Suchergebnisse

Disability status is often transitory or a matter of insidious change. A person's ability to function properly depends to a considerable extent on her/ his social and physical environment. One area that slips through the large-scale studies like the census and National Sample Survey is the impact of the state and the market on the lives of people with disabilities. There is a case for a more fundamental re-envisioning of the nature of the disability estimates.

The Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP), one of the three DFID consortia funded in 2005 to produce policy-relevant research in international education, has as its remit to investigate the outcomes of education for the poor. In this paper, at the mid-point of the research, we reflect on the research design for one of the three themes of RECOUP's work - human and social outcomes - in the light of the assumptions made at the time and subsequent experiences. We identify the three main ways in which we intend to organise our analysis in order to combine the best of both quantitative and qualitative traditions, which we identify as Q-squared (where economics is the lead discipline); mixed methods (where sociology or education is the lead discipline) and nested case studies (where anthropology is the lead discipline). The research, carried out in Ghana, India, Kenya and Pakistan, uses an innovative household survey instrument as well as a series of qualitative studies (including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, life histories) carried out in the same geographical areas and covering in greater depth sub-sets of the topics investigated by the surveys . We review progress towards combining quantitative and qualitative research methods to produce data that will allow us to analyse educational outcomes for the poor in these four countries, to test new research instruments to measure educational outcomes, as well as to generate valid cross-country comparisons.

"Education and Disability in the Global South brings together new and established researchers from a variety of disciplines to explore the complexities and dilemmas encountered in providing education to children and young people with disabilities in countries in South Asia and Africa. Applying a range of methodological, theoretical and conceptual frameworks across different levels of education systems, from pre-school to higher education, the contributors examine not just the barriers but also the opportunities within the educational systems, in order to make strong policy recommendations. Together, the chapters offer a comprehensive overview of a range of issues, including a nuanced appreciation of the tensions between the local and global in relation to key developments in the field, critiquing a globalized notion of inclusive education, as well as proposing new methodological advancements in taking the research agenda forward. Empirical insights are captured not just from the perspectives of educators but also through engaging with children and young people with disabilities, who are uniquely powerful in providing insights for future developments."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of figures and tables -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- Foreword: a tribute to Christopher Colclough -- 1 Education and the reform of social inequalities in the Global South: an introduction -- PART I The economics and politics of educational reform -- 2 The changing pattern of returns to education: what impact will this have on earnings inequality? -- 3 Unequal access to education: accounting for change and counting costs -- 4 Education for All in India and Sri Lanka: the drivers and interests shaping egalitarian reforms -- 5 Public-private partnerships in education: do they offer an equitable solution to education in India and Pakistan? -- 6 The influence of politics on girls' education in Ethiopia -- PART II Challenges and opportunities in addressing inequalities through education -- 7 Overriding social inequality? Educational aspirations versus the material realities of rural families in Pakistan -- 8 Confronting social inequality through fertility change in Punjab, Pakistan: the role of girls' schooling -- 9 Teenage pregnancy and social inequality: an impediment to achieving schooling for all in Uganda -- 10 Complementary basic education: parental and learner experiences and choices in Ghana's northern regions -- 11 Addressing dilemmas of difference: teachers' strategies to include children with disabilities in rural primary schools in India -- 12 Social distance, teachers' beliefs and teaching practices in a context of social disadvantage: evidence from India and Pakistan -- Index.

Quality has been an Education for All (EFA) goal since the 2000 Dakar framework positioned it 'at the heart of education' as a fundamental determinant of student enrolment, retention and achievement. Over the years, classroom pedagogy has been consistently regarded as 'the crucial variable for improving learning outcomes' (e.g., Hattie, 2009) and is thus seen as critical to reforms aimed at improving educational quality (UNESCO, 2005 p.152). The quality of teacher–pupil classroom interaction remains of central importance, rather research evidence (e.g., Borich, 1996) suggests that it is the single most important factor accounting for wide variation in the learning attainments of students who have used the same curriculum materials and purportedly experienced similar teaching methods. Other more recent studies (e.g., Aslam and Kingdon, 2011) have also reported that teacher 'process' variables have a more significant impact on student achievement than standard background characteristics. In the current era of the 'global learning crisis' (UNESCO, 2014) many developing economies have embarked on major pedagogical reforms. In India, the notion of energising schools and transforming classrooms has received unprecedented attention in the last 15 years. A number of programmes have been introduced in various states to provide meaningful access (Jandhyala and Ramachandran, 2007). The Activity Based Learning (ABL) Programme is one such effort to change the nature of teaching and learning in mainstream classrooms. In a national context, where there are innumerable on-going efforts aimed at pedagogical reform, ABL is hailed as a success story in terms of replication of a small model to a grand scale. From modest beginnings in 2003 in 13 Chennai (the capital city of Tamil Nadu) schools, ABL was rolled out in a phased manner across the entire state of Tamil Nadu for all children in classes 1–4, in all government and aided schools. The last few years have witnessed its adaptation under various guises in several other Indian states, such as Ekalavya in Madhya Pradesh, Digantar in Rajasthan and Nali Kali in Karnataka. Efforts to promote it internationally in other parts of the developing world, such as Ghana, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mozambique (Fennell and Shanmugam, 2016)have also been made. Though as Nudzor et al., 2015 note it has been met with mixed success in the case of Ghana. Nonetheless, ABL is an interesting programme to examine given its rapid growth and international outreach. ; The project was funded by Department for International Development (DFID, India).

National governments in the South, as well as international bodies such as the World Bank, are finally beginning to take the issues of the extent, causes and implications of disability seriously. There is, however, a danger that data on people with disabilities are not being collected in the most reliable manner, resulting in flawed policies and inefficient use of resources. In this policy brief we argue: 1. that the identification of disability must not be seen merely as a technical issue (does someone have or not have a particular impairment) but also as a political one (what claims are being made by or about someone if they define an impairment as worthy of public attention); 2. that in large scale surveys, questions concerning disability must move beyond primarily medical definitions and reconceptualise disability in a functional and interactionist perspective; 3. that there is a greater place for qualitative studies of the social meanings of disability to illuminate the effects of changes in policy and in wider society.