Title: The role of English and ICT in reducing or reinforcing marginalisation in education in Bangladesh, Nepal, Senegal and Sudan: initial findings from the ReMaLIC project

Authors:

Saraswati Dawadi, Mark Gaved, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

Abstract:

English and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) can play key roles in reducing or reinforcing marginalisation through the education of already vulnerable groups in developing countries. The British Council funded ReMaLIC project ( https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/REMALIC/ ), led by IET, has been collecting first-hand accounts of the educational experiences of young people aged 13-15, their parents and their teachers in four low-income countries in Asia and Africa (Bangladesh, Nepal, Senegal, Sudan) to understand their perspectives. Our aim has been to bring the least heard voices to the forefront and to stimulate discussion on how to provide marginalised children with better access to technology to enhance their learning.

In this presentation we will share our initial findings, gathered through fieldwork carried out by ReMaLIC colleagues in the four countries. Local researchers travelled to field settings to carry out interviews and focus groups with school children, their parents and teachers from eight schools.

We will discuss the participants’ perceptions of their access to and use of technology for teaching and learning English in both urban and rural settings. We will offer initial reflections on participants attitudes towards English, their motivation and opportunities to learn, and how they adopt, sustain and appropriate digital technologies to support their education.  We will also offer reflections on how the global covid pandemic affected educational opportunities. Data analysis is ongoing, and we will report on our methodological approach, using activity theory; and our future activities.

We will also reflect on the challenges of carrying out the ReMaLIC fieldwork research, which may provide insights for researchers considering similar multi-partner educational research projects in similar low-income countries.