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OXSCIE 2017

Round Table Session Highlights 

60 speakers from around the world prepared presentations to spark conversation and debate in each of the OXSCIE 2017 sessions.  The 20 Round Table Sessions are listed below and divided between Session A, Session B, and Session C. Abstracts are available alongside each session. Podcasts of each session will be available by mid-September 2017 (check back soon). 

Selected authors and presenters will be invited to contribute to the bi-annual OXSCIE publication series about education and uncertainty. Decisions for publication will be announced by October 2017. 

Political and economic uncertainties: threat or opportunity for education?

Round Table 2

No refuge in a critical time:

Redefining refugee education beyond emergency solutions

(a) Schools as fragile worlds: Exploring the experiences of Syrian refugee students in Jordan

Hiba Salem, University of Cambridge

(b) When should refugee children attend public schools?

Daniel Shephard, The Implementation Science and Communication Strategies Group 

(c) Learning to care about culture in order to change the culture of care: Lessons from global health for international education

Caitlin McKane, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Chair: Nafisa Shekhova, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 3

Uncertainty, reflection, technology, and innovation:

Practitioner insights for catalyzing education systems change

(a) Pressing pause to fast forward technological innovation in education

Georgia Hill, UNICEF, Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office

(b) The hub-and-spoke model is dead: meet the “Killer App” revealing the glorious complexity of education systems

Matt Reeves, Aga Khan Foundation

(c) Learning and technology in an era of alternative facts

Ronda Zelezny-Green, Panoply Digital

Chair: Andy Cunningham, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 4

Securitizing education or educating global citizens?

Effective approaches for fostering belonging in the context of change and uncertainty

(a) Examining the use of education for certainty in an uncertain world: The educational impact of domestic threat

Anna Lockley-Scott, University of Warwick

(b) Global citizenship education in an uncertain world: good or promising practice in international and comparative perspectives?

Carly Manion, University of Toronto

(c) Promoting pluralism in and through education: a long overdue paradigm shift

Saskia Rasenberg, Education Consultant, Aga Khan Foundation

Chair: Jayne Barlow, Global Centre for Pluralism

Round Table 5

Uncertain times and the politics of persuasion in education policy, financing and practice

(a) Private sector engagement in education: where, and how, are global dynamics heading?

Ian MacPherson, Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

(b) Early learning, the one certainty

Jan van Ravens, Yale University 

(c) Democratic accountability and contextualised systemic evaluation in education

Mathias Urban, Roehampton University 

Chair: Caroline Arnold, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 6

Child-centred education:

Designing relevant and resilient education for a world in flux

(a) A design-led approach to fostering well-being through 21st century skills programming

Stuart Campo, Harvard University 

(b) Children: social actors and co-creators

Tricia Young, Child-to-Child

(c) What we can learn from embracing disability

Isabel Falkenberg, Walkabout Foundation

Chair: Kathy Sylva, University of Oxford

Round Table 7

Learning to learn, be, and become in an uncertain world

(a) Educating narrative and sociological imagination in times of uncertainty

Farid Panjwani, University College London

(b) Journey through the inquiries of learning: Can society embrace the nature of ambiguity?

Rachael Siegman, University of Oxford

(c) Global Citizenship Education? An examination of UNESCO’s latest hope for a peaceful world

Lynn Schneider, University of Oxford

Chair: David Johnson, University of Oxford

Session B 

June 8th | 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM

The meaning of teaching and learning in the context of

educational uncertainties

Round Table 8

Transformational teaching and learning:

 Global examples of effective approaches

(a) A school has many doors: how local arts promote global learning

Naseemah Mohamed, University of Oxford and Harvard University

(b) An empathetic teacher is key to learning and thriving in the new world

Vishal Talreja, Dream a Dream

(c) Luchando a brazo partido: Responding to the crisis in education from a Latin American perspective

Luana DeBorst, University of Oxford

Chair: Jayne Barlow, Global Centre for Pluralism

Round Table 9

Lifeworld Learning

(a) Re-defining the curriculum to include and connect formal and informal learning

Karim El-Mahairy, University of Oxford

(b) The role of ‘lifeworld’ in quality education: the importance of parents and community participation in schooling

Rupert Corbishley, Aga Khan Foundation

(c) Education and teacher transformation in the age of innovation, nationalism and fake news

Charissa Lim, University of Oxford

Chair: Caroline Arnold, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 10

The re-examination has begun: Hopeful examples of supporting, assessing and measuring quality education

(a) What is quality education? Kenya’s experience in reforming the national education curriculum

Daniel Baheta, UNICEF Kenya

(b) The development of the new PROMISE3 mobile app: Supporting schools to understand and respond to challenges to quality teaching and learning

Taylor Robinson, Vera Solutions

(c) How do public private partnerships in education measure up? Conceptualizing and Measuring Achievement in a Ugandan PPP

Chloe Walker, University of Oxford

Chair: Alison Joyner, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 11

Early learning in an era of uncertainty:

Getting it right from the start

(a) How muppets promote peace by building respect for all

Danny Labin, Sesame Street

(b) The “New Early Years” movement as a potential catalyst for rethinking education and schooling in majority world contexts

Kofi Marfo, Aga Khan University, Institute of Human Development

(c) Quality early learning: barriers and opportunities

Sheila Manji, Aga Khan Foundation

Chair: Kathy Sylva, University of Oxford

(a) The uncertain future of learning: are we focusing on the right stuff?

