My PhD, from the Institute of Education, University of London, was in the field of education and international development and my doctoral thesis was an ethnographic study of Intercultural Education and Harakmbut Identity in the SE Peruvian Amazon. I also have an MA from the Institute of Education in Education and International Development, an MA from the University of Edinburgh in Archaeology (with sociology and anthropology), and a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) from the Lady Spencer Churchill College (now Oxford Brookes University).  I held a Spencer Post-doctoral Fellowship with the National Academy of Education, USA.

CV and Experience

Intercultural education and the indigenous movement, bilingual education and plurilingual language policy, curriculum development and teacher education in low income countries.  I have a regional focus on intercultural and indigenous education in Latin America (especially Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador) and a focus on gender equality and basic education in Sub-saharan Africa (especially Tanzania, Mozambique, Liberia) and in East Asia (Vietnam).

Research

There are two major strands to my research. One is concerned with identity, diversity, rights and interculturalism in relation to ‘marginalised’ and minoritised groups and indigenous peoples.  My monograph on the Arakmbut of SE Peru, first published in 1999, has been revised and published in Spanish in 2003. Drawing on this and earlier work, I take a longitudinal approach to researching indigenous knowledge, learning and literacy in the Amazon region and to understanding relationship between education and social, cultural and environmental change.

Since 2003 I have been involved with the research group and the research focus provided by the project: Beyond Access, Gender, Education and Development, which has been developing new insights into gender equity and equality issues from a social justice perspective in education by critically examining knowledge and practice. This other strand of my research has involved several funded research development programmes and related research informing policy and practice change (e.g. Commonwealth Education Fund project: Gender Equality in Education - a mentoring approach, located in Ghana, Kenya, Bangladesh and Malawi; the DFID RPC Edqual Advisory Committee 2006-2010)
 

Recent Publications

Aikman, S. forthcoming March 2012 ‘Contradictory discourses of intercultural education’  Compare Vol.

Aikman, S. and E. Unterhalter (forthcoming) ‘Gender equality, capabilities and the terrain of quality education’. In Tikly, L. & Barrett, A.M. (eds.) Education Quality and Social Justice in the South: Challenges for policy, practice and research London: Routledge.

Aikman, S., A. Halai and Rubagiza J. (2011) Conceptualising gender equality in the research on education quality. Comparative Education Vol. 47 (1) pp. 45-60.

Aikman, S., 2011, ‘Education and indigenous justice in Africa’. International Journal of Educational Development Special Issue on Quality Education 31 (1) pp.15-22 Link to journal article

Aikman, S. and N. Rao, 2010 Quality Education for Gender Equality Background Paper for the Quality Education Stream E4 Conference Dakar, Senegal, 17-20 May www.e4conference.org.

Aikman, S., 2010, ‘Marching to different rhythms: International NGO collaboration with the state in Tanzania’ Development in Practice. 20:4/5 Link to journal article

Aikman, S., 2010, ‘Grasping rare moments for change: children’s participation in conflict contexts’ In Cox, Dyer, Robinson-Pant and Schweisfurth (eds) Children as Decision Makers in Education, Continuum: London.Link to document

Aikman, S., 2009, ‘The contradictory Languages of Fishing and Gold Panning in the Peruvian Amazon’ Maritime Studies (MAST) Special Issue on Literacy and Fishing. 8 (2) pp. 50-71 Link to journal article Link to document

Aikman, S., Unterhalter, E and Boler, T (Eds), 2008, HIV and AIDS and Gender: Challenges for Education, Oxfam: Oxford.

I supervise PhD students, co-direct the MA Education and International Development (with Dr. Bryan Maddox) and teach modules on the Undergraduate BA on International Development. 

I teach on the following modules:

Masters level:

• Introduction to Education and Development
• Educational Policy and Practice for Development
• Gender, Diversity and Social Development

 Undergraduate level:

• Sub-Saharan Africa Development
• Latin American Development
• Health, Education and Development

Doctoral research supervision

I currently co-supervise the following students:

Horacio Alcalde Almanza:  Social Exclusion of Indigenous Peoples in Northern Mexico

Pablo T. Dalby:  Development education, critical pedagogy and action research.

Diana Gil Franco:  Climate Justice, REDD and Indigenous peoples in Mexico

Rosanne Tromp: The Education Research-Policy Nexus in Mexico

Samuel Rushworth: Learning to Live Together: education, identity and citizenship in Rwandan schools

Eleni Konidari: The journey to tertiary education: exploring the meanings and experiences of minority students in Western Thrace, Greece.