EDST 583A (021)

EDST 583A (021)

EDST 583A Advanced seminar in educational studies: Political economy of education

Winter 1, Wednesdays 4:30-6pm

Register: https://courses.students.ubc.ca/cs/courseschedule?sesscd=W&pname=subjarea&tname=subj-section&course=583A&sessyr=2020&section=021&dept=EDST

 

Note: In addition to asynchronous discussions (on Canvas), I’m planning a synchronous class component for 1 -1.5 hours each week. Any student in a time zone that makes synchronous participation challenging should contact the instructor.

Course overview

The COVID-19 pandemic has been dominating the news and minds of people across the globe in recent days. In addition to pointing to the shortcomings of emergency preparedness and healthcare systems, the crisis allows us to shine a spotlight on relationships between politics, economy, and education that are even more visible at this time. Daily briefings by the Prime Minister of Canada focus not only on how to avoid contracting the virus, but also how to keep the economy moving, and how to support workers whose livelihoods have been devastated by the shutting down of major economic sectors. The globalization of higher education is being challenged too.

 

The aim of this course is to use the crisis of COVID-19 to analyze longstanding issues related to the political economy of education. While the primary focus is on Canada, comparisons will be made with other national contexts. We will address issues across education systems including K-12, post-secondary, and adult education.

 

The course will be organized in 4 interrelated sections as follows:

Section 1 addresses what is meant by “political economy” and how writers have taken it up in relation to education.

Section 2 highlights issues related to “access” to education, especially for the most vulnerable in society.

Section 3 focuses on issues related to “the organization and delivery” of education.

Section 4 addresses issues related to what and whose “knowledge” is valued in education and in society.

 

Assessment

Assignments will include participation in online and synchronous discussions, and either a traditional ‘Final paper’ or ‘Action project’ on a topic related to the class themes. The latter will involve work to support the educational aims of the UBC Learning Exchange and its community partners in the downtown eastside. All ‘Action projects’ will be conducted remotely using Zoom sessions with partners.

Register: https://courses.students.ubc.ca/cs/courseschedule?sesscd=W&pname=subjarea&tname=subj-section&course=583A&sessyr=2020&section=021&dept=EDST

Contact the instructor for more details: Dr. Alison Taylor (alison.taylor@ubc.ca)

Erasmus International Credit Mobility from the EU

Dr. Gerald Fallon (UBC) and Dr. Eve Eisenschmidt (University of Talinn in Estonia) were successful in obtaining an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility from the European Union to support the first phase of a collaboration between the two universities over a period of three years in the field of educational leadership and administration. The focus of this collaboration will be on the co-development of common graduate online courses, pilot projects and research initiatives in educational leadership reflecting national and international perspectives, especially with regard to educational leadership for equity and inclusive education. In addition, this project will offer opportunities for Faculty members in EDST and other departments in the UBC Faculty of Education to get involved in this international initiative. 

 

New Publication: The (De)Colonial Pedagogical Possibilities of Films and Film Festival

The (De)Colonial Pedagogical Possibilities of Films and Film Festivals has been published in Postcolonial Directions in Education (PDE), issues 8.2 (2019) and 9.1 (2020), accessible at the Open Access Repository (OAR) of the University of Malta at <https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/19316>.

 

Blog – We Must Tackle and Dismantle Systemic Racism and White Supremacy

We Must Tackle and Dismantle Systemic Racism and White Supremacy, written by Dr. Bathseba Opini, has been published on The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Link: http://www.ideas-idees.ca/blog/we-must-tackle-and-dismantle-systemic-racism-and-white-supremacy

 

CHA Journal Prize

The winner of the CHA Journal Prize is Jason Ellis, for “Public School Taxes and the Remaking of Suburban Space and History: Etobicoke, 1945–1954.” This article argues that school taxes were a significant policy tool for municipal officials and Etobicoke residents in their remaking of suburban space. Adding to the growing literature on the significance of tax to Canadian History, Ellis’ research provides new insight into how exclusion functioned in the suburbs during the post-war period. Reviewers and editors commented on the article’s originality of argument, careful research, and engaging style. They also noted that it successfully links the historiographies of urban history and the history of education, and predict that it will make an important contribution to both fields.

Canadian Graduate Scholarship – Master’s Program award recipients

Congrats to our Canadian Graduate Scholarship – Master’s Program award recipients, Vanessa Lawrence and Emily Van Halem. Well done, Vanessa and Emily!

Congratulations to Shirley Hardman – SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship

Congratulations Rabia Mir for the Douglas Ray Award

Congratulations to Rabia Mir (EDST MA, 2019) for winning the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC/SCECI) Douglas Ray Award for Best Graduate Paper. The title of Rabia’s paper is “Migrations, Transformations, and Getting to Home: A Theoretical and Personal Reflection.” The award gives “recognition to outstanding research in the field of comparative and international education, and to facilitate communication about that research.” Well done, Rabia!

 

EDST Students: Online classes and other Covid-19 info

EDST Students:

 

Dear new and returning EDST students,

We understand you have many questions about how you can start or continue your studies. We want to reassure you that we are continuing to offer classes and graduate supervision via a range of online platforms. At the moment, what we know is that all EDST courses in the 2020 Summer term (May-August) and 2020 Winter term 1 (September-December) will be offered online; there will be no in-person classes. No decision has been made yet about classes starting in January 2021.

Many of your questions—for example, about student visas, or housing, or the consequences of not moving to Vancouver for now—are relevant also to students outside of EDST, and the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS) as well as the Faculty of Education have created central information pages with the latest updates. We do not want to duplicate that information here because that would create a risk that we would miss an important update and you end up with outdated information. So, please consult the following pages:

We look forward to hearing from you on email, and seeing you in online meetings and classes. And, of course, we especially look forward to meeting you or seeing you again in person when conditions permit!

EDST faculty and staff

EDST Statement on Anti-Black Racism and Police Violence

June 2, 2020

The Department of Educational Studies (EDST) condemns, in the strongest terms, the anti-Black racism and police violence that has emerged again in cities across the world, and especially in the US. We also denounce Anti-Indigenous racism, Anti-Asian racism, and xenophobia amplified worldwide at this time of pandemic crisis. We support calls for justice in the light of such violence and call for an end to systemic racism.

We acknowledge that all forms of racism are historically endemic to our social, economic, and political systems; we acknowledge that white supremacy and colonization continues to be at the root of inequality. We acknowledge that universities and wider societal institutions continue to perpetuate anti-Black racism, marginalization, and oppression of racialized and Indigenous faculty, students, and staff, in subtle and covert ways. We also acknowledge that, as a department, we are implicated in the reproduction of racism and colonialism, and we continue to learn and unlearn in an effort to take responsibility for change, individually and collectively. In as much as universities are spaces that fight for social justice, they are also part of the larger systemic structures that uphold white dominance and supremacy.

In pursuit of our EDST mission, students, faculty, and staff value equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and social justice, support for Indigenous educational advancement and decolonization, respectful engagement with our community partners, criticality in our approach to educational orthodoxies, and integrity in our relationships. In keeping with this mission, our work promotes, and insists upon, anti-racism, anti-bigotry, anti-hate, and social justice. We call on our white community members, in particular, to interrupt racist and colonial behaviors and assumptions in both themselves and others. We are producers and cultivators of knowledge and, in addition to individual and personal action against racism, we will continue to create and engage with scholarship on the topics of race and racism to combat racial hatred and injustice.