Research

Over several years, I conducted ethnographic research and policy-focused educational research in Nepal, with a particular interest in literacy, gender and development.  I have developed action research projects with children and teachers in Norfolk primary schools on participation and voice, as well as with international research students on their academic experiences.

Literacy and development

In the field of literacy and development, my published academic research has been intended to raise the profile of participatory and ethnographic research approaches in the international development policy arena. I was awarded the UNESCO International Award for Literacy Research in 1998 for my study on literacy and development in Nepal (Why eat green cucumber at the time of dying? Exploring the link between women's literacy and development, 2001, UNESCO Institute for Education, Hamburg – also published in French and Spanish).  I have undertaken regular commissioned research and advisory roles for NGOs and international development agencies (particularly UNESCO) and have become increasingly interested in debates around the intersection of development and comparative education (including recently editing a special issue of Compare with an editorial overview of the methodological debates within and between these two fields). At UEA, I set up the Literacy and Development Group (LDG) in 2003 with colleagues from the School of International Development, to enhance research and teaching in this area (see LDG website http://www.uea.ac.uk/dev/literacy). LDG has run an annual public seminar series on Education and Development, as well as hosting regular conferences: Literacies, identity and social change (2006), The schooling of literacies (2005), Developing gender equality in adult education (2004) and Making Literacy Count (2003).  LDG aims to take forward theoretical debates on literacy and development through facilitating conversations across disciplinary boundaries and within a wider community of researchers through such conferences and linked publications (see Special Issues of Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44/6, 2008, and International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 26/2, 2006).

Children’s participation in educational decision making
Aiming to bring my experience of participatory research on communicative practices in development into the UK context, I have co-directed action research projects with children and teachers in Norfolk primary schools on participation and voice (with Sue Cox). ‘Children Decide: Power, participation and purpose in the primary classroom’ involved children conducting action research with their class teachers on decision-making. This project built on findings from an action-oriented project on school councils: ‘Empowering Children through Visual Communication’. Both projects were CfBT-funded – research reports are available from libby.allen@uea.ac.uk and on http://www.cfbt.com/research.aspx. An ESRC seminar series on ‘Children as Decision Makers’ brought together educators, activists and researchers working in countries in the South and North to share and reflect on approaches to facilitating children’s participation in educational contexts: Cox, S., Dyer, C., Robinson-Pant, A. and M. Schweisfurth (2010) Children as Decision Makers in Education: Sharing Experiences Across Cultures, Continuum: London (edited volume).

Academic literacies and intercultural learning
Through my role as Editor of Compare: a journal of comparative education (from 2004-2010) and through my university teaching, I became interested in research on academic literacies, intercultural rhetoric, cross-cultural perspectives on learning and teaching and the geopolitics of academic publishing and knowledge production. As Compare Editor, I was particularly keen to find ways of overcoming the discursive and practical barriers faced by writers in the South. With funding from the British Association for International and Comparative Education, we established a mentoring programme for new contributors to Compare. After running this programme for three years, we evaluated the process in relation to academic literacies debates (see Lillis, Magyar and Robinson-Pant (2010)) and are currently developing a web-based version to reach those who could not attend a face-to-face workshop. As convenor of research methodology courses, I also conducted research with international research students on their academic experiences at UEA [see Cross-cultural Perspectives on Educational Research (October 2005) Open University Press].  As with my research on literacy and development, I have taken a social practice lens to analyse academic literacies and educational research practices in the university context, with a view to enhancing supervision practice and developing a dialogic space for international students in particular. Through two UEA teaching fellowships (2005-6 with Nalini Boodhoo and 2008-9 with Anna Magyar), we developed materials based on research with doctoral students to facilitate discussion and critical reflection about intercultural learning within PhD courses (see DVD and manual: ‘International students: reflections on doctoral supervision’). This research has fed directly into training sessions for supervisors across the university. With funding from BAICE (British Association for International and Comparative Education), we set up a partnership between CARE and the Centre for Education and International Development at Cambridge University on ‘Internationalising Educational Research Cultures and Graduate Training’.  The three workshops attended by UEA and Cambridge faculty and students in 2009/10 pointed to ways in which we can build a collaborative research culture between the two institutions, through future research, workshops and publications.

