Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry (Journal)
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Men’s Perception of Women’s Role and Girls’ Education among Pashtun Tribes of Pakistan: A Qualitative Delphi Study
No full textThis paper examines how Pashtun men perceive women’s role and girls’ education. A modified two-round Delphi exercise was followed by in-depth qualitative interviews with Pashtun men of diverse backgrounds, including representatives of religious and political groups. The interviews demonstrated that the sociocultural status of women, and consequently their access to education, remains deeply tied to Pashtunwali (tribal code) and rigid religious interpretations. Though at times contradictory, the ideas and stereotypes arising from religion, culture, and politics were found to meaningfully shape men’s attitudes about women’s participation in community and education. However, the study found that, compared to rural and tribal areas, these traditions and restrictions are not as rigidly practiced in the urban and plains areas. Understanding men’s views is a starting point. The next step is to engage men in the collective struggle for gender justice
Decolonial pedagogy through transcultural narrative inquiry in the contact zone
No full textGiven the often tokenistic, ahistorical and apolitical approach to mainstream multiculturalism employed in schools, this paper theorizes transculturalism and decolonial thinking from a pedagogical perspective while also considering its potential as a transformative method of inquiry. Of particular interest to the authors is how employing transcultural narrative has the capacity to explore colonialism outside and beyond a conventional historical context in order to understand its impact on the present day. To this end, the authors discuss transcultural narrative as a form of decolonial pedagogy and inquiry, one that invites messy and often uncomfortable intro/trans-spective reflections where conflicting cultural, social and historical locations come into contact. This contact zone effectively compels unsettling dialogue between the colonizer/settler and the colonized, whiteness and color, privilege and marginalization, obstructionist and agency/ally work etc, locations which the authors argue are best understood collectively, relationally, and along a continuum rather than as a fixed binary. The authors present an example of this form of engagement (in the form of a transcultural narrative between an instructor and guest speaker), including the rationale through which it was actualized as well as some of the new inner/understandings that emerged from the inquiry experience. The potential to employ transcultural narrative as a pedagogical process of inquiry is also discussed
Challenges and encouraging educational practices: Observations from field experiences
No full textThis study is an analysis of the reported observations of teacher candidates about the challenges and encouraging practices at schools following their field experiences visits required to meet course work and licensure for teaching. The findings of the study indicate that the participants of the study observed that classroom teachers face the challenges of too much workload, meeting the needs of too many students who need support, lack of resources, classroom management, changes of curriculum and policies, and meeting the needs of diverse students. The candidates, however, are encouraged by their observations of the use and applications of a wide variety of instructional approaches, the prevalence of a culture of a community of learners and co-operations, discipline systems, applications of technology and inspiring teachers’ professionalism and commitment to make differences in the lives of their students. Ways of addressing the observed challenges include measures of providing support staff and assistants to the classroom teacher, supplying classrooms with adequate resources, efforts to involve parents and guardians in the education of their children and in the affairs of schools, refocusing teacher education programs on those reported areas of challenges classroom teachers face, and ongoing in-service trainings and professional development programs for teachers.
Teacher Professional Development in Brazil: Colonization of Teachers’ Voices
No full textThis paper focuses on professional development practices implemented in Brazil, and the influence of post-colonial views in the power-relation between the ‘educational authorities’ or ‘experts’ and teachers. The paper addresses how this relationship in professional development is mostly ‘one-sided’, as often it does not include the \u27voices\u27 of teachers. Rather, it prioritizes the assumptions many ‘experts’ have towards teachers’ needs for growth, in which the choices of topics and the kind of professional development programs to be designed often follow an ‘one-fits-all’ model or banking education as defined by Freire (1970). This paper emerged from the author\u27s experience during her Master’s thesis research (Nascimento, 2010). She addressed the challenges of teaching in public schools in Brazil, and its implications in a social justice context. Through the lens of different teachers who participated in a volunteer-based Canadian/Brazilian teacher professional development program, the research investigated in which ways the inclusion of teachers\u27 voices in professional development programs could affect teachers’ performance in a Brazilian context. During four years over the summer, Canadian teachers and Brazilian teachers worked together on a professional development program that aimed to encourage teachers to share their teaching experiences and reflect on their practice
Exploring school principals\u27 responses to the needs of Somali immigrant students
No full textThis paper explored school principals’ responses in addressing the perceived educational needs of Somali immigrant/refugee students; and explored how school principals might seek to create culturally responsive and inclusive schools that build a partnership with Somali families. This qualitative exploratory study combined aspects of convenience and purposeful sampling to learn about how the school principals addressed the needs of the Somali immigrant students; and the extent to which they sought to create inclusive schools and build partnerships with the Somali families. We conducted interviews with a total of three school principals in three different schools who served these students and their families. This study shows that in the initial contact with Somali students, the school principals had very little awareness and experience in dealing with Somali refugee and immigrant students who continue to face challenges in adjusting into their schools. To address the educational needs of Somali students requires an approach that transcends the provision of ESL classes. It also requires a transformative leadership approach that advocates for the needs of both the students and the parents and seeks to establish multicultural and mentoring programs which could play a role in better meeting the educational needs of all students