Tuesday 1 December 2009

From the conference

I just came back from ANZCIES conference and there were a number of good papers presented by fantastic researcher in international and comparative education and social science. One of the best papers that impressed me immensely is 'Southern Theory and its Dynamics for Post Colonial Education' by Anne Hickling-Hudson (my all time Hero!). Anne started criticising the value (and representation) of Northern theories in most aspects of social science. The book by Connell states that it isn't a history of social thought, it does function as a critical historiography of selected social texts and their contexts. It starts by showing how the social science took their modern institutional form in the second half of the 19th century at the high tide of European imperialism.

Anne argues in her presentation that colonised and peripheral societies produce social thought about the modern world which has as much intellectual power as metropolitan social thought and more political relevance.

Actually there are a lot to be mentioned in this study and I am happy to share with you in terms of the paradigm in power and knowledge from the West-south perspective.

Natt