Contextualizing Pedagogical Processes and Contexts

Abstract

This chapter provides a conceptual framework for the pedagogical processes described in chapters eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. It also offers a contextualization of the ideological, practical, and financial configurations of the field of “development education” in England, where the international educational initiatives Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry (OSDE) and Through Other Eyes (TOE) (described in chapters thirteen and fourteen) emerged.¹ These two initiatives offer a situated example of high impact funded projects that translate insights from postcolonial theory into pedagogical practice. OSDE was inspired by the potential and limitations of the technology of Open Spaces in the context of the World Social Forum (see Andreotti and Dowling 2004), as well as by the collective process of a group of public sector teachers working to “reclaim their right to question” within a World Bank funded capacity building project in Brazil (see Andreotti 2005). TOE was a spin off from OSDE with a particular focus on the complexities of engagements with indigenous knowledge systems in “non-indigenous” educational contexts (see Andreotti and Souza 2008b). Both projects were partly funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom and involved a large number of committed individuals who volunteered their time toward the completion of the projects.