Funded research and engagement projects: 

2009: ‘Literacy Inequalities’ (British Academy conference grant, with Aikman, Maddox and Rao)

2009: ‘Internationalising educational research cultures and graduate training (BAICE funding, with Madeleine Arnot, CEID Cambridge)

2008: ‘Exploring the global dimension: a study of attitudes, values and understanding among teacher and pupils in four Cambridgeshire schools' (Camfed, with Cox, Watson and Yarker)

2008: Research paper for the Mid-term Review of UN Literacy Decade, published as part of: Literacy in the World Today, Paris, UNESCO [Report of the Director-General of UNESCO on the Implementation of the International Plan of Action for the United Nations Literacy Decade]

2008-9: UEA Teaching Fellowship on ‘Addressing the needs of first year international research students and their supervisors: an academic literacies approach' (with A. Magyar)

2007-10: Compare/BAICE Supporting new writers’ programme (funding from BAICE on annual basis: Lillis, Magyar and Robinson-Pant)

2006: ESRC seminar series on ‘Children as Decision Makers’ (with Sue Cox, Michele Schweisfurth (Birmingham University) and Caroline Dyer (University of Leeds)

2006: Follow-up grant for production of booklets about ‘Children Decide’ project for wider distribution to schools and educational policy makers in the UK (CfBT Education Trust, with S. Cox)

2005/6: UEA Teaching Fellowship on ‘Improving the experiences of international research students’ (UEA, £5000, with Nalini Boodhoo). 

2005: Improving the Quality of Education RPC Proposal Workshops Grant (DFID, with LDG)

2004–2006: ‘Children Decide: power, participation and purpose in the primary classroom’, Co-directed project with six primary schools (involving teachers and children as action researchers) in Norfolk (CfBT, with Sue Cox)

2005: Commissioned set of papers on ‘The Benefits of Literacy’ for the UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006 (UNESCO)

2002–2003: ‘Empowering Children through Visual Communication’ research project on school councils in primary schools (CfBT, with S. Cox).

2003: Research Co-ordinator for series of case studies on NGO literacy programmes for indigenous groups in Malaysia, Nepal, India, Thailand and New Zealand (Asian and South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education)

2003: Writer of module on ‘Planning Research’ for distance learning materials (International Research Foundation for Open Learning, Cambridge/ Commonwealth of Learning)

2003: Commissioned by UNESCO to write a policy briefing report on ‘Adult Education and Indigenous Peoples’ for presentation at the CONFINTEA Mid Term Review, Bangkok (with N. Rao)

2003: Commissioned paper on ‘Overview of learning programmes for literacy and vocational skills for women’ for Gender and Education for All: The Leap to Equality, UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4 (UNESCO)

2002: Acted in advisory group to Department for International Development (DFID) Education Department on adult literacy strategies (Literacy for Livelihoods approach) particularly research implications

2002: Commissioned to write case studies (based on my previous literacy research in Nepal) for DFID website (DFID)

2002: Co-ordinated CARE input to the Learning and Skills Council Area Review (Learning and Skills Council, Norfolk)

2001-2002: Mentor for primary school teachers carrying out research under the DfES Best Practice Scholarships as part of LEARN initiative

2001: Researcher for ‘Change for the Better’ Project on people changing careers into teaching (TTA, PI Battersby)

2001: Researched and wrote campaign report for Y Care International, on skill training for young women and girls in the South, to be used as a basis for YMCA’s development activities and lobbying on vocational education (Y Care International)

2001: Provided training and input on planning, research and implementation of the DFID-funded Community Literacy Project Nepal

List of publications

Books

Cox, S., Dyer, C., Robinson-Pant, A. and M. Schweisfurth (2010) Children as Decision Makers in Education: Sharing Experiences Across Cultures, Continuum: London (edited volume)

Basu, K., Maddox, B. and A. Robinson-Pant (2009, eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literacy and Development, Routledge: London

Robinson-Pant, A. (2009) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literacy and Development, London, Routledge (edited volume with K. Basu and B. Maddox) 

Robinson-Pant, A. (2005) Cross-cultural perspectives on educational research, Open University Press: Buckingham, ISBN 0-335-21457-6, 208 pp [BMW Group Award for Intercultural Learning (theory category) in 2007]

Robinson-Pant, A. (2004) (edited) Women, Literacy and Development: alternative perspectives, Routledge: London, ISBN 0-415-32239-1, 259 pp

Robinson-Pant, A (2001) Why eat green cucumber at the time of dying? Exploring the link between women’s literacy and development: a Nepal perspective, UNESCO Institute for Education, Hamburg, ISBN 92 820 1107-0, 198 pp. Winner of the UNESCO International Award for Literacy Research, and now published in French and Spanish. Available at: www.unesco.org/education/uie/pdf/robinson-pant

Chapter in a book

Robinson-Pant, A. (2010) ‘Internationalisation of higher education: challenges for the doctoral supervisor’ in Thomson, P. and M. Walker (eds) The Routledge Doctoral Supervisor’s Companion: Supporting effective research in education and the social sciences, Routledge, London

