Using hegemonic theory to map conceptions of education within the development field in Pakistan

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Using hegemonic theory to map conceptions of
education within the development field in Pakistan
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• Policies and practices
• Dominant assumptions underpinning practices
• Spaces for innovative practices that counter
  dominant assumptions
• What are dominant understandings?
• Where are they coming from?
• Ideas of discourse, power, hegemony and
  post-development theory
• How can hegemonic theory better inform us about
  power dynamics within the field of development?
  How is this determining how education is
  conceptualised and approached?

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How did I get here?

• The DFID Fellowship
• The two towers (9/11/01)
• The return (July - August, 2003)
• The return again (Dec 2003 - Jan, 2004)
• And again (February August, 2004)
• The permanent hangover (post-SEF)
• What do I do now? (development field realities)
• What happened to EE/ESD?
• Centrality of power and hegemonic relations

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Ideal type of environmental education
Formal and non-formal
Safe school environment
Improving health and hygiene
Local needs and relevancy
Environmental Education
Analysing current practice
Acquiring basic skills
Mobilising community action
Radical pedagogy
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What are the breadth and depth of hegemonic
development and education discourses?

• Economic growth
• Modernisation
• Interventionism
• Reliance on scientific and technological knowledge

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The theories

• Power
• Discourse
• Hegemony
• Field
• Policy
• Post-development

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• Post-development takes a critical position by
  problematising poverty, equating development with
  Westernization, critiquing modernization and
  viewing development as a discourse, an imaginary
  myth (Sachs 1992b Escobar 1995 Crush 1995
  Rahnema and Bawtree 1997 Rist 1999 Pieterse
  2001).

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Critiques of post-development theory

• Lack of theoretical depth (Brigg 2003).
• Sprinkling effect of mainly Foucault
• Tendencies toward essentialism, romanticism,
  binary contradictions, reinforcements of
  Eurocentricism and intolerant moral/political
  righteousness. (Brigg 2003 Lehman 1997
  Corbridge 1998)

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• Power relations are embedded within social
  relations and are exercised through institutional
  relations that discipline our ways of thinking
  and acting through self-regulation (Foucault
  1977)

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• Discourse a particular way of talking about and
  understanding the world, or an aspect of the
  world (Phillips and Jorgensen 2003)
• The order of discourse is the specifically
  discoursal organisational logic of a field
  Chouliaraki and Fairclough (1999)
• A field may be defined as a network, or a
  configuration, of objective relations between
  positions (Bourdieu 1992)

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• Hegemony shows how power compels us to consent to
  that which constrains us (Butler 2001 29).
• The moment of hegemonic relation is when the
  peculiarity of a body, community or social
  movement ceases to be its own peculiarity and
  transforms itself within the representation of
  the universality transcending it (Laclau and
  Mouffe 2001).
• The two conditions of a hegemonic articulation
  are the presence of antagonistic forces and the
  instability of the frontiers which separate them
  (Laclau and Mouffe 2001)

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The data

• Interviews
• Policies
• Video
• Fieldnotes
• Experiences

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The methods

• Discourse analysis
• Hegemony analysis
• Critical ethnography
• Combining different types of data in each data
  analysis sections
• Combining aspect of critical discourse analysis
  with hegemonic theories and field theory

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Different data analysis chapters, different data,
different methods

• Micro-politics of SEF hegemonic formations of
  assumptions of mainstream development and
  education discourses participant observations,
  field notes, interview transcripts, documents
• The myth of participation participation as an
  empty signifier video transcripts, field
  notes, interview transcripts, organisation
  documents, policy texts
• Education as a floating signifier - struggles
  of discourses within a logic of difference
  interview transcripts, organisation documents,
  policy texts

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Hegemonic strength of dominant mainstream
development and education assumptions and
practices and the inability of post-development
discourses to oppose these The case of the
Sindh Education Foundation
Mainstream development Traditional schooling
De-schooling and Post-development discourses
Hegemonic practices
De-schooling and Internal learning
Learning retreat Quality Assurance
Post-development discourses
De-contextualised Imposed problems, and solutions
from external sources Traditional
pedagogy Language choices Marketing and advocacy
unit Non-participatory and ad-hoc decision-making
Expenditure choices Agenda-making
process Imposed readings Traditional
pedagogy Selection of panelists and
participants Lack of participation from
communities and schools
Essentialisms Intolerance Rigid management
hierarchy Reliance on external knowledge Lack of
willingness to work from the ground up
Intertextual referencing of quality from policies
Following dominant models of measurement
Interventionist Renovation of central office and
other expenditure choices Research
ignored Priority and expectation shifting Ghost
centre
Traditional schooling Mainstream
development
Hegemonic formations
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Manchar Lake
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Mallah culture
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Inside a Mallah house
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SEF Community-Supported School
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SEF CSS
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Participation as an empty signifier
Participatory, Bottom-up development approaches

