What do they need to know? Core skills for postgraduate development studies students (original) (raw)
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This chapter examines the case for development education research, explores the relationship between research and development education in the higher education sector and considers the implications for development education capacity and practice. It suggests a number of ways in which research enhances development education capacity, but argues that ‘research’ and the academic contribution need to be re-imagined to address problematic divides. Boyer’s re-imagination of ‘scholarships’ re-connects research to an ecology of practice comprising engagement, inter-disciplinary collaboration and teaching. However, ‘engagement’ is not necessarily synonymous with ‘compliance’. The situation of public higher education is discussed and the chapter concludes with some reflections about global visions of research and the particular relevance of critical, defiant, humanistic and rights-based versions of development education for a sector facing into globalisation, crisis and the pressures of relentless reform.
Development education is an approach to learning that questions dominant paradigms of development and inspires citizen- and community-driven change towards a world of greater social justice. This article provides an overview of development education and reflects on the extent to which development education principles are currently reflected in, or missing from, mainstream educational policies pursued within an international development framework. In particular, the article addresses the issue of quality in education – one of the key current debates within international education policy – and suggests that, through its critical pedagogy and focus on the development of global skills, development education has a significant contribution to make to these debates. The article suggests that greater collaboration between the field of development education and international education policy could facilitate the creation of an agenda that focuses on education quality and learning processes, as opposed to the current preoccupation with education access and outcomes.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relevance of undergraduate community development courses in two cultural contexts. There has been little research on the experiences gained through community development courses, or on the relevance of higher education in general. This thesis investigates the perspectives of community development students, staff and graduates on learning and skills gained in undergraduate community development courses at Victoria University (VU) in Australia and at Nacional University of Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL) in Timor-Leste. The community development course outlines at VU and at UNTL are similar, thus one aim of this study is to reveal if these comparable course outlines are applicable both in a developed country and in a developing country. A case study approach was used to research the courses, and the methodology used to gather information was mixed-method. Data collection was conducted through questionnaire survey and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with community development staff, graduates and students. The main source of information was from the interviews which provided data not only to answer the research question but also to describe the history of the two courses, a topic which has not been explored previously. Triangulation was used to check the information obtained, and the analysis included investigating the multiple-choice questions in the questionnaires quantitatively. The open questions in the questionnaires and the transcripts of the interviews were qualitatively assessed using a thematic approach. According to the results of this research, the undergraduate community development courses at VU and UNTL are relevant to their contexts, and both courses share somewhat similar values and notions of the role of community development practitioners. However, the results show that despite these similarities, and although the undergraduate community development course outlines at VU and UNTL are similar, cultural context strongly shapes the ways in which community development learning and skills are offered and acquired. Considering the future of the two courses, this study suggests that it is essential to maintain a focus on global phenomena and to continue to update the course content. Further, since the two courses are not only shaped by the cultural contexts but also by global implications and the distinctive nature of community development itself, it is beneficial for the courses to consider increased cross-cultural learning experiences between VU and UNTL. The overall conclusion was that the courses are significant in both Australian and Timorese contexts, and the contents of the courses refer to the current developmental stages of the two countries. Nevertheless, this thesis suggests that because of their high levels of personal dedication and their insights on development, the undergraduate community development course may be more practically relevant for students in Timor-Leste.
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