Cox, S. and Robinson-Pant, A. (2010) ‘Children as researchers: a question of risk?’, in Cox et al (ed) Children as Decision Makers in Education, London, Continuum, pp 143-152

Robinson-Pant, A. (2009)  '"Why literacy matters": exploring a policy perspective on literacy, identity and social change', in Basu, K., Maddox, B. and Robinson-Pant, A. (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literacy and Development, Routledge, London 

Robinson-Pant, A. (2008)  ‘Women, Literacy and Development', in Hornberger, N. (ed), The Encyclopaedia of Language and Education, Vol 2 Literacy (2nd Edition), Springer, Heidelburg, ISBN-13: 978-0-387-32875-1 

Robinson-Pant, A. (2007)  ‘Literacy’, in B. Banks (ed), The Encyclopaedia of Gender and Education, Vol 1, Praeger Publishers, Westport/London, ISBN-13: 978-0-313-33343-9

Cox, S. and Robinson-Pant, A. (2004) ‘Communication practices in primary school councils’, in Street, B. (ed.), Literacy across educational contexts, Caslon Press, Philadelphia, ISBN 0-9727507-2-X, pp 43 -64

Robinson-Pant, A. (2004) ‘Introduction’, in Robinson-Pant, A. (ed), Women, Literacy and Development: alternative perspectives, Routledge, London, ISBN 0-415-32239-1, pp 1 - 14

Robinson-Pant, A. (2004) ‘‘The Illiterate Woman”: Changing approaches to researching women’s literacy’, in Robinson-Pant, A. (ed), Women, Literacy and Development: alternative perspectives, Routledge, London, ISBN 0-415-32239-1, pp 15 - 35

Robinson-Pant, A. (2001) ‘Women's literacy and health: can an ethnographic researcher find the links?’ in Street, B.V. (ed.), Literacy and Development: Ethnographic Perspectives, Routledge, London, ISBN 0415234506 (hbk) & 0415234514 (pbk), pp 152-170
[shortlisted for the BAAL book prize 2001]

Robinson-Pant, A. (1990) ‘Development’, in Reed, D. (ed.) Nepal: The Rough Guide, Harrap-Columbus, Kent, ISBN 0-7471-0256-2, pp 294 – 301

Refereed Journal Articles

Evans, K. and Robinson-Pant, A. (2010) Compare: exploring a forty year journey through comparative education and international development, Compare: a journal of comparative and international education, Vol. 40/6

Lillis, T., Magyar, A. and Robinson-Pant, A. (2010) An international journal’s attempts to address inequalities in academic publishing’ Compare: a journal of comparative and international education, Vol. 40/6

Robinson-Pant, A. (2010) Changing discourses: literacy and development in Nepal’, International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 30 (2) March, pp 136-144

Robinson-Pant, A. (2009) ‘Changing Academies: exploring international PhD students’ perspectives on ‘host’ and ‘home’ universities’, Higher Education Research and Development, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp 417 - 429

Cox, S. and Robinson-Pant, A. (2008)  ‘Power, participation and decision making in the primary classroom: children as action researchers', Educational Action Research, 16: 4, December

Basu, K., Maddox, B. and Robinson-Pant, A (2008)  ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to literacy and development: a review of the field', Introduction to Special Issue of Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44, No. 6 July

Robinson-Pant, A (2008)  ‘"Why literacy matters": exploring a policy perspective on literacy, identity and social change', Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44, No. 6 July

Cox, S. and Robinson-Pant, A (2006) ‘Enhancing participation in primary school and class councils through visual communication’, Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp 515-532

Rao, N. and Robinson-Pant, A (2006) ‘Editorial’, Special Issue of International Journal of Educational Development on ‘Gender Equality in Adult Education’, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp 135 - 140

Rao, N. and Robinson-Pant, A (2006) ‘Adult education and indigenous people: addressing gender in policy and practice’, International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp 209 - 224

Cox, S. and Robinson-Pant, A (2005) ‘Challenging perceptions of school councils in the primary school’, Education 3 to 13, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp14 - 20

Robinson-Pant, A (2004) ‘Education for women: whose values count?’ Gender and Education, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 473 -491

Priyadharshini, E. and Robinson-Pant, A (2003) ‘The Attractions of Teaching: an investigation into the phenomenon of career changing’, Journal of Education for Teaching Vol. 29, No.2, July 2003, pp 96-112

Robinson-Pant, A (2001) ‘Development as discourse: what relevance to education?’ Compare, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp 311 – 328

Robinson-Pant, A (2000) ‘Women and literacy: a Nepal Perspective’, International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 20, pp 349 - 364

