Educational Policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan

Contested Terrain in the Twenty-First Century

Contributions by Sultonbek Aksakolov, Spogmai Akseer, Dilshad Ashraf, Sharifullah Baig, Alan J. DeYoung, Shama Dossa, Hakim Elnazarov, Carole Faucher, Jan-e-Alam Khaki, Sarfaroz Niyozov, Hajee Parveen Roy, Mola Dad Shafa, Mir Afzal Tajik, Christopher Whitsel, Zakir Hussain Zakir Edited by Dilshad Ashraf, Mir Afzal Tajik, Sarfaroz Niyozov

Not available to order

Publication date:

19 December 2016

Length of book:

242 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498505345

In the mountains of the Northern Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan School and schooling are both symbolic of wider ranging cultural and political battles over morals, modernity, development, gender and the rule of law. Educational Policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan: Contested Terrain in the Twenty-First Century is about both the normative battles over the purpose of education, as well as about the structural impediments to providing instruction in those remote and challenging locations where it is attempted. The analytical frames in this collection come primarily from the social sciences and comparative education. Contributors examine education, policy, processes and structures in the broader socio-cultural, religious and economic context of three countries sharing somewhat similar colonial and post- colonial legacy and current uprising of extreme religious positions and a drive to social-cohesion.

Contents

Introduction
Dilshad Ashraf and Alan J. DeYoung

Chapter 1: Missing pieces: The case of girls’ education in Tajikistan
Christopher Whitsel

Chapter 2: The militarization of Afghan women’s learning in ‘post-conflict’ Afghanistan
Spogmai Akseer

Chapter 3: Girls education in Afghanistan: What works and why
Shama Dossa & Parveen Roy

Chapter 4: Islamic Education in post-Soviet Tajikistan: A field of contestations
Sarfaroz Niyozov, Hakim Elnazarov, and Sultonbek Aksakolov

Chapter 5: Religion and state in Pakistani education with special focus on mountainous regions
Jan-e-Alam Khaki

Chapter 6: Creating social cohesion through schooling in Pakistan’s Swat Valley: One UNICEF approach
Parveen Roy and Alan DeYoung

Chapter 7: Building communities by building schools in the rural mountainous regions of Pakistan
Mir Afzal Tajik

Chapter 8: Narratives of Schooling during the Tajik Civil War (1992-97)
Carole Faucher

Chapter 9: Schooling and the Problem of Indigenous Cultural Identity in Baltistan
Zakir Hussain

Conclusion: Transforming Contested Education Terrains into Opportunities for Hope and Peace
Sarfaroz Niyozov & Jan-e-Alam Khaki

About the Contributors

Without romanticizing the realities of local communities in conflicting geo-political situations, this book engages in an insightful discussion around unique educational experiences in the mountainous regions of Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. This is one of the best ethnographic books on education; it is well-written and filled with qualified and diverse scholars who hail from this region or who have spent long periods of time in this part of the world. The contributors’ powerful portrayals and narrations in this book indeed provide optimism and aspirations for empowering girls, women and the underprivileged through education.