Paper short abstract:

In my contribution to this panel I will argue that knowledge imperialism, maintained by, mostly, education, is a vivid feature of development studies too, and it could be demonstrated on both the level of international academy and on the level of national institutional networks.

Paper long abstract:

In my many years long research project I extensively analyzed the patterns of Global North hegemony pertaining the field of global academy in general, and in social sciences in particular. While in the global level we encounter an explicit core-periphery structure (in terms of leading publications, departmental compositions, education and career trajectories etc), in the national (or periphery-within-core) level we are facing with serious social class based stratification. What follows is that, in social sciences in general, and in development studies in particular, a Western elitist hegemony rules over the field while the voices of the authentic (peripheral) Global South academics are very hard to be heard.

I will argue that the world-system of global academy is far for being as meritocratic as it thinks of itself, what is more, the international (and on the other level, the national) elite systematically use education for masking the fact that top positions (including positions at significant HEIs) are reserved to the global elite almost exclusively. In my argumentation I will use my own 4 dimensional model that is capable to handle both the issues of global knowledge hierarchies proposed originally by the Wallersteinian world-system theory and Bourdieu's concept of elite education that describes the ways people from different social classes collecting scientific capital in a socially stratified field that academy is. Besides theory presentation I will present extensive data on global hegemonies regarding publication trends, gatekeeper positions, career trajectories and educational paths in development studies.

Paper short abstract:

Representations of 'development' can be deeply problematic where they mobilise tired tropes of poor brown others saved by noble northern selves. In marketing development studies we ask: what is sold? How? And to what effect on students? Situating academic practices in representation debates.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents a critical examination of the approaches and outcomes of marketing postgraduate development studies programmes in UK universities. The topic is of interest in a political climate where the neoliberal university is a distinct site of the increased marketisation and commercialisation of UK higher education. This manifests in logics that market the superiority of western knowledge (Robertson, 2010) and UK universities as leading providers of expert knowledge (Chapleo, 2010). In literature, the logic is compatible with neoliberal conceptualisations of 'development' as a product sold and bought by audiences in the global north (Escobar, 2012), premised on commonplace representations of development as stoic black and brown individuals who live in the global south with an infinite capacity for labour, requiring development agents in the global north to help empower them (Wilson, 2015); and the classic 'developed' and 'developing' dualism (Martin and Griffin, 2012). Drawing on empirical research, the paper unpacks how 'development' is represented and sold in postgraduate programmes and the effects of this on development students and their imaginations of the discipline. The findings call for a deep collective reflection on whose values are appealed to and edified in the call to study 'development'.

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to explore how the inclusion of racialized discourse in international development education aid in building transformative learning experiences to students who embark on the programme.

Paper long abstract:

International development studies attract students from all over the world, many with the desire to make a positive contribution to the development agenda of their countries of origin or to developing countries. Part of the pedagogy planned around international development education includes the art of critical thinking, exposing students to the tools and techniques in promoting development and connecting students to research. With development discourse situated in a 'space' where the agenda is mostly driven by actors in the global north, this paper seeks to explore how the inclusion of racialized discourse in international development education aid in building transformative learning experiences to students. With an increased number of students calling on Higher Education Institutions to liberate the curriculum, delivering a truly transformative learning that shapes the industry should include diversifying the curriculum and confronting the silences on racialized discourse present within development practices. This is critical to truly opening up international development education because not only does it address real-life issues, it also provides an avenue to begin to confront the challenges present in working in the development industry. Deborah Eade (2010) touches on some of the difficulties faced by southern researchers in breaking into the development industry. She states that "if Southern researchers and development practitioners break into the international market, it is increasingly as consultants…". Transformative learning in higher education should be characterized by its nature to afford students with all-around learning experiences that afford them to be both critical thinkers as well as ethical practitioners.

Paper short abstract:

Reporting on data collected with alumni from four MA programmes in Education and International Development, this paper considers the tensions between student expectations, what they value about their experiences of studying, and the challenges associated with taking learning into the workplace.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers findings from the More Than Knowledge Transfer project, which explored the personal and professional trajectories of alumni from Education and International Development (EID) Masters programmes at the UCL Institute of Education, and investigated the extent to which they were able to draw on their MA learning to support the wellbeing of others. Reflecting on data collected through an online survey and in-depth interviews with former students, the paper considers the tensions between the expectations that students brought with them to the MAs, their experiences on the programme, and the challenges they encountered on graduating. While motivations to enrol on MA EID programmes were often linked instrumentally to career aspirations, what former students valued about the programmes themselves was associated with knowledge acquired, the values that informed teaching, and, importantly, the critical perspectives gained on development issues. However, although many participants have continued to draw on learning from their programme in their professional lives, the nature of the 'skills driven' labour market, financial pressures resulting from the cost of studying, and the complexity of the contexts in which many live and work, meant that taking these critical perspectives into the workplace was not always easy. In this paper, we consider the implications of these findings for teaching, programme development and student support.

