UNESCO Chair: Inclusive Good Quality Education For All
Access to an inclusive good quality education for all is crucial for realising sustainable livelihoods in prosperous, peaceful, diverse and democratic societies. However, millions of learners are denied access and education can also play a role in reproducing inequalities including those based on class, race, ethnicity, gender and disability. The University of Bristol chair will work with policy makers, practitioners, community-based organisations and the research community in the global North and South to develop the capacity and leadership urgently required to ensure an inclusive good quality education for all.
Established in 2019 and led by Professor Leon Tikly UNESCO Chair in Inclusive Quality Education for All is based in the Centre for International and Comparative Research in Education (CIRE) at the University of Bristol. The work of the Chair involves colleagues based in CIRE and partners in South Africa, Rwanda, Somalia, India, Ethiopia, Tanzania and the UK. A key objective of the Chair is to build capacity in the global South and the global North to undertake research to increase access to an inclusive, good quality education.
The Chair led a successful application with 3 other UNESCO Chairs for a GCRF Network Plus on Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures. The Network Plus investigates how education can act as a driver for sustainable livelihoods, cities and climate action whilst addressing poverty, gender inequality and promoting indigenous knowledge systems.
The Chair has also established along with colleagues in the School, the Afrika Masheriki Education Research Network (AMERN) to support early career researchers at the universities of Rwanda, Kotebe (Ethiopia), Dodoma (Tanzania) St John’s Tanzania. Researchers in partner universities can apply for seedcorn funding to undertake pilot research and are then supported through the stages of the research process from design to publication.
The Chair has also worked closely with UNESCO on related projects. He is lead author on a UNESCO report with UNEVOC, Bonn on Boosting Gender Equality in Science and Technology: A Challenge for TVET Programmes and Careers. He is also leading a network of Bristol and international researchers on a UNESCO funded project on Decolonising Teacher Professionalism which will feed into the UNESCO Futures of Teaching initiative. Involves 5 other School of Education staff. In 2020, the Chair hosted a series of 3 seminars on Decolonising Education Futures in conjunction with the UNESCO Futures of Education initiative involving leading international scholars and leading to a synthesis report.
The work of the Chair has also focused on the University of Bristol itself. This has involved ongoing work on decolonising the curriculum with the aim of making higher education in Bristol and the UK more diverse and inclusive. For example, the Chair has co-developed with colleagues at Bristol a FutureLearn Course on Decolonising Education: From Theory to Practice. He has also hosted the visit of leading decolonial scholar, Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos to the University of Bristol. The Chair has also published a book linked to his work: Sustainable Development in the Postcolonial World: Towards a Transformative Agenda for Africa.
I’ve really enjoyed working with and learning from my partners and using the Chair to really make a difference both in our partner countries and in my own institution! The coronavirus pandemic has underlined the importance of UNESCO and of my UNESCO chair in ensuring an inclusive, good quality education for all.