In the mountains of the Northern Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan School and schooling are both symbolic of wider ranging cultural and political battles over morals, modernity, development, gender and the rule of law. Educational Policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan: Contested Terrain in the Twenty-First Century is about both the normative battles over the purpose of education, as well as about the structural impediments to providing instruction in those remote and challenging locations where it is attempted. The analytical frames in this collection come primarily from the social sciences and comparative education. Contributors examine education, policy, processes and structures in the broader socio-cultural, religious and economic context of three countries sharing somewhat similar colonial and post- colonial legacy and current uprising of extreme religious positions and a drive to social-cohesion.
This book analyzes the successes and impediments of various educational policies in Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. The authors analyze how current and past discourses on gender, religion, culture, politics, and the economy affect formal education and communal transform...
Transnational Perspectives on Democracy, Citizenship, Human Rights, and Peace Education considers ways in which national systems of education could work together, across borders, to determine the meaning and significance of the principles of democracy, human rights and peace education, in ways that are comparative and relational. The contributors and editors (Mary Drinkwater, Fazal Rizvi and Karen Edge) argue that in an era of globalization, collaborative investigations are crucial for developing an understanding of rights, democracy and peace that is transnationally inflected, and through which national systems of education hold each other accountable. The chapters address issues such as citizenship, identity, language, conflict and peace-building, global educational policy, and democratic approaches to policy and education issues of democracy, human rights and peace education through analyses of case studies, research findings and policy initiatives drawn from countries in the global north and south.
Tajikistan is the poorest and only Persian-speaking country among the post-Soviet independent states. Historically, the Tajiks of Central Asia and Afghanistan along with the Persians of modern Iran came from a related ethnic group. When the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established in late 1924, it became the first modern Tajik state that remained one of the 15 union republics of the Soviet Union until 1991. Almost immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Tajikistan became a scene of brutal civil war, taking place in one of the global hubs of religiously motivated political struggle, militancy, mass cross-border refugee flows, insurgency, and drug trafficking. During the first decade of the 21st century, the country was making modest progress toward stability. However, the heavy burden of socio-economic problems, in addition to continuing conflict in the neighboring Afghanistan-Pakistan, presented even bigger challenges for Tajikistan. In addition, Western economic sanctions against Russia in 2014, coinciding with continuing lower oil prices, have negatively affected one million of Tajik labor migrants in Russia. Yet Tajikistan has become neither weaker nor less important as a player in world politics. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Tajikistan.
Despite the increased trend towards secularisation in state schooling, issues of religion and spirituality have remained important. Increased pluralism within societies through expanding migration patterns is changing the religious and cultural contours of many countries in Europe and North America, and is creating a need for a deeper understanding of religious diversity. However, the lack of religious or spiritual education within the educational curriculum leaves a moral vacuum that can become a space to be exploited by religious extremism. More recently, religiously motivated incidences of terrorism in several parts of the world have heightened prejudicial attitudes and distrust of certain religions, in particular. These are profound concerns and there is an urgency to examine how religion, religious education and interfaith initiatives can address such misconceptions. This book is thus timely, focusing on an area that is often neglected, particularly on the role of religion in education for sustainable development. While religious organisations and faith communities have had a long history of involvement in both schooling and social service delivery in many countries, their role in reaching development goals has not always been explicitly recognised, as is evident even in the United Nations’ most recently conceptualised 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Undeniably, the integration of religious dialogue into mainstream development issues is crucial because deep cleavages resulting from the issue of minority religious rights continue to give cause for concern and conflict in many countries. This edited book explores some of these tensions and issues and draws parallels across differing geographical contexts to help enhance our collective and comparative understanding of the role of religious education and institutions in advancing the post-2015 development agenda. The contributors to this volume each demonstrate that, while religion in education can contribute to understanding and respect, it is also a space that can be contested and co-opted. Without addressing the salience of religion, however, it will not be possible to foster peace and combat discrimination and prejudice. This book will be of interest to researchers, scholars and students in the field of comparative education and development, religious studies, theology and teacher development and training. This book may also be of interest to national and international policy makers. There are also numerous faith-based organisations, as well as other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on religion and education issues that may find these case studies a useful resource.
Pamiris, or Badakhshanis in popular discourse, form a small group of Iranic peoples who inhabit the mountainous region of Pamir-Hindu Kush, being the historical region of Badakhshan. Pamiri communities are located in the territories of four current nation-states: Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China and Pakistan. This book provides insights in the identity process of a group of mountain communities whose vigorous cultures, languages and complex political history have continued to shape a strategic part of the world. Its various chapters capture what being a Pamiri may entail and critically explore the impact of both trans-regionalism and the globalisation processes on activating, engaging and linking the dispersed communities. The book presents a variety of lines of argument pertaining to Pamiri identity and identification processes. Structured in three parts, the book first addresses themes relevant to the region’s geography and the recent history of Pamiri communities. The second section critically explores the rich philosophical, religious and cultural Pamiri heritage through the writings of prominent historical figures. The final section addresses issues pertaining to the contemporary diffusion of traditions, peace-building, interconnectivity and what it means to be a Pamiri for the youth of the region. Contributions by experts in their field offer fresh insights into the Ismaili communities in the region while successfully updating the historical and ethnographic legacy of Soviet times with present-day scholarship. As the first collection of scholarly contributions in English entirely focusing on the Pamiri people, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of the history, anthropology, religious studies, sociology, linguistics, education and geography of Central Asia and/or East Asia as well as of Islam, Islamic thought, minority-majority relations, population movements and the processes of defining and affirming identity among minority groups.
