Rural access to education through digital media

This paper is a summary of the research conducted during the development and design of Rural Access To Education Through Digital Media, a pilot education technology project in Tipling, Nepal. Beginning with an analysis of the relevant socioeconomic factors affecting school attainment nationally and those affecting Tipling in particular; the current challenges to formal and informal education are identified. The considerable potential of digital media and ICTs to address long-standing issues of access to both childhood and adult learning and thereby contribute to international development and education reform efforts are explored. Key project considerations and challenges are discussed along with project outcomes. Keywords: ICTs, Rural Education, Literacy, International Development, Education Technology

Rural access to education through digital media

This paper is a summary of the research conducted during the development and design of Rural Access To Education Through Digital Media, a pilot education technology project in Tipling, Nepal. Beginning with an analysis of the relevant socioeconomic factors affecting school attainment nationally and those affecting Tipling in particular; the current challenges to formal and informal education are identified. The considerable potential of digital media and ICTs to address long-standing issues of access to both childhood and adult learning and thereby contribute to international development and education reform efforts are explored. Key project considerations and challenges are discussed along with project outcomes. Keywords: ICTs, Rural Education, Literacy, International Development, Education Technology

Better than nothing? a review and critique of child sponsorship

The aim of this paper is to review and synthesize research focused on child sponsorship (CS) and, in doing so, to present a critique grounded in conceptualizations of justice, solidarity, ethical relationships, and international development education. As discussed in this paper, a review of the literature yields eight motivations for becoming involved in child sponsorship: Personal connection; altruism; guilt; small win; part of something bigger; distrust of government; not faceless; advancing development. Following the research synthesis and discussion of these motivations, a critique is constructed by viewing these motivations through three theoretical lenses: conceptualizations of the good citizen, the complex audience member and, finally, a pedagogical tool and framework referred to as HEADS UP. The paper concludes with questions centring on power, poverty, responsibility, complicity, justice and peace, and, ultimately, provides a response to the question of “is it better than nothing?” The argument put forth in this paper is that, in its noted absence of a more critical examination of the root causes of poverty and global injustices, child sponsorship is, in fact, not better than nothing.

Closing Notes

The Closing Notes are co-authored by Richa Nagar with Siddharth Iyengar and Sara Musaifer, two of the 27 participants who immersed themselves in the first two semesters of the teaching of 'Stories, Bodies, Movements' at the University of Minnesota. Iyengar is a doctoral candidate in Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior and Sara Musaifer is pursuing her Ph.D. in Comparative International Development Education. This co-authorship of the closing notes embodies the anti-disciplinary and anti-hierarchical vision and ongoing nature of the project of hungry translations. Through reflections on their own unlearning and relearning processes during the making of two plays in class, 'Re/telling Disappearing Tales' (Spring 2017) and 'Fractured Threads' (Fall 2017), the three authors collectively re-enact, in a radically vulnerable mode, the key arguments of the book.