1. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

2. Power, control and identity
Power, control and identity. Ethical issues in researching North-South study visits
AAG conference April 14th – 19th 2010
Washington DC
Fran Martin, University of Exeter, UK.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

3. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Some definitions
North – South
Global Educational Partnerships
Study visits, study visit courses
North-South, sometimes referred to as economically developed / developing countries, also minority / majority world. We realise that definitions are problematic but will use North-South for the purposes of this presentation.
Global Educational Partnership: A north-south partnership between organisations that are not schools
Study visits – experience for teacher to go to southern country for some experience (akin to e.g. study abroad)
Study visit courses – as above, but framed within a formal, taught course.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

4. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
The World is like a table. Twenty percent live on the table and eighty percent survive underneath it. Our work cannot be to move a few from under the table onto the table, or vice versa. Our task is to move the table, to change its position if necessary, and all to sit together around the table.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti, cited by Hopkin (2002).
Using the postcolonial notion of ‘Third Space’ as a means of understanding how this can be achieved in context of intercultural experiences.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

5. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Political
Social
Educational
Schools
MDGs
Economy
Liberal
‘Fixing’ through aid
Global citizens
Ethic of ‘care’
Curriculum (Geography, citizenship)
School Partnerships
Different contexts that have a bearing on North-South educational partnerships and intercultural learning.
Millennium Development Goals. Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Economic goal: Maintaining economic position in global economy
Social – liberal paradigm, ‘fixing’ problem of Africa through aid / charity – e.g. Comic Relief, Sport Relief. Trend of charities taking on responsibilities hitherto part of government, issues here of power and control.
On one hand liberal aims of ‘challenging negative and simplistic stereotypes and images … ensuring equality, mutual respect and the promotion of learning’. DfES/DfID 2005 Global dimension across the curriculum.
On the other hand, ‘Being a global partner’, ‘equipping our children, young people and adults for life in a global society and work in a global economy’; In context of increasing numbers of international students in FE and HE, aim is ‘enculturation’ into Western discourses in order to ‘maximis[e] the contribution of our education and training sector and university research to overseas trade and inward investment’. DfES (2004) Putting the World into World-Class Education. p.13
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

6. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Power
History
Knowledge
Indigenous knowledges?
Equality
Responsibility ‘for’; paternalistic ethic of care
Mutuality, reciprocity?
Identity
Essentialism
Common Humanity
Hybridity?
Represen-tation
Of whom, by whom, for what purpose?
Single story?
Using Postcolonial Theory as a lens through which to view the above, there is strong evidence of colonial / neo-colonial discourse.
Histories behind relationships between the North and South. Western discourse and Western academy at the centre of policy and practice.
Doreen Massey shows how spatial difference (poverty, hunger, lack of schooling) conceived of in temporal terms – increases ‘Othering’ and has effect of fixing things, leading to essentialist notions of place and identity. Postcolonialists call for a more fluid, dynamic understanding of identity that is hybrid / heterogeneous in nature,
Within a liberal discourse of universality (human rights, common humanity, ethics of care), what underlying, hidden, histories are being ignored?
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

7. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
The Project
Global Partnerships as sites for mutual learning: teachers’ professional development through study visits.
Strategic: Two global partnerships, UK - Gambia & UK - India
Pedagogic: Two study visit courses, teachers and educators
Tide~ Global Learning Centre with National Environment Agency of The Gambia
Canterbury Christ Church University with Goodwill Children’s Homes, India
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

8. Theoretical perspectives
Ontology
Postcolonial theory (Said, 1985; Bhabha, 1994; Spivak, 1988)
Epistemology
Intercultural experiences (Fiedler, 2007); Third space (Bhabha, 1994)
Methodology / pedagogy
Participatory, ethnographic
Pedagogy of ‘dissensus’ (de Souza, 2008)
Third Space (or intercultural experiences) – in cross-cultural dialogue, individuals occupy their own cultural space (Bhabha and Location of Culture) and they need to be prepared to step out of this space into the space between them, leaving cultural baggage behind, if learning from the dialogue is to take place. It is incumbent on both parties to do this and to create a third space in which new meanings / understandings can emerge.
De Souza (2008) warns that when focusing on multiple perspectives the goal should not be to arrive at a consensus (which re-creates polarity). He proposes a pedagogy of dissensus as an alternative, which requires an awareness of internal and external difference (self, individual, community) and an ‘openness to new possibilities [rather than] substantial and universal certainties’
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

9. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Research design
Challenges for research:
How do I establish an ethical relation to the ‘other’ and avoid keeping ‘Western academy and the Western academic at the centre’ (Andreotti, 2007)?
Western knowledge systems, indigenous knowledge systems: Learning to unlearn (Andreotti & de Souza, 2008)
Recognition of dynamic nature of places, societies, cultures and the relationships between them (avoiding frozen narratives)
Royal Geographic Society’s tradition of the ‘Other’ as object of study – how can perpetuation of this be avoided?
Some suggestions:-
Openness to other forms of knowledge / knowledge systems
Through Other Eyes project – unpacking my own ‘baggage’ as a starting point
Avoiding the ‘idée fixe’ or frozen narrative (i.e. essentialism) – described by Chimamanda Adiche as the Single Story.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

10. Dr Fran Martin, University of ExeterUK
Tide~
Global
Learning
Centre
Gambia
National
Environment
Agency
Gambian
Researcher UK
PI and RF
Mutual, intercultural
learning
Indian
Researcher
Although funding has come from the UK, the project was first conceived of jointly by the NEA – Tide~ Global Learning partnership. After a pilot study in there was a period of consultation involving a variety of ‘end-users’ in the UK, but also all four participating organisations
Tide – NEA
CCCU – GCH
Investigating contrasting global partnerships and contrasting courses
Points of difference that provide potential postcolonial spaces for learning:
Gambia and India both former colonies, but very different historical and cultural contexts
Tide~ - NEA partnership is between UK development education centre and Gambian government department
CCCU – GCH is between University and Charitable organisation.
Tide-NEA study visit course is for qualified teachers and educators of varying levels of experience, NQT – headteacher & university lecturer
CCCU-GCH study visit is for student teachers on 3 year programme.
Challenges:
Values of each partnership sometimes conflicting
Building and sustaining relationships with four organisations
Building in dissemination from the beginning
India
Goodwill
Children’s
Homes UK
Canterbury
Christ Church
University
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

11. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Negotiating Access
Asking difficult questions without compromising relationships built up with participants
Risks of being up-front about own worldview
Risks of raising profile of project through the press
Research in effect holds up a mirror – requires openness on part of all organisations to move into those spaces for learning. Displacement can be intellectual but also emotional and spiritual (ref Lynne’s presentation).
Research team need to be equally open to these challenges and learning from each other. First 6 months has been a lesson in negotiation and competing demands of desire to maintain an ethical relationship and requirements of funding body and university of Exeter to raise profile of research have caused greatest challenges so far.
Example of the press
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

12. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
TES shared with all participating organisations and researchers.
Very different reactions from participating organisations.
Tone suggests that (a) I have already made up my mind before the research has been done, and (b) the research is about making judgements rather than developing understandings / new ways of seeing things.
To question is to condemn.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

13. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Researcher bias
My own history with the organisations taking part
Motes in my own eye?
Intercultural or intracultural issues?
Contradictions in my own practice
Minimizing cross-cultural issues in gathering data from southern participants; intra-cultural issues of power and control?
Assumption that intercultural issues would be the most challenging, but so far intra-cultural issues have raised most challenges.
Approaches to data collection and analysis: avoiding consensus and developing a pedagogy of dissensus (de Souza, 2007) within the research team; data collection not done in exactly the same way by Dr Sidibeh and us – but this difference is something to learn from – a potential space for learning.
Against fund-raising / charity / aid but still give financial support to my friends.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

14. Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Concluding comments
Postcolonial spaces for learning?
All to sit together around the table …
Or remove the table, sit on the floor ….
Certainly creating many displacement spaces, but whether these are postcolonial in the sense of third space suggested by Bhabha (1994), or intercultural spaces as suggested by Fiedler (2008) is hard to say at this point. The potential and commitment is there, and the next three years look incredibly exciting – it will be interesting to see how the thing unfolds.
I believe that the outcomes will be of interest to a broad range of intercultural, experiential learning activities including university Study Abroad programmes, geography field visits, and hopefully bring much needed range of southern perspectives to our understanding of these. All sitting around the table as equals but not the same. Analogy could resemble a negotiating table, BUT – the aim is not to resolve differences, but to understand them.
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter
Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter