Invited guest speaker examines the work of the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers.
For the past 25 years, Dr. Frances Vavrus has been involved in education in Tanzania as a secondary school teacher, university lecturer, teacher educator, and researcher. Her research and teaching focus primarily on postcolonial education, critical development studies, and comparative teacher education. Vavrus also serves as a member of the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (CEART).
The College of Education Dept. of Educational Studies, along with the Office of International and Comparative Education, the Walker Institute, the Islamic World Studies Program, African Studies Program, and the Carolina International House at Maxcy College, have invited Dr. Vavrus to share her research insights in a public talk followed by a public forum at USC.
Public talk: “Topographies of power: Critical historical geography in the study of education in Tanzania”
This talk introduces the idea of critical historical geography for the field of comparative education to examine how, over time, the social production of space contributes to educational disparity. It draws on the concepts of the “power of topography” and the “topography of power” as well as a key theory of space to explore space-time relations at multiple scales in the United Republic of Tanzania. It draws on historical texts about the Kilimanjaro Region as well as a longitudinal study carried out between 2000-2012 in two districts in the region. These sources reveal how advantage and disadvantage are differentially distributed over time and space, highlighting the enduring interconnections of geography, history, and political power in postcolonial states and the importance of multi-scalar in comparative education.