Towards an alternative framing of EdTech Research: Looking backward to look forwards
Criticisms of the western-centric nature of EdTech discourse has been prevalent both within and outside the academia in the recent times. They challenge the apolitical, contextless nature of knowledge that is being produced by western-centric discourse. Legitimising the complex and complicated social realities of non-Global North contexts, therefore, requires tools beyond the current formulation of sociology, bound as it is by specific theoretical and conceptual frameworks. This calls for an intervention along the lines of what Bhambra (2014) has termed connected sociologies, which emphasises the need to look backwards, i.e. towards the history and contexts of the Global South, in order to move forward. This paper argues for connected sociologies as an appropriate framework to decolonise EdTech research.
Paper presented at i-Gallery of Annual Meeting of American Education Research Association, April 2024. https://doi.org/10.3102/2111101
Choosing voices: platforming narratives in redesigning curricula
In Teaching to Transgress bell hooks (2014) writes that “the classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy” (p. 12). For an international university such as Oxford, this role of the classroom becomes crucial as it engages with different students from across the world. The institutional responsibility, then, becomes not just about facilitating the learning of a diverse syllabus, but also about creating the space for everyone’s voice to be heard. Yet, elite institutions such as Oxford have – historically – not been very successful in this endeavour.
During my year at the University of Oxford, reading for the MSc in Education, I found the classroom to be a radical space in so far as I, and my peers, made it to be. Institutionally, there was little provided to the extent that I often felt invisible in my own classroom. Thus, when an opportunity arose to work on redesigning this particular course, I stepped up with the intention of ensuring, to the best of my ability, that no other student from the majority world feels invisible and/or invalidated in the classroom. This presentation is my reflections on being a member of the “Panels, Events and External Speakers” team, one of the three prongs used in redesigning “International Comparative Policy on Childhood Education”.
My team comprises three women of colour hailing from (post/)conflict states: Iran, Palestine, and Sri Lanka. As we discussed our experiences with the course that was and the contributions we want to make, I realised that all three of us have similar objectives: to make space for voices and narratives from the majority world. Therefore, my presentation is my reflections but as shaped and influenced by that of my team members.
In determining the shape of events and panels, there are many aspects to consider: Who do we decide to platform? Why are we selecting these specific people? How do we acknowledge and avoid personal biases? I anticipate reflecting on:
- negotiating hybrid identity of self: a brown woman from Sri Lanka associated with the ivory tower of University of Oxford;
- the moral dilemmas of asking for free labour for work that can be termed decolonising, which in reality furthers colonial contours;
- suppressing personal misgivings born from my positionality to approach the redesign process in good faith; and
- accepting limitations of my own ideological stance
using hooks’ idea of teaching communities and teaching to transgress, framed by theories of feminist pedagogy. I will use meeting notes and journal entries as fodder for reflection.
The rage of the oppressed, hooks writes, is never the same as the rage of the privileged. I expect my presentation to be illustrative of this struggle, but one which can provide direction to another on the path of course redesign in a way that allows many students – even those from the majority world – to feel seen and heard in the classroom. I hope my presentation contributes to upcoming classrooms being radical spaces of possibility for many (if not all).
Paper presented at CIES Annual Symposium, April 2022.
Grounding EdTech: A Global South approach to Digital Technology in Education
EdTech, or Digital Technology in Education, is a popular topic that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Originated in the powerful countries of the West, this has been fast-moving towards the Global South. However, their approach to EdTech is one that thrives on neoliberalisation and marketisation of education. It undermines the multiple facets of the digital divide, focusing solely on access. This has led the practitioners of EdTech in the Global South to negotiate, adapt, and resist. There is a tension between the policymakers’ understanding of the linear trajectory of EdTech and the digital inequalities evident on the ground. Moving a step further, this study argues that there is a lacuna for original thought in the Global South that demands to be filled. “Critique by itself is inadequate: one needs to show alternatives” (Connell, 2007). Thus, this paper reviews EdTech initiatives in select countries in the Global South to argue that shaping the changing world requires taking an active role in our learning. It argues for the use of endogenous pedagogies and combining them with EdTech to create both theorization and practices that are context-specific to the realities of the Global South.
Paper presented at Chevening Scholar Conference, June 2021.
Exploring ‘everyday wars’ of position: Studying the ‘political’ in aid to education via a World Bank-funded programme in the majority world
Internationally funded education projects in the majority world are a rich field of study. It intersects multiple disciplines from education to economics to postcolonial studies. As a former colony, currently a low-middle income country, Sri Lanka has been at the receiving end of these funds – grants and loans – for years. While there is much criticism against such international funders imposing a new imperialism on the majority world, there is an equal amount of literature that represents the international funders as helpful actors. In this dichotomy what is less-present are the voices of those from the majority world countries and their narratives.
