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The University of East Anglia was invited by UNESCO to join its prestigious universities network and established the first UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation in May 2016.
After a successful first two phases, the Chair (managed by faculty and students in the UEA School of Education and Lifelong Learning and the UEA School of Global Development) has been renewed for a third term until June 2028 (see below).
This UNESCO Chair programme aims to develop understanding about how adult learning – particularly for women and young adults - can help address inequalities in the poorest communities of the world. Through investigating how or why adult literacy might facilitate or respond to processes of social transformation, including women’s empowerment, the Chair programme sets out to strengthen the interaction between formal, non-formal and informal learning in research, policy and programmes. The programme brings together researchers in education and international development from across the University of East Anglia, as well as research partners in the Global South.
Emeritus Professor Anna Robinson-Pant is the UNESCO Chairholder, supported by a faculty team consisting of: Dr. Sheila Aikman, Dr Harry Dyer, Dr. Catherine Jere, Professor Ben Jones, Professor Yann Lebeau, Professor Esther Priyadharshini, Professor Nitya Rao and Dr Spyros Themelis. The team are delighted to be joined by Dr Thi Bogossian and Dr Hannah Hoechner for this third phase. The programme also benefits from a lively and dedicated group of postgraduate volunteers from across the Faculty of Social Sciences at UEA, as well as colleagues and friends in the wider adult literacy and education community.
Beyond UEA, our UNESCO Chair programme is a partnership with university departments specialising in adult literacy, youth and community learning in Ethiopia (Bahir Dar University, BDU), Nepal (Tribhuvan University Research Center for Educational Innovation and Development - CERID), Malawi (University of Malawi), and the Philippines (University of Santo Tomas, UST). We are working together to strengthen qualitative research capacity in the field of adult literacy, learning and social transformation through collaborative research, training and curriculum development activities.
The UNESCO Chair is also developing new initiatives with key policy organisations in this field, including the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg. Supporting a rights-based holistic approach to adult learning as the basis for active citizenship and improved livelihoods, we aim to promote greater interaction between research and policy in areas such as vocational skill development, health, climate change, agriculture, gender and youth literacy and activism.
UNESCO Chair Partner Organisations
Highlights
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UNESCO Chair Newsletter – Summer 2024
Catch up with all our latest news, reflections and research in our Summer 2024 Newsletter: Click here to take you to Sway.
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UEA UNESCO Chair at the BAICE Conference 2024
The BAICE 2024 Conference at the University Sussex offered a fantastic opportunity for UEA UNESCO Chair members - many of whom are current and former PhD candidates at UEA – to showcase their research.
A glance at the list below shows the wealth of research and knowledge-sharing that UEA took to Brighton this summer!
Dr Chris Millora, previous UEA UNESCO Chair scholarship holder, was a discussant/chair of panel led by Prof. Mario Novelli (University of Sussex) and colleagues titled Laboratories of learning: Social Movement Learning & Knowledge-Making in Times of Crises and Conflict. He also shared findings from his Leverhulme Project on conceptions/understandings of activism among Filipino youth: (Re)bordering youth activism and learning in response to crises: a photovoice project in the Philippines.
Dr Hannah Hoechner presented findings from a BA-funded project with Yagana Bukar, focusing on Qur’anic schools and their relationship to the insurgency, Exploring the nexus between faith-based education and violent conflict: Islamic education and northeast Nigeria’s Boko Haram crisis.
Rohullah Hakimi presented his PhD project Sustaining Localisation Efforts in Community-Based Education (CBE) in Afghanistan: The Role of International and Local NGOs.
John Zimba presented his PhD research, Literacies and Coping Strategies in the post-Covid-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Rural Women in Zambia.
Dr Helene Binesse presented with colleagues from the REAL Centre, University of Cambridge: The impacts and inequalities of donor-driven agendas on early learning research in Sub-Saharan Africa: an overlooked crisis? A mapping exercise of African research on early childhood development and foundational literacy and numeracy in sub-Saharan Africa, using a unique Africa-wide educational research database.
Abass Isiaka, Theresa Frey and Professor Yann Lebeau presented two papers with significant themes developed from interviews and analysis conducted as part of a UEA UNESCO Chair research project with funding from a BAICE seedcorn grant. The papers were titled: Who decides on refugees’ access to HE? Article VII and the UNESCO Qualifications Passport in the movement for inclusive internationalisation, and Towards sustainable internationalisation? The UNESCO Global Convention as statement for fair access and inclusive mobility in HE.
Lauren Bouttell discussed how educators navigated structural precarity and the potentials for social transformation in the context of charities working with refugees in England and Scotland, with paper based on her PhD research: Facilitating learning under conditions of precarity: resistance and adaptability in UK refugee organisations.
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UNESCO Chair renewed until 2028!
In February 2024, the UEA UNESCO Chair renewal application was approved by UNESCO, meaning that the programme will continue until 30th June 2028. The letter from UNESCO to the UEA Vice Chancellor stated that: “the Chair’s work related to youth and adult literacy and learning for social transformation has contributed to UNESCO’s Strategy for Youth and Adult Literacy (2020-2025), and to the development of an effective model of South-South and triangular cooperation among partner universities … and has added value to UNESCO’s work by sharing insights about the complex relations between literacy, education and development.”
For this third phase, an additional objective has been added: to find new ways of decentralising and democratising the leadership of the UNESCO Chair programme. Dr. Catherine (Kate) Jere, Prof. Sushan Acharya (Tribhuvan University CERID Nepal) and Dr. Ahmmardouh Mjaya (University of Malawi) have been appointed as Co-Chairs, with Prof. Anna Robinson-Pant continuing as Chair until 2028. At the Annual Review Group meeting in April 2024, the UK National Commission for UNESCO said they were happy to support the move to the Co-Chair model. They see this as a great opportunity to strengthen collaboration between countries, and the model has been held up by UNESCO as a means to encourage greater equity in the UNESCO Chair network overall.
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Education and Development Research Seminars
The 2023/4 academic year saw the UEA UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation team hold another successful Education and Development Public Seminar series, hosting research and discussion under the theme of education, identity and social justice, with insightful contributions from UK and international experts. We learnt about identity construction in both Polish children and international students learning in the UK, as well as literacy practice and activism in Australia and New York, and the role of adult education in prison systems. A Literacy and Policy forum was held person in January 2024, with Professor Uta Papen leading a discussion on New Literacy Studies and the extent to which such work can influence policy. A blog based on the event is available on the BALID website: Balid Blog – Literacy in Development.