Paper short abstract:

'Critical thinking' requires skills; thinking about development requires skills also in giving attention, listening, caring, constructing, and cooperating. The paper looks at skills gains through learning and doing discourse analysis, based on 30 years experience with development studies students.

Paper long abstract:

Several forms of discourse analysis are directly accessible and useful for international development studies students, and can contribute in important skill areas, including for work that is more critical, more constructive and more value-sensitive. Relevant strands include: argumentation analysis, for better representation, evaluation and amendment of argument systems (e.g., Apthorpe & Gasper, 'Arguing Development Policy', Routledge 2014); category- and labelling analysis, for awareness of choices in delineating and characterizing social groups (e.g., Moncrieffe & Eyben, 'The Power of Labelling', Earthscan 2007); content analysis to identify chosen vocabularies and topics, and those omitted (e.g., Moretti & Pestre, 'Bankspeak', New Left Review 2015); metaphor analysis, for probing tacit frames of reference and imagination (e.g. Kornprobst, 'Metaphors of Globalization', Palgrave 2008); narrative analysis, for examining how a past and/or prospective story is constructed in regard to the proffered cast of characters (e.g., Roe, 'Except-Africa', Transaction, 1999); and rhetoric analysis of how the strands are interwoven to construct, project and 'sell' an interpretation and programme (e.g., Gasper, 'Kofi Annan's Rhetorical Strategy', AJR, 2011). Discourse analysis has sometimes acquired a negative reputation in development studies, seen as too difficult, and/or preoccupied with generalized theory rather than case realities or with only criticism and not construction, and/or as based only on finding confirmatory instances rather than on comprehensive coverage. All of these objections can be answered. The paper discusses how these types of discourse analysis may be used in development studies teaching and student research.

Paper short abstract:

Many development studies programmes include consultancy projects carried out for external clients. Students seeking to improve their "employability" flock to them. But this trend has not led to a reflection on the opportunities and pitfalls of this teaching device. The paper addresses this gap.

Paper long abstract:

An increasing number of development studies or management programmes rely on real-life consultancy projects carried out by students for external clients in the development sector (e.g. NGOs, aid agencies, development banks, social enterprises, etc.). Students, under mounting pressure to prove their "employability", flock to these programmes due to their promises of hands-on, professionalising experience. Surprisingly, these developments have not yet triggered a major reflection on what the reliance on such a teaching device actually entails in terms of the way students are educated and trained. In this paper, I seek to address this gap by critically examining the different actors, the incentives they face, and the broader educational environment in which universities set up these exercises. Drawing on personal experience in managing consultancy projects as well as on interviews with academics and administrators, I discuss the potential gains and pitfalls of consultancy projects. While I argue that students can in a number of ways benefit from early contact with professional life in the field of development, universities need amongst other things to take into account potential effects on social science training, academic research standards, as well as ethics when designing consultancy project exercises for their students.

Paper short abstract:

This research theorizes the potential of transdisciplinary learning informed by postcolonial theory and critical pedagogy as emancipatory praxis within neoliberal higher arts education institutions.

Paper long abstract:

My research aims are first, to determine in which ways colonial and capitalist structures within the university constricts the social conditions necessary for new knowledge production. Second, to question the social conditions necessary for new knowledge production. Third, to develop a language of transdisciplinarity for new knowledge production within the university space.

My research centres on a series of unstructured, responsive interviews conducted between July and August, 2018 with South African artist and writer, Thulile (Thuli) Gamedze, a former student (BFA, 2014, MPhil, 2017) and current lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town (UCT). My context is not in one place but in two people, our experiences, and the cultural context necessary to understand them. The United States (US) and South Africa (SA) are framed as relationally significant, not just as Thuli and my geographical contexts, but in a global dynamic of centre/peripheral power dynamics.

I have designed this research project for knowledge production through a dialogic exchange. My experience, Thuli's experience, and our reflexive, critical interpretations of them are central to this work, its design, and its outcomes. Therefore, rather than determining a hypothesis or proposed findings, my study takes a generative and reflexive approach in the analysis of research data. Our dialogue was guided by the following themes: specialization and reproduction of knowledge, transdisciplinarity as anti-capitalist pedagogy, individualism and collectivity. Throughout our discussions, we defined knowledge as socially constructed and question what social environments promote or impede new knowledge production.