This study explores the social ecology of an academic working on a World Bank-funded project in the higher education field in Sri Lanka. Adopting a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, it uses interviews to discover theories emerging from the data. The emerging theories are two: one explores the concept of trust and notes that the lack of trust in one’s government, State, and State systems catalyse the academics to be open to international organisations like the World Bank; the second is based on the concept of obligation and identifies that associative political obligation to the education system drives the individuals, thus prioritising short-term practicalities over long-term ideologies. These two theories help both explain the social ecology of academics, as well as complicate the existing understanding of the internationally funded projects in the majority world.
In situating these two emergent theories in the larger literature, this study suggests that the World Bank should be represented more dynamically; to truly capture the nature of the World Bank, this study suggests it be approached as an epistemic actor and/or a theorist, who permeates multiple facets of social ecology.
Paper presented at “STORIES 2021: Resilience, Resistance, and Reflexivity” conference, Department of Education, University of Oxford, March 2021.
When “inclusivity” is just a word: A reflection on the gap between policy and practice in the tertiary level examinations in Sri Lanka
The tertiary education system of Sri Lanka has special allocations made for students with disabilities, in order to be an inclusive body of education. The University Grants Commission requires every university that is under the operation of the State to ensure that teaching-learning practices, as well as examination procedure, ensure that students with disabilities are not discriminated against. This paper serves as a case study where it examines a State University in Sri Lanka1 in its conduction of examinations pertaining to students with special needs. While the University has an Ability Centre, the gap between policies and practices problematizes inclusivity, instead making the practices discriminatory. This paper reflects on homogenizing of the student body in terms of their needs and the problems faced by the examiner due to these conditions. It questions categorizing visually impaired and auditory impaired students together, the non-distinction between physical impairment and conditions that challenge cognitive functioning, and the lack of training provided for the examiners. This is a reflective essay employing the researcher’s experience as an examiner and her training in the Edexcel examination process for students with special needs. In conclusion, the paper highlights the gap between policy and practice, emphasizing that the current (improper) implementation of the policies are ironically detrimental to student progress.
Paper presented at “STORIES 2019 Inclusivity: Mental health, Access, and Accountability” conference, Department of Education, University of Oxford, March 2019.
Sexy and they know it: Sri Lankan women on TikTok
This is a paper co-authored with Sachini Perera. An adapted version of this can be found at genderit.org
Sri Lankan women are having fun on the internet and challenging patriarchal norms about women’s sexual and gender expression. They are dancing, they are acting, they are lip syncing to famous songs and popular dialogue from films and TV shows. They are doing these on TikTok, a mobile platform for creating and sharing 15-second videos. It is currently the fastest growing social media app for short-form mobile videos and is experiencing a surge of popularity in Asia including Sri Lanka. The content creators on the app are expressing their sexuality and gender identities through what they are creating and exploring the extent to which societal norms can be pushed and reshaped. On TikTok, Sri Lankan women are expressing their sexuality through their clothes, their gender expression, and their bodies. They film the videos not just in their bedrooms, living rooms and gardens but also in public spaces like roads, beaches and parks. They perform alone but also perform duets and group numbers with both friends and strangers. This study focuses on 30 most popular videos on the platform under a Sri Lanka-specific hashtag and attempts to understand ways in which this form of unmediated self-expression is questioning, changing, and consolidating gender norms. The first part of the study focuses on the ways in which the women content creators manipulate and play with objectification by taking control of the gaze that falls on them. To this end, several profiles based on popularity are closely read for their performativity. The second part of the study focuses on the ways in which the audience responds to these performances, and to discern if they see them as a challenge to the existing societal norms or conforming to expectations. Textual analysis of comments on the videos was used to this end. The study led to the conclusion that there appears to be a sense of individual awareness among the users of TikTok in terms of gender and sexuality, when plotted on the four-quadrant framework by Gender at Work. Significant subversions could be observed in the performances of TikTok users in terms of gender expression, ascribed gender role expectations and by somewhat challenging heteronormativity in a few instances. It was identified that as a platform, TikTok appears to be more accepting and open minded than other such platforms available at the moment. However, the study raised many questions that demands deeper research into such online platforms pertaining to navigation of the public, private, and the personal; data and privacy; awareness of the users on gender performances; and the causes and effects of language shift in online social media platforms.
Paper presented at “Imagine a Feminist Internet: Research, Practice and Policy in South Asia” Conference. February 2019.
Minoli Wijetunga 