxEUzs8

Happy new year, and here is to a meaningful 2023 to all of us!

We are here to announce our upcoming Education South Asia Seminar on Monday, 30 Jan, 12pm UK time.

The session is on Dr Akshay Mangla's new book "Making Bureaucracy Work: Norms, Education and Public Service Delivery in Rural India". Dr Mangla is an Associate Professor at Said Business School, University of Oxford, and the book investigates when and how public agencies deliver primary education across rural India.

Register here: https://forms.gle/mWVMyPCn6VdxEUzs8

*ThinkPiece*

Abismrita Chakravarty, DPhil student in Education at the University of Oxford, looks at handloom weaving as a craft practice and knowledge system where various modes of learning, the domestic sphere and livelihoods become intertwined. She addresses the critical question of how "craft narratives can help structure new models of learning and address the critical question of what kind of education is right and for whom".

Read the full piece here: https://educationsouthasia.web.ox.ac.uk/article/thinkpiece31

Happy new year, and here is to a meaningful 2023 to all of us!

We are here to announce our upcoming Education South Asia Seminar on Monday, 30 Jan, 12pm UK time.

The session is on Dr Akshay Mangla's new book "Making Bureaucracy Work: Norms, Education and Public Service Delivery in Rural India". Dr Mangla is an Associate Professor at Said Business School, University of Oxford, and the book investigates when and how public agencies deliver primary education across rural India.

Register here: https://forms.gle/mWVMyPCn6VdxEUzs8

Have you signed up for our session on Mon, 12th Dec, 12pm UK time?

Link: https://forms.gle/Zi3veTrT55YUf53h6

*Education South Asia Seminar*

Join us for the final session this calendar year - a session on "The role of 'place' in pedagogy: Co-creating learning environments in Bangladesh" by Dr Matluba Khan, Cardiff University, UK.

The session is scheduled on Monday, 12th December, 12pm UK time.

Register here: https://forms.gle/Zi3veTrT55YUf53h6