Targeting poorest members of each
village Contextualised and qualitative
knowledge Organic development Environment-centred
and against micro-credit
General targeting of the poor De-contextualised
and quantitative knowledge Policy-orientated,
donor-reliant development Primary emphasis on
macro-economic growth
PVDP PRSP
Non-participatory, Top-down development
approaches

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Participation in Sankar village, Thar Desert,
Pakistan
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Fuel-efficient stove programme
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Education efforts
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Water conservation efforts
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Education as a floating signifier Policies and
organisations unified through a logic of
difference that education is necessary
Organisation Lens Education practices general summary
DFID Governance Supporting the PRSP education capacity building and resource allocation
CIDA Poverty reduction with government and CBOs Supporting small NGOs in health, education, human rights and gender in specific districts
USAID Democracy and governance ICT, mainstreaming madrassahs, science education, quality education and literacy attainment
UNICEF Children Physical infrastructure of schools and health. Also teacher training activities and funding other education/literacy NGOs
Maa Haul I-NGO Environment, sustainable development Conservation education, community environmental rehabilitation work
Bachay I-NGO Childrens empowerment Politically oriented non-formal education similar to ActionAids Reflect method. Circles for discussion, problem-solving and literacy facilitation mainly with refugee children
Aurtayn N-NGO Female rights Educating women about their legal rights as well as their reproductive needs, creating awareness on other rights issues
Fauqiyat N-NGO Formal education School improvement through ICT integration, health curriculum teacher training, infrastructural improvements
Taleemi N-NGO Formal education Reforming government schools through various community-based and private-sector initiatives. Also programmes of non-formal education for child labourers and literacy for women.
Adbiyaat L-NGO Womens literacy Phonic-based, critical literacy approaches mainly with women. Facilitated by women who have gone through the same process
Basti L-NGO Poverty reduction Environmental organic activities, aversion to micro-credit, health initiatives, community participation, learning and education woven throughout, formal education sidelined
Siyaasat movement Peasant and landless rights Political awareness and social mobilisation particularly amongst landless workers and fisherfolk
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Education as a floating signifier
prioritisation of objectives and nodal points
across key development and education policies in
Pakistan
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Nodal points UPE, quality, literacy and
non-formal awareness

• UPE policies, donors, SEF and PVDP
• Quality policies, donors, ITA and IUCN
• Literacy policies, donors, SCUK and Khoj
• Non-formal awareness policies, donors, Shirkat
  Gah and PRM
• Logic of equivalences (within nodal points) in
  this study SCUK, Khoj, Shirkat Gah and PRM

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Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum school
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PFF school
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Baloch Womens Empowerment Literacy Programme
Centre
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Arabian Sea coast near the WWF Conservation
Centre
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What about EE?

• EE as an empty signifier (Gaudiano 2005)
• What are the nodal points within EE?
• What are the logics of equivalence within EE?
  Why does this matter?
• ESD as dominated by assumptions within mainstream
  development discourses (more than EE)
• The problem with defining EE/ESD in a different
  context missed opportunities on both sides

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SO what next?

• Applications of hegemonic theory
• Strength of hegemonic formations of mainstream
  assumptions within dominant education and
  development discourses and social practices
• Fragility and tenuous spaces for logics of
  equivalence to retain hegemonic articulations and
  avoiding the empty signifier
• Phenomenon of the empty signifier how to make
  this into a strength rather than a weakness
  inherent in movements of resistance
• Avoiding interventionism?
• The issue of labelling clash of the external
  versus the internal
• Post-development theory
• Getting to grips with complexity Theories of
  complexity mapping
• Tension between policy and donor expectations,
  organisational expectations and individual
  preferences
• Practicing what you preach
• Critical research
• Understanding the influence of wider networks
  more
• My new job

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Using hegemonic theory to map conceptions of
education within the development field in Pakistan