From global wars to sustainable futures: children, politics and education
Professor Farzana Shain, Professor of Sociology of Education and the Director of Postgraduate Research in Education in the School of Public Policy and Professional Practice at Keele University, will give the next lecture in University's programme of Inaugural Professorial Lectures 2013-14, on Tuesday 28th January 2014, in the Westminster Theatre, Chancellor's Building, on the Keele campus.Her lecture is titled 'From global wars to sustainable futures: children, politics and education'.
Professor Farzana Shain says: “Children growing up in the 21st century can expect to face a series of potential opportunities and challenges arising from technological advances, economic and geopolitical uncertainty and environmental risks. They also live in a world that is characterised by growing inequalities and disparities between rich and poor. What all of this means for how children should be educated to think about social and political issues is a subject of ongoing academic debate. Drawing on research projects conducted over the last two decades this lecture will explore some of the tensions and contradictions inherent in state policies and professional practices aimed at preparing children for the future. I will question whether notions of student voice, participation and sustainability currently embedded in educational policy and practice in Europe serve to promote or constrain the political agency of children and young people.”
Farzana Shain is Professor of Sociology of Education and the Director of Postgraduate Research in Education in the School of Public Policy and Professional Practice. She has researched and written extensively within the field of sociology of education on topics including the leadership and management of change in the further education workplace, educational inequalities, andon the changing identities of young people in a global context. She is the author of two single-authored monographs The New Folk Devils: Muslim Boys and Education (2011), and The Schooling and Identity of Asian Girls (2003), which explore the social and political identifications of young people in a schooling context.
Keele's programme of Inaugural Lectures are given by newly established professors within the University and aim to give an illuminating account of the speaker's own subject specialism. The lectures, which start at 6 pm in the Westminster Theatre, are chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett.
This lecture is free and open to all.