Robinson-Pant, A (1997) ‘PRA and Gender: an overview’ in Joekes, S. (ed.), Journal of International Development, Vol. 8, No. 5, pp 697 - 727

Robinson-Pant, A (1996) ‘Literacy and Language: reflections on my own experiences in Nepal’, Adult Education and Development 47, Institute for International Co-operation of the German Adult Education Association

Robinson-Pant, A (1996) ‘PRA: A New Literacy?’ Journal of International Development, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp 531-551

Published research reports

2010 ‘International students: reflections on PhD supervision’ (with Magyar, DVD and resource manual available from: Libby.Allen@uea.ac.uk)

2008  ‘Exploring the global dimension: a study of attitudes, values and understanding among teacher and pupils in four Cambridgeshire schools' (Camfed, with Cox, Watson and Yarker)

2008  Research paper for the Mid-term Review of UN Literacy Decade, published as part of: Literacy in the World Today, Paris, UNESCO [Report of the Director-General of UNESCO on the Implementation of the International Plan of Action for the United Nations Literacy Decade]

2008  UEA Teaching Fellowship on ‘Addressing the needs of first year international research students and their supervisors: an academic literacies approach' (with A. Magyar)

2006 ‘Children Decide: power, participation and purpose in the primary classroom’, CfBT Education Trust/UEA

2005 ‘The Social Benefits of Literacy’, background paper for UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life, available on: http://www.efareport.unesco.org

2005 ‘Can we transfer new ideas and approaches without falling into the trap of recipe paradigm?’ in Barton, D. and Papen, U. (eds), Linking literacy and numeracy programmes in developing countries and the UK, Literacy Research Centre, University of Lancaster (peer reviewed)

2003 (Editor) Set of five case studies on adult education and indigenous peoples (from India, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand and Burma) in the ‘Learning Beyond Boundaries’ series, Asian and South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE, Mumbai), available from: aspbae@vsnl.com

2003 ‘Empowering Children Through Visual Communication’, CfBT/ UEA, ISBN: 0-9539983-7-1

2001 (with Esther Priyadharshini) ‘Change for the Better’, Teacher Training Agency

2001 ‘Young Women: Learning to Earn’, Research report on gender and skills training, Y Care International, London

2000 (Editor) Gender sensitive editing’, Manual published by the Working Group on Books and Learning Materials, Association for the Development of Education in Africa, DFID

1999 ‘Re-defining Post-literacy in a Changing World’ (Ed. Rogers, A.), Education Research Serial No. 29, DFID, London

1999 ‘Target: Learning to Earn’, Research report on vocational education and skills training, Y Care International, London

1995 ‘Literacy in Nepal: looking through the literature’, Education for Development Occasional Papers Series 1, No. 1, Reading

1993 Situational Analysis of Women and Children in Nepal: Contributor to section on ‘Education’, UNICEF Nepal, Kathmandu

Book Reviews

2008  'Travel Notes from the New Literacy Studies' (Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J.), International Journal of Educational Development

2008  'Narrative Research on Learning: comparative and international perspectives' (Trahar, S.) International Journal of Educational Development

2007  'Literacy for Life: Unesco Global Monitoring Report on Education for All 2006', Educational Review

2006 ‘A Space of Her Own: personal narratives of twelve women’ (Gulati, L. and Bagchi, J.), Journal of South Asian Development,Vol 1, No. 2, pp 285-287

2004 ‘Learning for life in the 21st. century’ (Wells, G. and Claxton, G.), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 24, pp 764 – 769

2004 ‘Language and minority rights: ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of language’ (May, S.) International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 24

2004 ‘Language, literacy and education: a reader’ (Goodman, S. et al), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 24

2004 ‘Community participation and empowerment in primary education’ (Govinda, R. and Diwan, R.), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 24, pp 459 - 461

2004 ‘Practising Gender Analysis in Education’ (Leach, F.), International Journal of Educational Development,

2003 ‘Rethinking Adult literacy’ (Rogers, A.), Written Language and Literacy, Vol. 6, No.2

2003 ‘The give and take of writing: scribes, literacy and everyday life’ (Mace, J.), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 23, pp 701- 703

2002 ‘Development with a human face: experiences in social achievement and economic growth’ (Mehrotra, S. and Jolly, R.), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 22, pp 96 – 98

2002 ‘Gender, literacy and life chances in Sub-Saharan Africa’ (Egbo, B.), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 22, pp 98 – 99

2001 ‘Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters and Social Change in Nepal’ (Ahearn, L.) International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 22, pp 556 - 558

2001 ‘Women as learners: the significance of gender in adult learning’ (Hayes, E. et al), International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 21, pp 471-472