Tom Haslett, Central Square Foundation

(b) Fixing education finance under uncertainty: threats and opportunities

Nick Burnett, Results for Development

(c) How does political context and instability shape education systems and reforms? Some evidence from the Development Progress project

Joseph Wales, Overseas Development Institute

Chair: Sheila Manji, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 1

Political and economic uncertainties:

Threat or opportunity for education?

Session A 

June 8th | 11:15 AM - 12:45 PM

The role and mission of education in the context of

political and economic uncertainties

Session A 

June 8th | 11:15 AM - 12:45 PM

The role and mission of education in the context of

political and economic uncertainties

Round Table 12

Effective school leadership for social change at scale:

What does this look like in an age of uncertainty?

(a) Leveraging school leadership to achieve transformation: opportunities and possibilities for funders

Dierdre Williams, Open Society Foundation

(b) School leadership for excelling beyond exams: teaching essential life skills in a rapidly-changing time

Dorcas Oyugi, Women's Institute for Secondary Education and Research (WISER)

(c) Leading educational change through neighborhood engagement 

Nomalanga Grootboom, University of South Africa

Chair: Andy Cunningham, Aga Khan Foundation 

Round Table 13

The importance of considering voice, participation, democracy and collaboration between key stakeholders in the community to effect changes in teaching and learning

(a) A lowly creature or a somebody? The uncertainty of the teacher self

Sugrah Khan, Aga Khan Foundation

(b) Communities over hierarchies: Changing the paradigm to improve education for all kids

Alex Beard, Teach for All

(c) Re-conceptualizing teachers’ change and a reflexive habitus

Reshma Parveen, University of Queensland

Chair: Ann Childs, University of Oxford 

Round Table 14

The show must go on:

Harnessing a diverse media landscape to improve learning

(a) Learning on the box: reflections on the mediating role of the television in reinvigorating a culture of reading in Kyrgyzstan

David Johnson, University of Oxford

Burulai Aitikulova, Aga Khan Foundation

(b) The show must go on: Harnessing a diverse media landscape to improve learning

Donika Dimovska, Results for Development

Chair: Nafisa Shekhova, Aga Khan Foundation

Session C 

June 9th | 11:15 AM - 12:45 PM

Education in the context of 

social and cultural uncertainties

Round Table 15

Recognizing the role of education in the transmission of norms, values and culture – the power to include or exclude

(a) Promoting pluralism in and through education: A double-edged sword

Tracey Harjatanaya, University of Oxford

(b) Burnt libraries: The hidden tragedy of post-colonial African education

Oludamini Ogunnaike, College of William and Mary 

(c) Why educators and health professionals need to engage with language loss of immigrant communities in the times of uncertainty?

Dina Mehmedbegovic, University College London

Chair: Jayne Barlow, Global Centre for Pluralism

Round Table 16

Re-imagining the role of higher education in an uncertain world?

(a) Academics Without Borders: Narrowing the post-secondary capacity gap​

Greg Moran, Western University and Academics without Borders

(b) The University of Central Asia: Preparing young people in mountainous regions for an undetermined future

Bernadette Dean, University of Central Asia

(c) Are we ready to educate for uncertain times? Towards a new vision for education.

Sarfaroz Niyozov, Aga Khan University, Institute of Education

Chair: David Johnson, University of Oxford 

Round Table 17

Channeling mass media for social change or social fragmentation? Implications for the uncertain future of education.

(a) Championing a spirit of genuine inquiry to combat social fragmentation

Nabeel Gillani, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab

(b) Using modern communications techniques to challenge violence and intolerance, and promote global citizenship

Richard Wilson, Stop Funding Hate

(c) From talk shows to teacher training: using media to improve girls' education in three African countries

Aric Noboa, Discovery Learning Alliance

Chair: Andy Cunningham, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 18

Aligning the role and mission of education to foster critical imagination and pluralistic dispositions

(a) Navigating education through hegemonic smokescreen: Reading the word and reading the world

Al Karim Datoo, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

(b) The open society and its continual enemies: The need to re-balance education and develop a more critical attitude to knowledge and accepted practice

Simon Hayhoe, University of Bath

(c) The potential and peril of a pluralistic disposition

Afroza Nanji, Global Centre for Pluralism

Chair: Sheila Manji, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 19

What’s happening with local ownership and agency

in the context of educational uncertainty?

(a) Funding the future: how can grant makers support quality socially inclusive education?

Teresa Sguazzin, Comic Relief

(b) Fractals and communities of practice: What can education learn from federations of the urban poor?

Sheridan Bartlett, CUNY Graduate Centre, New York

Chair: Caroline Arnold, Aga Khan Foundation

Round Table 20

Opening minds: Managing our responses to uncertainty

(a) Social emotional learning: Essential dispositions in a challenging world

Kristen Bub, University of Illinois

(b) Educating mindfully

Bethany Cunningham, Mindfulness Educator

(c) Is education to learn to live together a choice or an ethical demand?

Andres Guerrero, Arigatou International

Chair: Alison Joyner, Aga Khan Foundation 

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