Paper short abstract:

The current paper looks at student and alumni trajectory in Planning education focussing on mobilities and migrations, at the confluence of individual aspiration and the promise of higher education; and the ways in which development of cities and regions are made sense of by aspiring learners.

Paper long abstract:

Higher education spaces are discursively constructed as sites of immense promise. This promise leads to two distinct types of mobilities among learners - social and spatial. The drive for social mobility engenders a spate of spatial mobilities and migrations. The current paper is situated at the intersection of these mobilities. It draws from work on student and alumni trajectories in Planning education, situated in contexts of Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, under Work Package-5 of UCL-led KNOW project.

The paper engages with one emergent thread of analysis, focussing on translocal understandings of mobility and migration intersected with educational aspirations. As it is situated in the discipline of Planning education, it engages with values of equity and equality as 'made sense of' by learners and brought to bear in their practice of development of cities and regions - particularly in the Indian context. The study relied primarily on comparative qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, following the principles of narrative storytelling and reflexive methodology.

Consumption of education in the higher education space is a result of complex interplays between site and person. In this paper we posit that it is necessary to understand not only the bounded site-based influences that affect the trajectories of learners, but also look at the ways in which aspirations shape and influence their spatial mobilities and enduring migrations. Doing so allows us to understand the ways in which aspirational mobilities and migrations - both social and spatial, have an influence on the practice of development itself.

Paper short abstract:

A mixed-method inquiry to explore the connection between Technical and Vocational Education and international migration for work. The study highlights opportunities and challenges faced by the workforce migrating from developing countries in search of better economic and social prospects

Paper long abstract:

Technical and vocational education and training is a critical tool that equips and empowers the workforce to engage actively in economic activities. Existing literature provides evidence that countries which invest in human capital attain economic growth and development. Further, accelerating globalization and technological advancements have opened new avenues and opportunities across borders for work. Therefore, it is absolutely critical for the workforce to constantly learn, relearn, upskill and upgrade their knowledge base and skill-set to stay relevant. In the backdrop, this study employs a mixed method research design to explore the impact of technical and vocational education on international migration for work. To this extent, first a quantitative cross-country panel data analysis comprised of 86 developing countries for the time period 1990 - 2019 is conducted which confirms that technical and vocational education significant factor in international migration. Secondly, qualitative analysis in Pakistan's context is conducted to further explore the effectiveness of vocational education in facilitating employment overseas. Our findings suggest that structural reforms for the vocational sector are needed as it was identified that global job market irrelevance with respect to curricula, equipment and technique along with lack of professional credibility and varying standards and expectations of certifications across borders acts as hindrance for the workforce to integrate in the global job market. These challenges may eventually force the migrants to take up work for which they may be either over qualified or under paid thus undermining international development.

Paper short abstract:

"Eduscape" - short for educational landscape - remains a useful construct for capturing how educational processes are shaped by globalisation, particularly if it is accompanied by exploratory ethnography to uncover the experiences and preoccupations of people on the ground in the Global South.

Paper long abstract:

The concept of "eduscape" - informed by the work of Arjun Appadurai, and short for educational landscape - was coined two decades ago by scholars of comparative education to capture how educational processes are shaped by globalisation. Yet, there are Eurocentric biases within the existing literature that employs the eduscape concept. The first bias is a focus on Western-style schooling to the neglect of non-Western or indigenous knowledges, epistemologies, and education systems. The second bias is that the facets of globalisation studied tend to reflect the current interests of scholars based in Northern contexts - namely mobility in the context of higher education, and how policies 'travel' in different local contexts - rather than stemming from the preoccupations of people on the ground in the Global South.

This paper defends eduscape as a useful theoretical concept, as long as a broader range of educational phenomena and facets of globalisation are analysed to overcome Eurocentric bias - ideally through the use of ethnographic methods and open-ended research design. I use such data on youth's educational trajectories in Senegal - which were shaped by the availability of Islamic schooling, aspirations to migrate overseas, and intersecting identities of gender and position in the caste-like hierarchy - to illustrate a postcolonial and bottom-up application of the eduscape concept. Through this method, I was able to recentre the knowledges, epistemologies, and forms of education that my interlocutors found valuable, as well as illuminate the kinds of migration flows which shaped their educational realities.

Paper short abstract:

Short-term seasonal migration results in the disruption of education of children from poorest households who use education as a capital thus decreasing the chance of a community level development in the future while the parents fight for survival at present.

Paper long abstract:

Short-term internal migrants in India heavily depend on agents while also borrowing money from them which is to be cut from the lump-sum amount paid to them at the end of the seasonal period. This phenomenon has become an inter-generational way of life keeping the poor within the vicious cycle of poverty.

1. Migration for economic reasons: Landless farmer migrate seasonally with a deadline and a fixed completion target given by their agents. This gives rise to an all-hands-on-deck phenomenon for household fearing further monetary losses.

2. Migration as hindrance to continuation of education: Children deemed too young or unsafe to be left behind often migrate with their parents who are seasonal migrants resulting in months of absence from schools.

3. Education as a tool for economic development: Poor children armed with education have catapulted their families and sometimes their communities out of poverty. A long break in early education often results in school dropouts. Thus gives ride to an entire generation of unskilled laborers who will again depend on unsustainable sources of income.

4. Post Covid virtual classes working in-tandem with government EG Cards: The government of India already had Massive Open Online Courses but not for children. Maharashtra government under Right To Education (RTE) Act developed Education Guarantee Cards to track and serve these children. The onset of Covid and shift of primary education online showed the relation between lack of purchasing power with the lack of education even when education is provided free.