Reflecting on almost three decades of postsocialist transformations, the second edition of Globalization on the Margins explores continuities and changes in Central Asian education development since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, with a particular focus on the developments that took place since the production of the first edition in 2011. Rather than viewing these transformations in isolation, the authors place their analyses within the global context by reflecting on the interaction between Soviet legacies and global education reform pressures in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. This new edition, in addition to a revised introduction and a newly added conclusion, consists of four thematic sections, each reflecting a key theme in the educational life of the Central Asian states. These thematic sections, introduction and conclusion collectively update our understanding of the recent developments and challenges in education of the five Central Asian states. They, however, go beyond mere information update, so as to complicate, re-engage, re-form and re-define the margins, taking up ‘margins’ a conceptual, geographic, cultural, and geo-political construct. Notwithstanding the diversity of local and international authors, variety of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and conceptual lenses, the essays reveal the complexity and uncertainty of the post-socialist education transformations. Instead of portraying the transition process as the influx of Western ideas into the region, Globalization on the Margins provides new lenses to critically example education as a contested field of diverse perspectives, competing forces, and multidirectional flow of ideas, concepts, and reforms in Central Asia. ENDORSEMENTS: "Hindsight famously brings clarity. And, much of what happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union has now been correctly deeded over to historians. Nonetheless, we ignore that history at our peril. The contributors to this volume show that carefully textured and historically attuned education research generates deep insights into ongoing transformations and the political, cultural, social and economic structures, relations, and practices that do the work of producing margins and centers in the first place." ~ Noah W. Sobe, Loyola University Chicago "Globalization on the margins and at the epicentre of the battles of the Great Powers. Two excellent educators, Sarfaroz Niyozov and Iveta Silova, compiled a timely and long-awaited scholarly work based on empirical research in societies, which had similar history close to three decades ago. All the contributors are prolific educators who know the education system from within and without, who either hailed from the region or have spent a considerable amount of time to know the systems well. The book contains remarkable stories of education through the ups and downs of historical evolution. It is a must-read primer for anyone interested in learning about high quality research in the field of education in Central Asia. It is a huge contribution to educational research with an impact on research and teaching for years to come." ~ Duishon Shamatov, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan "The challenge of moving Central Asia from the borders of the Soviet Empire to the world’s center is the focus of the discussions in ‘Globalization on the Margins.’ The transition to the Western models of education was happening in the context of major paradigm shift, which entire humanity was experiencing and which could be described as the arrival of the new post-industrial civilization. During this process, Central Asian countries have been pushed to the margins, because their contribution to the wealth of the new world know-how was much less pronounced than that of their Western neighbours. Therefore, investment into the research that contributes to local knowledge production seems a natural solution to the problem. All the contributors to this book have a vast experience in the region and many of their observations are thought provoking. This is a very insightful and much needed book." ~ Elena Lenskaya, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, Russia
TheAnnual Review of Comparative and International Education 2021, Part A begins with a collection of discussion essays about comparative and international education trends and directions, followed by studies that focus on new developments in comparative and international education by regional area.
With nearly a quarter of the world’s population, members of at least five major language families plus several putative language isolates, South Asia is a fascinating arena for linguistic investigations, whether comparative-historical linguistics, studies of language contact and multilingualism, or general linguistic theory. This volume provides a state-of-the-art survey of linguistic research on the languages of South Asia, with contributions by well-known experts. Focus is both on what has been accomplished so far and on what remains unresolved or controversial and hence offers challenges for future research. In addition to covering the languages, their histories, and their genetic classification, as well as phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, and sociolinguistics, the volume provides special coverage of contact and convergence, indigenous South Asian grammatical traditions, applications of modern technology to South Asian languages, and South Asian writing systems. An appendix offers a classified listing of major sources and resources, both digital/online and printed.
In our increasingly globalized world, it is vital to explore major issues in education today through an international and intercultural lens. Thoroughly updated and expanded, this comprehensive new edition introduces students to research in comparative and international education while providing an overview of educational practices in diverse settings. Contributors draw on comparative research from the Americas, Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and engage with such themes as the history and philosophy of comparative education, the right to education, alternative pedagogies, gender, Indigenous knowledge, peacebuilding, international assessments, and global citizenship. The updates to this edition include new chapters on human rights education and the internationalization of schooling, and a greater focus on issues of diversity and social justice education. Designed as a resource for teacher education programs, each chapter highlights the significance and the implications of the particular topic for teachers. Comparative and International Education features a vivid portrayal of global educational practices, contributions from preeminent scholars from around the world, and invaluable teaching tools, including discussion questions, video suggestions, and further readings. This essential collection will be an indispensable resource for teachers, teachers-in-training, and students of comparative and international education.
