Category: Learning
Teaching Social Studies in an International Baccalaureate (IB) School in Pakistan
This blog presents a reflective analysis based on my observation of a Social Studies class in an International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Pakistan. The aim of this observation was to understand how Social Studies is taught, how students engage with concepts such as society, culture, identity, citizenship and civic responsibility,…
Read More
Relational ecologies of knowledge and practice
Struggles for cognitive justice continue to shape everyday practice in education and research. A workshop envisioned new, reparative ways of knowing and being together that prioritize community knowledges and contextual epistemologies, equitable resource distribution, and ethical funding and publication pipelines.
Read More
Removing the Extra from Extracurricular: Reimagining Activities as Core Catalysts for Classroom Connection
Extracurricular activities (ECAs) have long been seen as add-ons to schooling. But what if these activities are actually the key to forging deeper peer connections, boosting student participation, and creating classrooms where every voice is heard and valued?
Read More
Nomophobia and implications for education: The unspoken fear of being disconnected from mobile phones
With the increasing use of mobile phones and the growing amount of time spent on scrolling through social media posts, most of us remain unaware of its consequences for our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Educators are experiencing a novel anxiety among students, first reported in UK in 2008 known…
Read More
Why children’s literature belongs in conversations on education and inclusion
Access to rich and engaging literature at home is a severe gap for Global South populations, with studies suggesting that access to children’s literature in India is limited to 1 book available for 5 children in urban areas, and 1 book available for every 11 children in rural areas. In…
Read More
How colonialism shaped modern education systems across India, Pakistan and Singapore
Colonialism did not simply introduce schools to South Asia; it re-engineered knowledge systems, reorganised access to education and embedded epistemic hierarchies that continue to shape modern schooling across India, Pakistan and Singapore.
Read More
Learning together: How a simple idea is transforming classrooms in India and Malawi
When I first stepped into the classroom that morning, the noise caught me by surprise. Dozens of children were talking at once — not in chaos, but in conversation. Groups of three huddled over shared notebooks, whispering, debating, laughing, and scribbling answers on the blackboard.
Read More
Scaling with digital technology and AI: What else should we be thinking about?
The education and international development sector has found in technology and AI an excellent way to scale impact. Digital technology and AI have been used as powerful tools to reach more communities, children, teachers and families, especially in areas where access to quality education remains limited.
Read More
Ruptures and reclamations: Student engagement in the absence of pedagogical care
The discourse of educational reform often focuses on student engagement, treating it as the unambiguous dependent variable that flows directly from effective instructional design and teacher professionalism. We rely on surveys, rubrics and metrics to affirm this linear relationship, seeking data that validates our models of pedagogical success.
Read More
Comparison on vocational education and training across different national and international contexts
This blog discusses the question: Why does technical and vocational education and training (TVET) remain unattractive to Pakistani youth despite a shortage of skilled labour, and what lessons can be drawn from China, Russia, India, Indonesia and Germany to inform more effective reforms?
Read More
Teaching with Ubuntu: Relational pedagogies for greater inclusion and equity
This blog shares reflections from our new book ‘Reconceptualising the learning crisis in Africa: Multi-dimensional pedagogies of Accelerated Learning Programmes’. For more than a decade, the conversation on education in Africa has been framed by the language of ‘crisis’, particularly the so-called ‘learning crisis’.
Read More
Language policy and socioeconomic mobility: A comparative review of English education in developing countries
This blog was written by Kashfia Latafat, research scholar at Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development. Introduction Language policy has a dominant role in...
Read More